The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1897-04-09

PROGRESSED m 1891 THE PREnlcA'
MENT OF QUA TREASURY o.
PARTMENT IN 1893.

| i t7tttNt tttA~tNe - s~-~-r. aFnIt
Lis often Quoted Address q 1soe-xm;
pertant as outiinlns ne Present vlsvs
: Of the Secretary q TIE Treasury
pertance 81 credlts- Real 1tensg yessli
Observation-Disclosures Iegisiatioa-
Summary Of Detects q Our Currsass
sys.sm.
Tho new secretary Of the TREASURY.
Lyman J. Gage. IL not . novice either
in the theory or practice Of financial
anail Long before most bankers and
business men were greatly concerned
about our national finances he saw dan
ger ahead and prophesied what would
and what did-happen. unless certain
changes were made in our unscientifc
and nnsound financial system.
On Feb. 10, 1891, Mr.. Gage read a
paper before the Sunset club in Chicago.
After explaining how silver and gold
money had been evolved "by the free play
Of human choice, ending in consensus OF
action, and never by conventional agree.
ments made in advance" he discussed
our own monetary conditions. He point
ed out how the United States, by 40
cepting both metals and by allowing its
creditors to choose either, kept together
the two metals. whose values were d.
yerging rapidly. To the question, Can
not the government continue this policy
indefinitely and thu" forever preserve a
higher value to the silver coin than Its
equivalent in silver bullion?" he replied
that 1t could not 1.-The proportion OF
silver payments to the government" he
said, will steadily increase until the
treasury department will be Obliged to
either pay in silver or buy gold in ex-
change for it With free coinage OF sill
yer." he added, this result will be the
sooner reached. Nothing could be
clearer or sounder than this. 1t is pre-
cisely what happened.
In the autumn Of 1894 he took part In
an elaborate discussion Of the money
question at the Commercial club of Chi
cage. His address at this meeting is
often referred to and is now of much IN
terest, since it contains what he says
arc still substantially his ideas in regard
70 currency reform. We quote below the
greater mart of this address:
SIN speaking upon the subject of our
money system one must be aware that in
whatever he may say he will excite the
hostile criticism and draw forth bitter
invective from some one or more OF the
various factions who are seeking to es-
tablish on new and experimental foun-
dations our much disturbed financial
structure.
"Tbrourb our heterogeneous system
the public mind has seemingly lost the
mower to discriminate between real
things and the shadows or signs of
tbines. 1t is necessary that DISCUSSES be
pulled aside and that real facts appear.
There is, in truth, only one real
money-yiz. metallic coin. 1t may be
composed Of gold or silver. 1t might be
of something else. but it is not. Green
backs. treasury notes and national bank
notes are but promises to pay. In the
nature of things they can be nothing
more. They pass as money, perform the
Functions Of money, often more conven-
ieutly than money itself. Because Of this
confusion comes, and we are led astray.
Seeing that the ereenback is uttered by
the government; that it has, by the legal
tender quality impaired to it, the power
to nav debts, and that it rcirculates with
ali the power of money, discrimination
ceases-we call it money-and the idea
that government can create money by
-,