The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-23
GAGE WRITES TO G0MPERS
INIMICALITY OF COED STANDARD
 TO LABORING GLASSES.

Secretary of tho Treasury Does Not Be- lieve in It-Why, If it is Hostile to the Interests of One Class, 1t is Likewise to the Interests of All-Injury Worked by Ignorance.
 Washington, Dec. 22.-Secretary Gage has written the following letter to President Gompers of the Federation of Labor: q have read with care the resolutions adopted the 20th instant at Nashville by the convention of the Federation of Labor, which recite as follows:
 Resolved, That we declare ourselves most positively opposed to the Gage financial bill recently introduced in con- gress by the secretary of the treasury. It is a measure that, if adopted as a law, will only the more firmly rivet the gold standard on the people of the country and perpetuate it's disastrous effects in every form.
 Resolved, That we pronounce the Gage bill an undisguised effort to re- tire our greenback currency and all government paper money with view to the substitution of national bank notes in their stead and thus fasten the national bank system upon the American people.
 Now if it be true that the gold standard-by which things have been measured as to price for the last sixty years in this country-is fnimical to the interests of the laboring classes of the United States then I think it is inimi- cal to all classes, Tn other words, I do not believe that the exploitation of one class by another, either through false weights or bad monetary sys- tenn, can be made to work for the per manent benefit of the exploiting class itself, or for the general veal, even were it defensible on any ground of right or justice, which 1t Is not. Granted, there fore, that the permanence of the gold standard (for which I argue) operates in this evil direction, then your resolu- tions of condemnation are well founded, and I am justly charged, either with an ignorance which constitutes me a fool ish adviser, or with a perversity of mo- tive which makes me an evil adviser.
 T have a right to 1lsavow the right of perversity or evil purposes, since there is nothing in my whole life as re- lated to my fellow men, either in word or deed from which the possession by me of such a characteristic can be in- ferred, much less demonstrated
 "But ignorance ofteu unconSciousiy works as deep injury as evil intent might do and to this sin of ignorance Gf it be a sin), must confess myself to be possible victim. This confess sion, however, ought not to classify me as separate from my fellow men gener- ally, whether they be considered as in- dividual units or as congregated in groups. Ignorance is relative, not an absolute term, since few are totally ignorant and none absolutely wise. Nor does the number constituting the group change this fact since the wis dom of the group, however large, can- not be greater than that of the Wisest man in it.
 'This remains true whether the sub ject matter involving knowledge and judgment be astronomy, physics or finance The condemnation the in- volved in the resolutions referred to is measured by the just or imperfect ap- prehension of questions relating to monetary science held by the wisest men who supported them.
 Laying these general considerations aside, let me say to you and through you to the great body you so honorably represent, that if instead of denuncia- tory resolutions (which are not argu- ments), you or any other on your behalf will show that the views I entertain and advocate are other than salutary to the great economic body of which we are all independent members, I will abandon them without hesitation. My present conviction, the honest fruit of sincere study and reflection, is that a break down in our present monetary standard would be a most disastrous blow to all our commercial and indus trial interests and that upon the wage workers, as a class, would be entailey the most serious effects of the disaster. Believing this I must so bear witness"
 
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