The herald., 1898-01-18
A POST MoRTEM EULoGY

Mr.. Wolcott has at last delivered his
long promised speech, and the full text
of his utterances is to be found in our
dispatches this morning. We shall not
undertake to satisfy our readers with
digest, for we assume that all will be
disposed to peruse every line that has
been furnished by the Associated Press,
and thus render our summarizing
work of supererogation.
The theme is one of universal interest,
and the discussion of it by the head of
the joint embassy, were he person of
less distinguished personality than the
junior senator from Colorado. would be
sure to command the attention of every
body at all concerned. The normal
interest was accentuated by the
hint thrown out some time ago
that startling exposures would be
made by Mr.. Wolcott touching
the insincerity of the president in his
professed friendly attitude toward the
object of the commission, and as evil
deneed by his action in sending his cur
rency message to congress in August
seemed likely that measure of success
was about to be reached.
There was also much popular curiosity
to know whether Mr.. Wolcott would
international bimetallism, declare HIM
self boldly in favor of Independent ac-
tion upon the part of this government.
None of these expectations were real
lied. The speaker attests to the perfect
good faith of the president throughout
the negotiations, although he takes oc-
casion to score his secretary of the treas
ury and the comptroller of the currency
for their attitude toward the mission,
charging them with secretly, though not
necessarily in an official way, in
triguing with London bankers and capi-
talists to circumvent their efforts to
secure an understanding with the Brit
ish ministry. While directly alleging
this conduct, he does not concede its
potency, for he declares that the letter
of the viceroy of India of September 18th
''must stand as the deliberate and 'un-
influenced judgment of that govern
ment." He conveys the impression in
one portion of his speech that the In
dian council, in it's consideration of the
proposals, labored under the misappre-
hension that the countries giving their
assent were not bound blythe agreement
to maintain the parity of silver, and
that otherwise it's answer might have
been different, yet he concludes that its
refusal must be considered as final until
the failure of the experiment upon which
the India government has entered shall
be demonstrated He admits that France
still actively desires to see silver re-
stored, but adheres to the belief that it
can be accomplished only through inter.
national concert. While hoping for fur
ther negotiations, he declares that
France owes to us no further duties in
that behalf
He closed his remarks with renewal
of his belief in the final success of fur
ther negotiations along new lines, and
possibly upon the basis of a change in
the ratio of the two metals. But his
halting prophecy as to this achievement,
as if it were not sufficiently and inher-
emily weak, is not strengthened by the
declaration following, that he shall at
once withdraw from the commission
and thus leave the work to other hands
The speech is, in general and in par
ticular, post mortem eulogy upon the
remains of international bimetallism.
Friends are invited to attend without
further notice.