The herald., 1898-01-18


mission appointed by the President and
whose efforts he was cordially and zeal
ously seconding."
The commission was, he said, also at
tackled from time to time by statements
from extremists in the other direction
insisting that our efforts were pretend
ed: that we had no hope or expectation
of success; that the President was Sc
cretly opposing us; that 1t was dis
grace to our country that we were per-
mitted to invite other countries to join
us in opening mihts; that 1t was humil-
iating that we were even consulting any
other country on that subject; that fall
ure was inevitable and the sooner we
came home the better. 1t was a new
and somewhat ludicrous view of the
silver question that made it humiliating
that this country should invite other
countries like France to join in open
ing mints or made it unimportant to as
certain the attitude of India with her
thousand million ounces of silver in
bullion and ornaments changing hands
in the bazars at bullion value and her
five hundred and seventy million ounces
of silver in silver coins doing duty at
the ratio of about 2to l."
| He excepted Senator Jones of Arkan-
sas. chairman of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee, from the charge, but
concluded that it was unfortunately true
that the bitterness of the last cam
paign blinded the vision of many men so
that the thing they believed to be i'm
possible they came to hope would be
impossible.
"All of these occurrences, however,
disturbing as they were," he said, did
not probably affect the outcome so far
as there has been up to this time an out
come of the negotiations"
THE PRESENT SITUATION
Mr.. Wolcott summarized the present
situation by saying it is apparent that
for the time being it is useless to count
on any cooperation from Great Britain
toward a bimetallic agreement, and that
while France actively desires to see sill
yer restored to it's old position as a
standard of value, equally with gold,
she insists that the problem is one which
demands international action and the
co-operation to some adequate extent
of other leading commercial nations of
| the world
Questions of possible future negotia-
tions between France, the United States
and other countries and the question OF
change of ratio are for the moment held
in allegiance. While we hope for con-
tinued joint action, France owes no
| further duty to us. She stood shoulder
| to shoulder with us in our attempt to
secure from England even the conces-
sions she voluntarily offered a few
months ago. In days when the infiu-
| ence of the money lender is potent in
almost every capital of the world and
dominates courts and national politics,
the ministry of France stood fearlessly
by the interests of the whole people and
counted the welfare of it's hundreds Of
thousands of small holders of lands, de-
pendent for their existence upon the
fruits of the soil as paramount to that
of the powerful classes which want
money dear and grain cheap"
Here Mr.. Wolcott announced his in
tention to retire from the commission.
| He said;
| BIMETALLISM FEASIBLE
"It is my sincere conviction that an
| international bimetallic agreement is
still feasible by the terms of which cer-
tain countries will join and open their
mints to the unlimited coinage of silver,
and others will contribute to the plan
an enlarged usage of that metal as
money; and I say this more freely be-
cause 1 shall give way upon the COM
mission to somebody more fitted for such
negotiations and better able to give
them his constant time. This result
cannot be brought about without the
expenditure of both time and patience,
and the persons entrusted with the duty
Of negotiations must have back of them
the hearty support of the President and
of Congress"
He thought it might be necessary to
change the ratio to something like 20
to 1.
CAGES ATTITUDE
At this point he referred to the atti-
tude of Secretary Gage on the financial
question contrasted with the Presidents
position, his words on this point being as
follows:
When Congress reconvened on the 1th
of last month, the President, in refer
ence to the subject of international BIZ
metallism, spoke earnestly and anxious
| ly of his desire to see an international
bimetallic agreement consummated. His
assurances gave renewed hope to BIZ
| metallists all over the country, and
seemed a final and conclusive answer to
| those who had claimed that the Presi-
dent was not in earnest in his efforts
toward international bimetallism. For
myself, I needed no such proof 1 had
| again and again been made to know
how genuine was the Presidents devo-
ton to the settlement of this vexed
question. Within a fortnight after this,
with no event meanwhile which would
| change existing conditions, the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, in support of
bill which he had prepared respecting
the currency, said as follows to COM
mistee of Congress:
| Here he quoted the remarks of the
Secretary of the Treasury
"The two statements are utterly at
variance he continued, "and contra
dictory to each other They cannot be
reconciled. This is not the proper occa-
sion to analyze the bill of the Secre-
tary. 1t will reach limbo long before
it reaches the Senate. He proposes to
capitalize the premium on our bonds
sold recently, and to make them with
others to be issued, a security definitely
PAYABLE in gold. He forgets that only
| a few months ago, when the country
| was in dire distress, we were compelled
| to pay 600 for the privilege of
keeping the word gold out of some
| 10 rl,t nt 10