The herald., 1898-02-09
HE DECLINES AND FALLS OFF
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED AT
CHICAGO
As Is Usual With Renegades He Elab-
crates a Plan Which Nobody
Will Accept
Associated Press Special Wire

ernor Horace Boies made an address O
the financial question here tonight. l
was his first utterance on the subjec
since the widely quoted letters In whic
he denied the sacred and irrevocable ma
ture of party platforms and Insisted tina
the battle for free coinage OF silver
the ratio of sixteen to one having beel
fought under the most favorable cir
lcumstances and the demand defeated
the polls, the Democratic party shoui'
abandon the financial plank OF 1896 an'
endeavor to rally on new ground.
His speech tonight embodies plan
for a redeemable government currenc!
upon which he thinks all Democrat'
| should be able to agree. His address
| was as follows:
| BOIES' ADDRESS
| In less than another decade the ma
tional banks will hold the purse strings
of this government, and in the unitee
States will WELD power before which
thrones have crumbled and republics
have disappeared, or they will be on the
high road to final and complete extinc-
| ton. Ii the latter, some plan VIII nave
| to be discovered for the preservation oi
national paper currency, excluding all
others, sufficient in volume to constitute
Just measure of values and answer
all the requirements of business, suscep-
tible of expansion or contraction as the
necessities of government and people re-
uuire, absolutely sound in every part
and every particular, and so guarded by
law that it will be invulnerable to at
tack from enemies without or within.
No one metal is sufficient for the basis
of such currency.
To endure, it must have its root in the
constitution, with the gold and silver so
interviewer and welded about it that
no power on earth can tear them apart
or make one the superior of the other.
1 would not retire a single dollar of
our existing national currency or change
it in any respect, except to make 1t re-
deemable in the same way.
The endless chain that has made so
much trouble in the past can be rendered
harmless without farthing's deprecia-
tion of single dollar of our present cur
rency and without a tremor in all the
business enterprises in the country, and
our manufactures ana mines, employ
ing hundreds of thousands of our own
laborerS at remunerative wages, will
furnish in abundance the basis for the
soundest and best paper currency that
man has ever known. We have now In
the treasury of the United States, the
so, 100000 worth of silver bullion, at its
y0+ 1x,o
gold reserve of s1O0OOO,0OO. kept there for
the redemption Of our national paper
currency. We have outstanding in
United States notes little less than
1850, 100000, and in treasury notes, in or
out of the treasury, nearly S150, 900, 900
more. And we have also outstanding
over $3.50 100000 in silver certificates,
every dollar of which is now existing ma
tional currency.
Every one of these notes bears upon
its face promise of the government to
redeem it on demand. The United
States notes are by their terms payable
in money generally. But a solemn
pledge of the government makes them
payable in coin. The treasury notes by
their terms are payable in coin and the
silver certificates in silver dollars. There
are two places where United States and
treasury notes can be presented for re-
demption, one at the sub treasury in
New York, the other in San Francisco
At present these notes are redeemable in
gold if gold is demanded and thereupou
are reissued as money.
Experience has demonstrated that a
reserve of 20 per cent is sufficient to Sc
cure the redemption of paper money is
sued by a solvent bank, the notes Of
which are to be reissued as fast as re-
deemed.
The government of the United States
is an entirely solvent institution. If a
reserve equal to that deemed necessary
for bank can be constantly maintained
in gold or it's equivalent without the
slightest danger that such reserve could
be diminished all ought to concede that
national currency based upon it would
be and always remain a sound currency.
This can easily be accomplished and the
government, instead of losing by the
transaction, can release for other pur-
poses $50,000,000 of it's present idle gold
reserve. Let congress provide for the
redemption of existing United States
there shall be maintained in
the treasury a reserve Of 25 per
cent of the aggregate face value of such
notes outstanding, one half in silver bull
lion at it's market value and one half in
gold at the same value; that three
days grace shall be allowed for their
redemption after demand and deposit
in the treasury for that pur-
pose; that they shall be re-
deemed in gold or silver at the gov
ernment's option at the market price of
the metal used for such purpose, or in
coin of either metal at the governments
option If coin is demanded. and shall
thereupon be reissued as at present pro-
vided; that on the day of redemption
the treasurer shall purchase in the
open market quantity of bullion equal
to that required for the redemption of
notes deposited.
we would then have reserve for that
purpose that could neither be increased
nor diminished. Not an additional dol
lar of expense would be incurred by the
government and its existing United
states and treasury notes would be as
sound as any paper currency can pos
sibly be made. No raid upon the treas
ury would ever occur. No man could
possibly profit by sending these notes to
New York or San Francisco for redemp-
tion. for he could always purchase in