The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-20
 GAGE TALKS
 ON FINANCE Urges Reform of Currency
 System. COALITION OF ALL BANKS Great Prejudice Exists, He Admits. Against This. Ex-speaksr Thomas B. Reed says What the South Needs is Capital to Develop It's Unexcelled
 Resources.
COALITION OF ALL BANKS

New York, Dec. 19.--Secretary Gage or the Treasury Department. was the guest of honor and the principal speaker at the annual banquet of Group Eight of the New York State Bankers Association, keid tonight at the Waldorf Astoria
 Besides Secretary Gage. the speakeraS were: Ex-Speaker Thomas B. Reed. the Rev. Dr. Donald Sage Mackay. sx-Judga Henry E. Rowland. and Amos Parker Wilder. The toasts to which they re- sponded were respectively: Business and Legislation;'' "The Corporate Con- science and the Men Who Help to Make It." Lawyers and Ffnanciers." and '"Ths West and the Money Power"
 Secretary Gage said in part;
 Tt Is a strange anomaly that while in nearly every other department of life tns- provement Is the indispensable rule. in the great field of banking. finance and exchange, we go on with an indifferent regard to the handicap imposed by de- fective methods.
 ..In my late report to Congress thero was explained the function that the bank performs as intermediary through which credit is made available to the uses of production and industry and thus given a power scarcely less great than the poW~ CT of capital itself. Recently gentle man said the nomenclature of the street ought to be changed. We read all the time he said, of the rates for money. Today money is quoted at per cent; to- morrow, 3; and the next day, 2 70 5e followed, perhaps. by rate as high as 10 or 12; and people become alarmed about the scarcity of money as tndieFted by these high rates. when substantially there has been no change in the volume of money, either in the hands of the peo- pie or remaining under the control Of the banks. What ought to be quoted ie not money, but credit. What ia the prica ek credit. stated In che terSes If EtkeeseEF It "a credit that is getting difHcuIt. not actual money that is beconlins scarce
 ..The weakness of our banking system ia in the isolation and entire separate ness of the individual banks over the country. When 8 period of dlstrust or doubt comes over the land, there Is seeking of personal safety through that general instinct of sef-preserVauoh' which drives men in confused mass over each other at the outcry of fire in the theatre. I venture to suggest a system of coalition between individual members of the banking community through the country into the central institution wlth convenient branches in the larger cities in which all banks should be related or interested according to their individual relative importance, and which, in cer- tain sense, should represent to the bank ing interests of the country what the Federal Government represents In our po- liticaI system. Great prejudice exists, I know against the aggregation Of great wealth in the hands of few men. Hap billy, 1t is the law of nature that larger gains and better advantages can be se- cured to aggregated wealth by serving faithfully the common interests than py exploiting the community through sys- tenn of theft and robbery"
 The Secretary urged that there be reform of the currency system Of the nation along the lines outlined in his report to Congress. He told or the re- duction of the interest charged on the national debt and commenting upon IL, said: ''The cash under the control or tna government is larger than at any previ- ous time in it's history. so large indeed as to cause anxiety in your mind and Tn the minds of those more immediately responsible for government finances. The financial strength of the government ts now unsurpassed. But times change, events succeed events and the brightness of the sun today is often obscured by the clouds that arise tomorrow. In periods of strength and prosperity h is  against possible future periods of stress and strain"
 Ex-Speaker T. B. Reed followed MT. Gage. He said in part;
 "AII the dissatisfaction with our present currency system seems to be in the West and South. The people down there have all about them great natural resources as capable of producing wealth as those in the East. What they want is the means to develop those resources. The trouble with them has been they thought they wanted currency when they really want- ed capital For this reason believe in a mixed currency. We must remember that a currency founded on government bonds has received the sanction of forty years of stump speaking of which have done my share. The people have been taught that there Is something sacred about this kind of currency But gov- ernment bonds are slipping away and the government Is becoming a beggar and something must be done. We must look to the future as we'll as to the past. But all thanks to Grant. Cleveland and John Sherman for an opportunity to discuss these questions"