The age-herald., 1901-12-20
CURRENCY REFORM
 URGED BY MR. GAGE Principal Speaker at Annual Banquet of N. Y. Bankers CREDIT SHOULD BE QUOTED He Says It Is Credit That Is Getting Difficult and Not Actual Money
 That Is Becoming Scarce.
 Mir. Reed Also Spoke.
CREDIT SHOULD BE QUOTED

1dke Ol Ine lTedSuTy QepdItiiltHl was lhS guest of honor and the principal speak CT at the annual banquet of Group Eight of the New York State Bankers Associa- tion, held tonight at the Waldorf-Astoria.
 Besides Secretary Gage, the speakers were ex-Speaker Thomas B. Reed, the Rev. Dr. Donald Sage McCay, ex-Judge Henry E. Rowland and Amos Parker Wilder.
 The toasts to which they responded were respectively Business and lega- tion'; "The corporate conscience and the men who help to make it''; lawyers and financiers", and "The West and the mon ey power"
 Secretary Gage said in part
 'It is a strange anomaly that while in nearly every other department of life improvement is the indispensable rule, in the great field of banking, finance and exchange we go on with an in- different regard to the handicap imposed by defective methods.
 Tn my late report to Congress there was explained the function that the bank performed as an intern ediary through which credit is made available to the uses of production and industry and thus given a power scarcely less great than the powers of capital itself Recently gentleman 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 8, and the next day 6. to be fol- hu a high 10 or 12; and people become alarmed about the scarcity of money as indicated by these high rates when substantially there has been no change in the volume of money either in the hands of the people or remaining under the control of the banks. What ought to be quoted is not money but credit. What Is the price of credit, stated in the terms of interest? It is credit that is getting difficult, not actual money that is becoming scarce
 Weakness Tn Isolation.
 ''The weakness of our banking system is the isolation and entire separatness of the individual banks over the country. When a period of distrust or doubt comes over the land there Is a seeking of per- sonal safety through that general instinct of self preservation, which drives men in a confused mass over each other at the outcry of fire in the theatre. l ven- tured to suggest system of coalition be- tween individual members of the banking community through the country into one central institution with convenient branches in the larger cities, in which L. "A ..ws.4 .4xsk skor@n tod according to their individual and relative importance, and which in a certain sense should represent to the banking interests of the country what the federal govern ment represents in our political system. Great prejudice exists know against the aggregation of great wealth in the hands of few men. Happily 1t Is the law of nature. that larger gains and better ad- vantagesvcan be secured to aggregated wealth by serving faithfully the common interest than by exploiting the communi- ty through system of theft and rob bery'
 Urges Currency Reform.
 The secretary urged that there be a re- form of the currency system of the na- tion along the lines outlined in his report to Congress. He told of the reduction of the interest charged on the national debt and commenting upon IL, Sald.
 "The cash under the control of the gov ernment is larger than at any previous time in its history-so large. i. pdeed. as to cause anxiety in your minds and in the minds of those more immediately re- sponsible for government finances. The financial strength of the government is now unsurpassed. But times change, events succeed events, and the bright ness of the sun today is ofter oscured by the clouds that arise to nv. In periods of strength and D ty it Is the part of wisdom to m, 'ovision against possible future period stress and strain"
 Ex-Speaker T. D. Reed follt ged MT. Gage. He said in part:
 "All the dissatisfaction with our pres ent currency system seems to be in the West and South. The people dp~ n there have all about them great ne' ral re- sources as capable of producing wealth as those in the East. What they want Is the means to develop these resources. The trouble with them has been that they need capital. For this I belle d in a mixed currency. We must reme mber currency founded on government bonds has received the sanction of forty years of stump speaking. of which l have done my share. The people have been taught that there Is something sacred about this kind of currency. But government bonds are slipping away and the government is becoming beggar and something must be done. We must look to the future as well as to the present. But all thanks to Grant Cleveland and John Sherman for an opportunity to discuss thsse nnes- tions."