Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — CARLISLE ON FINANCE. [ARTICLE]

CARLISLE ON FINANCE.

The Secretary of the Treasury Speaks la Favor of Gold. At the 125th annual banquet of th® Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York Hon. J. G. Carlisle, Secretary of the Treasury, occupied the post of honor. In response to the first toast of the evening, which was “Commerce Demands, and the Honor of the Country Requires, That the Obligations of the United States Shall Be Paid ia Coin Current in Any Market of the World, and That the Question Shall Be Settled for All Time and Beyond Controversy,” Secretary Carlisle in substance said: Money and its representatives constitute the tools with which the merchant and the banker perform their parts in the num'eroue and complicated transactions necessarily occurring in the growth and development of our trade at home and abroad. It is not possible to do perfect work with Imperfect instruments, and if it is attempted the:consequenoes will not fall upon you alone, but must be felt sooner or later In every part of the land. Confidence would be destroyed, trade would be Interrupted, the obligations of contracts would be violated, and' all the evils which have invariably attended the use of a base or fluctuating currency would afflict not the commercial and financial classes only, hut the country at large. But our commercial interests are not confined to our own country; they extend to every quarter of the globe, and our people bny and sell In nearly every market of the civilized world. A very large part of our farmers, mechanics, and other laboring people find constant and profltaule employment in the production and transportation of commodities for sale and consumption in other countries, and the pricos of many of our products are fixed in foreign markets. Without exception these prices are fixed in the markets of countries having a gold standard or measure of value either by express provision of law or by a public policy which keeps their silver coins equal in exchangeable value to the gold coins at the legally established ratio. I think it may he safely asserted that this country could not long maintain its present position as one of the most conspicuous and impoitant members of the great community' of commercial nations which now controls the trade of the world unless we preserve a monetary system substantia ly, at least, In accord with the monetary systems of the other principal nations. There can be no international legal tender without an international agreement, but there must, from the very necessities of the case, always be a common basis upon which bargains are made and a common currency in which balances are settled. No one nation can determine for the others what that basis shall’ be or what that currency shall be. It may establish a currency for itself and for the use of its own people in their domestic trade, but th'e value of that currency will be ultimately measured and conclusively fixed by the international standard, whatever that may be. The stamp on its coins attests their weight and fineness, hut it adds nothing whatever to their intrinsic value, and nothing whatever to their exchangeable value in the markets of the world; so that a nation’s stock of International money always consists of its uncoined bullion and the bullion value of its coins. It cannot augment its stock of such money to any extent whatever by overvaluing either gold or silver in its coinage laws, nor can It diminish Its stock to any extent whatever by undervaluing either metal. While the number of its nominal dollars, or -hillings, or francs may' be increased or diminished, as the case may be, the actual value of the bullion or coins will not be chauged in the least, for no act of Congress or other legislative body can repeal or alier the laws of trade or the laws of finance, and every attempt to do so must result in disaster sooner or later. No matter, therefore, what our monetary system may be here at home as established by our own laws, we must either relinquish a large part of our share in the commerce of the world or conduct our international trade upon such basis as the general judgment of commercial nations may establish. We cannot possibly change this situation, and-, consequently, the only practical question is, whether it is better to establish by law an inferior kind of money for use at home exclusively and another kind for use abroad, or to have all our money good enough for use In every market where our peoplo trade. I believe the people of the United States are entitled to have for use in their domestic trade just as good money as any other people in the world have, and that they ore entitled to have just as much of it as may be necessary to carry on their business regularly and profitably. Whether it be gold or silver, or both, or paper based upon the coins of the two metals, the people have a right to demand that it shall beIn fact what it purports to be—a just and truemeasure of value, or the representative of a just and true measure of value. Gentlemen, the question whether the obligations of the United States will be paid la coin ourrenoy in all the markets in the world has already been settled, and it has, in my opinion, been settled for all time to come. This does not imply that silver is to have no place in our monetary system. What is to be the ultimate fate of that metal Is one of the problems which time and events alone can 1 solve. How much of it can be safely coined and upon what conditions it can be safely used are questions upon which there will be wide differences of opinion, but after all that can be said on both Bides they will be finally determined by circumstances which cannot now be foreseen and by the natural Increase of our population and the natural growth of our industries and trade.