Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1898 — M’KINLEY AT A FEAST. [ARTICLE]

M’KINLEY AT A FEAST.

President Declares Financial Legislation la Needed. The third annual banquet of the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States, which took place Thursday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, was one of the largest and most elaborate affairs eff the kind ever given in the city. One thousand guests were seated at the tables. W arner Miller called the gathering to order. He said there was nothing political in the organization. The chief end of the organization, he declared, was to extend the commerce of the United States abroad. Mr. Miller introduced Theodore C. Search, president of the association, who spoke briefly. The wildest enthusiasm prevailed when President McKinley was introduced. Men stood in their seats, women in the boxes waved their handkerchiefs and the uproar drowned the speaker’s voice. President McKinley spoke slowly and was plainly heard in every portion of the hall. He said in part: National policies can encourage industry and commerce, but It remains for the people to project and carry them on. If these policies stimulate Industrial development and energy the people can be safely trusted to do the rest. The Government, however, is restricted in Its power to promote industry. It can aid commerce, but not create it. Much profitable trade is still unenjoyed by our people because of their present insufficient facilities for reaching desirable markets. Much of it is lost because of a lack of information and an Ignorance of the conditions and needs of other nations. There is another duty resting upon the national Government—to coin money and regulate the value thereof. This duty requires that our Government shall regulate the value of Its money by the highest standard of commercial honesty and national honor. The money of the United States Is and must forever be unquestioned and unassailable. Nothing should ever tempt us—nothing ever will tempt us—to scale down the sacred debt of the nation through a legal technicality. Whatever may be the language of the contract, the United States will discharge all Its obligations in the currency recognized as the best throughout the civilized world at the times of payment. Nor will we ever consent that the wages of labor or its frugal savings shall be scaled down by permitting payment in dollars of less value than the dollars accepted as the best In every enlightened nation of the earth. Under existing conditions our citizens cannot be excused if they do not redouble their efforts to secure such financial legislation as will place their honorable intentions beyond dispute. I have no fear for the future of our beloved country. While I discern in its present condition the necessity that always exists for the faithful devotion of its citizens, the history of Its past is assurance to me that this will be as it always has been through every struggle nnd emergency, still onward and upward. It has never suffered from any trial or been unequal to any test. Founded upon right principles we have nothing to fear from the vicissitudes which may lie across our pathway. The nation founded by the fathers upon principles of virtue, education, freedom and human rights; molded by the great discussions which established its sovereignty, tried In the crucible of civil war, its integrity confirmed by the results of a reconstruction, with a union stronger and better than ever before, stands to-day not upon shifting sands, but upon immovable foundations.