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Show TARIFF TALK."" Annual Dinner of the Reform League, Boston, MSTIMlUISIlEi) M'r'AKEllS. Ex-Secretary PatrcMU Dlscasses (lie Questions ol tut Day. Olll II Kill M V.MStEll. o 1-imrr In ll.n (..ivreuinri.t 10 lllso I nine I,, i. lalurlrtt su.t.ln.ice. lloarn-r, Dec. 10. Tho annual dinner din-ner of the Now I.ngliud larll! reform leaguo wru hold nt the American House this evening, l'nstdont Henry I,, l'lcrcu was thu prisldlngolllcer. The speakers wero tho Hon. Charles B. 1'olrclilld, secretary of thu treasury under Cleveland, Hon. Harvey M. Bhopsrd, Joslali Qulncy and William llrlcc. Tho first speaker of tho evening even-ing woa I'alichlld, who said In all: 'These In favor ol tarlll reform (till have ii duty to i erform. My business Irlenda ask for stability In business, but they havu built up nu nrtillctal system whereby tho builness of this country Is held up above natural conditions. con-ditions. Iustead of licking toUo the thing requisite to tho malutennnce of thesyalem, they sought to divert Hie niludaof tho fiooplo lu over) possible uny from consideration ol the true auljcct. Tin y hnve formed tho habit of contributing vast sums of money to buy elections. It Is ustles) to deny that tho Democrats wire equally guilty with the ltepubllcaiis In at-ti at-ti mills lo corrupt tlietlons, but within thulastfew jeirs bu'luets nun have contributed a parto! the gains which came to them, ns It was supposed, through llio government for tho hardly concealed urKsnof buying elections, "Wu havu Ulore us a ery grave question which Involves protectionism nndgovcrnmcnlallsm, nnd thnt la our currency e)s em. It Is tho common belief that tho government has a irya-tenouspowtrts irya-tenouspowtrts lnfuwi value Intoauli-stance Intoauli-stance otherwise valueless, nud to aid to the value of that which Is already substance by lulling It liithofeim of a bank bill or coined money and call It legal tender money. I don't think thero Is nny power In tbegovernmeut to glvo value to anything by adding n legal tcuJorquallt) to It. During the war In this country, with the ssme volume of greenbacks, tbe same vol umeof buslueeannd the same amount ol antecedent debt which could bu paid with that money , it would vary enormously enorm-ously betweeu nwrulug and utttrnoou, l"he legal tender quality had not varied, need for money had not vailed, tho population ha 1 nol varied, buslntia had not varied. What ha I varied was thu averagu belief of lliu American people us to tho ultimate redeemablllty uf the promise lo pay. That waa the reason tho money so varied and tho legal tender quality had been utterly pou erless to retain value In It. When Hie United btales Is no longer able to lulllllthepromlie to nuke good that credit, then the money must stand on Its foundation, and Its foundation would bothoalueol silver bullion In tho world. There Ii no more statesmanshipthere states-manshipthere la no moru tense In depriving the Amirlcati people of one of tbu moat useful devlctaot modern time s, becajsu someone may sometimes lose by It, thau there Is of depriving Ihem of other forms of commercial credit. In tho faco of thn vast usefulness useful-ness of tho good bank note, the circulation circu-lation of which will piss from hand to hand readily but Is not legul tender, I say It la utter Imbecility for llio Ami rl-tan rl-tan peoloto He down and say Hint they oaunot do that and ttiut they won't do It." |
