ment of this vital question clear and conclusive for all time, we are bound in good conscience to undertake, and, if possible, realize. That is our commission-our present charter from the people."Extract from President McKinley's speech on currency reform before the National Manufacturers' Association at New York, on Thursday evening, January 27. * * * * * * * * "It will not suffice for citizens nowadays to say simply that they are in favor of sound money. That is not enough. The people's purpose must be given the vitality of public law. Better an honest effort with failure than the avoiding of so plain and commanding a duty. * * * The difficulties in the path of a satisfactory reform are, it must be admitted, neither few in number nor slight in degree; but progress can not fail to be made with a fair and thorough trial. An honest attempt will be the best proof of sincerity of purpose. *Discussion can not hurt, it will only help the cause. Let us have full and free discussion. * * * Intelligent discussion will strengthen the indifferent and encourage the friends of a stable system of finance. * * * Half-heartedness never won a battle. Nations and parties without abiding principles and stern resolution to enforce them, even if it costs a continuous struggle to do so, and temporary sacrifice, are never in the highest degree successful leaders in the progress of mankind. For us to attempt nothing in the face of the prevalent fallacies and the constant effort to spread them is to lose valuable ground already won and practically to weaken the forces of sound money for their battles of the future.”—Extract from President McKinley's speech on currency reform before the National Manufacturers' Association at New York, on Thursday evening, January 27. COMMERCIAL EXPANSION. The time is ripe and the hour has come. The past half century has been the age of internal upbuilding; we approach now the age of external activity. For fifty years and more the genius and energy of man have been unlocking the occult and mysterious forces of nature and applying them to the development of the inherent resources and embryotic possessions of the nations. It has been the era of steam and railroads and electricity. The wonderful creations of that fruitful period are the marvel of history. In the fifty years from 1840 to 1890 the population of Europe increased 50 per cent, from 240,000,000 to 350,000,000; but its manufacturers augmented 300 per cent, from $5,500,000,000 a year to $15,000,000,000. Within the same time the population of the United States more than tripled, from 17,000,000 to 63,000,000, but the mighty tide of its manufactures expanded eighteen-fold, from $500,000,000 to over $9,000,000,000. This advancing and amazing power of production under modern appliances has outstripped the wildest dreams of imagination. It has harnessed Niagara, bridled the lightning, and, with a wizard's wand, touched the secret springs of the arcana of light and energy and force. It has multiplied wealth, comfort, and luxury. It has exalted the humanities and refined and beautified civilization itself. A greatly increased capacity of consumption has followed this magical advance, but it has not kept pace with the magnified power of production, and the economic problem of the world to-day is the distribution of the surplus. Under this stress the great nations of Europe are struggling for empire and trade. They are scanning the whole horizon for new fields of conquest, colony and commerce. They have seized Africa, plucked most of Asia, and to-day the eagles are hovering in the air with fluttering wings and sharpened beaks over the gigantic but inert form of the most ancient of nations, eager for the partition and plunder of China. Who doubts that their rude claws would already have fastened on Central and South America for their prey but for the protecting aegis of the United States and the talismanic charm of the Monroe Doctrine?-a Doctrine which draws around this continent a panoply as sacred and potent as "the awful circle of the solemn church" which Richelieu drew around the ward of France! In this strenuous rivalry for enlarged commerce where is our great Republic to stand? Are we to stand with folded hands and let the prizes slip? We can not enter upon aggression and conquest. We do not seek territorial aggrandizement. But we shall not renounce the right of commercial aspiration, and we shall let the whole world understand that we aim at the peaceful triumphs of friendly intercourse and reciprocal trade.-Charles Emory Smith, at the Banquet of the National Association of American Manufacturers, January 27, 1898. DAVIS, JEFF. Was He a Tool of Wall Street ? Jefferson Davis, while at De Soto, Mo., on the Iron Mountain Railroad-a Greenback convention being in session-a crowd assembled at the depot to see the distinguished person, who was easily persuaded to speak, when some one asked, "How about Greenbacks?" Davis replied, "If you want script to trade with among yourselves, you can issue county script or township script. It will be good as long as you have faith in it; but if you want to do business with the world at large, you must use the only currency that is recognized by all the nations of the earth, and that is Gold Coin," Public debt and the cash in the Treasury of the United States for the month of June, 1898. INTEREST-BEARING DEBT. DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. Aggregate of interest-bearing debt. Loan of 1925. Bonds issued to Pacific railroads not yet matured: Central Jan. 14, 1875... 5 per cent... Feb. 1, 1904. 100,000,000 65,755,950 Feb. 1, 1925. 25,364,500 25,364,500 737,707,200 251,350 681,138,000 559,595,900 126,020 73,860 151,305,850 847,367,470 1,182,149,050 844,106,220 585,034,260 14,004,560 DEBT ON WHICH INTEREST HAS CEASED SINCE MATURITY. Dollars. Funded loan of 1891, matured Sept. 2, 1891.. Old debt matured at various dates prior to Jan. 1, 1861, and other items of debt matured at various dates subsequent to Jan. 1, 1861. 130,400 00 Aggregate of debt on which interest has ceased since maturity. Sioux City and Pacific, $5,000; total.. Bonds issued to Pacific railroads matured but not yet presented: Union Pacific, $71,000; Central Pacific, $41,000; Kansas Pacific, $12,000; DEBT BEARING NO INTEREST. United States notes.... Feb. 25, 1862; July 11, 1862; Mar. 3, 1863... July 17, 1861; Feb. 12, 1852.. Dollars. 346,681,016 00 53,997 50 July 14, 1890. July 17, 1862; Mar. 3, 1863; June 30, 1864, less $8,375,931, estimated as lost or destroyed, act of June 21, 1879.. 30,493,147 00 6,884,.52 14 384,112,912 64 Aggregate of debt bearing no interest. CERTIFICATES AND NOTES ISSUED ON DEPOSITS OF COIN AND LEGAL-TENDER NOTES AND PURCHASES OF SILVER BULLION. Aggregate of certificates and Treasury notes offset by cash in the Treasury.. Aggregate of interest and non-interest-bearing debt. Dollars. 1,599,510 00 Dollars. 35,820,639 00 7,897,421 00 560,000 00 2,541,700 00 12,598,634 00 390,659,080 00 26.045,000 00 98,665,580 00 551,190,299 00 Dollars. 37,420,149 00 398,556,504 00 26,605,000 00 101,207,280 00 563,788,933 00 RECAPITULATION. June 30, 1898. May 31, 1898. Increase. Decrease. Certificates and Treasury notes offset by an equal amount of cash in the Treasury. Aggregate of debt, including certificates and Treasury notes...... |