fifteen minutes is to come, if you see fit to avail yourselves of the opportunity. Mr. White has kindly consented that you shall ask him questions that bear upon the theme he presents; questions which shall not take the form of debate or argument upon your side, questions which shall be limited to one minute in their asking. If any gentleman wishes to ask him any question in that way, he will take pleasure in answering it.

MR. ROBEY of Rochester, N. Y.: I should like to ask if it was not an unpropitious time to stop free coinage of silver in 1873, just about the time when the country was plunged in enormous debt, not only the Government, but individuals engaged in business, and when enterprises of all kinds had been stimulated by reason of the large amount of currency in circulation. Now, it was at such a time that free coinage was adopted. I would like to ask if it was a wise measure?

MR. WHITE: My reply would be, that I can not see how the time could make any difference, a silver dollar being worth three cents more than a gold dollar and continuing to be worth more than a gold dollar a year and a half longer. There being no silver dollars in circulation and no possibility of bringing them into circulation, and the silver dollar being worth so much more, I don't see how the circumstances of that period could make any difference.

DR. T. P. SEELEY: I wish to ask whether it is not true that the use of or demands for any commodity, whether gold, silver, or wheat, does not increase the value of that commodity, and if the taking away of the use or demand for any commodity does not take away from the value of that commodity? Did not the taking away of the use of silver or the diminishing of the use of silver by Germany and by the United States take away the demand for silver bullion, consequently take away the demand for the value of silver bullion? Did not the increased use and demand for gold, which was created by taking away the use of silver as money and the prospective use of silver for money, increase

the demand and use of gold and increase the value of gold throughout the world?

MR. WHITE: The action of the United States did not make any difference, because we did not have any silver in 1873. As to the action of Germany, I said in this paper that, whether it did or not, it might have an academic interest, but it could have no direct interest, because we could not control the action of Germany. Now, as a mere matter of abstract reasoning, I should say that the withdrawal of the demand for silver, the conditions of supply remaining the same, would cause the silver to fall. I agree to that, but I repeat again, that it can not make any difference to us what Germany did, because we could not control it.

MR. JOHN A. GRIER: I would like to ask Mr. White if it is not a well-known historical fact that there was more than two million silver dollars coined at our mints within the twenty-four months preceding the demonetization of silver in 1873.

MR. WHITE:

You mean trade dollars?

MR. GRIER: No, full legal-tender dollars.

MR. WHITE: There were 6,845,000 silver dollars coined between 1834 and 1873, and the bulk of them may have been coined at the time you mentioned. I have not looked into that particularly.

MR. GRIER: As an historical fact, allow me to say that more than two million silver dollars, the full legal-tender dollars, were coined within the twenty-four months preceding the date of the demonetization of silver.

MR. HENRY ALTMAN: Of course it goes without saying that Mr. White's speech to-night has demonstrated that he has been a very careful student, and I wish to ask him this question I often hear it stated, and I never have been able to get at the correct solution-did or did not Germany and Austria, when there seemed to be such a flow of gold from Australia and California in the years preceding 1857, demonetize gold?

MR. WHITE: The single silver standard was adopted

by Austria, and I think by Germany, by treaty in 1857. I think they had been double standard countries before that time. I will not speak positively, but it is my recollection, that they were previously double standard countries and then adopted the single standard.

MR. ALTMAN: For the reason, I suppose, that up to that time the supply of silver had been very limited, and it looked as though the world was to be flooded with gold, and hence they demonetized gold as a source of protection.

MR. CHARLES L. JOHNSON: I should like to inquire whether the demonetization of silver in 1873 and the continued use of gold as a single standard does not operate as a contraction, perhaps a gradual contraction, of the currency?

MR. WHITE: You ask my opinion. I say no, I don't think so.

MR. F. C. HICKS: I would like to ask if the decreased price or value of silver, in the opinion of Mr. White, is due to the increased production merely?

MR. WHITE: That is my opinion.

BANKING AND CURRENCY- THE NEED OF

A SOUND SYSTEM OF BOTH.

BY HON. JOSEPH H. WALKER of Worcester, MASS.

TH

HE Chairman, Mr. Lyman J. Gage, introduced the speaker with the following remarks:

The address first named on the programme for the evening, namely, "The World's Experience in Banking," by the Hon. Bradford Rhodes, having been delivered in the morning to take the place of the address expected from John Sherman on Monday, the session will open with an address by a gentleman who has given great thought and study to the monetary problem of the United States, if not of the world; who is fresh and vigorous in his talks; who has been active in debates on this question, the Hon. Joseph H. Walker, member of Congress from Massachusetts. He wishes me to say that while the subject is large, he does not expect to occupy more than thirty minutes of your time. In order that a fuller expansion of the subject might be had by those present who may desire it, he has brought with him the full text of his article, which will be found at the door as you go out. You are invited to take one if you are so inclined. I now have the honor of presenting Mr. Walker.

ADDRESS OF MR. WALKER.

Never did a body of men meet, in peaceful times, under more anomalous financial conditions. It is conceded that the prosperity of a country depends upon steady employment, high wages, and prompt payments for the masses of the people. It is stated by those who have most carefully investigated the subject, that wages are very much higher, employment is more steady, and payments are more prompt

in this country than in any other. It is also stated that the people of the United States are taxed less per capita than the people of any other civilized country. We have also had the inestimable advantage of vast quantities of as fertile land as any on the face of the earth, free to the taker, or at a price scarcely more than nominal. We have received a body of emigrants, many of them of the very best brawn and mind, who have made, and furnish, with our own people, the best market in the world. Every condition, in quality of soil, in climate, in character of our people and institutions, has conspired to make for this country a prosperity such as no seer ever prophesied or poet ever sang. Our consumption of commodities has been three times per capita that of Europe, making our market the equivalent of 200,000,000 of European people. We consume one-third of all the goods manufactured in the world, which equals a market for manufactured goods of over 600,000,000 of average people. In fact, our prosperity and development can scarcely be realized. So favorable has been our condition that a bad financial system and a most expensive currency has not seriously injured the country until now, when its evils have culminated. Faulty finances have been to us like a mole on the arm of a man reveling in his strength, until it has developed into an ugly ulcer poisoning his blood. We are now fully conscious of our condition, and all are agreed that some remedy must be had. To hold Secretary Carlisle responsible, and abuse him, for our culminating financial ills is as just and rational as the abuse heaped upon an attendant in the delirium of fever.

The simple fact is that the disease has ripened, and our trouble is in proportion to our previous good health, like fever in lusty youth, which is all the hotter and more dangerous because of his vigorous body. My contention is and will be, throughout this paper, not that we have less paper money, but cheaper and better money.

The affirmative of the question assigned me, viz., “The commercial need of a sound system of money and banking,"