It can not be doubted that,our stupendous achievements as a people
and our country's robust strength have given rise to heedlessness
of those laws governing our national health which we can no more
evade than human life can escape the laws of God and nature.
Manifestly nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation and
to the beneficent purposes of our Government than a sound and
stable currency. Its exposure to degradation should at once arouse
to activity the most enlightened statesmanship, and the danger of
depreciation in the purchasing power of the wages paid to toil
should furnish the strongest incentive to prompt and conservative
precaution.
In dealing with our present embarrassing situation as related to
this subject we will be wise if we temper our confidence and faith
in our national strength and resources with the frank concession
that even these will not permit us to defy with impunity the
inexorable laws of finance and trade. At the same time, in our
efforts to adjust differences of opinion we should be free from
intolerance or passion, and our judgments should be unmoved by
alluring phrases and unvexed by selfish interests.
I am confident that such an approach to the subject will result in
prudent and effective remedial legislation. In the meantime, so
far as the executive branch of the Government can intervene, none
of the powers with which it is invested will be withheld when
their exercise is deemed necessary to maintain our national credit
or avert financial disaster.
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