"Then there is no necessity for it."

Mr. Fessenden: "Yes, there is. I differ from you."

I continued:

"We have here the tables before us. The honorable Senator and I
know when this debt matures. . . .

"That is the power now given, and he will use the power. He may
think it to his interest to retire the whole of the seven-thirties
or the ten-forties; but is it wise for us to give him that power
now, at the heel of the war and before things have settled down?
I do not think it is.

"I repeat, I do not wish to call in question the integrity of the
Secretary of the Treasury. The Senator interjects by saying we
must look ahead. I have done so. The difference between us is
that I anticipate that the future of this country will be hopeful,
buoyant, joyous. We shall not have to beg money of foreign nations,
or even of our own people, within two or three years. Our national
debt will be eagerly sought for, I have no doubt. I take a hopeful
view of the future. I do not wish now to cripple the industry of
the country by adopting the policy of the Secretary of the Treasury,
as he calls it, by reducing the currency, by crippling the operations
of the government, when I think that under any probability of
affairs in the future, all this debt will take care of itself. I
believe that if the Secretary of the Treasury would do nothing in
the world except simply sit in his chair, meet the accruing
indebtedness, and issue his treasury warrants, this debt will take
care of itself, and will fund itself at four or five per cent.
before very long. All that I object to in this bill is the power
it gives the Secretary of the Treasury over the currency, to affect
the currency of the country now and to anticipate debts that are
not yet due. . . .

"That is what I am afraid of, his interference to contract the
currency. The honorable Senator from Maine, however, would seem
to think that I impute to him a wrong motive, and therefore I
corrected him when he made the remark that I seemed to suppose the
secretary was doing this improperly. I think not. The Secretary
of the Treasury informed us that he desired to reduce the currency,
and he has been doing it as far as he could. He has been accumulating
large balances. He was opposed to the proviso which has been
inserted in this bill, and yielded to it only with reluctance.
That is admitted on all hands, and he is not precluded either in
honor or propriety from carrying