In Saying This I Do Not Intend To Impute Any
Blame To Mr. Chase, The Present Secretary Of The Treasury.
Of his
ability to do the work properly had he received the proper training,
I am not able to judge.
It is not that Mr. Chase is incapable. He
may be capable or incapable. But it is that he has not had the
education of a national financier, and that he has no one at his
elbow to help him who has had that advantage.
And here we are again brought to that general absence of statecraft
which has been the result of the American system of government. I
am not aware that our Chancellors of the Exchequer have in late
years always been great masters of finance; but they have at any
rate been among money men and money matters, and have had financiers
at their elbows if they have not deserved the name themselves. The
very fact that a Chancellor of the Exchequer sits in the house of
Commons and is forced in that House to answer all questions on the
subject of finance, renders it impossible that he should be ignorant
of the rudiments of the science. If you put a white cap on a man's
head and place him in a kitchen, he will soon learn to be a cook.
But he will never be made a cook by standing in the dining-room and
seeing the dishes as they are brought up. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer is our cook; and the House of Commons, not the Treasury
chambers, is his kitchen.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 399 of 531
Words from 106643 to 106909
of 142339
