The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-23

notes the highest probable estimate, is at most
S465, 600, coo, or S15 so for each person. That
OF France, upon estimates which are above all
probability, is at most $697, 000, 600, or SIS "a
fer each person, incl1ding the immense sums
in private boards, which are universal there.
But the circulation of the United States in
1860 was about $316, 100000, or $11'49 for
each free person. In 1857, when the paper
money Of this country reached its maximum
upon specie basis, 1t amounted TO
S215, 000, 0C0; and that this was in excess OF
the needs Of the country is shown by the fact
that much Of IL was artifcially forced into cir
culation by the banks; that much of it was
used only in reckless speoulations; and that
the expansion it indicated was followed by a
sweeping financial revulsion.
Again, the increase in the currency needed
in this country has always been extremely
slow as compared with the increase In wealth
and population. From 1887 to 1861, bank
notes increased 35l per cent, while wealth
increased nearly 400 per cent. in Eogland,
while wealth has accumulated and trade has
grown with unprecedented rapidity for fifty
years past, the currency has not increased at
all. The reason is that the economies of ex-
change, speed, banking, commercial paper,
aud all the machinery of trade and of credit
are developed 80 rapidly that the same money
does many times the work it could before.
On the whole, Mr.. Walker is satisfied that
note circulation Of $500, 600, 600 s, at the
most, all that could be maintained in the
United States Oh q specie basis by the Govern
ment or the banks, or by both combined. In
this conclusion it seems scarcely possible that
any one who fairly attends to his facts and
arguments can fail to agree with him. II is
the plain duty OF Congress, therefore, to devise
some means for getting rid, as quickly as pos
sible, of from $500, 900, 900 to $40O, 100000 of
superfuous paper money: This is the way,
and, aside from reputation, the only way, to
specie payments. Any plan for resumption
which does not include some practical method
OF disposipg of our present currency, on
large scale, is imperfect and cannot succeed.
The Necessity of Contracting the Currency.
From the NJ Y. World.
The Special Commissioner of the Revenue,
Mr.. Wells, whose annual report will shortly
bs laid before Congress-, publishes in advance,
as an appendix TO the same, letter on the
currencies of Great Britain, France, and the
United States by the Hon. George Walker,
late bank commissioner of Massachusetts,.
Recitipg his authorities, which, in the case of
the paper currencies of the several countries
named, are of course official, and which in the
case of gold and silver are fair average based
npon the opinions of the latest writer's and
best judges in such matters, Mr.. Walker
arrives at the following results
TOTAL CIRCULATION. ..
RAM s 6re9t 6rHSi t 6s: Irgsee 5s United @ %ates
6.,, , Aug 10 1865 o.t.l, 1865 Jan. I, 1868;
Colp...:.::-:.:. 4OAO;ooOO 100000 200 COCOON
less coin in bSs ,e5 oG 600 e97 900 900 seOooo oso
Popula!ionr.... SOoOOOOO SsOUO.Oup 27,5oO 900
larn per capita 1854 se63 1852
Total curreecy
Total wealth. 40 40, 90 Coj 900 2OOoOOOo ooo
ports, 1857 $50 OOO 900 l,445OOO 900 100000 600
1t is common in discussions of this sort to
make population a measure OF circulation.
This is, indeed, an element which may not be
neglected, but is not basis of comparison,
else what should We say about the Patsgonian
tribes, for example, and their need of coin or
paper, compared with their numbersf In the
comparison of the United States with France,
for example, it is of much more consequence
to remember that we are, as people, savers
and users of money while the French are, as a
people, savers and hoarders. The four hun
dred and sixty. saving banks of France
in 1864 held OF deposits less than $50, ,000,0 000
while those of New York alone held more than
100000 900.
1t is common also to make wealth mea-
sure of circulation. Nor can this element be
neglected; but IL is of less consequence to
remember, in comparing what we need Of
currency with what Great Britain needs, that
the wealth of Great Britain was $50, 600, 000 900
in 1858 and the wealth of the United States
was $l6,000,000, 600 in 1860, or forty billions
to twenty millions in this year of grace, than
the very significant fact that personal pro-
perty stood to real property as to in the
United States in 1860, whereas so long ago as
1916 the ratio was equal and beginning to be
reversed, 80 that now the preponderance is
fully established of personal property, which
is most exchanged, and therefore requires
most circulation-not ownership, but ex-
change, requiring the active use of money. To
reason from Great Britain's uses of our cur
rency to our needs, on the basis OF wealth,
would be again fallacious if it were forgotten
that this very same real property, SURPRISING
personal property here, but surpassed by it
in Great Britain, consists very largely here
of farming lands, fve-eighths of which are
unimproved, whilst there it consists in a
greater degree OF factories, warehouses, docks,
and other highly productive forms of real pro-
perty. Still more fallacious would such an
argument by comparison be if it were forgot
ten that London is the centre OF the exchanges
OF all nations, and that before all other
nations England is payer of weekly wages.
In q comparison with France, exceptional
facts must likewise be taken into account.
Thus, although her population is one-third
greater than the United States, her bank de-
pOsits are but ne-eighth of ours. New York
city alone makes three times the use of this
form of circulating credit that is made by all
France. This single fact Is sufficient to OBJ
struct any argument against contraction drawn
from the larger amount of currency per head
which is used in France, were naught to bs
said of her superiority in realized wealth, or of
her foreign trade twice as large as ours.
A comparison Of currencies and of national
condition in Great Britain, France, and the
United States, when made with breadth of
view and intelligence, exhibits the absurdity
OF the complaint that the circulating medium