The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-01-10

among colored, TO SO.
The number of persons naturalized in Ohio b!
Probate JGdgesfOr the year ending March 81, ls7
lCoshocton County not reported, is s,OOl, distri
butedas follows:
England. Scotland and Wales............... AZ
Canada. ........................... 5
| Ireland -...-...".r...-.-..---.. 6I
Germany ..-.-........-.-..--.-..I l, u
Other countries. W
Total...................... 90
The number Of persons in Ohio, ten years olC
and over, who can not read, is 92,720. The numbel
of those from fifteen to twenty-One years and over
who can not write, is l7s,l72-lS4,lO2 native ant
81 ,O7O foreign born.
The report contains many valuable tables, Civ.
ing wills, letters of administration, crimes, &c,
Equalizing the Currency.
Congress re-assembled at Washington, on
Monday, after the long holiday recess. The
most important occurrence of the first day was
the introduction of bill by Professor Monroe,
from the Committee on Banking and Curren-
ch, repeating the law of July II, 1870, for the
increase and equalization of the national bank
currency. That law authorized the issue OF
an additional ffty-four millions of national
bank notes, making the total national bank
circulation S554,OO0.00O. A new apportion-
ment of the increased circulation thus provid-
ed for, was ordered to be made, based upon
the census of 1870. and the new issue was to
be distributed among the States and Territor-
les having less than their proportion; but any
surplus remaining uncalled for after one year
might be given to other banks making appli-
cation. The law further provided that after
the said fifty-four millions additional currency
should be exhausted, the comptroller of the
currency should withdraw from the Eastern
and transfer to the Southern and Western
States twenty. five millions, so as to "equaize
the circulation"
The time for enforcing this last provision Of
the act has now come, the ffty-four millions
of additional currency having all been called
for by the banks and put in circulation. But
the country is il the worst possible condition
for the withdrawal of twenty-five millions of
currency from the Eastern banks. While the
East needs all it has got, the West urgently
calls for the twenty-five millions more which
the government has appOrtioned as its share.
Mr.. Monross bill, proposes to satisfy the de-
mands Of both, by leaving in the Eastern
banks their full present circulation, and
authorizing an additional issue of twenty-five
millions to be distributed in the South and
West.
This bill is step in the right direction, and
we heartily approve Of it, 30 far as it goes.
We hope, however, that the Banking and
Currency committee will not conside this the
full measure of relief from our monetary evils
which the country needs. The ffty-four mil
lions authorized in 1870 and only now exhaust
ed, have in reality not at all increased the cir
culation by dollar. For, parallel with this
additional issue of national bank notes, the
Secretary of the Treasury has redeemed and
cancelled an equal amount of three per cent
certificates, which the banks held as part of
their reserve, thereby iberating for circuls-
ton like amount of greenbacks. So that
the effect Of the law of 1870, as regards the
currency, has simply been to withdraw from
eASAA1AAOA eAA AOSA IL b-AO BdAAA ACcCINco
fifty-four millions of greenbacks in Place of
the retired three per cent certificates, and to
replace the greenbacks with national bank
notes, process by which the currency has
been neither expanded nor contracted.
The twenty-five millions proposed to he is
sued under the Monroe bill is, therefore, the
first and only absolute increase of the national
bank circulation; and, the experience of the
last three months and the plain demands Of
the country for more, it is, to say the least,
very moderate and conservative proposition.
The opinion is now almost universal, that the
government has carried its expedients for lin
iting and "equaizing the circulation" quite far
enough, and that the banks themselves, gov
erned by the laws of trade, can better regulate
that matter. The fact that two years elapsed
after the ffty-four millions Of 1870 were au-
thorized before they were called for by the
banks, shows that banks are not so greedy af-
ter circulation as seems to be supposed. In
deed, 1t would be easy to show that the net
profit of the banks on their circulation is less
than one per cent. If the national banks were
free to increase their circulation at viii, on tho
deposit of bonds as now, as Mr.. Henry Clews
and other leading bankers urge they should
be, it is reasonable that there would be no
dangerous, and perhaps no appreciable curren-
cy imitation. But as we have said, the twenty
five millions is something, and perhaps with
some ameliorations of the restrictions on the
bank reserve, the issue Of this amount may
answer for the present as an experiment in
the direction of an increased circulation.-
Leader.
We are g1ad that there is one rep
who realizes that the
country is suffering, not so much
from want of business, as from a
want Of currency to meet the neces-
sites of trade and production. We
nope the bill of Monroe will pass,
even with a much larger increase, SO
hat the present stingency may be
,eleved.