The Portland daily press., 1873-11-08
Treasurer Spinner's Report.

special interest as he discusses officially the
financial questions which are just now so pro
foundy agitating the nation. He sees the
necessity of q flexible currency, and with
view to securing it commits himself fully to
the theory of a low interest bond converti-
BILE at all times into greenbacks. The rate
of interest he would fix at 3.65 which, being
one cent per day for 500, renders computa-
ton easy. These should always be afforded
at par by government and should be sold and
bought at convenient points in the country.
They should be paid at any time on present.
alton with interest from date of issue to date
of payment In fact the treasury would
thus practically become a vast banking es-
tablishment allowing three and sixty-five
hundredths per cent. on deposits. Thus at
seasons when currency is needed in large
quantities to move the crops, these bonds
would be returned to the treasury and green
backs would flow forth in precisely the guam
titles requisite to supply the needs of COM
merce. When the currency is released from
this legitimate use it will be at once re-
exchanged for the bonds instead of lying
dead upon the country and stimulating I'M
wholesome speculation from lack of other
profitable employment. To carry out this
scheme, the treasurer thinks it quite proba-
BILE that there need be no increase of the au-
thorized S400000,000 of legal tender notes,
and that under the changed condition OF the
currency which the measure would produce
it is more than likely that the minimum
amount of S356,000,000 would be sufficient
for the easy transaction of the legitimate
business of the country.
To the objection which will be made
that by the proposed arrangement interest
will have to be paid on that part of the legal
tender notes which is represented by the new
stock, Mr. Spinner argues that ''the appar-
ent loss of less than $2,500,000 in currency to
the people who would hold the stock would
be mere trife as compared with the great
gain that would accrue to the whole country
in consequence of the better circulating me-
dunn that would be introduced, and which it
is believed would protect them in future from
corners of all kinds, and from financial
commissions like the one that has just now
swept over the country like tornado. This
could not have happened had there been an
elastic and flexible, instead of our present
rigid and unyelding currency
To those who fear that a resumption of
specie would make money scarce and lead to
a great shrnkage of values the Treasurer ad-
ministers the comforting assurance that Gre
sumption would not necessarily reduce the
volume of paper money, but it would certain
iy increase the aggregate circulation of the
country by the amount of gold and silver coin
that would thereby be added to it. Expan.
sion rather than contraction would be much
likelier consequence as the result of specie
payments"
Mr.. Spinner's views on the subject of the
payment of interest on deposits by national
banks are pronounced and sound and will
meet the approval of conservative and pru-
debt bankers. He says:
Blanks were created for the purpose of loan
ing money for the more easy transaction of
business and not for the purpose of borrowing
it for the purposes of speculation and thus
blocking the channels of legitimate trade and
commerce. So long as they confine themselves
to this, their legitimate business they benefit
themselves and the community as well but the
moment they reverse the machinery, and be-
come borrowers instead of lenders of money!
they not only put their own interests in peril,
out become instruments OF great Danger 10 eV-
crybody within their influence, This practice
on the part of national banks of paying inter-
est on deposits, and especially that of one bank
allowing interest on the deposits of another,
whether they be permitted to hold the proposed
bonds as part of their reserves or not, should
be forbidden by law under the severe penalty of
the forfeiture of their charters
The Treasurersfully endorses the scheme of
the Postmaster General for the creation of
postal savings banks adducing the example
of Great Britain and other nations in which
the system is now in operation. This PROPOSE
ton will not, we fancy, meet very general
approval. The work of preserving and max
ing productive the little savings of the poor is
being very satisfactorily done by institutions
controlled by State authority and there seems
no great necessity for the national government
to burden the postal service with an addition
so cumbersome and one af1ording so great op.
portunities and temptations for peculation.
Concerning the balance of trade and the
condition of the currency Mr.. Spinner in
dulges in the following general reflections:
Should the plans herein proposed go into
operation they would no doubt, on the one
hand arrest the wild schemes of Missionaries
who contract large debts abroad, for which
there is a continuous drain on this country for
the payment of the interest on their unpro-
ductive undertakings, and on the other hand
would facilitate the early and rapid transpor.
ta'ion of the staple products of the country to
the seaboard for expectation to foreign and
profitable market. Both combined would soon
bring the balance of trade largely in our favor
after which it would require no statutory
enactments to enforce return to specie paw
ments. The natural laws of trade and com
merce will. under such circumstances bring
about the desired resumption in way peculiar
to themselVes,and the transmission from state
of suspension to that of honest specie payments
will be so easy that the world will wonder WHY
1t did not take place before With paper chr
rency as proposed, secured as ours is, that will
at all times adjust and accommodate itself to
the real business wants of the country and
made still more elastic by the return to specie
payments, and thus being at all times convert
able into coin at the pleasure of the holder, the
country will possess circulating medium su-
perior to that of any that has ever been known
to any nation of the earth.
The amount of outstanding national curren-
cy at the close of the fiscal year was $685. 424,,
GAY. From this amount should be allowed a
large margin for notes of all kinds that have
been destroyed and lost, ana that will never be
presented tor redemption The figures which
he presents indicate that the United States had
replaced one note in every seventeen and half
and the nationahanks only note in sixty
Some idea may be formed from this statement
of the relative condition of the two kinds of
currency. The consequence is that many of the
notes of the banks are so badly worn, torn dir
ty and defaced that even experts are often in
doubt and unable to correctly judge of their gen.
uineness, making it always a risk often ending
in losJ, to take them Some remedy must be
found for the correction of this evil, unless the
banks can be induced to provide for the prompt
retirement of such of their notes as are and may
become unfit for circulation. Congress should
be asked for the passage of law compelling
them to do so, or to authorize some arrange
ment through which the exchange of new for
old and defdced notes of all the national banks
can be made through the instrumentality of
the treasury department
The report concludes as follows:
The business of the office has been regularly
performed by the officers, clerks and other en-
ployes belonging to it, to the satisfaction of the
Pubic doing business with them and it really
ahoros me great pleasure to commend them for
t their INDUSTRY and zeal in the performance of
tnelr omcial duties. In this connection desire
70 reiterate my often repeated expressions of
oplnion III my reports of former years. that the
empioyeesS; OF this office, through whose hands
pass millions upon millions of money. receive
compensation lower than that paid for like Int
less responsible service, in banks or in tbe Of
fees of business am sure that h., '" tl o,