New-York tribune., 1874-08-19
UNIFORM CURRENCY ONCE MORE.

| Last Saturday morning we printed the fol-
| lowing proposals for an economical and uni
| form currency:
l. Let Treasurer Spinner. after receiving and assort
ing the bank notes him redemption. charge
against the various banks which issue them and
return legatender notes for them, as he does now
O. Let Congress, 1t assemblies in December.
authorize the Treasurer in place returning the bank
notes to the various issuing banks for redemption, TO
charge them against the bonds belonging to the banks
and held by the Treasurer security for circulation
aud then destroy them.
the bonds remain with the Treasurer as security
for the United States the holder Of the notes thus
cancelled and destroyed.
Let the limit of the legaltender circulation be en-
larged by an equal to the bank notes so can
ceed and destroyed, and gradually extended until the
entire bank note circulation is replaced by greenbacKs
g. Let the cost of keeping up the egal-tender crcula-
ton be the banks in proportion to the ratio OF
their notes replaced by greenbacks to the aggregate OF
greenbacks issued
Let the tax on hank note circulation five per cent
depos and bonds lodged with the Treasury security
remain at present.
T. Whenever a bank fails. wishes t. -itadraw its
circulation let it send to the Treasury greenbacks
equal to its circulation and withdraw Its bonds, or let
the Treasurer obtain the greenbacks by selling the
bonds as under existing law, and diminish the legal
tender circulation by equal to the bank crcula-
tion thus withdrawn.
As the foregoing appears to have experienced
the common fate of new ideas-that is, to
have been misunderstood we feel that we
owe the readers of The TRIBUNE some fur
ther explanation of its purpOrt. In these days
of endless unmeaning talk about bank-nOte
redemption, lawful money reserves, increased
ending powers of banks free banking, unjust
distribution of the paper circulation, INSULT
in tn aln ay-
changes adjusting the currency to the wants
of the business community, balance OF trade,
&c, &C., it seemed to us that it might be of
benefit to attempt for once, to distract public
attention from pordS to things. The particular
thing to which we wished to turn the thoughts
of our readers was the complete identity, in
their uses as money, of the notes of the Ma
tiOnal banks with the notes OF the National
Government.
If the reader will be kind enough to imag-
inc Congress to have assembled, and the above
suggestions to have been incorporated into
law and to be now on the statute book, he
will find that the effect of them would be to
produce only the most trihing changes, none
of them greater than that which every citizen
produces on himself when he gets up In the
morning and puts on his clothes. The most
important of these changes, as it seems to us,
would be:
1. The notes of the National banks, for such
they would still be, would have in law what
they have in fact-equal power of paying
debts with the legal-tender notes issued by
the United States. The value of the two kinds
of currency is precisely equal, and always
must be so until the bonds of the United
States, bearing five per cent interest in gold
and payable in gold within time specified
by law, cease to be worth as much as prom
ises to pay, bearing no interest and payable,
if ever, at some remote future time. Nay,
more, this equality must continue until ten
dollars in such bonds are worth less than nine
dollars in deprecated greenbacks 1t will
strike some persons that the bank notes ought
to be worth more than the greenbacks, but
that cannot be, because the bank notes can at
any time be paid off in greenbacks. We are
well aware that In the last panic, and once or
twice previously, National bank notes were at
a small discount compared with greenbacks,
but that discount was temporary and purely
Fictitious, and, so far as it existed, was an
evil and not merit in the present system.
@. If q great State, for example England, hav-
ing a currency consisting chiefly of coin,
should arbitrarily enact that only pieces
coined in certain years and of certain denomi-
nations should be received in payment OF
taxes and be legal tender for debts, and