The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-06
OUR COMING CURRENCY.
Prediction that National Bank Currency Will
Be Superseded by Government Money.

! New YORK. Dee. 5-The Sun, in a notable
doubleleaded editorial, discusses the question of
! ''Our Coming National Currency" and reaches
! the conclusion that the national bank currency
must go, and give place to a government cur
reney of coin and paper money. The article
notes carefully the rapid decrease of national
bank circulation and the more rapid increase in
coin and loan certificates, and says;
This will give us, by 1891, u grand total of
81, 1856 000 600 of government CURRENCY against
supplied by the banks. OF course, much may
happen to modify or prevent this result. The
conduct of men cannot be predicted conf
! IDENTIFY as that of inanimate things. The legal
| tenders may be redeemed and withdrawn, the
coinage of silver dollars may be suspended, and
the supply of gold may be diminished at the
mines or be drained away to foreign countries.
The decrease of national bank circua
ton may, on the other hand. be
checked by favoring legislation; but the proba-
bllltles are greatly against these events, and it
is much more likely that the national bank
notes will be driven out of use altogether and
ment currency. The existence of national
| bank circulation, it must be remembered de-
ponds entirely upon the profit 1t yields the banks.
These institutions are conducted on commercial
and not upon philanthropic principles. So long
as the bonds required security for their eircu
lation bear a sufficiently high rate of interest,
they will issue the notes, but so the rate
falls below the paying point their circulation
VIII be withdrawn. AT present there are enough
8 per cents to be had at about par to make
it worth while to take differentiation upon them,
but these bonds. as we know, will all soon be
paid off, and the Comptroller of the Currency
tells US that the fours and four and Il halls are
already too high to make them q profitable
basis for circulation. The four and a halls
will surely be redeemed at their maturity in
1891, and the fours rising in price continu
ally, under the competition for them by execu
tors, trustees, savings institutions and time in
vesters. That the people of the United States
will, for the sake of the banks, sanction any
legislation by which either the national debt
shall be prolonged or the interest upon it be in
creased, it is idle to suppose That they will
permit the banks to issue circulation any less
secure a basis than United States bonds, is
equally incredible There is no escape, that we
can see, from the hard logic of facts The Ma
tional bank currency must go, and that pretty
soon.
''Of the possibility Of the retirement of the
! legal tender notes, by redemption and eaneela
ton, there is no indication. The contracting of
them in this way was stopped, in 1878, by popu
lar clamor, and they have remained fixed
at their present amount ever since, without
effort by either political party to reduce it.
| The same may be said of the coinage of silver
dollars. Every attempt to check or to suspend
| it has hitherto been abortive The West almost
unanimously fayors it, and will support it to the
last.
! las to the danger that the withdrawal Of bank
| circulation may cause monetary stringeney
| concerning the coming of which so much So
| licitude has beer expressed in various quarters
it need only be remarked that the coinage of
| gold and silver alone will more than fill any
| vacuum thus oceasioned. Whether the coin goes
| into circulation as coin or as government re-
eeipts for coin, deliverable en- de-
mand is immaterial There is sure to
be circulating medium enough for the needs
of the community. AT the worst, supposing the
amount of it to be reduced by an unusual foreign
! demand, exceeding the product of our mines,
we shall have always, las we had during the war.
the resource of Iegaltender notes, especially
since the issue of them has been declared by the
| Supreme Court to be constitutional exercise OF
government power We shall always do well te
| remember that the natural forces often
stronger than legislation, and that the common
sense Of events constantly sets aside the tran
scendental reasonings of theorists and philoso
| piers"