The Hartford herald., 1885-12-09
The Coinage Question Again

From review Of our currency ques-
ton for the last three quarters of a cen
tury, | think the following carOllary
may he inferred: That although public
spirit, enthusiasm and patriotism will
all aid in supporting a church, party or
government, yet all these combined are
not able to hold up paper dollar with
out coin to support it, The American
people have suffered so much from
worthless and deprecated paper cur
rency that solvent banking system
would Toe to them the most desirable
event.
The present national bank system
seems to be the best that has vet been
adopted, but to it there seems To ba two
objection: The first il the amount Of In
terest the Government has IN pay on
the Londs deposited by the banking
company as security; the second is that
the banking company do not get the full
amountof their capital invested i'm bonds
ninety per cent, leaving ten per cent.
Of their capital lying dead. And still
another difficulty will arise from pro-
curing national bonds as security, for
those bonds decrease on the market. II
would seem to me that the best course
that could he pursued on the currency
"A system of univer rsal coinage of gold
and silver bullion, charging .he owners
only such a per centlge as would pay
the expenses Ofcoinage. In addition To
the mints we already have, establish
two or three other mints in the a. ore
central parts of the union say one in
Texas, one in Missouri and one i'm Ken
tucky, and let those mints be N ade
sub-ireasuries of the United States
Treasury. Whenever an individual or
company wish to establish national
bank, let them deposit their coin either
in the Treasury or one of the sub-treas-
uries, upon which deposits let the Gov
ernment issue notes of the nature of
black-backs, made payable at the Treas
ury or sub-treasuries, of equal amount
to the deposit. BY tins means the Gov
ernment would be relieved from paying
interest on those deposits, and the COM
pauy or bank would bave the full
amount of their capital tn invest in
banking
A. fast rs these notes are taken i'm
at the Sul-treasuries or paid into the
Uui Ell states Treasury as revenue. let
then Toe selec ted, cancelled and burned
at stated periods, for which let the Coy
,runent issue treasury notes for the
same amount Of currency thus destroy
ed made payable in like manner. by
this course the Government would nat
uraliy absorb the currency of the
natl >nal bIuks, for which it stood re-
Nponsihle, and replace them with its
,wu treas uIy notes, on which il would
pay no interest, and establish IA uniform
currency throughout the whole union.
Lit all banks be prohibited frou i.~u-
iug any currency of their own. New
ct Us consider the benefits that would
result from this SV>tem. We would
tirst have a currency of equsl or uniform
value through the whole union, the
country would b. relieved from wild
eat, Irresponsible and broken bank
notes;the community would become ac-
quiihtal with az JUICE Ofthe genuine
ness 80 tAt currency in circulation, thus
in "a measure suppressing counterfeit
ing by reducing the demlud for Gov
ernment bonds for banking capital, the
demlui for those bonds would in some
measure be reduced, and instead of the
preHium which they now demand,
theY would Toe reduced tu somsthing
like their par value, enabling the Gov
erum"ut to apply ali the surplus rev.
emu in thus buying in its boEds, and
NOR. rapidly eXtinguiSh the public debt
Tupse irints and sut-treasuries Quit
enable the Government to distribute it,
coinage more equally through the cOun-
try, SaVIn. the Government the eX-
pen-e aud trouble of transporting the
same to remote points when needed
and placing 1t in convenient reach of
bankers and business men.
Whenever paper currency l. put in
circulation, rs necessary result "A large
per centage Of it j. lost or destroyed by
accident. This loss would of course
inure to the benefit of the Government,
amounting perhaps to "A sum sufficient
to pay the expenses of the mints or sub
treasures heretofore alluded to, but
even if it did not, the Government
might well afford to pay large sums To
secure to the people OF the United
States IA safe, sound and uLi!orm cur
rency.
The foregoing suggestions may he
thought by some as crude and visionary;
venture, however, To place them be-
fore the public. IA. ID. TAYLOR.