Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-08-30
PLUMB ON THE CURRENCY.


provide for the purchase of United
States bonds by the secretary of the
treasury, in April last, Senator Plumb
offered an amendment ''that when
ever the circulation of any national
. bank or any portion thereof, shall be
SURRENDERED, and the same is not taken
up by other national banks within
thirty days thereafter, the secretary of
the treasury shall thereupon issue an
equivalent amount of treasury notes of
the denominations now provided by
law for national bank notes."
Speaking on the amendment, among
other things, the senator said:
For years the national bank circu-
latiOn and the volume of money out
standing in the United States has been
declining. The population has in
creased, business has increased, but
the currency with which that business
is to be transacted has diminished each
year during the last five years; and yet
the finance committee of the senate
and the similar committee in the other
Honse, and all those whose special
privilege it has heretofore seemed to be
proposed nothing whatever-not one
single measure for the purpose of keep
ing up the volume of. the currency and
nothing to increase it in accordance
with the increasing needs OF business"
Il believe that we should not only
have legislation of this kind, but l be-
lieve that all the money in the treasury
which is not needed for current pur-
poses and which may not be needed for
the redemption of the greenbacks,
ought to be put into circulation. / be-
lieve that thereby the interests of the
people of the United States would be
greatly enhanced. l believe it would
quicken business in every part of the
republic. l believe it would give en-
plOyment where now there is none, and
life where there is stagnatlOn. This
does not go as far as l would like to see
done, but l have chosen to propose and
suppose that which is so conservative
that 1 did not believe it would receive
the opposition of any conscientious
man, simply to arrest the contraction
that is going on from day to day until
we could, under the lead of the finance
. committee. or otherwise, devise some
. means whereby the currency should be
increased in accordance with the in
= creasing needs of the people
1.-The senators from Vermont and
Ohio belong to the school of financiers
who believe that small and diminish
ing volume of currency is a blessing,
and that large volume of money is a
curse. They look at the condition of
the vaults in the banks of New York
city and say that because money can
l. 4 lNxy frv oDl-
lateral security which can be sold at a
moments notice, therefore there is
enough to supply the country, and they
know nothing and apparently care
nothing about the condition of the
country at large, about the impover-
q isbment of the people in the interior,
because of this hide-bound policy which
g has characterized congress under the
leadership of the finance committee and
which controls the treasury depart
ment."
ST am addressing myself to the SEM
ator's proposition, that if we issue
. these additional treasury notes we
should have tlrem piled up in the treas
ury, with no way of getting them out.
/ want to suggest to him whether we
could not pay the national debt with
them. What would be the objection to
that method of getting them out? "
1t is encouraging to see that men
like Senator Plumb are taking the
peoples side of this great question.
Currency, that which people use III
paying debts and taxes and in effecting
exchanges of property values. is to the
peoples business what highways are
to. their commerce-a necessity as well
as means, and it ought to be as much
the duty of the government to provide
zone as Che other. The peoples money