New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-10-26
,SILYER IND PAPER.

Mr. st. John, president of the Mercantile
Bank, submitted at the National Convention
of American Bankers at Kansas City paper
Of wider public interest than any other there
presented. 1t treats Of the volume of cur
rency; the prospect that the currency will be
contracted whenever the Government shall
cease to sustain the price of bonds by large
purchases, that is, by collecting revenue
largely in excess Of its ordinary expenses; the
likelihood that the demand for unlimited silver
coin will then become imperative and the
possibility of guarding against evil by net
retirement OF legal tenders in amount equal
each month to the difference between bank
notes retired and silver coined.
1t is supertluous to say that Mr.. st. Johns
paper was ably reasoned and most ingenious in
suggestion. In effect it proposed to clear away
paper currency as fast as silver is coined from
bullion purchased at a rate not exceeding
81 600. 600 per month. With that amount Of
coin added. if 50 500 900 bank notes should
he retired, there would also be retired 81 500,-
600 of legal tenders. The argument in favor
of this proposition as preferable to unlimited
coinage Of silver need not here be considered,
though it is most forcibly presented. For the
silver coined also want more paper issued If
they have strength enough to accomplish one
they have also strength enough to accomplish
both
The advocates Of free coinage claim that the
enormous amount of silver already coined has
almost wholly gone into circulation, in the form
of representative silver notes, without dis
turbing monetary relations or public confidence
They claim that the Nation, advancing rapidly
in population and volume Of business needs
more currency; that the retirement of bank
notes ought to be met by the addition of United
States notes to an equal amount, and that the
county ought besides to have in circulation all
the ce tfcates it may desire to take into use
based upon silver coin.
These positions do not meet the approval Of
| Mr. St. John, and probably would not be ap-
proved by any practical and conservative bank
er, but they are the positions of those who
want more money, and believe themselves
| strong enough to control legislation. The
smaller part of their strength is due to those
who want silver production encouraged; much
| the larger part, to those who believe in full
| and expanding currency, and particularly IN
the substitution of Government paper for bank
notes If these are the facts, the two elements
in this combination are not likely to be sepa-
rated, and if strong enough to secure what
either wants, they are strong enough to secure
what both want Confrmatory evidence that
this will be the prevailing spirit in Congress is
found in the judgment Of the Executive Council
| of the Bankers Convention, to which Mr.. st.
Johns paper was referred and which reported
to 3 against it, on the ground that retirement
of lcgal-tender notes was impractcablc.
1t is not necessary here to reiterate the be-
| lief that the country has already more money
in circulation than it requires or can heathily
employ. The vital fact is that large number
| of voters think otherwise, and, since no harm
that they can see has resulted from silver coin
age thus far, believe that an indefinite addi-
ton OF silver notes to the circulation would do
no ham, but only supply the Nations needs.
If these opinions cannot be successfully com
batcd, on the broad ground that an expanded
currency would do more harm than good they
are not likely to be successfully combated at