Nevada County picayune., 1890-07-24


 seems to me that no intelligent man can hesitate as to the proper con cluSIon with that experience before him.
 Having stated this much as to the platform of the Farmers and Labor CTS Union, q copy of which you send me, it only remains for me to answer that portion of your letter which asks my approval and help to get through Congress the sub-Treasury bill now pending before that body"
 It has always been my custom to answer my constituents without res crvation as to public matters, and it is not my purpose to vary from my custom now. The main features of the sub-Trcasury bill which you ask me to support are as follows; Ware houses are to he built by the govern ment in all counties producing and selling annually more than $500, ,O0O worth of oats, corn, wheat, cotton and tobacco. and the owner of these commodities, no matter what his avocation, can deposit them and re- ccive 80 per cent. of the market price in Treasury notes. on which he pays per cent. annual interest. The sum of S5O, ,OOO, ,00O is to be ap. propriated at once for the purpose of erecting these warehouses. and be- sides this amount there must he paid subsequently, the salaries of many thousand employees, who can not be elected, but must be appointed by Federal authority, and whose ser vices will be necessary in storing, selling, accounting. and so forth.
 It seems to me that the whole scheme is dangerous and wrong. In replying to your letter as to that clause of the platform you send which refers to national banks, stated that had always opposed cs- pecially that feature of the national banking law which permitted the banks to deposit bonds with the Treasury and issue upon them DO per cent. of the amount in bank notes; and if at any time afterwards the banks desired to retire their cir culation to bring back the notes and receive the bonds deposited. This gives the banks power to expand or diminish the currency circulation of the country at their pleasure, and in my opinion it is the most pernlcious feature of the system. The volume of money should he stable and not nuctuating and would give neither to corporations nor individuals the power to cNpcnd or contract.
 Under the subTreasury plan there can be no permanent volume of currency. When there are large crops and large deposits of corn, wheat. etc.. the currency will he greatly inflated, as each deposltor will take out of the Treasury so per cent. of the market value of his de- posit, and when the Treasury notes received are brought back and the commodities deposited taken out there must be contraction. Under such q system all values will be de- ranged. No conservative man will be willing to invest in any direction, and the result must he uncertainty, dIstrust, reckless expenditure and ruin.
 Besides this, no system ever inn agined could in my judgment furnish such a harvest to spectators and jobbers as that proposed. Shrewd and interruptions operators would know precisely what amount of de- posits was in each warehouse. and would work their corners and com pines accordingly. Greedy and vo- racious Shylocks would be found in every county waiting to pur- chase the farmers certificates of deposit if he should be unable to re- deem the commodities deposited, and in the large majority of cases the de- positor would in the end be in worse condition than when he made the de- posit.
 do not care to go farther into details. The proposed legislation is antagonistic to all my ideas of our government. am opposed to all laws which put the government into partnership with classes or individu- als The government should not be made warehouscman, or auctiOncer, or bailee. It is simply a govern mental agency, whose powers and fupnt inus orn iimitoI and tn6nn1 hV