People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-03-31
q MONETARY SYMPOSIUM.


ment Banks Of. BY aid For the People
ONE KIND OF EXPANSION.
Il is claimed by some that there Is
half a billion dollars $500, 600, OOOj in
gold in the country. This is probably
an overestimate, but coneeding that
there is fully this much, it IS inadequate
to do the business of half dozen
states. much less Of the entire country.
Compared with the amount Of tokens Of
value demanded to do the business OF
labor and commodity exchange, the
gold supply is a mere nothing.
Last year the banks in the clearing
house cities Of the United States
handled sixty-one billion dollars Of
private paper private money or tokens
of value issued by private parties and
less than FIVE billions Of cash gold, sil-
yer and government paper. With
every five dollars in government tokens
OF value they cleared" over sixty-one
dollars Of private paper.
Here the private currency Of credit IS
twelve dollars for every dollar OF cash
handled in clearing it But if we
make all this credit paper call for gold
the banks in the clearing house cities
alone would handle over $3.50 Of private
paper for every dollar in gold in the
country available 70 redeem It
This shows how little gold has to do
in reality with business and it also
shows the folly Of attempting torestrict
business 10 the gold supply II that
could be done, the business Of the cOun-
try would be best represented by vast
inverted pyramid resting on its apex
Students Of the phenomena OF panics
are familiar with the results Of contract
ing the cash currency greatly below the
demands OF exchange. 1t is undOubt-
edly so contracted in the United States
at present There IS not cash enough
TO do ten per cent Of the business, but
business men exc it out by money Of
private issue which circulates Tor a
short time only and IS then redeemed
or cleared.
This currency of credit IS ordinarily
capable Of expansion without much re-
gard to the very limited amount Of cash
on which it is supposed TO be based.
Business men do not therefore. feel the
need Of a cash currency. increasing
with the increase Of population and the
extension Of business. as they would
without this system that 50 greatly re-
lieves the demand for cash to be actu-
ally handled in each transaction. IN
dOubtediy this system Of private paper,
which IS in reality money Of limited ex-
istence, is one Of the greatest inven-
tons Of modern times, but It depends a
great deal more on faith than it does on
an actual cash basis" II may be well
enough for one dollar ia gold 10 stand
for and redeem twenty dollars in paper
as long as there is10 impotence among
the holders Of the paper. When those
who have to wait the longest to have
the cash come their way viii wait, there
Is no trouble, but when they will not.
there IS immediate danger OF a collapse
Of the whole vast system At such
times gold is worse needed than at any
other, but il Is apt 10 disappear at once.
and for the time being it becomes in
possible to carry on the business Of
commodity exchange, because the credit
currency has mostly disappeared and
because the cash, always inadequate,
has been locked up
1t thus appears that an undue con-
traction Of the supply of cash is certain
TO result first in an undue expansion Of
currency Of private paper, in which
most Of the business Of civilized eoun-
tries is done, and that this undue ex-
pansiou is likely to result in collapse.
A very small sponge soaked in
alcohol will fill a large balloon with hot
air. It is on this principle that some
people who have reasons Of their own
for their views would like to construct
the currency. They want the actual
supply Of cash to correspond with the
spOlgue; AID Of the sponge they demand
control, 50 that it will depend on them
10 say To what extent the balloon of
credit NAV be inflated But it must be
apparent toevery business man engaged
either in producing commodities or in
distributing them through trade that
an undue restriction OF the supply Of
actual case is an undue restriction Of the
possibilities OF trade extention.-St
Louis Republic
no METALLIC BASIS WANTED.
The Rocky Mountain News, of March
Z, in its leading editorial. advises the
peoples party to seize the present op-
portunity of centering all its force
upon the single point of doubling the
metallic basis Of our circulating medi-
UNI This is not the first suggestion
we have seen Of this character. and we
may as well have an understanding
upon this subject now as to postpone it
to a later period
There are several doctrines of the
peoples party that are considered fun.
damental, and one Of these is that we
want no metallic basis for money.
whether 1t be mono-metallic or bi-met-
allie We demand that every dollar in
circulation in the United States shall
be equal before the law to every other
dollar, without regard to the material
OF which it IS composed; and it needs
no other basis than the exhaustless re-
sources Of the country and the national
credit
Aside from this, we have other de-
mands which were not made for mere
diversion They were Incorporated in
our platforms because they are right
and they will not be abandoned at the