Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-07-07
Plea for a Gold Standard.
A strong Letter ON the FIns noiaI sItua-
tlOn.

a strong Letter on the FIns noiaI situa-
tlOn.
Ex-senator John b. Henderson of Mis-
souri, chairman of the national Republican
convention in 1874, who has devoted long
and careful study to finance, has sent to
Secretary Carlisle by request a long letter
on the currency question. The present
conditions, he believes, are not due to lack
of currency, hut to loss of confidence
among business men. Following is sum-
mary of the leading points:
"There is no error of more common
money issues necessarily adds to the com
mercial or business energy of a people. A
certain amount of money tokens are abso-
lutely essential with which TO effect the
smaller exchanges of commodities. These
money tokens do not create exchanges, but
the exchanges create necessity for the
tokens. Among people entirely civilized,
over 95 per cent of the exchanges necessa-
ry are consummated through the medium
of bank checks. Experience demonstrates
that this mode of exchange is more con-
venient, safer, and less expensive; and
that these bank facilities become enlarged
or contracted as money tokens become
scarce or abundant. Hence there is less
danger of limiting the bulk of circulating
money than the people generally imagine.
The bank check is better for another rea-
son, 10 wit: That having performed its Of
fee, it ceases to circulate and is Cancelled.
We shall never have perfect currency un-
til every note issued for circulation shall
be destroyed on its return to the authority
issuing it, and no new note issued except
for value and only at the call of business
demands. England has come to this, and
America with England's experience will
do likewise"
Mr. Henderson gives the amount of mon
ey in circulation per capita on July in
each year from 1873 to 1893. The amount
varies from S15.32 in 1878 to SIS. 88 in
1893. Mr.. Henderson then says: "These
figures demonstrate to the business men of
a few years experience that neither indi-
vidual prosperity nor commercial activity
is absolutely controlled by the amount of
the circulating medium. The passage in
1875 of the act for the resumption of spe-
Gle payments of January l, 1876, put an
cHu, lOI Tic lllnc DtlLg, W uepTeClaIeQ
paper currency, and from that time till the
passage of the Bland Allison act of 1878,
we were in fact, as in theory, on a gold
basis, having but single standard of ex-
change, and the benefcent effects of this
single standard, giving assured confidence
which can be based only on uniformity
and permanency of value, lasted until in
creasing silver coinage, under the act of
1878, reached an amount which, in the
constantly declining value of silver, threat
ened permanently to unsettle the curren-
cy.
~ think l am safe in asserting that
from July l, 1870, to July l, 1888, we en-
joyed very great prosperity. There was
no lack of money. The average per cap
ita circulation during that period was $20.-
81. If we now take the period from July,
1890, to the present, a period of great
monetary stringency, we find an average
circulation per capita of $23.65. 1t is
therefore apparent that times may be
hard and money scarce with the most
abundant circulation"
Senator Henderson shows that since 1878
(the date of the Bland silver dollar act) we
have coined 419, 1882, ,305 silver dollars, and
at the current price of silver the loss to
the people by departing from the single
gold standard is $S3, 3,518,628. OF the 500
or 600 millions of gold with which we be-
gan in 1878 none can now be found in cir
culation. What has not gone to foreign
countries enjoying the blessing of a single
standard has been boarded. In conclusion
he says:
at is not poverty but distrust that af-
flicts the country. Our fabric of finance
must be torn down and built anew. We
accepted the bad advice of the silver infla-
tionists once-yea, twice. The cup is too
bitter to continue the draught. They said
that if America coined silver England,
France and Germany would be constrained
to use it also, and that silver would soon
take the par of gold. On the contrary its
fall has been rapid and without intermis-
sion. These foreign governments now
have our gold and we are left with cur
rency discarded by the whole world and
scarcely more valuable than copper.
at will be charged that a single stand
ard is sought by capital as a means of ex-
torting higher rates of interest. 1t is
enough to say that in every country having
single standard, interest rates are scarce
ly half the rates prevailing here. Give us
gold standard of value. Now is the most
acceptable time. We have tried the double
standard and it is a most frightful failure,".