The Russellville Democrat., 1893-09-14

vast international trade l1ke 0urs--ai
 additional Legislation should be preceded
 by exhaustive inquiry and careful corsid
 eration.
 The real question now before us, then, | is shall we meet the pressing necessity Of
 the hour or hold all in abeyaIce for cer- tainly some months to comes Sir, when consider the present condition of our coun- try, the peculiar cause of the pre- ent stringency, the present state of divided opinion upon all other phases of the ques- tion, the consciousness that any Immedi- ate legislation upon those features would be, under recent and only partially under stood conditions, a step in the dark and probably ruinons effects of delay, am
 brought clearly and irresistibly to the con clusion that it is our duty at this time to repeal the purchasing clause of the Sher- man bill without limitation or amendment. GApplause.I
 Mir. Speaker, there is difference in the minds of some gentlemen as to the cause of the monetary panic which now affiicts our country. There has been au export movement of gold, and when that move ment began tbere wss an impression that money might become scarce in this coun. try; but at no time has that movement reached the extent that money was boarded at former periods In the treasury, and, therefore, no considerable alarm was mani tested upon that point.
 But, Mr. Speaker, the alarm continued to grow, and public attention was directed, it matters not how, to our existing mon etary condition and system. What did the people fndf They found that we are now floating credit money in this country az gregating more than $1, 900, GOO, 900, and that the whole of it is upon basis that was provided in former years as adequate, and as the least that was adequate, for 1 floating $346, ,000, 900 of credit notes.
 | When they consider the wealth and re- sources of the United States they know | that there Is no guarantee of the power of l the federal government to sustain or re- | deem credit moneys unless power is vested ! in the treasury to utilize the wealth and l resources of the country.
 The provision of which I speak is the | $l00, 900, 900 of gold commonly known as l the redemption fund. It is true there 1 is the provision of law authorizing the l sale of coin bonds for redemption pur- 1 poses, but that operates in very different manner now from what it did at the time il | was enacted. There was no coin then, | practically speaking, but gold. Now, l our vast stock of silver dollars, a part oi | the very money to be sustained by public | credit is receivable as coin the same as l gold To sell bonds for this coin when gold is needed would be revolving in a circle, and would impart no power of re demption to the treasury.
 It is true there is q departmental con | &ko% be f can elect between receiving gold or silver coin in selling these bonds; but I affirm, Mir. Speaker, that we have no instance where bonds have been placed in the fnan- cial world 10 any considerable extent upon only legal assurance of this kind. This is sufficient to protect secretary, but not 1 to satisfy a creditor. Before investors | will meet our needs the provision must be either explicit in the law or finally decided 1 by the court of last resort. Rut to raise | this dispute would be fatal to our wants at | the time of need So think it clear tha, | in most substantial sense our present stock of gold is the only reliable part ol | the basis that ws rest upon, and to the present volume resting upon that narrow
 basis we are adding about $50, 1000, 900 of
 notes of credit yearly.
 Mir. Speaker, here is the condition of oul | accounts of moneys to be redeemed and kept at parity with each other. Here is the basis and extent of the government { power. Here is the state of the law. Here are the exports l of gold, indispensable for that | parity. Take them all together, and who can conceive of condition more perfectly | devised to create distrust, not of vol I ume, but as to the character of our money l Now, let us look briefly at some of the 1 effects of the distrust. In recent report l concerning the national banks, made by the comptroller of the currency, find that | in that class alone of our public deposi tories, in the short period of scarcely sixty
 days from the earlier part of June, there
 was withdrawn by distrusting depositori nearly $200, 900, GOO. We know that this
 hoarding is of gold. Gold disappeared as | if by magic. Recent exports of gold were 1 solely from the stock held by the govern | ment. Forehanded depositors everywhere l clutched gold. If we had reports from al
 the other classes of Repositories, who car
 tell how many hundreds of millions of dol | lars were withdrawn from the channels ol
 trade in this wayf
 But this not all. The banks are in debi to their depositors. All classes of deposi | tories are in debt. The less desired kindi | of money are legal tender for deposits, and the banks and othel
 Repositories, in turn, fearing a genera
 run upon them by their deposiors, clutcl | all forms of money. The second effect ol
 distrust of the character of our money hai
 set in. The general public has taker
 fright from the first fright.
 A new phase sets in, but it is the log ical result of the first phase. Men wht
 have money on deposit can not draw |
 out. We are told upon high authority
 that if the national banks complied witl
 the law to pay depositors on demand ana
 not to invade their reserves, not one O
 the thousands of those institutions would
 be out of the hands of receiver to day
 Gold is first withdrawn by depositors fear ful of a change in standard. That Ii
 taken out of the channels of trade, an,
 then the banks refuse to pay even to de
 positols the balance of the money, sn;
 substantially all the money is gone. An,
 kind of money taken in by the stores il
 the course of trade brings premium il
 exchange for checks by depositors who cal
 not get their money ont of the banks.
 am told that there is not a bank il
 this city that will cash the cheek of an,
 gentleman here upon any bank in an,
 other city in the Union. They will talk
 it for collection, but they will not cash it
 Under that condition of things we nat
 urally witness the distress which per
 vades all parts of our land, and this i
 said to be the case all over the country.
 In addition to this contraction of none,
 there is greater contraction of credit
 that basis upon which far the greater par
 of trade rests, and ever will rest, in eyer.
 progressive country. Even such credit a
 cashing a check from bank to bank is de
 nied. Money, the blood of commerce,
 withdrawn. The channels tf trade ar
 blocked and elogged. All over the countr
 the soundest institutions, almost withou l rnrn har hara roraa to inc wall The Al