The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1894-04-30

next most important step, in my
Judgment, would be to take the
United States treasury out Of the
banking business, and cut up root
and branch the theory that it is
any business of the govern
ment to redeem one sort OF
money in another. The PROPOSE
ton that the government should
stand ready to give gold for other
kinds of money On demand puts the
whole people of the United States
at the mercy of the gold speculator'
The associated banks of New York
city long since had the sagaclty TO
protect themselves from any such
ruinous liability, and by the clear
ing.house rule more than ten years
ago forbade any of the banks to
open an account payable in q special
kind of money, So that, as | un-
derstand it, if you take $40, 900 in
gold to New York bank today and
purpose to open an account with 1t,
the banker will not agree that your
gold money shall be paid back IN
gold, but the only agreement he will
make is to pay your deposit back in
current funds. Now if the New
York banks had the good sense to
make such rule to prevent men
from drawing on them for gold,
why should not the United States
treasury adopt the same sensible
course to protect itself from a gold
drain?
Another necessary regulation to
be made in conjunction with re-
stored silver coinage would be to
abolish the policy of issuing notes
or certificates on the raw bullion.
This scheme is, in the first place, of
doubtful constltutionality, but an.
other objection is that the people
will never have the necessary con
tidence in bullion. It seems more
like security for money than money
itself. We should therefore actual.
ly coin every silver dollar which is
issued, and if for convenience we
grant to commerce the right to de.
posit silver dollars and take paper
certificates in their place, they
should be certificates representing
the actual dollars deposited. with
out any option or discretion to
either party. Under the old Bland
bill the dollars stood on their own
merits and were not redeemable in
other money, while under the Sher.
man bill the right to redeem the Ger.
tihcates in gold enabled their own.
ers to make gold run on the treas.
ury whenever they desired. This
difference, in my opinion, is one of
the reasons why the old Bland bill
worked SO well, and the main rea.
son why the Sherman law WORKED SO
badly.
Now, having established these
safeguards of Legislation, what
would be the actual working of
affairs if we returned to silver coin
age? The full capacity of all the
minis in the United States is now
81, 600, 900 per month. SO that at
the beginning the silver coinage
could not possibly be more than
that amount. The capacity of the
minis would be increased from time
to time as congress provided the
appropriations for that purpose, but
1t need not De supposed that our
senators and representatives would
increase their capacity if they were
coinirg g deprecated money. These
who oppose silver argue the ques.
ton as if an unlimited coinage law
meant magical transfer of all the
silver in the world into United
States money. They could just as
well argue that all the bowels of the
earth would be at once
brought forward and turned into
dollars. 1t is believed by
many that when the United
States restores silver coinage France
and other countries will adopt the
same policy, but whether this re.
suit follows or not the United States
can coin every dollar Of silver bill.
ion likely to be offered for that
purpose. If more should be pre-.
senied than our minis could coin
regulations could be made to scale