Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-03
The subiect Of Currency.

The Subject Of Currency.
If the President and his assistant, Mr..
Carlisle, shall finally present currency
scheme which shall embody all the fea-
lures that enterprising correspondents
have assured us it would, then indeed
should we have all sides of the question
represented if none be satisfied.
There is, however, general impression
that if the President really takes up the
subject at any length his recommended
tions will be in line with those OF the Bal
timore convention Of bankers. This
scheme it will be remembered was largely
patterned after the policy that maintains
in Canada Any scheme which may be
proposed is quite sure to meet with Wig
orous opposition and it is inconceiyable to
think that plan whereby issuing money
becomes the business of banks rather than
the business of the government can be
adopted without struggle. The advo-
Gates hold up the greater elasticity which
they claim is to be gained by the change,
the ready supply of a circulating medium
in quantity to meet the demand, and not
as frequently happens under the present
policy over supply in time OF plenty and
stringency in time of need. But there
are already mutterings against any scheme
e IL Ii. Ia atrp4nV
returned to the national capital are grant
ing interviews upon the subject and while
some are sanguine enough to predict some
such legislation by the present Congress
the majority, of those who make known
their views upon the question are positive
that nothing will be done in settlement
of the matter before the Republican Con-
cress comes in What the present I'M
weldly majority, writhing under the YER
dict of incompetency rendered SO over
whelmingly by the people, will attempt
to do in way of legislation cannot be pre-
dicted with any degree of certainty. If it
tries to retrieve any lost ground it is
doubtful if it can keep its ranks unbroken
to achieve it.
Meanwhile the advocates of the Balti-
more plan, or something closely resembling
it, are active. VIM. c. Cornwell, president
of the city bank, Buffalo, has an instruc-
tive though somewhat prejudiced article
in Saturdays Bradstreets, upon Canadian
bank conditions during the panic. Fer
the sake of argument, through partisan
prejudice or else because of incxcusable
ignorance of the situation he assumes
monetary conditions to be wholly respon-
siblc for the panic and that the absence of
panic in Canada was due to the fact
that the Canadian banks and not the gov
ernmcnt did the banking business.
Granting his prejudiced premise and
what follows is almost unanswerable. But
disallowing the premise and taking into
consideration the different conditions in
Canada and the United States during that
period the comparisons he draws, even
then nave certain SlSnlHCdICe CcIuttihiH
worth noting. He shows that in the
United States from May 1st, '93 to Sept.
1st, '93, there was decrease in deposits
in the United States of 90 per cent as COM
pared with decrease of less than
three per cent in the deposits in Canadian
banks. The decrease in loans in the
United States for that period was 1917
per cent as compared with q per cent.
the decrease in Canadian loans.
"As to savings banks while the de-
crease in the United States during the
whole period was something like S113,-
900, 600 out of $1,000, 100000 total de
posits or (ncarly per cent?, the savings
banks deposits in Canada have, as near
as figures can be obtained, remained sta
tionary or slightly increased"
"Canada's bank note circulation, while
it increased slightly, was on the 30th of
June, 1898 (perhaps our hottest panic
date), in round numbers S33, 500, 600, and
in November, '93, S3S, 900, 900. Bank
note circulation is limited by the capital
of the banks-in round numbers $50, 600, =
OO0-so that Canada had all this time a
wide lecway which was not used -