The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-08-13
THE MONEY QUESTION.
In Financial Matters as in Ali Else
"ThOse who are the Least Governed
are the Best Governed"

are the Best Governed"
To the Editor of the News and Observer:
Your recent editorials entitled 1.-THE
Banks Bigger than the Government,
should command the attention of all
thoughtful men. They suggest, indie
pendentIy of the merits of the silver
question, the dangers which confront the
people in the existing condition of our
system of domestic currency. Because
the Federal government is in the bust
ness of a bank of issue, with an out
standing issue of three hundred and
fifty millions of legal tender greenbaeks
and hundred and fifty millions of
Sherman legal tender Treasury notes, a
gold reserve Of one hundred millions is
maintained in the Federal Treasury, By
the operation of the statute, which re-
quires the legal tenders to be reissued
as soon as redeemed at the Treasury,
the gold reserve is constantly at the
mercy of the gold spectators.
Up to $780, and after the enactment
in 1910 of the Independent Treasury Act
the Federal Government was absolutely
divorced from the money market. 1t
coined both gold and silver, but issued
no paper promises to pay; and the sub
treasures of the country were merely
the places for the receipt, preservation
and disbursement of the Federal re
venues. The government had absolutely
nothing to do with the circulating
medium, beyond providing the gold and
silver money of ultimate redemption.
Under this system the country prospered.
In 1862 the Greenback Act was passed by
Congress, followed by the National
Bank Act, the latter made less for
the purpose of creating system of sound
currency, than to float an issue of gov
eminent bonds which were not marketa
BILE in Europe. This legislation was fol-
lowed by the act imposing the prohibi-
tory ten per cent. tax upon State bank
issues, which resulted in putting the en-
tire circulating medium of the country
under the absolute control of the gov
eminent. When the Resumption Act
was passed in 1879, the Sub Treasury at
New York became member of the Clear
ing House Association of Banks of that
city; and the connection between the
government and the money market grew
more intimate even than before. The
old order of things had entirely changed;
and the Federal Government, from
condition of strict non interference with
the money market and with the currency
of the country, became the slave of the
one in its unlimited control of the other.
John Sherman, Secretary of the Treas
ury, accumulated in 1873, the one hun
dred million dollar gold reserve, which
has been since maintained, without au-
thority of law, to become, under the
statute of 1873 requiring the re issue of
the legal tenders, the easy subject of
plumber at the hands of the money
sharks.
This brief historical resume suggests
to the impartial mind the idea, that it is
not the question Of silver which alone de-
mands the attention of the people in con-
nection with our financial system. The
gold reserve, which has grown to be the
barometer of public business confidence,
should be gotten rid Of The legal
tenders should be retired. The govern
ment should get out of the banking bus
mess. The Independent Treasury should
be redeemed from the uses to which it
has been prostituted by the inconsder-
ate or necessitous legislation Of Con
gress. The heavy and unsteady hand of
tue Federal legislature should be re-
moved from the currency. The United
States Treasury should coin, and issue
only, the gold and silver of our fathers;
and the Democratic doctrine that "those
who are the least governed are the best
governed" should be re established in
the repeal of the prohibitive tax on
State bank issues, and the cessation of
all governmental interference with the
natural laws of finance and of business.
Respectfully,
A. G. GORDON.