Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-13
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THE TRUE SOLUTION.

senator Aldrich OF Rhode Island.
justly recognized as one of the best in
formed men in the country on financial
and economic questions, does not believe
that it is necessary to retire the green
backs in order to remedy the difficulties
of the financial situation SO far as the
national treasury Is concerned. In a re-
cent talk on the subject Mr. Aldrich
said, what everybody knows to be the
fact. that with sufficient revenue and
larger exports and smaller imports I'M
der republican administration there was
no trouble with the gold reserve. "The
greenbacks We're never n menace" said
the senator. "were never used to the
governments discontinue, until our ma
tional policy was reversed. Put the
treasury back on a solvent basis with
policy and most of the financial ills we
are suffering from will disappear. The
president has undoubtedly attributed
evils to the greenbacks which must rea-
sonably be charged to other causes"
Unquestionably this voices the views of
Leans in congress and they have the
most substantial foundation.
In his message President Cleveland
stated that during the eleven and a half
years following the resumption of specie
payments the amount of greenbacks re-
deemed was only $2SOOO,OOO. Accord
ing to the report of Treasurer Morgan.
just completed. such gold exports as oc-
Cured up to the summer of 1892 pro
duced little impression upon the treas
ury in the form of redcmptions. The
next two years. says the report, showed
redemptions about equal to exports. and
the fiscal year 1895 showed redemptions
in excess of exports to the amount of
sol 100000 and in the proportion of
nearly two to one. Treasurer Morgan
tabulates the total redemptions for each
fiscal year from 1879 to 1895 and also
for the first three months of the current
fiscal year, from which it appears that
down to and including 1892 the redemp-
tons Of legal tender notes amounted to
II little over $43 100000, while during the
same period the net exports of gold We're
more than S36O,O0O.G00. In these four
teen years the revenues of the govern
ment We're in excess of the expenditures.
the customs duties We're for nearly the
whole period paid in gold, and there
was never any question as to the safety
of the reserve or the ability of the treas
ury to meet all demands upon it without
intrenching on the reserve. Hence the
greenb;lcks. as Senator Aldrich said.
We're never Il menace and were never
used to the discontinue of the
government until our national policy
was reversed and since that took place
the redemptions of legal tender notes
have amounted to over $342 000,00
1t may be granted that the issue of
notes under the so-called Sherman law
of 1890 had something to do with bring
ing about the disturbance, but no one
who will intelligently consider all the
facts can doubt that the prime and chief
cause of the financial ills of the last two
and half years has been the fact that
fallen below expenditures, ne
cessitating borrowing TO maintain the
gold reserve and constantly threatening
upon it to meet current
obligations. Under such conditions and
with increasing imports and declining
exports the redemption of legal tender
notes in large volume became inevitable.
therefore, the true solution
Of the difficulty is to be found in provid
ing the government with adequate reve-
nue.. rather than in increasing the inter
debt and contracting the cur
rency by retiring the legal tender notes,
as urged by the president and secretary
Of the treasury. The one remedy would
ronduce to Improvement in the business
IF the country and to general prosperity,
while the other could not fail to produce
the opposite result. There is no. eXpedi- |
ent that will do away with the necessity
)f supplying the government with ample
revenue.
Not content with one great honor i'm
the location of the republican national