The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-11-24
THAT ENDLESS CHAIN.

speech at the New York Chamber OF
Commerce banquet was that Congress
should provide for retiring the Govern
ment's promissory notes. This Is duty
so obvious that all thinking men VINO
understand the facts concur in the propo-
sition most heartily. Populists and Tree
coiners object to IT, but none others than
themselves include them amongst think
ing men. The naked facts OF the case
make II so plain that these notes should
be retired that we believe even Popullsts
and free coincrs will agree that they
should be retired, who understand those
facts. We shall, therefore. state the lead
ing ones again
rhe Government has out about five
hundred millions of dollars of its promis-
sorry notes-greenbacks and Sherman
notes. All of these are payable on demand
I'm gold. The Government is supposed 10
keep a gold reserve Of one hundred mil
lions of dollars in the Treasury TO pay
these notes with. Now, whenever the
balance of trade IS against this country
that balance has TO be paid in gold, and
the place where gold is easiest to get Is
the United States Treasury. The New
York banks always have an abundance OF
the Government notes on deposit, and
man owing "A balance abroad has only
TO 10 to his bank and ask for Govern-
ment notes, and the bank gives them TO
him. lie takes these TO the New YORK
sub-Treasury, around the corner. and de-
mands gold for them. and it is given him.
None of the Governments revenues are
necessarily payable in gold, 30 that its
only certain way 10 obtain gold is by sell
ing bonds. 1t must keep its gold reserve>
I'D 10 something near the one-hundred-
million-dollar limit. or apprehension VIII
seize the public mind that we are going
to drop TO the fifty-cent silver-dollar
basis, and that would start q financial
panic that would smash up everything
right and left. The case amounts
to this. then: That all our for
eign balances are paid out Of
the gold that the Treasury accumu-
lates by selling bonds; the Treasury must
keep on selling bonds to replenish the
gold. and that must always continue TO
be the case while matters remain as they
are
1t naturally occurs to any one that II
this process goes on long enough the
Government WILL after awhile, have all
of its notes locked up in its Treasury, so
that the business will after awhile come
to an end.
The trouble about that comes in here:
The Reed bilion-dollar Congress squan-
dered the Governments revenues by its
appropriations to favorites to such an
extent that the revenues have never since
been anything like what the eXpendi-
lures are, and the law governing the
greenbacks and Sherman notes requires
the administration TO pay those notes out
for the Governments liabilities whenever
they come into the Treasury. so as TO keep
them in circulation. Consequently, when
these notes come into the Treasury in
exchange for the gold they have demand
ed, the administration is compelled TO
pay them out again to meet the shortages
in the revenue that the extravagant APP
propriations of the Reed Congress fixed
fore, a vertable endless chain, as they
have been so often described. and they
must continue their destructive work UNI
Ill either they are cancelled outright, or
the revenues of the Government are made
equal TO the expenditures, so that when
these notes come TO the Treasury for
gold they may be impounded and held
there. The process of draining the Gov
ernments gold out would then 20 on
until all OF them had come into the
Treasury, when the endless chain would
be broken, and all its parts would be
safely impounded. The difficulty in the
case arises right here, and out OF the
Populists' idea, held by reputed financiers
of as much reputation even as Senator
Sherman, that these Government notes
are necessary to an adequate paper cir
culation. The men who founded this
Government and framed our Constitution
were real financiers and men of far
greater wisdom than any sherman that
ever lived has had. They declared 1t as
the very cornerstone OF our institutions
that there must never be any paper cur
rency In this country resting upon public
credit They knew that freedom for cir
culatlng credits was the very foundation
stone of all progress. but they also knew
private credit and not public credit.
They. therefore. forbade the United States
Government and the State governments
to Issue any paper circulation. but they
left private credit absolutely free for as
much circulation OF that as the people
chose TO have.
All that we need, then. to bring our
financial difiiculties to an end II to return