The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-23
A NEW YORK CRITIC.
On the Withdrawal of the Green.
backs.
New York Voice.

New York Voice.
The war upon the greenbacks goes
merrly on, but developments arise
that bring a pause to the warriors and
set them to thinking. The Evening
Post, whose editor, Horace White,
seems entitled to be known as the au-
thor Of the Baltimore plan. has been
forced to admit that, after all, it is
not because Of the greenbacks that
the treasury is having so much trou-
BILE to keep it's gold, since, even with
the greenbacks out of the way, if the
treasury's expenses were, as they have
been for the last two years, in excess
of the receipts, the gold would have
to GO just the same. Bourke Cochran
has advanced this view OF the case,
and the Evening Post comedies that
it is the right view; but, though this
charge against the greenback has
been the basis for the whole attack
now being made, neither Bourke Cock
ran nor the Evening Post ceases, now
that the charge falls to the ground, in
their declaration that the greenback
must "go," and that bank-notes must
take their place." Matthew Marshall,
who reviews financial affairs every
Monday morning in the Sun, and who
is one of the keeneSt and cleareSt of
thinkers on such subjects, in an arti-
Gle last Monday said:
''The financiers and the newspaper
writer's who have taken up this cry
1.-THE greenback must go' evidently
assume that the opinions they hear
expressed in their immediate neigh
borhOod are the opinions Of the ma
jority of the nation; but if they could
extend their inquiries beyond this re-
stricted field they would discover that
outside of the great money centers,
like New York and Chicago, there is
among the people not only no hostility
to the greenbacks but an active
friendship for them. which will pro-
tect them from every attack Soon
after the war ended this same cry
that the greenback must CO. was
raised with such effect that their re-
tirement, at the rate of $4,000, 900 per
month, was ordered by Congress-: but
as soon as the process had fairly be-
gun it was stopped by an almost
unanimous vote. Again, in 1915,
their retirement was ordered by the
resumption act, and again it was stop
ped by the act of February, 1873
Since then, nobody, until lately, has
attempted the destruction of the
greenbacks. and it will not be serious
ly attempted now
He takes the same position the
Voice has been taking, namely, that
to subs ttute bank.nOteS for green
backs would only increase the call of
the banks for gold to stock up their
reserves, and that the greenbacks are
in no respect the cause of the run up
on the treaSury'S gold reserve. He
sums up the results that would ensue
from the retirement of the green
backs, in the following words:
THE upshot of the matter is that,
for the sake of enabling the banks to
put out $500, O0O, 600 of their own notes
and make profit by lending them as
money, it is proposed that the coun-
try shall be saddled with an interest
charge in perpetuity of 100000 a
year on bonds proposed as a basis for
the bank-notes] and incur the risk of
financial crisis because of the
scramble by the banks to increase
their reserves, thus contracting the
currency compared to which that of
1898 would appear insignificant. Nor
would the maintenance of gold pay
ments [by the United States Treas
ury] be rendered any easier nor the
liability to gold exports be in the least
diminished. The only difference
would be that the task OF keeping at
par with gold $50O,000,OOO of paper
money would be transferred from a
single central power with the whole
wealth of the country behind it, to
the 5000 and more banks, mostly
small ones, scattered throughout AZ
states and each pursuing it's own
course without regard to that of it's
fellows. That such scheme should
receive the least counteance is amaz-
ing
The way out is plain: Use the silver
in the treasury as bullion and redeem
the legal tenders in that at it's mar
ket value; cease the coinage of gold:
do not renew that of silver; and let the
currency Of the country be supplied by
the Government directly, in the shape
or treasury notes exchanged bic in gold
or silver bullion at their market
"a ito.