The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-10-29

oSCoO Al growing aggregate of monov
all things else. "e8Uega6e OF
'Since the repeal of our sbaruoD
and the United States is at a staD3 9rope
except as gold is offered for converS;oG
into money. You must provide tWeI4a
ounces OF pure gold if you would ado
$3.50 to the aggregate money of Europe
and the United States; fortv-eight
ounces if you would add 81 600
1.-The production Of gold is increas
ing lately. Estimates of the Increase
are grossly exaggerated, and for certain
official eXaggeratiOns there is not The
shadow of excus Gold production
has more than once increased in his
tory. It has diminished later invaria-
bly,. Statisticians estimate that from
two thirds to three fourths of the an
nual production of gold is absorbed
into the arts and Asia. DR.. Griffin, g.
statistician whom the ~iercest of my
opponents honor most, has asserted
the conviction that Asia and the arts
leave little if any new gold yearly
available for money. Your gold watch
chain is not available for money ex
cept at the sacrifice of all the labor and
manufacturers profit in it; exactly as
your silver tea pot will not be available
for money, except at a like sacrifice, if
the mlnts are re opened to silver.
Mr.. Atkinson asserts that gold, as
d the only free money of the world,
ls b national selection of commerce.
we answer that statecraft cost the
world bl. metallism, although edeal hi
metalllsm had never been attempted.
The first abandonment of silver money
was by England; and not out of n
real experience to commend it. Her
silver coin was worth a premium in
her gold at the moment chosen for the
act discarding silver. The act ESCAPED
notice and therefore was not a volun-
tary abandonment of silver by the
English people, by reason of bank
notes being England's only money.
One issue of England's Law discarding
silver is the speculative school of
finance, this modern school of plausi
bility.
"Mr. Atkinson announced a hereto
fore undiscovered purpose of interna-
tiOnal treaty on money, to wit: A
purpose to force us to accept silver if
we prefer gold for our products The
United States had seemed to us to rival
in desire all advocates of bi-metallism
internationally. France is not adverse
to joining us In behalf of silver, not
w~lthstanding Our vast annual prOduc-
ton of silver. But France is our cred
itOr in trade. Her commodities more
than repay us for the commodities
which we sell her. England, on the
other hand, is our debtor in trade an
nually. She usually owes us 800, 0O0,-
OC0 and more for our commodities,
after we account for her commodities
/ that -o h,1- VI Ta~Ia-l ---oz-oo2
to be the f1arcest of antagonists of
every international proposal to create
silver money. But we are not count.
ing upon foreign treaties.
Eek Governor Merriam asserts that
our demand for increasing money
should be for increasing credits. We
answer that increasing credits require
increasing money. If my bank dis
counts your paper, placing the pro
ceeds at your credit in account for. say
800. 900, we must set aside immediate
~ 1926, 900 of actual money as u re
quired reserve against this 800, 900 en-
largemeDt of our deposits. You have
not provided us this money. We must
procure 1t elsewhere, or out of our
spare funds.
"Mr. AtE iasOn proposes to confirm
eX Governor Merriam by ~instancing
the Massachusetts savings banks. Hs
says that they hold deposits of $780,
coo, coo subject to call and no specific
reserve. I think that certain of them
would resent his statement. But the
reason of their carrying only a moder-
ate reserve in cash is hat they carry
a large aggregate credit with national
banks subject to check. So that the
national banks carry cash reserves for
savings banks as a portion of their
own. A real danger in this custom
has more than once appeared.
Judge Aldredge tries to confirm
them both with the assertion that 80
per cent of all the exchanges of the
country are in substitutes for money.
A former comptroller of the currency
had got this up to 80 per cent. But
what he neglected to observe is that
the banking business is not all the
business of the United States. We
remark that if the one business of all
that is specifically designed to limit
the need of money, the banking bust.
ness, shows 8 per cent of transactions
in actual money, the vast aggregate
number of retail transactions of the
United States must employ a vast ag-
CRATE of money. The present comp
troller confirms Duh notion and by a
confessedIy inadequate research. He
reports on page 10 for 1894 only SO per
cent of transactions in checks, store
orders, eta., and Al per cent in money.
"Judge Aldredge thinks that in re-
opening our minis to silver we expect
to create an unlimited demand for ell
yer. No, we propose to permit u
vast domestic demand for money to
provide employment at our coming
.Lprice for all the silver the cuts de
worlds demands will spare us. So
long as all the silver spared US con
tinues to be less than our aggregate
use for money, gold must fill the void.
! So long as anY of the 80 600 600 of