The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25
A GENERALS
BROAD
REMARKS.

quires for It's well
BROAD fare is security, for
which stability Is
pEMApkS but another name.
and certainty still
another.
Effort is the condition OF advance
ment. and, with our people, effort is
readily made if the proposed result is
certain and desirable. The result OF d
business effort is more certain in pro-
portion as the conditions attending it
are sure. They are most surely known
when they are most surely not going
to be changed. 1t is in this way that
stability promotes the business well
fare of people who are free, i. e.. I'm
der no restrictions, except such as
necessity imposes. just now we are
unsettled in three great features of
business.
The money in common use is paper
promises to pay. These may on pre-
sentation be paid If the administration
chooses in coin Of either two metals.
One kind. that is gold can be taken
or sent anywhere in the world. to buy
tea for example, or coffee or sugar
or silk, and there passed at it's face
value. The other, silver, is good for
it's face value only in the United
States; 1t will pass elsewhere for only
about half of it's face value. It is.
therefore, less valuable than the gold.
having this limit on its use Any I'M
certainty as to the value of the money
to be received, whether in payment for
labor to be performed. or for property
to be built, or manufactured, or in re-
payment of loan that is asked, makes
work less worth doing, the undertaking
less attractive, the loan less likely to
be made, and so discoura ges them all.
So long as there are these two un-
equal kinds of money this uncertainty
rrf rirf Cn 70 no
eminent which issued both. stands
ready to give whoever has occasion to
send money away that which will pass
anywhere in exchange for that which
will only pass at home. The new ad-
ministration can add much to the
stability of business land so to the
amount Of business that is undertaken,
by helping to make the people sure
that they can always get, without loss.
money that will do to send away when
that needs to be done, in exchange
for that which can only be used at
home. This can be done without any
change In our existing laws.
Another way in which the new ad
ministration can contribute to stability
is by helping the country to a settled
tariff. A high tariff arranged to pro-
mote home manufacture is not by IT.
self sufficient for that purpose, nor is
the purpose of a low tariff designed to
promote importations, to be accom-
plished by that only. Increase of
manufacture here requires more manu-
facture here. Increased importations
from elsewhere requires more manu-
factories abroad. Regardless of where
the factories are built, the factories
themselves are necessary to the people
to make the manufactures cheaper
and abundant Neither here nor
abroad will manufactures be built to
supply American trade. till. whatever
the tariff may be, it may be relied upon
to continue.
The primary of the tariff is to pro-
vide the national government with rev.
enue. It is more than sufficient for
that, 1t becomes artificial and unstable,
If less than sufficient for that 1T causes
public Inconvenience and distrust The
United States can contribute materially
to the certainty, and so to the expan-
sion and success of private industry,
by enacting a tariff fully equal, but no
more than equal, to its average need of
revenue from that source, and with
every assurance which may be in its
power to give. That once enacted it
shall remain without material change.
Upon this basis, both at home and
abroad, confidence in a permanent sit
uatfon will support expensive and per-
arrangements for supplying the
price
If the tariff be so framed as to col
lect more than is needed from that
source for public revenue, it Is to that
extent contrary to the principle reason
for a tariff, and is liable at all times to
successful attack, and is for that rea-
son unreliable and does not fully pro-
mote either manufacture or trade. If
it be SO framed as to%cOlIect less than
is needed from that source for public
revenue, it is for sopposite reasons
equally unreliable, and fails to pro-
mote trade and manufacture.
Hence 1t is that quite apart from the
principle of protection, the tariff should
be made as nearly as may be equal to
the need Of public revenue from that
in the hope it may then re-
main without material change.
A third means by which the United
States can increase the security Of pri-
vate business, and by. that influence de-
velop 1t, is by going out Of the banking
business. A bank holds money which
is payable ON demand to its depositors
and to it's note holders. 1t does not
keep in hand enough to pay them all
at once, but lends the greater part to
get the interest, depending on the prob
ability that only fraction Of what it
owes will be called for. at any one
time. What it keeps in hand to meet
such demands as are made, is called
the bank reserve.
The United States has outstanding
notes of various denominations payable
on demand. Some of these notes are
secured by specific deposit of coin held
for their resumption; others, very
large amounts in all six hundred mill
ions, although fully secured by the
public faith, are dependent for imme-
date redemption upon a. reserve" of
coin which is kept in hand for that
purpose by the government, just as if
1t were g. bank. This works badly in
ways which have lately been widely
felt The government could quit this
banking business without loss, and to
the public benefit. With help of con-
gress, it ought to be done by the next
administration. Wager SWayne.