The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-25
ABOUT "PRIMARY MONEY.

ABOUT "PRIMARY MONEY!
To the Editor of the Globe.
In Saturdays paper, also In today's, July
~. you speak of the amount of silver dollars
in use in the United States some $3.50, 900 900,
as money, by that meaning redemption money
or primary money
Now the Republican platform uses the ex-
preston the present gold standard of the
United States'' 1t is conceded by intelligent
men that this country has the gold standard
and 1t is brought about by redeeming all other
money in gold. This being correct, then the
silver coins of the United States are no more
money than the copper or nickel coins or the
bank notes or checks with which business is
transacted save in their legal tender quality,
which the United States notes also possess.
IS 1t wrong, then, to say that the money-the
primary money of the world has been re-
duced by one-half by the adoption of the gold
standard in the place of the bimetallic stand
ard in use prior to 1873?
st. Paul, Mimi, July %.
The term primary money" is one.
that has come into vogue recently,
but to which no precise scientific
meaning is yet attached. 1t is Ger
tainly wrong in any event to say that
the primary money of the world has
been reduced by one-half, because no
silver coins were taken out of circu-
lation. 1t is singular how persist
emily this phrase reduced one-half"
and "cut in two" recurs; just as If
the different countries which had de-
cided to coin no more silver had, by
that act, banished from circulation the
silver which they had already coined
They did, of course, nothing Of the
kind. They simply discontinued adj
ding to their silver coinage in use, ex-
cept for subsidiary purposes. In the
case of the United States not even
that was true, because we have coin
ed, since 1873, the vast mass of silver
dollars outstanding, which are a full
legal tender
Any nation can use a large amount
Of money not worth it's full face value
for local exchanges provided it's stand
ard is that of the commercial world.
The ultimate redemption Of this
money is never called in question until
there is a proposition to change the
standard itself. There is no such
thing, we must again remark, as "a
bimetallic standard" A standard can
be but one thing. 1t is given
amount of gold or a given amount of
silver, or of some other commodity,
but it cannot consist of two different
parts. There may be an alternate
standard in which now one and now
the other of two metals becomes the
measure Of current values The trans
hat
credit substitutes for money prove
conclusively by their magnitude that
the quantity of what we suppose our
correspondent to mean by the undefin-
ed term primary money" is of trif1ing
Importance.
All of the money in existence in the
United States would not be more than
one-ha1f of what the banks alone owe
to their depositors. The checks and
drafts that pass through the clearing
houses of the country every year are
from twenty to thirty times the total
volume Of the money in the treasury
and in circulation. Nobody hesitates=
about accepting these or stops to ask
behind them. All that the bank wish
eS to know is sis ~ -~,oIrav of this
paper able and willing to pay it?" All
that the people of any country wish to
know is whether the government is
able and willing to discharge its
promises. !, It Is not the amount of
redemption money, but the disposition
to redeem that is the vital point
When that fails, confidence falters and
no increase in volume of the circulat-
ing medium can compensate for
shrinkage in credit. This is the
fundamental and most essential feat
ure of the money question. Even on
their own premises, the silver men
cannot deny that silver dollars are
primary money" as they call it;
since they are not only full legal ten
der, but do not call for their redemp-
ton in any other form Of money.