Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-11
CrRRENrl, REEnRNL-

Senator sherman said in reply TO Il
question regarding financial legislation
by the next congress that there is no
nccd of such legislation. "The people of
the country have just decided by tre
mendous popular majority that Il change
in our financial policy is not desired
We have plenty of money and plenty of
gold in the treasury and | do not think
| that congress is called TO take up the
consideration of any radical change in
Our present financial system" None the
| less ii is certain that there will be Il
very strong pressure on the Fifty-tifth
| congress to make some change in the
currency system. Already this is ap-
parent ana before the next congress can
meet either in extra or regular session
the public discussion of this subject will
have become general
Most of the advocates of change In
the currency system insist that the first
and most important thing to be done is
to retire all FORMS of government de-
mand notes and circulating paper, SO
| that the government shall be taken out
of the thanking business" which simply
means relieved of the necessity of main
tanning n reserve of gold to redeem these
rotes, amounting TO about S5D00OO,0OO.
| While it ia true that the grrpnbacIis, of
which there IS outstanding $3lG,OOOG 600.
have been freely used during the past
three years to draw gold from the treas
ury, no fact is better settled than that
the people do not desire the retirement
Of that currency. The very industrious
and earnest efforts made by the present
! administration to impress upon the pub
lie mind the necessity of Withdrawing
and canccling the legal tender notes. in
order to destroy the ''endleSS chain" by
which the gold reserve has been de
pIeted. have had only very limited sue
cess. This is not due to mere sentiment.
but chiefly TO very practical conSidcra-
tions. The people regard the green
backs as Il very desirable and very
cheap currency, while at the same time
ii distinctly representative currency.
The grecnbncks are peculiarly the peo-
pies money. 1t will have to he admitted
| that they have been used to the disad-
vantage of the government but this
would not have been the case except
for extraordinary conditions not likely TO
! arise again. 1t was the food of silver
paper and the agitation for more. Great
ing distrust of the future of the iinan-
| cial system, that caused the persistent
attacks on the gold reserve, added to
which was the fact that the government
has not received for several years suili-
cicnt revenue to pay current expenses.
During the thirteen years from the re-
sumption of specie payments to 1893 the
national treasury experienced no trouble
from the legal tender notes. Their re-
dCmptiOn at no time during that period
impaired the gold reserve. Stree the late
election gold has been freely offered in
| exchange for these notes. clearly show.
ing that with former conditions restored
they will cease to be Il menace 10 the
treasury gold.
What the currency rcformers urge Is
! that the paper money should be issued
exclusively by the banks, but they
have as yet failed to devise plan
acceptable to the country, or upon which
they themselves could agree. A num-
Der of plans have been presented in con
! gress during the last five or six years
but none of them has commended itself
TO general favor or been free from vital
objections None OF them proposed any
real improvement upon the present
| system. There is well-founded fear
of state bank issues, however carefully