San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-04-10

the relative use of these various agen-
cies in the practical operations of COM
merce and trade. No better place to
determine this can be found than the
counter of a bank, and the following
statement of the amount of each re-
ceiyed by n bank in this city on re-
cent day will indicate their relative i'm
portance in that directions:
Gold coin. .........................$ s,SSS
silver com. l5,S26
Silver ates...................... 9S,l29
Legal tender notes and greenbacks.. S2,ll2
| Treasury notes. ........................ 25,4S5
National bank notes. S4,26S
Checks drafts, bill: of exchange. IS sSS, S4S
Percentage of cash to total credits,
five per cent
"The lesson to be drawn from these
figures is this:
"Much the larger part of all our COM
merical exchanges is carried on by
bank checks or other instruments Of
private cerdit. These instruments all
relate to a certain form of money, in
place of which they for the moment
stand. If uncertainty intervene as to
what this related thing-this money
is, or is to be, distrust and confusion
enter in. The mighty agency of person.
al credit is shaken. Commercial ex-
changes fall off, trade languishes and
industry declines.
"The greenback was issued to pay
debts, not to acquire value, or, if value
was received, such value was either con-
sumed or converted into value not avail
able in the market. The greenback paid
soldiers and government employees; it
bought powder and munitions of war.
The existence of greenback is the evil
dence of a debt not paid. 1t is lien
upon the future.
"a national bank note, on the con-
trary, is the evidence of some existing
value which lies somewhere as collateral
for its redemption. To transfer such
values is the only ordinary and proper
occasion which calls for their issue. The
pSlame in which they will appear
marks the rise in prices or an increasing
quantity of existing things. Like the
bank check, they will be in active serv-
ice when trade and commerce are act
i've. Thus they enjoy the principle of
elasticity, wholly lacking in any pos
sible form of direct government issue.
The method of their retirement is
wholly different and subjects the trade
and commerce of the country to less
dangerous strain.
There is no reason why the govern
ment should act as warehouseman for
either gold or silver. Such function is
outside its proper limit of action. But
we are faced by the condition, and it is
the bette noire of the treasury. The
enormous amount of $500,000000 of
silver, represented by $33s,O00,0oO in
silver certificates, added to the $780,
100000 purchased by the government
under the Sherman act, constitutes
standing menace to every business in
! terest.
"Our whole monetary system is the
resultant of makeshift legislation and
unscientific compromises. 1t is time
that reform began. / do not assume to
offer more final remedies. In my own
opinion the greenbacks should be per-
nlanently retired. The silver purchased
under theSherman act should be gradu-
ally sold and the treasury notes re-
| deemed and cancelled. Some well
guarded system of bank note circiua-
ton, broader and more elastic than the
present national bank act provides,
should be inaugurated. Such bank
notes should be redeemable at central
place and be redeemable in gold only.
ITO sum up, the defects of our pres
emit currency system are: 1. A confus-
ing heterogeneity which needs sim
plification. 2. The greenback contro-
verts the principle of paper money-viz.
that every note injected into the COM
mercial system should represent an
existing commercial value. 3. The
treasury note is standing evidence of
foolish operation, the creation OF a
debt for the purchase on a falling
market of a commodity for which the
purchaser has no use-it lies open to the
Just charge of being both idiotic and
immoral. 4. The national bank note
nearly conforms to the true principle of
paper money, but the unreasonable re-
uuirements for security paralyze its
efficiency and operate to destroy it's
elasticity. IS. The silver certificate en-