Omaha daily bee., 1897-01-21
DISTRUST OF THE CURRENCY.

Those who are urging currency re-
to that end, say that there is distrust
of the currency which must be removed
| before there can be full restoration of
| financial confidence. Why should there
! he diStrust? What is there about the
| currency at this time that makes it
essentially different in character
from what it was during the
extended period of financial con-
| fidence that followed the resumption
OF specie payments? We have only
| one more form of currency than in
| 1ST9-the treasury notes issued under
the act of 1S90-and it is not apparent
why these should create any distrust.
The currency reformer will explain
| that it is the United States legal tender
| notes.-the greenbacks-whch are the
source of distrust. Yet for fourteen
years after resumption, when the gov
| ernment was getting abundant revenue,
this currency caused no such trouble
| Senator German said in speech in
the senate during the first session of the
present congress that whenever the
treasury has had surplus of revenue
| 1t could exchange greenbacks and treas
ury notes for gold that before revenues
fell below expenditures the people were
glad to get government paper for gold
The statistics of redemption of these
notes show that they caused the treas
ury no embarrassment until 1893. Ac-
cording to the last report of United
States Treasurer Morgan the total re-
demptions of legal tender notes from
1879 to 1892, inclusive, amounted
to $i3,310,S96, an annual aver
age of little more than
S3,000,000. Experience since the
presidential election has shown that the
people have no distrust of this currency,
but on the contrary prefer it to metallic
money. The gold reserve has been in
creased by many millions exchanged for
paper currency. There is no menace
from the legal tender notes at present or
in prospect and consequently no reason
able ground of diStrust. But the re-
formers say that trouble may be again
experienced Solllt llllt Ill lue IuluTt.
Probably if treasury deficits continue
and an unsettling and disquieting cur
rency agitation is kept up. Put viii
the government provided with ample
revenue and revolutionary currency
schemes dropped the couI try could
safely count upon long period of
financial confidence.
A leading New York banker recently
said 81 am not in favor of any hasty
change in our currency system. Our
present financial system Is an evolution
and any change therefrom should be
thoroughly considered" One of the
ablest writer's OH financial subjects says:
"Our currency with all its faults, an
swers its purpose sufficiently well. 1t is,
to be sure, II heterogeneous compound
of several varieties, but they are all of
equal value and of equal utility. Their
reduction to n single uniform species
would crafty the lover of order and
symmetry, but it would not render them
any more scrviceaDle TO the public" 1t
may be admitted that the currency
system is not perfect but its condition is
not such as to Justify distrust. though
the tendency of the persistent agitation
for Il radical change in the system Is
certainly well calculated to create such
n feeling. There can be no doubt that
the advocates of currency reform are do
ing more harm than good. Their as
sault on the legal tender notes is
mistake and therefore Injurious. The
wise course is to let the currency ques-
ton rest until provision has been made
to give the government an adequate
income. One thing at n time and the
most important thing is revenue.