The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-27
BILLION DOLLAR STATES. TOO.

When the effect on the money in
circulation" Of our billion dollar con-
crosses is stated, but half the story
Is told. Nor is the case fully presented
when 1t is shown that nearly a third
Of the money outside the treasury is
taken out of the channels where ex-
changes are made and turned into
those that lead to the federal treasury.
1t is impossible for the mind to grasp
the situation when it is expressed In
figures running into the hundred mil
lions or into the billions Light may
be so strong as to blind the eyes. Let
the effect Of a billion dollar congress
be put in simpler form, the proportions
reduced to a scale within the compre-
hension of the ordinary mind. It is
now conceded that the appropriations
will exceed the billion dollar mark
some forty millions of dollars. This
will average $52O,OOO,OOO a year. AS
Stunning the population to be 72,OOO, 900
this means that the appropriations are
equivalent to $7.36 for each man, wo-
),
the per capita taxation is $736.
The Statistical Abstract for 1896
gives the per capita Of money "outside
of the treasury and Sin circulation"
as $21.1O. Not that every enc
has that and no more, but that,
If 1t were equally distributed, each per-
son would have that amount. It is
the basis Of all exchanges and of the
substructures on which all credit ex
changes rest. That average and it's
credit superStructure have to do tho
work Of paying for the things made
bought and sold. But of that average
or $21.1O, 7.36 is DETECTED from buy
Ing and selling and made to pass in
and out of the treasury each wear
to defray the appropriations made by
the billion dollar congress. This leaves
Tor steady work in the markets $13.74
per capita, assuming that every dol
lar is thus working and none is held
out by the banks as reserves or bv
people in boards. When, in addition
we reflect that the total volume of
money and its representatives is ar
bitrarily fixed, practically incapable Of
expansion to meet extraordinary de-
mands; that it is a crime for any per-
son TO convert his capital and credit
into representative money excan+
through the cumbersome and proftless
medium Of the national banking law
one Is inclined to accept as having
some basis the claim that the SUNNY
Of money is insufficient.
But when billion dollar congress-
mas cut down the per capita of money
IN actual circulation from s21.10 to
$IS.'4' but half the story is told. There
are forty-five states with their sev-
eraI demands upon the purses of the
people and upon the money in circu
Iat1on." The latest data, CONCERNING
the amount thus DETECTED from tha
markets are those given by the CON
sus returns Of 1890, when the state tax-
alton aggregated $471, 1866, 14O. or 81 ~
1or each person. If the rate of in
crease over the aggregate in 1890 is
kept up, the present taxation IS about
equal to the appropriations Of this lat
est billion dollar congress- ASSUMING
though that it is the same as in 1890
the average that year of S7.53 taken
Tor state taxation must be added to
the $1.36 required to meet congressional
appropriations, making a total of s14.8e
leaving but 1921 Of the $21.10 'in cir
culation" that can be doing everv do1,
the work Of making exchanges. When
to this interference with the distrib1-
ton Of wealth there is added that
other pernicious one made by tariffs
and their beneficiaries in exactions of
unearned profits, one can begin to
sense conditions out Of which rises the
clamor for more and cheaper monav
1t remains to be seen whether tbe
Fifty-fifth congress can grasp the
situation.