The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-12-17
The Presidents currcncy plaas.
no. /.
For The Commonwealth.

Some of President McKinley's ideas in
connection with national finance seem
to be worthy Of comment Let US look
at some of his recommendations In the
light Of official history. The message
gives the following as the national in.
debtedness
THE work Of putting our finances
upon sound basis, difficult as 1t may
seem, will appear easier when we recall
the financial operations Of the govern
rnent since 1885 On June is OF that year
we had outstanding demand liabilities in
the sum Of $726, 1868, 447.41. On Janua.
nv /, 1879, these liabilities had been re-
ducad to $443, a39, 495. SO. OF our inter-
est bearing obligations the figures are
even more striking On July |. 1885.
the principal Of the interest bearing
debt of the government was 81, 332, $751;
2os. On July I, 1893, this sum had
been reduced to 1856, 037, 100, or an az
rregate reduction of $1,747, c94. 1903.
The interest bearing debt Of the United
States government on December I, 1897,
was ss41, 1885, $50. The government
money now outstanding dec. y con-
sists of 3s3i8, 6si, DIG Of United States
notes, e101, 1882 Of treasury notes is-
sued by authority of the law of 1890,
$344, 963, 504 Of silver certificates, and
se1, 1886, 76l of standard silver dollars
THE first significant fact is, that
while the nominal amount Of the inter-
est bearing debt is today only about
one-third Of what it was in 1856, yet it
would take more to pay that one-third
at the present prices of labor products
than it would have required of those
same products to pay the whole debt
80 years ago. In other words, the debt
of $e47, 600, GOO is as great burden upon
the people of the country now as the
debt OF 50, 1872 900, 600 was at the end of
the war, Notwithstanding the fact that
we have paid off two thirds of the orig
inal debt and have paid principal and
interest, more than the whole Of the
original debt. This state Of affairs Is
the logical result of the financial policy
pursued by our government, and it may
not be out of place here to trace the
history of the great war debt and the
currency that Is named as the floating
debt.
During the war the United States
government was in financial straits,
and the metallic money disappeared
from circulation Just as it always
does IN time Of trouble. The United
States notes or greenbacks were issued,
=, 4 these soon became worth less than
tho;r face value in gold Or silver. The
,,ovorn nent issued interest bearing
bonds an 1 these were sold in the mar
hot tho nv 4rage price paid therefor
having been a Aout IS per cent OF the
face value of the bonds. This payment
was made in IRE, ,nbacks, which as be-
fore stated we're at discount. About
1860, under the pref, 'zt that the credit
Of the government ne> 'ded strengthen
ing these bonds, which on tneir race
were payable simply sin la 'wful money,
were by law made specific Any p"yauie
,in coin" When one reAec is that the
bonds were purchased at abo VI % per
cent Of their face value and pal, 1or IN
deprecated paper money, this Change
in the mode of payment would Scent ~
have amply repaid the bondholders Ior
all their patriotic sacrifices. Four
years later by some questionable means
the silver dollar was dropped from the
list Of coins which might be minted,
and as there were practically no silver
dollars in this country at this time, the
effect of such decentralization OF silver
was to make all that vast debt payable
principal and interest, in gold alone
In 1915 Mr.. Sherman secured the pas
sage of law providing for the resump-
ton of specie payments in 1879. AS
silver was demoneti zed, this law meant
that all government obligations should
be payable in gold. that being the only
specie" Of full legal tender quallty
that our coinage law provided Tor.
That Mr.. Sherman fully understood the
ruinous effects Of con traction is made
plain BIZ his own stat aments. YET nc
deliberately cut of silve as money OF
final payment--not bet 'ause IL was
.cheap money" for sill yer was tner
worth three per cent. mort than gold
and his object in SC doinA can only De
arrived at from his connech on win the
financial question from stalr 10 nnisn
1t is worthy Of note that Mr.. sherman
went to Europe and had an irtervie"
with the head Of the Roths childA syn
dictate d short time prior to the lss
sage of the law making government
bonds payable in coin" It is ", 'rtf
remembering that Baron Rothsch. &c
visited this country few weeks pre-
vious TO the passage Of the Sherman
law of 1880, which. under the specious
plea Of providing for more extended
use of silver, was cunningly devised to
put a practical end to silver coinage
within twelve months from the time Of
its passage.
In 1916 the democrats secured ma
jority in congress, and they soon put
~ ,toy, ~, TN .nt;va,y,apt rf trvoor hn pLq