Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1897-04-10
WHAT GAGE SAID.
PROGRESSED IN 1891 THE PREDIcA-
MENT or OUR TREASURY De-
PARTMENT IN 1893.

portancs OF CreditS-iseai Money Versus
PromIsesto Makesbift LegislatioB
summary Of Defects Of Our Currencl
system.
The new secretary Of the treasury
Lyman j. Gage, is not novice either
in the theory or practice Of financial
affairs. Long before most bankers and
business men were greatly concerned
about our national finances be saw dan
ger ahead and prophesied what would
and what did--happen, unless certain
changes were made in our unscientific
and unseund financial system
On Feb. 10, 1891, Mr. Gage read a
paper before the Sunset club in Chicago.
After explaining how silver and gold
money had been evolved ''by the free play
of human choice, ending in consensus Of
action, and never by conventional agree.
ments made in advance, = he discussed
our own monetary conditions. He point.
ed out how the United States, by ac-
cepting both metals and by allowing its
creditors to choose either, kept together
the two metals, whose values were di-
verging rapidly. To the question, Can
not the government continue this policy
indefinitely and thus forever preserve a
higher value to the silver coin than its
equivalent in silver bullion?" he replied
that it could not. 1.-THE proportion of
silver payments to the government, F" he
said, will steadily increase until the
treasury department will be obliged to
either pay in silver or buy gold in ex-
change for it. With free coinage Of sill
yer, he added, this result will be the
sooner reached y Nothing could be
clearer or sounder than this. 1t is pre-
cisely what happened.
In the autumn Of 1894 he took part in
an elaborate discussion of the money
question mt the Commercial club of Chi
cago His address at this meeting is
often referred to and is now of much in
terest, since it contains what he says
are still substantially his ideas in regard
to currency reform. We quote below the
greater part of this address:
In speaking upon the subject of our
money system one must be aware that in
whatever be may say he will excite the
hostile criticism and draw forth bitter
invectiye from some one or more of the
various factions who are seeking to es-
tablish on new and experimental foun-
dations our much disturbed fnancia,
structure
Through oar heterogeneous system
the public mind has seemingly lost the
power to discriminate between real
things and the shadows or signs OF
things 1t is necessary that DISCUSSES be
pulled aside and that real facts appear
There is, in truth, only one reai
money-viz, metallic coin. 1t may be
composed Of gold or silver. It might be
of something else, but it is not Green
backs, treasury notes and national bank
notes are but promises to pay In the
nature of things they can be nothing
more. They pass as money, perform the
functions of money, often more conven.
iently than money itself Because of thif
confusion comes, and we are led astray
Seeing that the greenback is uttered by
the government; that it has, by the legai
tender quality impaired to it, the powe;
to pay debts, and that it circulates with
all the power of money, discrimination
ceases-we call it money-and the ide;
that government can create money BY
its sanction or fat becomes rooted in
the mind. The distinctions just pointed
out are, however, fundamental distinc.
tions. They should be taught in the
schools. They are simple, easy to be un.
derstood even by child
1--WE admit that on many occasions
paper money, whether greenbacks, treas
ury notes or national bank notes, il
more to be desired than gold. Yet more
to be desired than either, as proved by
the daily conduct Of men, is a credit
balance in solvent bank. For, to secure
this better form of good, people volun
tarily give to the banker these promises
to pay-yea, even gold itself-for a
credit to an equal sum upon his books
With an entry upon their passbook al
evidence of the transaction they claim
to have money in the bank. In popu-
lar language, the claim is well enough,
but, correctly speaking, it is positively
untrue. They have parted with their
money, if money they had. 1t belongs
to the banker; it is no longer theirs.
THE consideration they have received
is an agreement from the banker TO
meet their acquisitions upon him from
time to time. If the banker is faithful
to his obligations they have made no
bad bargain, for all these things-green-
backs, treasury notes, national bank
notes and, to use the popular language,
money in bank-are i'll their nature and
essence one-viz they are forms of
credit. Their value, each and all alike,
lies III the ability of the owner to con
vert them at last into the only real form
of money now existent-metallic coin.
And to push the question a little far
Their, the only value of the metallic coin
lies, not i'll the coin as coin, but in
the power of the metal the coin contains
to exchange for other things
1T should here be noted that while
our silver dollar is real money its power
TO exchange for other things is more
than doubled by another and artificial
I Il. L