Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-12-16
m.klNLEYs METHODS.
How the President Discharges n
"ObvfOus Duty"

How the President Discharges an
"obvious Duty"
The president is not much more con-
istent in his treatment of the currency
question than he is in his dealing with
the matter of forcible annexation.
st earnestly recommend" he says,
@as soon as the receipts of the govern
ment are quite sufficient to pay all the
expenses OF the government. that when
any of the United States notes are pre-
sented for redemption in gold and are
redeemed in gold such notes shall be
kept and set apart and paid cut only in
exchange for gold. This is an obvious
duty"
Why an obvious duty? Because if
the redeemed notes are paid out as the
law now requires they are more than
likely to return for re-redemption.
Thus it becomes necessary to keep re-
plenishing the gold reserve, and this
can be done in no other way than by
selling interest-bearing bonds. Hence
the great cost to the government" I'M
| der existing law ''of maintaining the
| parity of our different forms of
money"
And this cost is especially great ''in
times of business panic and when the
revenues are insufficient to meet the ex-
penses of the government. At such
times,' the president truly says, S'the
government has no other way to supply
| its deficit and maintain redemption but
| through the increase of its bonded
| debt
If, then, it is the obvious duty of
! government to hold greenbacks in the
| treasury until somebody is willing to
| give gold in exchange for them in or
der to obviate the necessity for repeat
| ed issues of bonds, that duty is most OBJ
vious and imperative in times of panic
and when the revenues are INSULT
cient.
Yet the president does not propose to
begin the discharge of this obvious
| duty until ''the receipts of the govern
ment are quite sufficient to pay all the
| expenses of the government" How can
he explain his recommendation that
the obvious duty be not discharged at
the very time when, by his own show
ing, it is most Imperative?
The government is running behind
now at a greater rate than ever before
and there is an official estimate that
there will be a deficit of more than SELL
| 600, 900 during the next fiscal year I'M
| less something IS done to increase the
revenues. According to republican the
DRY, therefore, another panic is due and
| liable to occur at any time. But, panic
or no panic, the shortage is notorious
| fact, and it is fact which should
prompt to the immediate discharge of
that obvious duty.
Respecting this duty it is to be OBJ
served that if it should be discharged
in accordance with the presidents
recommendation and if the banks
should be required to redeem their
notes in gold in accordance with an
other of his recommendations the
green backs would soon be permanent
ly retired and they might as well be ex-
tinGuished.
Such runs on the treasury as oc-
cured during the last administration
would bring the last one of the green
backs into the treasury, and there they
would stay until some one offered gold
IN exchange for them.
Who would offer the gold? Not the
national banks, because they would
hold fast to the gold to meet demands
from holders of their own notes. If
others should offer gold and take out
the notes and put them in circulation
the banks would quickly gather them
up and present them at the treasury
and draw out the gold again.
Thus the proposed measure would
almost certainly result soon in the
complete retirement of the green
backs and practically their permanent
retirement. This would the more GER
tainly be the case, because, as Senator
Allison has pointed out, if the banks
were required to redeem their notes in
gold they would decline to accept silver
or its certificate representative, except
as special deposit. They could not af-
| ford to be loaded with silver if re-
quired to redeem in gold.
The resulting discrimination against
silver would produce very serious COM
plications. Not the least of these, prob
ably, would be depreciation of silver
and silver certificates, which the gov
| eminent could not remedy without
| borrowing hundreds of millions of
| gold to maintain their convertibility.
Chicago Chronicle.