Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-06-17

check may both be satisfied by the
tender of greenbacks or treasury notes,
while the last two are redeemed only in
coin or in payment of public dues.
I'm passing it may be well TO note
the relative use of these various agen-
eies in the practical operations of com
merce and trade. No better place TO
determine this can be found than the
counter Of hank. and the following
statement of the amour. oF each re-
ceived by a bank in this city on re-
cent day Will indicate their relative inn
portance in that directions:
Gold coin...--.-... ......................S $3.50
Sl1NSr co. y. lo.S25
Gold certlilcajeS- ..............-........ 400
Silver certihca ties. observation-disclosures. 9S 119
L-egal tender notes and greenbacks.. SIT
4 eS.asuIy .--.....-..-..- 59'5S
Total sash. SECS. SIS
percentage of cash to total credits.
FIVE per cent,
The lesson to be drawn from these
figures is this:
''Much the larger part of all our COM
merical exchanges is carried on by
bank checks or other instruments of
private cerdit. These instruments all
relate to certain form of money, in
place of which they for the moment
stand. If uncertainty intervene as to
what this related thing-this money
is, or is to be, distrust and confusion
enter in. The mighty agency of person
al credit is shaken. Commercial ex-
changes fall off, trade languishes and
industry declines.
THE greenback was issued to pay
debts, not to acquire value. or, if value
was received, such value was either con-
sumed or converted into value not avail
able in the market. The greenbacl1 paid
soldiers and government employees; it
bought powder and munitions of war.
The existence of a greenback is the evil
dence of a debt not paid. 1t is lien
upon the future.
"a national bank note. on the con-
trary, is the evidence of some existing
value which lies somewhere as collateral
for its redemption. To transfer such
values is the only ordinary and proper
occasion which calls for their issue. The
volume in which they will appear
marks the rise in prices or an increasing
quantity Of existing things. Like the
bank check, they will be in active sery-
ice when trade and commerce are act
i've. Thus they enjoy the principle OF
elasticity, wholly lacking in any pos
sible form OF direct government issue.
The method of their retirement is
wholly different and subjects the trade
and commerce of the country to less
dangerous strain.
There is no reason why the govern
ment should act as warehouseman for
either gold or silver. Such function is
outside its proper limit of action. But
we are faced by the condition, and it is
the bette noire of the treasury. The
enormous amount of S500,o00,o00 of
silver, represented by 1888, 100000 in
silver certificates, added to the $780,
100000 purchased by the government
under the Sherman act, constitutes a
standing menace to every business in
terest
Our whole monetary system is the
resultant of makeshift legislation and
unseientific compromises. 1t is time
that reform began, do not assume to
offer more final remedies. In my own
opinion the greenbacks should be per-
manently retired. The silver purchased
under theSherman act should be gradu-
ally sold and the treasury notes re-
deemed and cancelled. Some well
guarded system of bank note circlua-
ton, broader and more elastic than the
present national bank act provides,
should be inaugurated. Such bank
notes should be redeemable at a central
place and be redeemable in gold only.
ITO sum up, the defects of our pres
ent currency system are: l. A confus-
ing heterogeneity which needs sim
plifcation. 2. The greenback contro-
verts the principle of paper money-viz.
that every note injected into the com
mercial system should represent an
existing commercial value. 3. The
treasury note is a standing evidence of a
foolish operation, the creation of a
debt for the purchase on a falling
market of a commodity for which the
purchaser has no use-it lies open to the
Just charge of being both idiotic and
immoral. 4. The national bank note
nearly conforms to the true principle of
paper money, but the unreasonable re-
quirements for security paralyze it's
efficiency and operate to destroy it9
elasticity. 5. The silver certificate en-
courages the use of silver to a larger ex-
tent than consists with the safe preseU-
walton Of that metal on a parity with
gold.
Would a national commission help
70 promote reform? There is reason to
hope that it would be of great service in
that direction. Such a commission, if
rightly selected, would throw a food Of
light upon these involved questions.
The information it might gather would
be CT immense value to all orr people
and would guide US to wise legislation,
Emotion and sentiment are not safe
cnides in matters Of science. a clear
arf1rnher3Gipu If true r,,.ipcfpIas tt.tII