The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-02
THE MONETARY sroCK.

To the Editor of the Globe.
Noting your article, under heading "Official
Figures, In the issue of today with letter
OF H. Z. Freeman and your reply, you have
not MADE your case stronger than ever, since
you do not state the facts in the case which
are that the gold bullion coined in 1885, or
any other year. does not give a true measure
of so much additional money turned into the
channels of trade for monetary uses In the
United States.
The facts are, If you will take the pains to
inquire of the mint. the coinage is over and
over again the same gold, exported and i'm
ported; and by noting the exports of gold
from the United States, you will see our coins
are exported largely, and only the bar gold
is exported when the coin is not to be had;
and on gold in bars a premium is
charged by the government, making coin
preferable to export. Little or gold, in
fact, finds it's way in the channels of trade
and gold is drawn from the banks for export,
as well as the United States treasury.
II you will take the exports and imports
of gold of the United States and strike a
balance, you will see. The bare facts will
stare you in the face, and show that gold
has grown less and less year by year ever
since 1898; and that, with the minis closed to
no addition to the moneys of the United
States since $685. at the time of the repeal
of the Sherman law, so-called, Of 1890. The
only actual increase has been from the small
amount of coinage from silver seigniorage.
And, If you look still closer into this
money question you will find, you get
the cold facts from the treasury department,
that the national banks have taken up their
bonds held by the government upon which
issues Of bills were issued, and the bills have
been Cancelled, thus contracting the currency
more than ever, and their bonds were taken
out of the hands of the government, as the
high premium they Cancelled did not pay the
banks and could make more money than with
the money issued on them, for which they
were deposited.
The law allows only so many bills to be
retired each month, and since Jan. 1, 1897,
they have been withdrawn from circulation
to their limit. This amount allowed to be
retired each month is some So, 000,0 600 or more.
You can get at the facts and give your read
ers the benefit. Recol'ect, the balance OF
merchandise trade. as shown in our favor the
last few months. does not show the enormous
sums drained from the United States in pay
ment Of foreign investments in the United
States in interest, business investments, etc.,
and is far in excess of any probable increase
of our moneys. The gold standard is affected
by the supply and demand, same as 1T APP
plies to all other commodities; and all forms
of money kept on a parity with gold ana
property being measured by it, it takes more
of such properties to get our gold standard
dollar the dearer it becomes.
I shall be pleased to see your publication
of this. Samuel B. Thorp.
Atlantic Highlands, N. j., May 81, 1897.
We have no desire or intention to go
at length at this time into discus
sion Of the general financial question,
which ground was covered thoroughly
last year. Our correspondent evidently
mistakes the purport of the article
upon which he comments, supposing it
to be an opening Of the larger issue,
whereas it was simply a reply to a
request for facts and a correction of a
single preposterous statement made
originally, that all the mines of the
world do not produce $50, 100000 per an
mum. We quoted this as a sample of
the nonsense that floats around, and
demolished it.
Our correspondent is mistaken in as
Stunning that the gold coinage is mostly
the recoinage of old material. On the
contrary, the report Of the director of
the mint shows that the recoinage of
gold in the United States in 1893 was
only s1.70O, 900, and in 1894, $1,2S8, 900.
While it is true that the larger part
Of our gold exports consists Of old coin,
the imports are also mostly the same
coin. 1t Is not melted down and re-
coined every time it crosses the At
lantic. It is, Of course, true that the
exports of gold from this country have
been much larger than the imports
ever since the agitation of the silver
question became dangerous. This has
nothing to do with the subject that we
have been considering.
The whole argument of our CORE
spondent seems to be directed to the
total volume of money in circulation in
the United States, since he complains
that the issue of bank bills is declin-
ing, and that "the only actual increase
has been from the small amount of
coinage from silver seigniorage." 1t
seems to be sufficient reply to this to
say that, whereas the entire stock of
money Of the United States in 1877 was
less than 81, ZOO, 900, OO0 it had grown, in
1896, to 81, $4,000 900. This Is an extra
ordinary rate of increase, and the total
volume last year was larger than in
any other year except 1894 and 1895, and
the difference between those years and
1896 is comparatively trifiing.
At TIE rIIrk-rno