The herald., 1897-03-10
THE NATIONS PER CAPITA
MONEY

Mr.. Gage rides into the treasury de-
partment upon the back of a monetary
theory, but he will Immediately find
himself confronted by monetary con-
dition to which his theory cannot be ad-
jrsted. Mr. Gage is great banker,
but there is a vast difference between
supervising loans and discounts in a
banking institution where nearly the
entire volume of money employed is
owned by depositors, and conducting
the machinery of government which
creates banks as we'll as the circulating
money medium of the country.
Mr. Gage is an uncompromising advo-
cate of the single gold standard, which
is to be expected, perhaps, in man who
has all his life been money-lender. AS
a-lender of money Mr.. Gage realizes the
advantage of having the volume of cir
culating money restricted to the ability
of dealers in money to control it, but
as the chief officer of the governments
treasury it Is his duty to see that the
money lenders do not contract and ex-
pand the loanable funds of the country
according as the contraction or expan-
sion of the currency would conduce to
their individual profit
A few days ago Mr.. Gage cited the
last annual report of the director of the
ant ho
not been antagonistic to the use of sill
yer as a money metal-that, in fact, the
output of silver dollars in recent years
has been upon a dangerously liberal
scale, and then he referred to the fact
that at the close of 1896 the per capita
circulation of silver was 1881 against
IS. 40 of gold But Mr.. Cages statement
is misleading because he does not state
the whole truth. When silver was de-
monetized, in 1878, the country was on
a paper basis. The per capita silver in
that year was only Is cents, and the
total available gold supply did not ex-
ceed s25,OOO,O 900, and nearly all of that
was on the Pacific coast. 1t was not
until the specie resumption bill was
passed that gold and silver began TO in
crease in volume, and until President
Harrison's secretary of the treasury
made a ruling that deprived silver of its
function as redemption money it was
upon a level with gold. Secretary Car
Isle adopted Secretary Fosters rul-
ing. and Mr.. Gage says he will not
change it.
This ruling is that, although the gov
ernment creates several forms of money,
gold. silver and paper, it has not the
right to designate and tender any par
ticular form in the payment of its debts.
That is to say. the governments cred
itor and not the government has the
right to say which form of money his
account shall be settled in. The conse-
quence of this ruling is that silver is
legal tender for all debts due the gov
and the government is obliged
to receive it, but the government de-
nies that it has the right to make ten
der of silver for debts it owes. And
this is how the country is on the single
gold standard basis in the face and eyes
of the law of 1890, which declares it ito
be the policy of the United States to
the use of both gold and silver
as standard money, and to coin both
gold and silver into money of equal in
trinsic ard exchargeable value and
of the law of 1873. which says silver
dollars shall be a legal tender at their
value for all debts and dues,
public and private"
Under the ruling of the treasury, of
the $32 or more per capita money in the
United States, only the gold $40 per
capita, is all-round legal tender money.
There is in the New York banks and in
the treasury of the government over
500 900 of gold and assuming that
poo, 900 of gold boarded, we have in cir
culation about s4 per capita of what
Mr. Gage calls sound money" II is
seen that Mr.. Gage, following the lead
of Secretaries Carlisle ard Foster. re-
CARDS all our forms of paper money and
silver as token money whose value as
money is contingent upon their redemp-
ton in gold. The essence of our present
system. as Mr.. Gage under
stands it, is that a silver dollar will pay
as much debt due the government as a
gold dollar but that a silver dollar is
utterly worthless as a tender for gov
ernment debt, unless the creditor is
willing to accept it. Hence, instead o.
having a total volume of over $32 per
capita we have $40, and instead of
having s22 per capita in circulation We
have less than 81. Is it any wonder
hat times have been hard and money
scarce?
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