The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-29
TWO NOTABLE GATHERINGS
AMERICAN HISTORICAL AND ECO-
 NOAIC ASSOCIATIONS.

NOlIC ASSOCIATIONS.
 President George P. Fishers Inaugural
 and Vincent Also Mako Able and In-
 teresttng Addresses s-Appointment of
 Committees Time and Places of Meet
 ing for the Next Three Years.
 began it's first morning session yester- day in Osborn hall at 10 o'clock. Pro- lessor R. Mayo Smith presented the re- port of the special committee on the twelfth census. This was followed by a general discussion led by the follow ing distinguished persons: Professors w. F. Wilcox, R. P. Falkner, D. R.. Dewey, Hon. c. D. Wright and others. The afternoon sessions opened at 8 o'clock with a full house, the general subject of the afternoon being Ameri- can Economic History. Professor F. w. Taussig, the celebrated political econo- mist of Harvard, read an able and in- terestng paper on Some Aspects of the United States Treasury Situation in the Years 1893 to 1S97,' which was an ex- ceedingly valuable contribution to the discussion of the present pressing mon nt1 No Cifr'G paper dealt with the manner in which the treasury accumulated and hoarded legal tender notes in these years, and more particularly during the period from November, 1895, to October, 1896. i Professor Taussig said in part:
 l During the interval of about year between these two dates the treasury held in it's vaults continuously $100,- i 000,0 900 and more of legal tender notes. Some accumulation had already shown l itself in 1894 and in the early part of ! 1895, but the great accumulation took i place during 1896. The process of thus storing away and hoarding the green backs must have been the result of de- 1 liberate policy by the administration; yet. strange to say, not one word con- corning it is said in the official treasury |
 1 reports.
 | The explanation of this accumulation 1 is to be found in the great redundancy of the currency during the period of depression that followed the crisis of 1893, During the embarrassment under which the treasury labored throughout this period it endeavored at first to pay out legal tenders as they came into it's hands. But the paper thus paid out flowed back again, and the so-callei endless chain came into operation. ] One mode, and an important one, in which the operation of the endless chain was stopped was the hoarding and im- pounding of the legal tender notes. This process, adopted quietly and without public notice, but firmly and on large scale, put an end for the time being to the excess of the circulating medium, and so served as a clumsy and artificial means of giving elasticity in the cur tency This artificial elasticity was se- cured only at the expense of the great bond issues of t894-96 and the uncer- tainty and disturbance which accompa- nied these troublesome operations.
 Following out the details of these op- erations, the paper analysed the fiuctu ations of the holdings of gold and legal tender notes by the treasury the re- serves of the New York banks, the ef- fects of the four great bond sales, and the general conditions of industry and trade. The end of this artificial mole of securing elasticity came with mid summer of 1S98; then the conditions suddenly changed. The European de- l., ay,t exports swelled, the first stages in the revival of business began to appear A demand for currency set in from the west, and the same volume of legal tenders which it had been impossible to keep in circulation in the period of de- pression now went easily into active circulation. The legal tender paper which the treasury had boarded was put out by it, partly in the way of or l dinary disbursements and partly in ex- change for deposits of gold; and instead of flowing back into the treasury it now remained in use for the growing busi- ness of the country. A gleam of pros perity thus brightened the closing months of the Cleveland administration and unexpectedly enabled it to turn over the treasury in a flourishing con dition to the present administration.
 The same thing which thus happened in 1S94-96, it was pointed out, occurred ten years earlier, in 1SS4-86. In this l period the silver currency which had been issued under the act of 1878 prove ] to be excessive during a period of de pression and flowed back into the treas ury precisely as the legal tenders flowed back in 1S94-96. As it happened, in 1884 S6 the treasury had a large excess of re- ceipts over expenditures and thus was able quietly to hoard a large volume of silver currency without the difficultie; and disturbances which were encoun- tered ten years later. No less than $60,- 000,0 900 of silver currency were thu: hoarded in 1SS4-S6, just as the larger sum of $100,000,000 of legal tenders was hoarded ten years later. In this later period the great bond sales were neces- sary in order to enable the treasury thus to bring about the contraction of 1 the currency necessary for it's accom- modation to the changed conditions oi business, but in both cases the process was virtually the same.
 | The paper concluded by pointing out that what had thus happened twice be fore might easily happen again. Under