The record-union., 1899-04-10
INCREASE OF GOLD MONEY.
The Opportunity Thereby Afforded
for Currency Reform.

/ 1NCHEAS6 Ox GOAO Nun Ex.
The Opportunity Thereby Afforded
for Currency Reform.
If the stockholders of railroad COM
pany insisted on steadily augmenting
number of cars, although the cars were
larger than formerly, and were hauled
faster so that each car did more work
than in previous years, and refused to
| believe that the. company could pros
per unless the directors could be in
duced to provide very many more cars.
they would be very much in the intel
lectual condition of great part of our
people who watch the circulation fig
ures as if they We're the pulse of the
body polite. If the directors of the
supposed company had actually pro-
vided an excess of cars, and cars were
! lying idle on the side tracks and the
stockholders or the patrons along the
line complained that this was evidence
that the directors We're sidetracking
cars in order to restrict the means of
the complainants and the people who
are in a state of nervous apprehension
over the volume Of the currency would
be still more complete.
/ When Mr.. Preston was Director of the
| Mint he produced carefully made esti-
mates showing that in twenty-five
years the amount of gold money in the
1 world and the amount of silver money
in the world had each more than
| doubled. Recent figures in our Wash
ington correspondence, taken from Mr..
| Roberts report, cover only the last
! five years, and they show a material
decrease in the amount of silver money,
almost entirely confined to the last year
of the series, but an increase in the
gold money amounting to "a per cent.
With this, however, there is also a de-
crease in the uncovered paper on credit
currency, which may perhaps be due to
| the rapid increase in the accumulation
of gold.
The gold money possessed by the
great commercial nations has increased
81 per cent in five years. That they
needed SO great increase no one can
suppose who observes the volume of
the worlds commerce and the relation
of the money supply to trade. But
there is no way of proving that this
| increased supply is equal to the in
creased need, because there is no hu-
man agency that can possibly find out
what amount of money is needed for
any given amount of business For this
same reason the figures of the worlds
increasing money supply have NO eff
| feet upon the infationists. Whatever
the increase may be. they are prepared
| to insist that it ought to have been
greater. If paper or silver money have
OF late decreased, here is proof positive
of contraction; if gold is accommodating
in bank vaults, because the business
world is economizing in its use, there
is conclusive evidence of a conspiracy
| to hoard.
OF all the evils that civil-war finance
did the country, it is doubtful if any
other one has been, on the whole, so Sc
rious as the utterly wrong idea it gave
the country of the proper relation of the
| Government to the money of the ma
tlon- Senator Morrill, protested against
the legal tender Act, and he was deter
mined to live to see it repealed But
life is short, and error, as well an art,
is long, and Senator Morrill, is gone.
while the Government paper, and the
idea that it is the duty of the Govern
ment to provide the country with
enough money, remain and threaten to
abide. Imitation is apt to stimulate
business for the moment, and it is not
! entirely a Western or even an Amer
lean notion. But it never would be
serious if money came from the proper
sources; if the Government simply
coined gold had nothing to do with sill
yer, except Of the subsidiary coinage,
and If the credit currency were issued
by credit institutions
The element of 6apUor 1;oc -, tbo
fact that the Government is directly or
indirectly the purveyor of alt sorts of
money; that a generation has grown up
in this country that knows no other
system, and that a great many men
who ought to know better have a deep
rooted idea that it is the function of
the Government to provide all the
money, credit as we'll as real currency.
and that a committee of Congress is
| competent to determine how much
money there should be.
The proper function of the Govern
ment is limited to certifying to the
weight and fneness of pieces of pre-
cious metal we call coins, and to certain
general supervision over institutions of
credit, which alone are qualified to is
sue a credit currency, and which alone
business world for more money or for
less Public education on this point is
extremely slow, and probably the rem
eoy VIII nave to be wrought, as the
mischief was, by an Act of Congress
passed without any particular reference
| to public sentiment-New York Jour
nal of Commerce.
Effect Of Rifle Rullets IN g..