The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-23

and disappointment, bringing no rem
 edy of the fundamental evils of paper
 legal tender, exposing monetary reform to discredit and failure, making a
 wholesome reconstruction of our curren-
 cy system more difficult than ever, and | inviting popular opinion to a reaction
 towards silver fallacies.
 It is thus clear that the presidents
 proposals though indispensable first steps in any sound system of currency
 reconstruction, would be worse than
 nothing if enacted without the accom-
 paniment of other measures which
 would be imperatively necessary to an l effective dealing with the greenbacks.
 It is self-evident that If the greenbacks
 are to be withdrawn from circulation,
 their place must be filled with some
 other form of paper. and the only eligi-
 ble kind is the bank note. There Is
 nothing about which the business pub
 lie are so sensitive as contractions of the circulating medium The first symp-
 tom of stringency following the locking up of say fifty million dollars of legal tenders would evoke protest from one end of the country to the other. Con- gross would be charged with legislation
 for the benefit of "the gold bugs" and the secretary of the treasury would be ordered to pay out his hoarded legal tenders and, as likely as not, new issues would be ordered If currency reform is to be conducted after a cautious and
 well ordered method, there must be a careful avoidance of whatever could evoke this passionate anti-contraction spirit. There must be no room for con- turing up pretense that the changes proposed will disturb the even flow of the currency movement. There must be the most obvious and fullest assurance that new bank issues will be forthcom- ing at least as fast as the greenbacks are withdrawn into the treasury. That assurance should be backed by prohibi- ting those withdrawals from surpassing the amount of the new issues made by the banks. In order to insure public confidence in supply of bank issues being forthcoming which will be both elastic and adequate for all possible fu ture wants of the retail circulation, there must be an avoidance of whatever regulations would arbitrarily check the issues of the banks. Above all, the con- ditions of issue should be such as would leave the banks profit that would in- fallibly induce them to put out notes; the check upon abuse of the issuing privilege being sought in redemption ar engagements that would instantly compel the liquidation of the notes when their volume became redundant.
 In order to satisfy these requirements, if wnt,Id hooorra pnooccory Tn ohopaop the present system of bond guaranty of note issues. For not only does that guaranty fail to admit of satisfactory profit to issuers, thereby restraining is- sues, but the constant changes in the bond deposit which are necessary to &C., commodate an ever-varying volume of issues are too cumbersome and risky to permit the banks availing themselves of the issuing privilege to the extent that an consolidating money market re- quires.
 It is very superficial misconception to imagine that the presidents pre- scription for currency reform could be of any avail without some such comple- mentary accompaniments as we have suggested. If we cannot secNre com plete and consistent system of reform, 1t is very doubtful whether 1t will be worth while to accept anything short of it. Some concessions may be afforded in order to conciliate opposition; but the things that are necessary to an auto- matic and self-regulatory currency system cannot be surrendered with suc- cess or credit What the country needs is the real thing, not a counterfeit to serve mere transient political purpose. New York Journal of Commerce.