Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-12
FavorS Almost All Of the
Financial Bill.
EXCEPT THE FUNDING ACT
He Thinks the National Banks Should
Not be Given the Power That is
Proposed by the Present Senate
Measure. &

w dS1NlllStOu, NCOs -
publican, West Virginia. took the foor
in the senate today to speak on the fnan-
cial bill. He commended the general
provisions Of the bill, but criticized the
sixth section. which provides for the
funding of the public debt. Upon this
provision he said in part:
'The refunding OF the public debt is
not necessarily a part of the bill. Why
mix the subject Of establishing and de-
flning the monetary standard and
strengthening the public credit with
which must at, best, under the provisions
OF the bill, he an experiment. and which,
IL it should fail, would prove hurtful to
the general purposes and policy of the
measure and the public interest? The
~refunding of the public debt is purely a
practical or administrative question. 1t
should have no place in our politics or
be connected In any wise with political
questions or measures. The refunding
Of the public debt o be made the
subject OF a separate bill, to be consid-
cred and passed when our bonds mature
and monetary conditions may be entirely
different.
1.-The bill undertakes too much. It not
only define and establishes the monetary
standard, but sets out a scheme to fund
the public debt three years before n
of our bonds mature. and. in order to
make this scheme = success It provides
that the national banks shall be the most
important factors In its execution.
In my Judgment, the public debt
should be funded without any reference
whatever to the national banks. Let the
scheme Of funding stand on it's w
merits and by Itself. Let the govern
ment go forward when the time comes
and borrow money for funding purposes
at as low a rate Of interest as it can,
making such a rate as will insure the
bonds being maintained at par, without
depending on national banks or any out
side agency and without giving grounds
for the impression that a public debt
is to be encouraged and fostered in order
to provide a safe currency. Moreover, it
seems to me we should a conclusions
and not legislature from the standpoint
of vision on h highest wave of prosper
tty the country has ever had.,T The condi-
tions which surround us in the fnan-,
cial and commercial world are extraor-
binary. Present favorable conditions
will be followed naturally by a reaction
that will bring new experiences, and
these, will nable us, with present experi-
ences, to judge better tina now what
may be done in the matter of funding
the public debt when our bonds mature"
The senator then suggested that the
government might find 1t difficult at
some time in the future to keep the pro-
posed 2 per cent bonds at par and asked
would it not be better and in the public
interest to make the rate of interest
higher. and offer no Inducements to the
national banks. 1t may turn out, he
said. that the inducements and adyan-
tages offered the banks may cost the
government more than the saving in in
terest that will result from funding the
debt at 2 per cent. ae.
1t seems to me-" said Senator Elkins,
"a safer course would be to allow a.
margin of discretion to the secretary of,
the treasury in the matter of r%efunding
TIE public debt when the time comes, for
instance, give him authority to refund
at a rate not exceeding, say 8 per cent
psf annunl. We cannot hope to do in the
matter OF our finances what all other ma
tions, especially Great Britain, the rich
est nation in the world. have failed to do.
Sine has never reached a standard as
low as 2 per cent for her national bor-
roWings. The chief arguments of the
distinguished chairman of the finance
in suppo of the r%efunding
feature of the bill is based largely upon
the supposition that national banks will
aid materially IN the %refunding of the
public debt at 5 per. cent, that the pro-
visions of the bill allowing national
n to issue calculations UP to the face
value of bonds 3ands.the reduction of tax
on circulatioqi@Win he of such. advan-
tage to the banks that they will at once
nuy the = per cent bonds and take out
circulation OF. them The circulation, of
national banks IS issA0t SO profitable, nor
the source of untold wealth as vast as
some uppos The capitalization of ma
tional banks onsthe fist OF December last
was about $3.50, Sic IA. to which may be
added the surplus and undivided profits
which would he converted into capital
II it would pay to do. $341, O99, 3S3, max
ing an aggregate Of 1851, GIG, 628, while the