Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1902-01-23
FINANCIAL VIEWS OF SHAW.
The New Secretary of the Treasury
Is Sound in His Financial
Policy.

Propriety estops Gov Shaw, our
next secretary of the treasury, from
answering the natural questions of
eager reporters as to his financial
policy" or from indicating how far
he agrees with Mr.. Gage and where
in he differs. Certain questions re-
lating to the great subject of ma
tional finance are justly regarded as
settled, at least so far as the sound
money elements of the country are
concerned. The gold standard is es-
tablished, the legal tenders are i'm
pounded" and the independence of
the treasury is safe. But certain inn
portant questions are outstanding,
and Mr.. Shaw's position with refer
ence to them is a matter of legiti-
mate interest, says the Chicago Even
ing Post.
1t has been intimated that the new
secretary will suspend the purchase
of bonds and thus arrest the pres
ent tendency to withdraw bank cir
cuIation. He will probably do moth
ing of the kind. The provisions of
the sinking fund sections are eX-
plicit and mandatory, and the new
Secretary will no more disregard or
evade them than Secretary Gage has
done. Ii is equally safe to say that
the deposits of government fluids in
the national banks will not be re-
duced. The now familiar steps for
| the relief of the market Will be
taken when The situation shall i'm
pose such action.
An examination of Mr.. Shaw's pub
lie addresses on the financial ana
banking questions will furnish an
| swers to other and larger questions.
He will undoubtedly support the Hill
and Overstreet propositions for the
| redemption of silver dollars in gold
coin. In one of his speeches he rec
opnized the danger of the metallic
green backs" and added:
| IAN / cantend for is that every note
! signed by solvent debtor, every dralt on
| solvent merchant, every deposit with Il
! solvent bank, every piece of paper that CIR
| culates as money and every coin snail ulu-
| mately be payable, redeemabe or eX-
! changeable In the standard coin OF TINS
| country. limo other way canit beprotected
! from discount. Safeguard IL as you may
under conditions easily conceivable, the
| silver certificate or the silver coin may be
! at discount, and so long as there is the
| element of danger. however remote, so long
! there will exist an ever-present cause OF
| panic"
| With regard to our paper currency
| Mr.. Shaw holds that its volume should
! be coeXtensive with the needs of the
| country, and that it should be issued
| exclusively by the banks. "The time"
he said once, 'is past when the govern
ment should issue a part of the paper
! currency and the banks part" Only
! fiatists and paternaiists believe that
! the government ought to monopoliZe
! the issue of currency, but the consen-
sus of progressive opinion certainly fa-
vors the retirement of the legal tenders
and the withdrawal of the government
from the note-issuing business.
This logically leads to the question
of asset banking Is Mr.. Shaw an advo-
| cate of that reform? Certain express
sions indicate that he is, yet his eau
! ton and reserve show that he is by
no means a radical on the question
| Here is what he said in one of his
speeches:
al repeat that currency based on assets
! contains, in my judgment, no element OF
! danger, except popular prejudice. This VII
| vanish as the question is discussed and *
| planned by those who make a study of II.
| The depositor would be in no worse con-
! dition than now"
But in the same speech he declared
that elasticity could be secured witt
out resorting TO asset banking, and
that he recognized "a public prejudice.
akin to fear, against currency based
on assets, and prejudice, so long as it
exists, constitutes an element of dan
! GER even when the thing itself against
which the prejudice lies contains no
| element of danger" Asset banking is
not question of practical politics."
1t will come gradually and as the re-
suit of evolution. There will first be
| provision for emergency circulation
and for branch banlng-reforms de-
manded even by the most conservative.