The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-26
GOLD BOTTOM
 STRONG ENOUGH Ellis H, Roberts Content to Stand
 on That Footing MAKES 4 STRONG ADDRESS 
Says Some Timid Souls Look on oui Real Money as a Samson Whose Locks May Be shorn By
 Philistlne Delilah.

Washington, September 25.-Ellis H. l Roberts, the treasurer of the United States, who is attending q joint con- vention of the Maryland and the District of Columbia Bankers association, which Is holding on board a steamboat on the Potomac river, tonight delivered the fol- | lowing address:
 Current financial discussion deals. in much the larger part, with national bank notes They constitute less than one sixth of our stock of money, $41s.5S 975, out of s2. 7oS 6ss 66s. and no legislation can | change that ratio very materially Gold, on the other hand, furnishes $1,267, 7Ss 949, or hard on to one-half of our stock and It grew nearly twelve million dollars last month
 Let me be content to stand on the rock bottom of gold. Of s2.3Ss,9O2, ITS mon ey in circulation, gold in coin and cer- tificates Is s1,014.53 ,07S; bank notes are just less than $4O0, O00,O0o. And again, look at the treasury holdings. The gold is to- day the largest sum ever recorded. S653- 0O0,000. Our treasury holds three and nine-tenths times the amount of gold belonging to the Bank of England, which is sl66 5000; 1t is more than three and eight-tenths times that of the Imperial German bank. which Is s17O,3T ,OO0, CT very nearly three times that of the Aus tro-Hungarian bank which is s221, 4o4 GOO;
 1t lacks only of eight million of being equal to that of both banks of Englane and of France, which latter holds s494 
 Russia, Germany, Belgium and the l erlands combined.
 l Other Features. This Is not the whole csise. These foreign treasul'les are practically the sole basis of the finances of iAe rcsneethe nations On the holdings of the Bank of England rests the credit, public and pri- vate, of the British empire With us, besides the gold in the national treasury the banks national and other. own ss22,- 4OS,5n and this is more than any central institution holds. save those of France and Russia.
 More vital yet is the growth of the official treasury of the several countries. In five years the Bank of France has gained sl27 27640,0oO and Austro-H Hungary SIS, 10000. In the same period the impe- rial German bank has lost $Ss, esq, 900, the Bank of England $2265,O0O and Russia sl32. 240,O00. Good fortune has added to the gold in the treasury vaults of the United States from the close of August, 1898, to the first day of the current month, S393, ,9S0 295, very nearly $50, 900 O00 a year | on the average.
 | "Let us get a little to the bank vaults and to the pockets of the people. The l gold coin and certificates in circulation l September l, 1898, was s666 i66 165, which l was 27 per cent of the total By the 1 first of the present month this factor had | become $1,l04,531, ,07S, and 42 per cent of l the whole. Here in the gold currency of the land is gain of s3iS,364,9lO within l five years. This is the strength of our | circulating medium, and the crown as well as the cornerstone of our financial system.
 Our Money Like Sampson. Certain tfmid souls look upon our real money q Sampson whose locks at some time may be shorn by a Philistine Delilah, and its strength clipped away. Now this Delilah takes the form of a rush to the treasury of the United States. Again she appears Tn the garb of sec- retary of the treasury using silver for of- ficial payments, and finally she hecomep congress indulging in wild legislation # mathematics is good for anything, it proves that greenbacks cannot be pro cured in volume enough to be more than a spray beating on Gibraltar. Every sec retary will find that silver is less within his control for actual than gold He cannot make silver current for large pay ments. As for congress, its power Is vast. but with an inflow of $S0.OOO,OOO a year of gold into the treasury, no act of legisla- ton can stop the majestic force.
 "But-and there is but-credit Is based upon our gold and it is possible to in fate and exploit it to a dangerous de- gree. Recent chronicles are not without
 illustrations. The process of attenua- tion, and it's rapidity and extent present the real problem of the situation. Wisdom cries aloud and will be heard sooner or later snd better soon than late that it is not safe to pile credit so mountain high that flying machines will be needet to operate in it's thin atmosphere In the meanwhile, and I believe for the long time, .he nations prosperity rests on steadfast foundation"
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