The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-26
BANKERS VISIT OLD POINT.
shaw Thinks Well of Business
Prospects.

prospects.
Newport News. Va, Sept. 25.-The
Bankers Association of Maryland and
the District of Columbia, which is
holding it's annual convention aboard
the Norfolk and Washington Line
steamer Norfolk, arrived at Old Point
to-day. The party came to this city
and visited the shipyard and other
points of interest. Among the spe-
cial guests on the steamer was Secre-
tary of the Treasury Shaw and
daughter, Controller of the Currency
William II. Ridgeley, and Ellis H.
Roberts, treasurer of the United
States.
On the way down from Washington
Thursday Secretary Shaw made very
significant speech, taking a decidedly
optimistic view of the business pros
poets of the country.
The secretary said that we either
must issue more bonds as a basis for
national bank circulation or provide
some substitute. The present volume
of government bonds, he said, is in
sufficient and a recent demand for &c.
100000 Of government bonds conse-
quently had advanced the price of
government bonds to figure that
made national bank circulation UNI
profitable.
But, he added, any currency system
adopted must provide for a complete
exchangeability of form of money, so
that our people never would have
cause to look twice at bills presented
in regular course of business.
Speaking of the functions of a bank,
he said its success should not be meas
ured by it's dividends, but by its sol
vencv, conservatism and promptness
to respond to it's customers legitimate
needs. Its reserves in his opinion
should be available for use in times
of emergency and were not intended
to be buried and never touched.
The recent deposits of public moneys
and offers to redeem bonds had not
been made, he went on, with any ex-
| pectation of aiding the stock market,
| but solely to assure the business men
of the country there would be no money
| famine this autumn
Go home" he said to the bankers,
land tell your merchants and your
manufacturers and your railroad peo-
pie that you are still doing business at
| the old stand and expect to remain
| Stand by the business interests of the
country and all will be we'll. The pros
perity of the American people is not
measured by the price of stocks and
bonds, but by the output of our farms
and our factories and the profitable
employment of labor
| Roberts stands by Gold.
| Washington. Sept. 25.-Ellis H.
Roberts, Treasurer of the United states,
who ie attending the joint convention
of the Maryland and District of
| Columbia Bankers Association, which
| is being held on board a steamer on
the Potomac river, tonight delivered
| the following address before that con-
vention
Current financial discussion deals,
/ in much the larger part. with national
bank notes. They constitute less than
one-sixth of our stock of money and
no legislation can change that ratio
| very materially. Gold on the other
hand furnishes hard on to one-half of
our stock, and 1t gave nearly 1900
| 600 last month.
rock bottom of gold. $2,S8S, 902, 17S NOM
ey in circulation. gold in coin and
certificates is $1,014, 530,07S; bank notes
are just less than $500, OD0,00 Or
again, look at the Treasury holdings.
The gold there is to-day the largest
| sum ever recorded, 1858, 100000. Our
| treasury holds three and nine-tenths
times the amount Of gold belonging to
| the Bank of England, which is $780,
| $4,000; it is more than three and eight
| tenths times that of the Imperial
| German Bank.
Let us get a little nearer to bank
vaults and to the pockets of the peo-
| pie. The gold coin and certificates in
, circulation Sept i, 1885, was 1866, 1885,
165, which was 81 per cent. of the to-
| tall BY the first of the present month,
| this factor had become $1,014.531, 07S, or
| AZ per cent of the whole. Here in the
| gold currency of the land is a gain of
! S34S, 364910 within five years. This is
| the strength of our circulating medium
| and the crown as we'll as the corner
stone of our financial system.
"But--and there is a but--credit is
based upon our gold, and it is possible
| to initiate and exploit ii to a dangerous
| degree. Recent chronicles are not with
| out illustrations. This process of at
| tenuation and its rapidity and extent,
| present the real problems of the situa-
| ton. In the meanwhile. and l believe
| for long time, the nations prosper
| ity rests on sure and steadfast foun-
Ia