The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-08-15
Currency Reform.
Why 1t Cannot Be Taken Out of the
Field Of Politics.

term are included all the various
schemes for providing additional cir
eulatiOn upon an adequate foundation
Of security suggested within a year or
two-the currency question is to be
dealt with, We are told, from ma
tonal and scientific rather than a
partisan point of view" Hence Re-
publican members of the subcom.
mittee of the Senate Finance Commit
tee, who recently met at Senator Al
drich's home in Rhode Island, and
who subsequently visited the Presi
dent at Oyster Bay, are to consult
with their Democratic colleagues upon
the committee before submitting a bill
to the Senate, with the view of ia
cilitating its passage through both
houses" 1t is thus, at any rate, that
Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Plat, and
Spooner hope to devise a scheme
which will provide a flexible currency,
capable of expansion and contraction,
and capable, also, of automatically re-
spending to the varying needs of com
merce.
All this sounds mighty we'll, and is
an Improvement, no doubt, upon the
good old-fashioned Car style of do
ing business, which ignored the mi
rority altogether and had precious
Gttle use for the Republican rank and
file except to demand from it prompt
acquiescenee IN the DEGREES of the
leaders. Yet, after all is said that can
be said upon the subject, we venture
to assert that the currency question
will never be taken out of the realm
Of partisan politics; and to think that
!: viii is to indulge, in our opinion, in
an "iridescent dream"
The cry is raised that more eurren-
cy is required to do the business of the
country, though the per capita cireu-
lation has more than kept up with the
increase in population. Just now the
old, stale, and threadbare bugabOo of
moving the crops" Is drafted into
service again. A stringency IN the
money market, it is said, must be the
result-with crops unharvested OF
rotting IN railway sheds throughout
the country-if Eastern banks should
find themselves unable to send money
TO the West. A picture Of CONNER
cial paralysis and of industrial de-
preston and stagnation IS artfully
drawn to alarm the people and to
force the Government into demanding
Of Congress that it enter into schemes
for securing an "elastic" currency.
The country, in a word, Will 90 to the
"demnition bow-wows" If something
Is not done TO "reheve the situation"
Ia casting about, however, for
means to relieve the situation" we
should think that common sense would
/ suggest the desirabiity Of ascertain
( ing in the first instance what are the
( causes which produce the situation to
be relieved. That done, an intelligent
remedy, affording permanent relief
not a mere makeshift- might, per
haps, be devised and applied. Arc
/ Messrs. AldIich, Allison, Plat, and
! Spooner IN search of such a remedy
or are not the lines upon which they
are working designed merely to tide
over present difficulties by playing
into the hands of speculative fnan-
GERS whose pressing need just now Is
easy money!"
The functions Of the Treasury, in
our opinion, should begin and end
with the collection and disbursement
Of the revenue If the Government
/ finds that its income exceeds its legiti-
mate expenditures by $50,000,000
every year, the proper way to restore
! that $5O,000,000 to circulation Is nor
bv doing it out to banks who may
want money and are willing to pay
for It's use, say, IL per cent, while
they charge the people who borrow
from them 5 and 6 per cent, but by
reducing the taxes TO the point where
the income and disbursements Of the
Government viii be more evenly bal
| anced than they are now. la other