The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-07

regretted the fact that the commercial requirements of this particular state pre- vented her from foisting upor 1t her own
 Scheme for Gold Basis.
 She never made any effort, therefore, to keep statistics, and while 1t Is believed that there are something like g, 100000 of the silver in existence, nothing definite is purpose of thu republic, as exempiihed by Senor Manuel E. Amador, Minister of Finance, and indorsed by. the Junf&, to this purpose 1t is proposed to use as much of the $l0.000,0O0 (goldl to be paid by the United States for the canal concession as may be required. |
 The plan as far as it has been outlined Is to dep9sfL the necessary gold in the pub lie treasury as guarantee fund, and then issue a paper currency. redeemable in gold, and by proper legislation fix a rate of exchange as between gold or the gold secured paper and silver. Should th4g plan be adopted the rate of exchange will probably be fixed at H gold for g. silver. and silver dollars and 6alf-doI!ars once received at the treasury will not be reissued, except when received in the form of an intrinsically valuable subsio-
 Much d.filculty is, however. expected be- fore this plan can be put into operation. All Panama avoids Colombian paper as 1t will handle the worthless stun. Silver has been so long in use that no other money. except gold. is known. the ignor- ance of any other being so extensive that among the natives Anne ican nickels and coppers are refused when offered. The officials all realize that 1t will be a, l long and tedious task to educate the peo- pie to understand that paper, eurren y worth its face yalae. To overcome this | national prejudice against papeK will De | the greatest difficulty In the way Of ac- ceptanee of the plan for the Pana%1dsians nonf1dia upon the ratification of the canal ire aty | and the early payment to them of the | $1o.OO0.e09 In Anne. ican gold:
 Revenues of the Republic. This matter of converting the currency
 system from a depreciated and varying | silver basis to the gold standard Is, how | ever. the smaller horn ..Or tl:e financial
 dilemma confronting Panama. Under the Il nient are supposed to have aggregated
 about $500 900 annually. This amount may not be exact. as the statistics are very faulty. Half a million is given. however, l as a safe estimate for purposes of calcu- IatiOn.
 These revenues were derived from sev-
 eral sources. and were supposed to be oi
 other for the departmental exchequer. Colombia managed very successfully to gobble all of it. but the dictionary divls-
 lon Is still used in the bookkeeping. The l national share came from an import tax
 on alcoholic liquors, from a nominal taS
 on real estate. and from the sale of cer- tain of the concessions that have proved
 such a bane to the isthmus The depart: | mental revenues were variously derived | from a tax on the production of alcoholic liquors, from nominal license fee as sessed against saloons, and from the saie of certain other concessions. The amount named and the sources from which it was l derived does not include the sum of 2 50
 900 (goid) annually paid by the canal com
 pany for it's concession. Of this amount