The independent., 1904-12-22


Treasury notes of 1890. ..... 282, 900
Total decrease of legal ten
der ................ .S12,1 ,155,717
The increase has been as follows:
Subsidiary silver ............$ 701 ,235
National bank currency. 1887 ,57o
Total increase-not legal
tender except in very linn
lted degree .............$ 4,O9S,Sl0
Net decrease of general stock
of all kinds of money in the
United States .........$ S,056, ,907
There is held in the treasury as as
sets of the government $1,531 ,3S7 more
than on November /. This, if added to
the net decrease, shows the amount 10
be $9,58S, ,294 less in circulation on De-
cember / than on November /.
1t is worth while to call attention
again to the decrease In standard sill
yer dollars. Since September l last
there has been a destruction, in some
way, of s1,060,000 of this most import
ant standard money. How this has oc-
CURED, whether by expectation or by
being melted, | do not know. The fu-
ture will, no doubt, enlighten us. Dur
ing the same time there was an in
crease by coinage of $3,235,613 of sub
sidiary silver.
Recurring to what I was saying In
your last issue; no change in condi-
tons supposed to be necessary to re-
vive the Importance of the money ques-
tiOn has been suggested by any one of
the democratic leaders, who thinks the
question Tin allegiance because Of its
decreased Importance, except the i'm
piled suggestion Of possible decrease
in the production of gold. A stand
ard of payment" is necessarily nation
al. It is the result of national laws
and is not, therefore, international.
Primarily, the standard is the coin and
not the metal. If the STANDARD of
payment" is metallic, it is subject to
another danger quite as serious as de-
crease in production. AS standard
it can not be exported, but as metal
it can. The export Of legal tender
coin is, therefore, equivalent to the
destruction Of SO much standard of
payment money. The loss of gold dur
ing the last month was due to expor-
Lation.
If / have correctly outlined the two
purposes of the eastern financial and
banking interests-to limit the stand
ard of payment" to gold, and to procure
for national banks special privileges
permitting the imitation of bank cur
rency and bank credits-then the ex-
tent to which these purposes have al
ready been accomplished is sufficient
to make any talk about the money
question being allegiance or decreased
in Importance sound strange in the
ears of an economist But when it
is admitted to be known that the "ad-
vocateS of gold standard intend
crusade against silver now in circula-
tion," until it is destroyed as stand
ard of payment and it's use limited to
subsidiary coin; when it is admitted
to be known that they Intend to with
draw the greenbacks from circulation
and substitute bank notes that is,
destroy the greenback currency as
debt-paying (standard of payment)
when it is admitted to be
known that their purpose is to sub
stitute an asset currency, that is not
legal tender, for all the currency that
now exists, whether legal tender or
not, except gold, then any such claim
Of decreased Importance of the money
question is in allegiance, is absurd, no
difference whose mouth utters it or
whose pen writes it. What is the OBJ
ject lesson for which we must wait?
Has not evil enough been done? Must
we be silent until their purposes are
fully accomplished and the evil results
complete before an attempt is made 10
make the people understand it? What
right have these leaders, who have
been supposed to understand it, to
that the people can not and
will not understand it? Does not a
duty rest upon every man, who does
it, to do what he can 10
make others understand it?
Time will open the eyes Of the
people," says the editor of he Com
moner, "ard events will reveal the pur-
poses OF the financial group that has
its home In. Wall street" This is g