Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-12-13

Secretary Shaw's Report Shows
Country's Great ProSperfty.

secretary ShaN's Report Shows
Country's Great Prosperity.
The unprecedented prosperity of the
United States is reflected in the report
of the retiring Secretary of the Treas
ury, Mr.. Shaw, whose statistics were
filed with the House.
Never before has there been so much
gold in the United States treasury. ac-
cording to the report. On Oct. 10 there
was SS71,S93,S99.7 of the precious
metal stored in the vaults. Of the
$3.50 chartered national banks, AS
failed and 1,143 were placed in volun-
tary liquidation, and since the estab-
lishment of the national banking sys-
TEN in 1868. statistics show that cred
itors Of these insolvent institutions re-
ceived rs per cent of their claims, on
an average. The money in circulation
in the United States now amounts to
50, 1856, 646,62S, or $33.0S per capita.
The outstanding principal of the public
debt on June 80 was 1896, 159, 40, an
increase of $500. Including the issue
of Panama bonds the public debt Nov.
1 was 1925, 159,250.
The past fiscal year shows the larg-
est customs receipts in the history Of
the country. Over 100000 was col
lected in customs.
In speaking of the weakness of the
currency system, Mr.. Shaw says that
the harvest of 1906 strained well nigh
70 tho limit tba nradit p~ocSihiIitv of tbo
country, and as to his action at the
time, which met much criticism, he
says:
The government guarantees against
yellow fever; it spends millions to pro-
tect the people against unwholesome
food; it inspects banks in the interest
of depositors, and does Il thousand 9th
er things to safeguard the people
against disaster of various kinds. This
policy of governmental supervision re-
ceives universal appreciation. Believ-
ing it to be the duty of the government
also to protect tie people against finau-
cial panics, which in this country have
caused mere mental and more physical
SulIClIIS lIdh al tlC DIdSuCS hllONh "
man, and recognizing that under our
system no possible cooperation can be
secured among banks, each independent
of the other, and finding these institu-
lions in the interior sending their mon
ey to be loaned on call in the cities, and
the reserve of the country, even in the
idle season, very low, the Secretary of
the Treasury undertook the task of
making some slight provision for the
inevitable. He withdrew from the chan
nels of trade $60,000,00O and locked it
up. This was accumulated in part by
excessive revenues and in part by de-
liberate and premeditated Withdrawals.
His only excuse for withdrawing the
peoples money when they did not need
it, and when its presence invited spec
ulation, was to have it ready to restore
when they did need it, and when it's
absence would bring certain disaster"
Secretary Shaw points out various
ways in which the dealings of his de-
partment with national banks could be
put upon such a basis as to act as a
preventive of panics here and abroad.
In this connection he says: IF the
Secretary of the Treasury were given
$1OO,OOO,0OO to be deposited with the
banks or withdrawn as he might deem
expedient, and if in addition he were
clothed with authority over the re-
serves of the several banks, with power
m ooptroot tba national hapLy oirc,1la-
ton at pleasure, in my judgment no
panic as distinguished from industrial
stagnation could threaten either the
United States or Europe that l could
not avert"
The Secretary's report is issued in
the revised spelling form, as advocated
by President Roosevelt.