The Nevada County picayune., 1906-08-17
THE MONEY QUESTION.

this there is S332, 472, AS. in the treasury, leaving $2,757, 349, 438 In the banks, other public treasu- rles, private hoards and in circu- latlon, The amount of money out side of the U. s. Treasury on Jan. 1887, as given by the Secretary Tn his statement issued the first day of this month was$S16, 966, 72l Thus 1t will be seem that the a. mount of money in circulation is more than three times as much as It was twenty-seven years ago. But the circulation per capita has not quite doubled in that time. The per capita June 1, 1879, was $l6.65 while now it is S32.52. There Is some reason to believe that American visitors to Europe have in the last twenty-five years
  taken large sums of gold to that country, of which there is no rec ord and that therefore the Sec retary's estimate of gold in this country is probably much too high Be this as it may, the fact remains that there has been a large in- crease in the supply of money in the United States since the terri ply hard times of the seventies. The increase since the first Popu- list national convention, which demanded an increase in the mon- ey volume to not less than fifty dollars per capita, has amounted to not far from fifteen handred million dollar (1,500, 900, ,000.) ) However. large as this increase is 1t has brought the circulation up to only $32. B per capita, as there as been a greai increase il popu- lation. The effect of this increase on the money volume has been good and had it not been, the con- tention of the Greenbackers and Populists would have been dis proved. But there is yet not near enough money. The present supply will not pay a years taxes and a years interest on public and private indebtness. There is still a money drouth and it is doubtful whether fifty dol lars per capita would be suffi cient. It will require about one and one-half billions of dollars more money to make the volume equal to fifty dollars for each per son. Just about one-half of the money of this country is gold. No one can tell whether large part of this gold will be sent to for eign countries in the next few years. At the present time gold is coming this way, but next year it may be going out. Twenty seven years ago the Greenback- CTS were claiming that the less than twenty dollars per capita was not enough, that the small volume of money was running the country. John Sherman and oth- CT hard money men claimed there was plenty of money and really favored further reduction want ed the greenbacks retired, the coinage of silver discontinued, and after congress had ordered the coinage of silver renewed Sherman and his followers, began a fight to repeal the law, making all sorts of sports of the silver dol lar, intimating that the country would go to to the dogs if the coin- age was kept up, calling the dollar a 95-cent dollar, a dishonest dol lar, the dollar of the repudiator &c.. &c. But neither old party cared to risk the ~repeal of the law until 1893, when the Demo- cratic party, in full power, suicid- ed by repeating the silver law. But before the repeal was accom- plished over five hundred million silver dollars and silver purchase notes had been added to the mon-