Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1907-11-07
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent.

| " "i otiCSo iiuo Nulleu ille dllCll
ton OF politicians toa thing that
should have been settled at the
last session of Congress. That is
the reform of the currency. This
is a subject that has been brou' t
up atalmost every session for
a number of years and that last
year came within q measurable
distance OF being genaetd into law.
Since the serious panic of t h G
past few days the need of action
has been Suated and per-
haps this session something def
mite will be done.
Senator Elkins, just after a
long talk with the President said
that there would be a currency
bill introduced early in the next
session and while he did not say
specifically that it would have
the backing of the President,
that is tolerably well understood.
The Senator said what is quite
true, and that is that the panic
was due more to business pros
perity than to business depres-
le.on. This sounds paradoxical,
but it is true. The business of the
country has been increasing for
the past few years at the rate OF
.about 30 per cent per annum.
The increase in the real money
has been only about 5 per cent.
and this leaves o gap of 25 per
cent that has to be bridged in
with credit. When the credit of
the community (Which is only
confidence) is shaken. then there
is trouble. The President h a s
been accused of shaking the con-
tidence of the public and t h is
NAV be true to the extent Ofhay
ing pointed out some OF the fl
nancial croOkedness that h a S
been going on in the big corpo-
rations. But leaving that out OF
the question, the country needs
more money, or at least needs to
be able to lay hand on it when it
is needed in acrisis. The proposal
for a more elastic currency as
framed at the last session @Con-
gress was to allow the b an k S
that needed it to issue addition
al note circulation up to a large
percentage of their capital stock.
This note circulation was to lie
taxed rather heavily so that when
the banks had no actual need of
it they would be glad to retire it
and thus escape the tax. But
when real mOnev was wanted, as
it WAS in New York a few days a.
90, the banks would have been
only too thankful to pay any
reasonable tax on it if t h v
could have gotten it. The princi-
pal reason that no action has
been taken on currency in the
past has beenthat it was so ca
sy to put it of. But the recent
sharp lesson is apt to make the
Legislature get busy.
There is talk now about send
ing the battleshlp squadron to
the Pacific and leaving it there
indefinitely. Whetheritis brought
back will depend largely on Con-
gress and partly on the Presi-
dent. 1t is suspected that t h e
President would not he displeas-
ed if the squadron were leftin the
Pacific and another feet built to
take it's place in the Atlantic. 1t
will cost about a million and u
half to send it to the Pacific and
there will be no money available
to bring it back till Congress APP
propriates some. Ii it fails to do
this, the squadron will stay where
it is sent. OF course sending it
home would not cost so much as
building one new battleship, but
then there would be a agreat temp
tation to fix up a fresh Atlantic
squadron once the old one were
out of the way and the need OF it
were felt.
Rafopp the souadron starts on