The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-15
Says AIdricRs Measure E Wrong
 and Vicious
.FAVORS GOVERNMENT NOTES
Georgian Declares That the United States Has Better Right To Issue
 Money Than Any of the
 National Banks.

Washington, February 14.-The Senate today gave attention to a speech on the Aldrieh currency bill by Senator Clay of Georgia. MT. Clay's declarations in favor of the issuance of paper money by the government provoked a controversy be- tween him and republican senator's Sen ators Lodge and Teller both gave their views on the policy of issuing paper money by the government. At 2:30 D. m, the Senate adjourned until Monday.
 Senator Clay analysed the Aldrch bill and declared it was wrong and vicious and would give no relief to the south anu rest. He contended that it simply en- larged the powers of the national banks and that Congress was relinquishing the sovereign right to issue and circulate money, which it ought never 10 do The plan of the minority in the Senate for the government to issue S50Oo ,0OO of treasury notes and to use them in paying the expenses of the government that they might find their way into all the channels of trade was advocated by him.
 MT. Clay said there are now in cir culation $350,000,000 of treasury notes, not costing the government anything and per- forming all the functions of money, and that this amount could be easily in- creased $500,O00,00O without in any way disturbing our finances and could not possibly result in depreciated currency.
 State bonds, city bonds and municipal bonds of the south and west, he con- tended, were now being held by eastern capitalists, and that the south and west could not secure any additional circula- ton by making those bonds a basis of circulation, as they had already been sold in the east. He declared that the class of railroad bonds mentioned in the Aldrich bill applied solely to the railroads in the east, and the railroads in the south and west had never paid dividends, as provided in the Aldrich bill. The bill, he said, was drawn in favor of the rich and powerful, enabling them to control the money issue, and it was not in the interest of the American people. He de- clared he stood by the doctrine once ad- vocated by John c. Calhoun, Thomas Benton and Andrew Jackson, that our money ought to be gold and silver, or paper money issued by the government He ridiculed the idea that additional treas ury notes would depreciate because we did not have the gold to redeem them
 Strain on Government.
 'If the Aldrich bill becomes a law said MT. Clay, and the government guar arteed the redemption in gold of the ad- ditional notes issued by the national banks, would not this be as great a strain on the government reserve as treasury notes?"
 Senator Clay contended that the people prefer paper money and that there was no raid on the treasury now to have the paper money redeemed in gold He did not maintain that an unlimited amount of paper money could be issued but said the issue should be guarded and limited in amount to meet the needs and actual demands of the country. He criticised severely the financial policy of the gov ernment in the past in making bonds and all goernment obligations redeemable in gold
 But said Senator Clay, 'if our paper issue should be carefully guaranteed and limited in quantity and made a legal ten- der in the pa yInent Of debts, possessing and enjoying all the functions of money, then it will not depreciate in value. and will be as good as gold and silver be- cause 1t will have back of it the entire resources of this great republc-aiI of our agricultural products, all of our banking capital, all of our real estate and all of our property os every class and kind = just the same property that is now back of all the obligations of the United States"
 Paper Money Is Fiat Money. !.
 Talk abors fiat money said the sen- ator, "all of the paper money we have in circulation tooay, except the gold cer- tifeates. is lat money. to a large ex- tent-you- national bs,ia notes are based upon bonds of the Ui.lted States, and while they aye r4l, mable ir gold no one will conteni that we have the gold to redeem lnent They al c good because the pledges of the government are behind them, and they have been made money by an act of Consless and legal tender in the payment of debts"
 Congress was criticised by the senator for allowing surplus of $500. .0OO,OoO to ac- cumulate m the treasury. If this money was not needed to pay the expenses of the government he said, it ought to have been left in the hands of the people. He disapproved the policy of the government in allowing deposits to remain in the banks without interest He did not blame the Secretary of the Treasury for placing this money in the national banks, as it was better there than in the treasury, but he contended that it would have been bet ter had the money never been collected by taxation. A we'll regulated government city or state he said never collected from its citizens taxes that it did not need to pay the expenses of the govern ment.
 MT. Clay commended in the highest terms the manly fight made by Andrew Jackson against the banks issuing money, and read from a speech Calhoun deliver cred on the floor of the Senate, and read a letter written by Thomas E. Watson giving his views on money.
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