The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-14
pERIoo OF IMITATION.

Taking everything into consideration,
the business condition of the United
states gives promise OF returning to
something like normal in the near fu-
ture. unless, perchance. there should be
a failure Of crops, which is not antici-
pated. and which could only be partial
IN any event. The greatest menace to
prosperity at the present time is our
currency system. On this subject Hen
~ CIews, the Wall street banker and
broker, sends out the following in his
weekly market letter:
Al nome the ease Of money is greatly
aggravated BY the mass Of paper injected
INTO our currency. On April 1 the amount
of circulation IN the United states was
s. .0S6 000 90. an increase, compared Win
last year. amounting TO more than SlOtUVo-
600 of which Sc 600 600 was in bank notes,
and this In spite of the provision allow
ing the withdrawal of sSO00O0 annually:
Meanwhile, the treasury lost Szl,V9yOV Ol
gold during the same period Such an
abnormal amount of paper currency al
time Of business depression when money
is not wanted is working out It's newt
ably undesirable res suits. There IS no use
Disgusting the fact that We are 0InIlhg
into A period OF initiation. mainly due 10
mo fact that our rapid bOnd-secured cur
renCy system fails to adapt itself 10 tiae
fluctuating requirements OF business
Were our currency based upon scientiIic
principles il would now be contracting,
instead Of expanding. and interest rates
would be upon a more natural OASIS.
Very shortly we shall have another pogo
issue for the Panama canal, and this may
be depended upon to still further increase
our currency supply with call money go
ing begging at ~ per cent to : per cent
and time money superintendent dividend
paying stocks by contrast naturally are
made to appear cheap. This state OF al
fairs may last for some time to come, yet
that should not blind the eyes OF the
prudent to the fact that an advance on /
purely inflationary conditions cannot De
continued indefinitely, and must unless
checked provoke unpleasant consequences
in the indefinite future. Another feature
in connection with the monetary situation
is that a redundancy of paper money al
Wayg tends TO drive out gold. We have
already returned all of the precious metal !
brought in after the panic, and unless we
are favored with much larger crops next
autumn. and plenty for export, we may
have to face another heavy effluX OF gold
to nav for fncrea sing importations, unless
we can settle our international trade bal
HnCe by manufactured products or secur-
tiles.
II is now generally conceded that the
emergency" curren-
cy law is a detriment instead of a help.
and that the issuance of treasury GER
Ghcates by Secretary Cortelyou was
foolish, as well as Illegal The tariff
bill, as passed by the house. carries a
provision for treasury certificates to the
amount of two or three hundred million
dollars, as well as the issuance of more
canal bonds. With gold leaving the
country for both Europe and South
America, it can readily be seen that |
there is just cause for apprehension on |
the part of the business men and finan- |
ciers in the east.
Fortunately, the west is not greatly |
affected by the recent panic, and the |
country as a whole is too rich to suffer |
from unwise Republican |
legislation.