Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-12-08
M'VEAGH WANTS
CURRENCY REFORM
He Advocates Extension of
Scope of National Bank
ing Laws
CLEAN UP OF CUSTOM SERVICE
Businesslike Methods in Daily
Transactions Of Government
Departments.

Washington, Dec. S.--Currency re-
form; extension of the scope Of the
national banking laws. in the event
of no immediate general changes in
I the monetary system; civil service re
tirements, customs service free from
{ practical" politics; business-Hke
/ methods III the daily transactions of
/ the government and a general aboli-
! ton OF red tape wherever it clogs the
wheels OF governments business, are
among the recommendations contain
/ ed in the annual report of Franklin
! MacNeagb, secretary Of treasury pre-
sented to Congress today. The eX-
! penses Of government in the fiscal
! year 1872. for which this session OF
! Congress is asked to appropriate, are
estimated at $685., 494,0t312. The es-
timatad expenditures Of the Panama
canal are given as $56.920.S4769 max
ing a total Of $GS7414S60.Sl. The es.
Inmates. if carried out, represent net
savings of about 1G,000,000 in the ex.
erutiye departments as compared with
the appropriations for the curernt fis.
! cal
Receipts for 1912, Secretary Mac
Veagh estimates. will be $3.50, 900, 900,
which would leave an ordinary sur.
plus of round $50,000,000. If the
treasury should continue to pay for
the Panama canal out of the cash
drawer as at present, such a surplus
would be turned to a deficit of S7,414,,
S60S1.
Secretary MacVeagh, expresses the
hope that the monetary question will
come into Congress detached from
sectional or political considerations.
Our system can fairly be called
panic breeding system" he says,
whereas every other great national
banking and currency system is panic
preventing. AS long as we continue
under our present system we are liza
bic to panics and the devastations of
panics reach Republicans and Demo
Gratis and all parts of the country
alike. Panics are no longer necessary
the government to say whether we
shall have panics in the future or not
1t is mere matter of choice
"We have no system of reserves;
our banking system destroys them. 1t
concentrates in New York what are
pretended to be reserves and then
forces the New York banks to lend
and abolish them Our system in
stead of building up a reserve, de-
stroys it as fast as it inclines to ac-
cumulate."
In connection with his criticism of
the money system, one of the secre-
tary's most important recommends
tions concerns future issues of Pana-
ma bonds of which $290,0OO,0 900 were
authorized by the tariff act. The sec
retary's renews the recommendations
made last year for legislation to tax
the new bonds at one and one-half
pel cent if used by national banks for
circulation and intimates, as was an
nounced in news dispatches a few
days ago, that it might be more pre-
ferable to issue the new securities for
investment purposes only at a rate
of three per cent.
AS check against the use of the
bonds as the basis for further infla.
ton OF the national bank currency, he
suggests that circulation tax of
even two per cent would have the eff
feet Of making them Improbable to
banks to use for such a purpose and
at the same time would make them
attractive to investors without injur-
ing the two per cent bonds of which
more than S700,000,0O0 are outstand.
ing. Another means of accomplish
ing the same end, the secretary sug-
gests, would be for Congress to au-
thorize an issue of $50,000,O 900 or
$1O0,000,000 of the bonds at three per
cent without the circulation provi.
vision. If there is no prospect of i'm
mediate change in the monetary sys-
TEN, the secretary thinks the Ameri-
can national banking system should
be developed to perform an internal
function.
There Is clear need of banking
facilities in foreign countries where
there is American commerce, he saws.
We shall never be full fledged
commercial nation" he says, unless
we have merchant ships of our own
and foreign banks of our own. We
should have banks at all ports that are
important to our commerce.
The treasury's relations with the
business communities are unbusiness-
like, artificial and burdensome, the
secretary says, and he recommends
legislation to permit the payment of
revenue to the government by certi-
fled check guarding the government
against loss.
The recommendation that the treas.
ury be authorized to issue gold certifi.
Gates against gold bullion and for
eign gold coin is renewed
Reviewing the discovery of frauds
and the subsequent reorganization of
tie customs service, Secretary Mac
veagh urges appropriations for re.
wards to those who aid the govern.
ment.
The rehabilitation of the customs
service at New York has been marked.
he says, by decided elimination of
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