Weekly journal-miner., 1913-08-06
MODERN POPULISTS.

The real difficulty in the way Of the formulation of currency policy by the Democrats is that the party IS infected with an inveterate pop ulism, the germs of which multiply rapidly whenever finance is con- sidered. President Wilson, of course, is not tainted with this disease. He understands that the presses of the country backed by the fiat of the nation cannot make money, but such belief is rife in the ranks of the ma jority in Congress.
 Populism in its rankest and crassest form finds expression in the proposals of Congressman Henry, of Texas, for three different kinds of money. We have just seen an outline of the plan of the Lone Star Statesman. He would have the gov ernment issue three hundred million dollars of commercial currency" two hundred millions of industrial currency" and two hundred millions of agricultural currency" What these phrases mean as response to the business demand for a Flexible currency" is possibly known to MT. Henry. but we have not seen his explanation. They convey no mean .,o 4o opx, 0ue e1ce
 If MT. Henry means that agricul- turaI currency is to be used by agri- culturalists only. he gives less to the farmers than they now have. Also, he is far out of the proportion of one sort of business to another. The same objection holds against industrial and commercial currency. With the government obligated to keep all kinds of currency at a parity, it would seem that the fewer kinds issued would be the better. The Henry proposals are but an other outburst of populism, such as existed when it was proposed to base currency on wheat in elevators, cotton in warehouses, meat in pack ing plants-just as though the money used to move these products from their places of storage was not based to some extent on the value of the products themselves.
 The currency of the country, not r.,r1 h.- Io is based on the credit justified by all the products of the nation. This is an economic fact laid down by all the writers from Adam Smith to the present day. But in the opinion of Secretary of the Treasury Me Adoo, the credit money might have been much expanded in the United States, hence, his proposition to ac- cept State and municipal bonds and commercial paper as security for treasury deposits. If such security is sufficient for treasury deposits, they are sufficient for the issuance of bank notes.
 The proposal to have different kinds of money based on different industries would be weakening to the financial fiber of the country. If farming should have a bad year, agricultural currency would have hard time to maintain itself. The same would be true of industrial and commercial currencies under ad- verse circumstances. Such condi- tions would be sure to produce dis orders under MT. Henry's brand of populism. The general currency sys- tenn proposed by the President would enable special industries to tide over with the aid of those that had prospered.
 The whole Henry movement shows the danger of allowing class and trade distinctions to creep into con sideration of a problem like that of the currency system of the country The President is said to have labor ed with the populists of the com mittee. Having failed to move them he proposes 10 have the sane mem bers of the committee report the bill | to the Democratic caucus which will be done as soon as the revised bill can be printed.
 The changes agreed upon finally | by the majority of the committee are good, if for no other reason, be- eause they do not make such radical ]