Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-05-22

Washington, D. c., May 1S.-The
average American who goes about with
rubber band around his roll of money
or who carries lone bill or two In ms
vest pocket, little appreciates the fact
that there are 10000 varieties of paper
currency printed by the federal govern
ment. The average individual pays al
most no attention to a detail OF the sort
of bills he accepts as legal tender. He Is
likely to be surprised IL he opens his
wallet and finds that Of the five bulls
contained In it no two are alike. He pays
no attention whaever to the fact that
some of those bills are silver certificates,
some of them are national BANK notes.
| and some of them are federal reserve
currency He merely has the feeling that
the United States government is PACK
Of them and that they are consequently
as good as gold.
In this last impression he is entirely
correct. All of these bills are equally
| good and il anybody uses as money
! paper which is not of proper issue:
paper which is counterfeit. the federal
government will trace that paper to It's
| origin and punish those who are respons-
Iible for it. Occasionally, however. the
! mere individual stops to wonder II TINS
extremely complicated currency is
| necessity or if it would be possible to get
along with much simplified method OF
| issue.
Reduce 10000 to Six.
| Judge James II. Moyle, an assistant
secretary of the treasury, having charge
| of the bureau Of engraving and printing;
| has been doing a bit of wondering ana
| converting his speculation into invesu-
! CATION TO find out if it is not possible to
| simplify the governments issue OF paper
money He has reached very definite
| conclu sinns. Those conclusions are to
| the effect that it would be possible,
advisable and economical to substitute
| for the 10000 varieties of notes now
! issued by the government, six varieties
! He believes that six varieties OF the
currency would serve the public purpose
| and the banking purpose of the nation as
! effectively as do the 10000 varieties. He
| believes that reducing a very complicated
currency to very simple currency would
| be In interest of the whole people, He
| demonstrates that such simpiificatfon or
| money manufacture and issue would
| save the government at last Sloo,oooo
/ year.
| Having become convinced from an in
| vestigation in the treasury department OF
| the advisability of simplifying the issue
of currency Judge Moyle took the ques-
| ton up with many individual bankers
and finally with the American bankers
association His plan has met with almost
| universal approval from the members OF
| this association No banker has pointed
! to insurmountable difficulties in the way
of this proposed simplification.
Experts Favor simpiifIcatIon.
Asa matter of fact the proposal is not
entirely new Experts In the treasury
| department have put it forth from time
| to time for the past ten years. John u.
| of rta Nyr N
! the treasury, proposed a similar reform
! in 1912 and bill was at that time in-
| troduced into the house of representa-
tiyes by John Q. Tilson of Connecticut.
The proposal to simplify the currency
| has often arisen since but has never
been fought to an actual enactment into
! law.
ment, the paper money when every
body uses, Is Topsy affair which
mereIy grew of itself. Every develop
% mont Of the banking system of the
nation seems to have called forth new
;ssue of paper money. So complicated
has grown the structure that few reo-
nj. have the temerity to say that they
understand II. that it Is ridiculously
complex and that it may be easily simpli-
fled ,.,.,,.,:
of notes Is the fact that each oahk hhs
considered that it must have distinct.
i've Issue. Take the case of the federal
reserve banks as an example, Inis case
;s comparatiyely simple because there
are hut Il such banks. For each OF the
10 howeyera. the treasury department
pripts fedsf reserve notes. The notes
are differenl ~ each case, each having
unon itA{X6t Ik<fef the particular bank
for wlsfch kl wScf<hd. Thus It is neces-
sarv M M ~ VSfk 12 different sets
~ Mr. 5<6cned. IL different
lots of 2kaa1 II II. 4 a kept in stock,
pose wonld currency
were not nj g. ee, nven
banks, II all - cur,
be onetwelfth an at
J present.