Norwich bulletin., 1922-10-07

The struggle af he American people to eFeive . satisfactory naane5 system is not yet ended. says Rayraond T. Baker. for r1sar director of the U. S. mint. in fore word to e-The Story of Uncle Sarn's Meaey." b the ortebef Mentor.
 Tt is unfortunately tFue,n says Mir. Baker, a-that this struggle has not yet been crowned with success but. after ali money, whether sound or unsound, stabae er unstable, is only a symbol of the things that make the nation rich and ftrong."
 Tn cashing g check" says .ths writer. who is q government official, and an au- ther1ty on.franee. ssy0u have received, let us say, five $t1 bills When you examine them you find that. although each bill is good for s1o. all of them are different in character. Now, what is the difference between these bills. and what security is back of each of them?
 DiRerezee ia Bilis-"0ne of your bills is a gold certiacate-and another silver certificate. Each of these represents an actual deposit of precious metal in the treasury-the former in the shape of gold coin or bullion, and the latter in the shape of silver deliars. The gold and silver thus deposited cannot be used for any purpose except to redeem gold and silver certificates, so these bills are safely se- cured by metal on deposit.
 "The next bill that you examine Is not | 3 certificate. but simply one of Uncle Sam's profniRsory notes officially known as United States notes, but popuiarly known 1 as 'greenhacks or legal tender The amount outstanding of such notes is Him. \ tied by law to $S46.6Sl ,016. New notes merely replace those turned in for re- l demptien, and do not increase the total value. To secure these notes the govern ment keeps in the treasury a gold re-
 serve,' which is now mora than $780, 1 ooo, ,o0o
 Your fourth note is federal reserve
 bank note. Such notes bear the promise 1 of Uncle Sam, but they arc issued only l through the twelve federal reserve banks i and therefore partake of the natuve of
 bank notes.
 Your fifth biii proves to be bank
 note issued, say, by the First aNtional l bank of Paterson. N. J. Its security is
 provided for by the national bank act Tn order to issue bank notes, every national bank has to rEake a deposit of government bonds in the United States treasury equal
 in amount to the notes to be issued Il must also maintain with the treasurer oi the United States redemption fund ir lawful money equal to 5 per cent. of its outstanding notes.
 l Amerfca's Expe4ience-"on such se cnrity, mere piece of paper can be made worth S1, s5, s10. or more. It was only after many years of financial experiment that 8 new country like the United States
 could establish it's financial system on 2 secure basis. During those years, many experiments were tried-some of then
 very costly. Many mistakes were made
 and a few high crimes committed. Int
 story of Uncle Sams money is full of i'm
 portant. grave and some dramatic incl
 dents.
 Between Colonial days, when Wampum
 dried fish. tobacco, corn, rye, rice ant warehouse receipts served as money, tl
 the establishment of the federal reserv bank system in 1913. there was periot of growth marked by bank failures, pan ies suspension of pigments, huctuation
 of metal prices, apd similar occurrences , during which business was anything bu stable. An act of congress passed in 187
 made no provision for the ninting of sil
 yer dollars. These coins had becom
 practically obsolete because the marke price of silver was so high that there wa . no profit in offering ft at the hints fo
 free coinage. Moreover. the actual mone : of the country was paper, and peopl
 were not interested in coinage problem!
 A few years later, however. the develop ment of rich silver mines in Nevada an other western states brought down tn ? price of this metal below the sixteen -to one ratio previously fixed for coins, an it's producers discovered that they ha been deprived of a valuable priyileg when its free coinage was discontinued Thus an outcry arose over the crime ( |. E1S7s,' and the country was plunged the great free silver controversy whic 3 ragged for several years.
 . The Federal Reserve systena-'-Tfle la; . great event in our monetary history wa : the establishment of the federal reserv . banking system Under this system a
 the national banks, and many of the stat . banks and trust companies, are tied tt