Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-30
WILL REDUCE KIND OF
PAPER MONEY PRINTED
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

of a silver certificate may obtain i
silver dollar in exchange for it
when he desires. The same is true
OF the good certificate. Federal Re-
serve Notes have security consisting
OF a f1uctuating amount of gold and
the remainder made up of CONNER
cial paper, that Is, promissory notes,
acceptances and such security. put
up as collateral for loans at Fed
.eral reserve banks, and representing
goods having a tangible and LIQUID
vadue' AT present there is nearly
10O per cent gold security for Fed
era1 Reserve notes because the
volume of borrowing is light. Under
the law. the proportion of gold se-
cur1ty may not drop below 40 per
cent.
All Kinds as Good as Gold
Although the seven different
Kinds of security, there is a general
policy of the government to make
all money literally as good as gold
It Is the policy to make every kind
Of paper currency as good as any
other kind and to this end there is q
law authorizing the treasury to pro
vide itself with gold bullion, when
occasion arises, to maintain the par
ity OF all money with gold.
Ihis being the case, the advocates
OF single type Of money favor the
removal of the differences in the
types of money. casting all the se-
cu1ty into one central pool and
giving all money the same claim
upon the security. Anyone wanting
gold for his paper currency could
have it; anyone wanting silver cou'd
have that The security would be
composed of both gold and silver
ana the paper currency would be
readily exchanged for either,
Undoubtedly such a plan would
be opposed on the ground that it is
a. sort of bi-metallism and wolld
tend to cheaper the value of gold.
This is not the aspect of the situa-
ton in which the reform has been
considered in the offices of the
treasurer Of the United States. The
simplif1cation of handling and the
safeguard against counterfeiting-
what might be called physical and
mechanical rather than fiscal and
monetary considerations-are the
elements of particular interest to the
treasurer.
Under the present system when
notes come in for redemption, each
SOPdI dl0 hlHu must De sorted out
and accounted for separately to
keep the records straight. Hundre is
of persons are employed all the year
round just to do this work and this
operation is multiplied by the
counting and sorting in all the banks
throughout the country. 1t will be
seen that to have just one kind of
money would contract this work to
a minimum. In the manufacture
many plates have to be engraved
at great expense and stocks of the
various kinds OF paper have to be
kept on hand. For instance, the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
must maintain q stock for each Of
the twelve Federal Reserve Banks,
ready for delivery on requisition,
This takes up great deal of stor-
aga space.
Foreign countries have no such
variety of notes as the United
States. Great Britain has two
kinds, Bank of England and treas-
ury notes and most countries have
but one kind. These, of course, ara
in various denominations.
1t is scarcely likely that such a
change will be made any time soon
as reforms in money are difficult
to bring about. However, no littls
study Is being given to the problem
and, meantime, the country is pay
ing out two or three millions a. year
which could be saved by simplifying
American currency.