Year: 1879




worthy of the land we live in.





Secretary sherman's Recommendations.
The annual report of the Secretary of the
Treasury is required by law to be made to
Congress, while the reports of other heads
of departments are made to the President,
and the reports of subordinate officers to
the heads Of their respective departments.
These latter reports are generally published
in advance of the meeting of Congress !;
but the report of the Secretary Of
the Treasury, not having been de-
livered according to its address, can
not with propriety be published until after
Congress has received it. This year copy
has been surreptitiously obtained and sold,
but most of the matter it contains was
already known. All the important fiscal
transactions of the year have been eagerly
watched by the public and fully reported
in the press while they had the freshn ess
of news, and they have been more recently
restated with fulness of detail by Secretary
The great bulk of his report is,
therefore, ga thrice told tale," repeat
ing in an official form information
with which all who take an interest in
financial subjects were familiar. The re-
port, as q whole, is, therefore, mere docu-
ment to be laid away for convenient refer
ence.


II contains, however, two or three recon-
mendations which Mr.. Sherman had not
previously made in SO precise form, and
one or two which he now presents for the
first time. He asks Congress to relieve him
from the legal necessity OF coming two
million silver dollars per month but he had
already declared his intention to make this
recommendation and had expressed the same
views on every branch of the silver ques.
tion which he embodies in his official re-
port. He repeats his we'll known opinions
respecting the great excellence and value
of our national bank system, and adheres
to his frequently expressed belief that the
greenbacks are useful part Of our proper
circulation.


What is really new-new, we mean, as
coming from HMM relation to the cur
rency is his recommendation that the legal
tender quality be Withdrawn from the Treas
ury notes This is step in advance which
deserves the heartiest recognition and ap.
proval. 1t falls, indeed very lar short of
what the sound financial opinion of the
country requires, but it is correct as far
as it goes. What the thoughtful part
of the public demands is the en-
ii re withdrawal and cancellation of the
greenbacks and the substitution of coin
in their place. If they are TO be retired
and burned it is not worth while bothering
about their legal tender function, which
would disappear with the notes themselves.
Mr.. Sherman's proposal looks to con-
tinuing them as permanent part of
the circulating medium, which is objection
able on every ground when it is so easy to
replace them with currency like that
which is preferred by all other solvent
governments.


If they are not to be retired we should
be glad to sec their legal tender feature
taken away, as Mr.. Sherman recommends.
The effect would be that the banks Of the
country would be compelled to keep their
reserves in coin, and the Treasury notes
would perform the same part in the cur
rency as the same amount of bank
notes. The one-third of them which is
now in the bank reserves would flow out
into circulation when replaced by gold ip
the banks. or else be locked up in the
treasury contrary to existing law, which
requires them to be kept in circulation.
But if kept in circulation the paper cur
rency would be inflated by the whole mass
OF greenbacks which now lie in the bank
reserves.


Mr.. Sherman does, however, recommend