Currency Reform

Another $50,000,000 bond issue for the purpose of keeping up the gold reserve has again called the attention of the country sharply to the defects in our currency system. How long it will be necessary for government to go a borrowing to keep up the traditional hundred million reserve, no one can teil. Were it nut for the need of meeting any possible redemption demands, there would be money enough in the treasury, but in order to protect the large volume of outstanding government credit currency, it is necessary to restore and maintain the reserve not only that the treasury may be able to meet all demands but that the people may know that it is able to meet theni. The loan just effected will probably restore the reserve to the traditional limit but it will not keep it there! This gold cannot be kept in the treasury if the holders of government credits need it or desire it. So long, therefore, as present conditions exist the gold reserve will have to be kept up by periodical loans and the conditions will continue as long as there is any suspicion or doubt as to the ability of the government to take care of its enormous load of credit currency. The government has at the present time an outstanding credit currency of over seven hundred millions which it must maintain on a parity with gold and it has a reserve of about S6o, 000,000 to do it with. Owing to this condition banks have come to think it safest to "husband" their gold holdings and as a result duties have practically ceased to be paid in gold. The only way of keeping up the reserve is by borrowing ■whenever the amount falls below the safety point. So long, therefore, as the present monetary system continúes the treasury will be subject to the menace of constant draf ts upon it for gold and bond issues, which will draw gold from the treasury to be put into the hands of those who will return it in payment for bonds, will continue. The treasury will be at the mercy of schemers in gold centres who may at any time menace the business interests of the country. Is there a remedy for all th is ? Financiers thinks there is, and various plans have been suggested, but that which has attracted the most attention is known as the Baltimore plan. lts salient features are as follows: First, an issue of bank notes to the amo.unt of 75 per cetit. of the paid in capital of the banks, these notes to be guaranteed by the government and the government to be secured by a fund raised by taxation and by a first lien on all the assets of the banks. Second, a check on over issues by means of a heavy tax on notes over 50 per cent. and up to 75 per cent. of the capital. This system would seem to possess all the advantages of the present one while avoiding its risks and would have in addition benefits :uliar to itse)fv These notes would jossess every security belonging to lational bank notes and greenbacks ind would therefore be current in 1 ;very part of the country. They ívould furnish ampie currency since their maximum limit is high. They svould have a farther advantage which government paper has not. They could be readily expanded lo meet the needs of business and would be, because the demand would make them profitable. When the dernand ceased they would be withdrawn because their withdrawal would be in the interest of their issuers. Finally, and this is a most important feature, their safety would not depend on he treasury or any political action whatsoever. Such a system would apparently remove the most dangerous and costly element in business ransactions and enable business men of all classes to carry on their business and make their calculations without the danger of being thwarted )y forces which they can neither orsee, estímate or control. That such a system would have great advantages over the existing one there seems to be no room to question. Reports fiom Washington indícate that it or something similar to it will secure the approval and recommendation of the administration. If the system, when it has been carefully thought out in all its details, is found to really possess the advantages claimed for it, it should receive the very general support of the country. Whenever there are fresh evidences of revival in business, the republican press claim it as a result of restored confidence springir.g from the return of an opposition majority to congress. At the same time they try to keep themselves in position to deny all responsibility for any lack of improvement there may be, by asserting that' a democratie president is in the wa.y of the accomplishment of any remedial legislation. It should be boma in mind, however, that the democrats are willing to bear the responsibility of the two years to come. As far as legislation has to do with the revival of business, which is surely coming, the credit belongs to the democrats, and don't you forget it. Altogether the most unique and interesting figure on the western hemisphereat this moment is Donovan. We refer to Donovan, of Michigan - the only democrat in the whole state who saved an office from the wreek. He is as grand as the pyramid of Cheops, as lonely as the Sphinx, as peculiar as the roe's egg, as picturesque as the penguin on a stormy shore. Donovan is the focus of a nation's gaze, the object of a nation's wondering solicitude. The whole of the Michigan democracy can caucus inside of his overcoat. The party's entire official vote can be swung by him. Serried, serene, enthusiastic and unanimous, Donovan is multum in parvo, e pluribus unum, and all the rest of it. - Washington Post. What has happened to that great quantity of foreign goods with which this country was to be flooded as a result of the Wilson tariff ? They seem not to have engulfed any one yet. On the other hand American manufacturers have turned a considerable flood in the opposite direction. Some people thought the name of the democratie party in Michigan was Dennis. Not so; it is Donovan. Paste it on the apex of your country's roll of honor. - Muskegon Chronicle. Senator Brice has come out for Vice-President Stevenson for president in 1896. This is a great misfortune to Stevenson. He should pray to be delivered from such friends. Now would be a good time for the South to rise up and pay the North in its own coin by making complaints as to the "danger" and "sectarianism" implied in a "solid North."