Should Cancel The Greenbacks

"Those issues ought to be rtxleemed and Wmcelled, and the govern inent thus enubled to retire from the banking business, i business for which it is so poorly ïquipped. The intention of thoso who first authorizod the legal tender issues was that it should so retire at the eivrliest praoticai)le moment. The first congressional .'nactment signed by President Grant af ter tiis inauguration as chief executivu was jno rcnsscrting the determination of the zovernment to preserve nnquestioned the public faith, and the closing clauso of it ivas: 'And the United Statos also solemnly pledges its faith to raako provisión at ;he earliest ])ractical)le period for the reïemption of United States notes in coin. ' "In the light of the present condilion of ;he Rovernmont'a flnanoes that whicli lught to have boen done when t,lic;re was i surplus In the treaaury cannot now bo andortaken, and tho condiciona ïnustcon:inue to weakcn the countiy's credit and ;lagiie the Unes of business unlessameons is devised for removing these issues froin ;he channel of, current redemiiMon untll such timo ín Bbe govcrn nent flnds Itself iu a position to do that whmh ut ílrst was the intcnt oí all- gradually redeera and cancel them. The ultímate redemption in coin (( conree must all be upon the government, but the embarrassmont does uot arise from their ultlmato, but from their current redemption. "It is therefore sutgi'sted that if congress shall repeal the provislons of the present act requiring the national banks to mako a deposit of government bonds iu order to securo circulating notes and substitute theri'for a provisión giving thoin instead the riíit to issue the same agu ust their a.ssecs, it incorpórate theroin na a j)art thereof that, as a prerequisite t.i o doing, the banks be compoUed todep.iMfc with the trea.-iurer of the United States legal tender issues or issues under the act of 1890equal in amount to the diffurenco between the percentage of their capital stock of issiins grauted against their assets and the total of sncli capital stock.