Scarcity Of Money

Mr. W. E. Dodge. caá of New York's most enterprising and philautbropic business men, was a delégate from the New York chamber of comnierce to the business men's sound money convention which met recently at Indianapolis. He was a mcmber of the executive committee of the Indianapolis convention. A short time after he was chairmau of the arbitration committee at Washington. In both capacities he had excellent opportunities for meeting representatives from different states. The following is a part of his somewhat i able speech bef ore the chamber of ] merce when submitting his report of the Indianapolis monetary convention: ' 'I was surprised, sir, to flnd the 1 sertion made constantly by men from the f ar western states and the south and southwestern states that it was not Mr. Bryan and it was not silver that they were in favor of, but they needed some change to bring relief from the terrible condition of poverty and scarcity of money under which they labored. They feit that their condition was so extreme I and so painful that any change wonld be of valué, and when I carne to look into the matter and to talk in afriendly and kindly way with them they all confirmed the same feeling, which I had found at a long conversation in the treasury department, in Washington, that the circulation of the country is quite out of joint, that the lungs and heart are congested and that the extremities of the country are absolutely without any blood. ' ' I found tb at thero were great sections of the southern and western country where there was absolntely no money at all, where the most primitive forms of barter obtained, where everytbing was most disorganized. One gentleman told me that in his county, which was quite a rich agricultural country, by some happy accident a $50 bank bill had come down into the county, and that he had taken a horse and buggy and spent four days in visiting all the towns in the county striving to get it changed into smaller bilis, but had been unable to do so, and flnally was obliged to send it to Eichmond. Tbere were senators who told me that their constituents never saw a dollar of money from the beginning of (he year to the end, with the result that they had constantly to go into debt to the local storekeepers. The local storekeepers received their pay in kind. In fact, everything was drifting back to the oíd times befors money was invented. This w;ís not in one section of the country only, but in large sections. "We can quite easily understand that where there is not sufficient money to establish a national bank under the very onerous laws at present in force there is nothing else to take the place. The same difflculty has come up in other parts of the world. In Austria and Hungary, in southern G.!ortnany and in southern France these difficultieswereunderstood and appreciated years ago, and agricultural bauks have been founded there, and they have doubled the value of real estáte, and they have made the peasantry and the farmers rich and prosperous. "The same thing has taken place in Scotland, as mauy of our friends know. Every town in Scotland with over 1,000 people has a branch bank of some one of thogreat banks of Edinburghor Glasgow. A man of good character who wants to fit out a fishing smack or buy anything for his farm is able to go there, and if his credit is good he is able to borrow money as cheaply as any merchant could. It has a doublé effect. It is not only giving to those neighborhoods the money that they actually need, but it is educating the people in thrift and promptness. I have talked with a great many of my banking friends, whosay that the whole thing depends upon the character of the people; that the people are speculative and that nothing can be done for them. My impression ia that if some thoughtful plan could be suggested it would be quite possible to edúcate all the agricultural people of the country to understand that a man who is thrifty and honest and sober and prompt can always in some way get some money. It is a very hard thing - we do not understand it at all here because we have so much money moving among us - but if time we went to a store we were unable to buy anything except on credit, if we had no money to pay down to enable us to reap the advantages of cash payments, we should begin to befretfnl. I do hope, sir, that the thoughtful and good men of the north and east will be willing to take up this subject. "It was brought out at the Indianapolis convention that after the first sad, serious mistake made necessary by the exigencies of the civil war we had gone on with makeshifts ever since. One bit of legislation necessary to bridge us over a particular crisis has been met with another. With every issue of bonds and of greenbacks, and with every other form of currency, legislative enactments have been made. and they contradict and overlap each other, and the business of the treasnry is exceedingly hard and difficult. "Icame awayfrom Indianapolis with this very firm impression, and I have only ventured to submit it because I feel it so deeply that unless those of us in the more f avored parts of the country understand the condition of our brothers and our fellow citizens in the other parts of the country, unless we wisely instruct and edúcate them and bring about some wise methods for their relief, when the year 1900 comes we Bhall be swamped with an infinitely more powerful vote against us than during this last election. "