396 ELLIS H. ROBERTS 



is urged for the gradual substitution of government certificates 

 covered by gold and silver. Bankers are questioning the 

 profit of putting out circulation, and some great institutions 

 restrict their deposits of bonds for that purpose to the lowest 

 amount permitted by law. While less than one sixth of the 

 entire circulating medium, bank notes give rise to by far 

 the greater share of discussion in the field of the currency. Is 

 such currency a deformed and nervous sister in the family, 

 requiring most of the expert care of the doctors? Or is it 

 Cordelia among Lear's daughters, constant, faithful and true, 

 dispensing comfort and blessing? Absolutely safe as they 

 are, everywhere current for purchase and payment, these 

 notes are the storm center of financial controversy. 



Of late another weakness in our currency is vigorously 

 exposed. The paper money is not clean. Banks are not 

 willing to pay the charges for transportation to secure new 

 bills; if they were, the face of the notes could be kept more 

 nearly fresh as the bedewed flowers. No general agreement 

 on such a policy is likely. Can congress be induced to spend 

 half a million or a million a year for the increased redemption, 

 the larger number of new bills, and the cost of shipment in 

 and out? The answer can hardly be given here and now. 



Instability is not a virtue in finance. In this country 

 no topic is too sacred for discussion, and statesmen and pro- 

 fessors, editors and orators have not had the field of the 

 currency to themselves. Every one who can sharpen a pencil 

 or own a typewriter or get an audience in a club or on a 

 corner, can tell you where Hamilton was wrong, where con- 

 gress has blundered, how useless is our nation's experience. 

 The halls of legislation are open to every scheme. The 

 theorists who assume infinite wisdom, and discern only ignor- 

 ance and vile motives in opponents, are always busy. The 

 cynics clothed in malice, who find nothing good in existing 

 conditions, and the tuft hunters who prefer foreign methods 

 to anything American, never fail of occupation. Many proj- 

 ects, many devices, many cooks, and if the broth is not al- 

 ways perfect, it serves fairly well and might be worse. At a 

 recent session of congress, which was not very prolific, no less 

 than twenty one bills aiming to change our currency were 



