OUR MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM 159 



silver dollars must be at par, just as the subsidiary coins are. True, 

 the latter are redeemed at the front door of the Treasury, but the 

 dollars are redeemed at the back door, in the custom-house, and in 

 the tax-office. That a real danger once existed from silver coinage 

 was proved by experience, but it seems to have passed away. It 

 should not be forgotten, however, that the government paid $464,- 

 000,000 gold for the bullion from which these needless dollars were 

 manufactured. This was an unnecessary expense. It is possible 

 eventually to recover this $464,000,000 without throwing any silver 

 on the market. A bill is now pending in Congress, with the approval 

 of the Secretary of the Treasury, to convert silver dollars into sub- 

 sidiary coins as fast as the latter are needed. The annual increment 

 of subsidiary silver required by the growth of population and of 

 retail trade is about $5,000,000. If the policy is adopted of re-coin- 

 ing the dollars into smaller pieces instead of buying new bullion 

 therefor, the government will finally get back the money that was 

 expended under the Bland and Sherman Acts. Gold will flow in to 

 fill the vacuum, and Congress can regulate the denominations of 

 gold certificates to meet the public convenience. 



May we not have too much gold in our circulation for the econom- 

 ical working of trade and industry? Of course our solvency can 

 never be impaired by having an excess of it, but gold is capital. 

 It is the product of labor, and the country may be compelled to 

 use more of it than is really needed for effecting its exchanges and 

 guaranteeing the soundness of its credit instruments. Credit dis- 

 penses with the use of capital to an incalculable extent. It is a 

 labor-saving machine of immense value, and it is not to be supposed 

 that we have yet seen the last of its devices or that we have exhausted 

 its utility. It does not fall within the scope of my theme to consider 

 plans for bettering our bank-note system so that it shall keep pace 

 with the growing demands of trade, but such plans cannot be post- 

 poned forever in the face of a decreasing public debt and an increasing 

 price of government bonds. If in the mean time we take more gold 

 than is really needful into our circulation, that certainly involves 

 some waste of energy, but of all financial evils it is the one most 

 easily cured. 



Although the greenback and the silver dollar are not a present 

 cause for anxiety, all fiat money is objectionable, because it is a 

 noxious microbe capable of multiplication. It would be best to 

 remove it, so that its evil example may not be before the public eye 

 to lure us astray in some future emergency. 



It is needless to say anything to this assemblage about the advan- 

 tages of monetary peace as contrasted with the turmoil through 

 which the nation has struggled during the past forty years. All 

 the reasons which exist for having any kind of money are reasons 



