THE STATE REVIEW. 



11 



live-red in 1881, and nearly three times that de- 

 livered in IS'JO. There were finished and deliv- 

 ered during the fiscal year 1001, l:.'l,:.:>s,:J'.) 1 sheets; 

 during the fiscal year 1902, i:!9.1fi7.:>5 ( J sheets, and 

 during the fiscal year 1903, 135.743,691 sheets. 



As this increase in the work was shown to 

 be permanent, it became again necessary to have 

 relief from the continuous overtime and night 

 work, and Congress authorixed an additional 

 building to be located west of the existing build- ! 

 ing. This addition was authorized by act of j 

 .March ::, 1003, and it was completed March 26, ' 

 1906. It was Hilly expected when this building i 

 authorized in 1903 that it would afford suffi- 

 cient space to permit the erection of enough ad-, 

 ditional proses to discontinue overtime and night 

 work, but before the building was finished the 

 Treasurer of the United States increased his re- 

 quisitions for United States notes and certificates 

 to the extent of 8,000,000 sheets a year, and the 

 Comptroller of the Currency increased his for i 

 national bank notes to the extent of 2,000,000, i 

 making a total incrase of 10,000,000 sheets a year, i 

 The amount of plate printing required to fill these 

 requisitions was greater than could be executed 

 on the total number of presses that could be ac- 

 commodated, including the additional presses set 

 up in the space made available by the erection 

 of the west building, and necessitated the con- 

 tinuance of overtime by the day force of printers 

 and assistants and of a night force consisting of . 

 -.'in printers, 204 assistants, 60 operatives, and 30 

 helpers in the printing, wetting, examining and 

 numbering divisions. The estimates for 1908 

 show an increase over the increased estimates for 

 r.in; of 0.1 per cent. 



TAXPAYERS BUNCOED. 



The latest municipal plant in a large city to 

 give -igns of distress is the electric light plant of 

 Columbus, Ohio. The director of public service 

 a-ked last June for an additional bond issue of 

 $140.1100. The city fathers were bashful about 

 submitting this question to the voters. Now Di- 

 rector Lied says that if the money is not forth- 

 coming the plant will lie thrown out of business 

 and the $550.000 already expended will be lost. 

 II'C adds that the plant is wholly inadequate, and 

 that the city is paying a private company at the ! 

 rate of $75,000 a year to light the streets that 

 would otherwise be left to the tender mercies of 

 the moon. 



The last bonds were issued in April, 1905, 

 and amounted to $35.000 and were stated to be 

 for "completing the plant" (the plant was begun 

 in 1^97). 



During an investigation held in June, 1905, the 

 most amazing ignorance, incompetence and ex- 

 travagance were brought to light, but the origi- 

 nal contract was not, as that important docu- 

 ment had been "lost" from the city records. Blun- : 

 ders in planning and construction are alleged 

 that would have caused an honest electrician's ; 

 or architect's apprentice to hang his head for ; 

 shame if he had perpetrated them. And the in- : 

 spec-lion engineer of a large Philadelphia firm ' 

 slated that his company was at that time install- 

 ing a plant of approximately the same capacity i 

 for $125,000 less than the sum now asked to j 

 "complete" the plant on which $550,000 has been i 

 lavished. 



The comment of the Brooklyn Eagle is "you 

 simply can't marry business to politics," and the 

 Bosion Advertiser adds: 



"Of course, it is easy enough to say that the 

 people of that city should have learned enough 

 from the failure of public ownership, everywhere 

 clsc% to keep out of so dangerous a venture; but 

 the writings of badly informed theorists probably 

 deluded Columbus as they have deceived olhcr 

 nuiiitics. Boston once tried municipal own- 

 ership and lost over $8,000,000 by the venture." 



WHERE THE GOLD IS. 



Tt is a surprising fact that, though for the past 

 fifteen or twenty years the production of gold 

 throughout the world has been steadily rising, 

 the United Kingdom at the present time is bare 

 of gold. Not in a literal sense, for there is al- 

 ways a handsome amount of coin and bullion 

 in the vaults of the Bank of England, but in 



comparison with other and perhaps more fortu- 

 ante countries. 



The English stock of gold at the Bank of i 



land was 21. 1,1100 at the close of the year issn, 



in the clays of small gold production and much 

 smaller bu-incss. li was onl\ :.'S,uOO.OOO at the 

 close of 1905, though we have seen that the gold 

 production had trebled in the interval, and busi- 

 ness had probably doubled. The highest point 

 reached was in IS95, at the end of which year it 

 stood at -15.000,000. It is today about 29.000,000 

 a dangerously small sum for modern time*. 



Where England has stood still, France, Ger- 

 many, Russia, Austria, Italy and the United 

 Stales have all advanced. In most of these coun- 

 tries trade has been developing far faster than in 

 England, and gold go.'S where trade is most ac- 

 iive. In France, the stock of gold in the Bank 

 of France has risen from 24,000,000 in 1880 to 

 115,000,000 in 1905. It has thus been more than 

 quadrupled, and even today it is 112,000,000. 

 France has an ample supply, but her bank author- 

 ities are careful not to part with their gold when 

 they can possibly prevent it. 



< iermany maintained in 1880 a stock of only 

 9.600,000 in the vaults of the Rcichs bank at 

 lierlin, in addition, of course, to the military war 

 chest of coined gold at. Spandau, on which the 

 nation can fall back as a last reserve in the hour 

 of war. She trebled this amount between 1880 

 and 1905, for in the latter year the figure was 

 29,000,000, while it is 36,000,000 today. Where 

 England has stood still, Germany has got the 

 gold. Her ally, Austria, is another great holder 

 of gold, and has recently increased her holding 

 markedly. The Austro-lTungarian bank in' 1880 

 bad a supply of only 5,600,000, which by the 

 skill of its financial authorities was expanded to 

 a figure of 46,000,000 in 1905, and which has 

 been as high as 49,000.000 in 1904. 



In Italy and Russia, though the figures for 1880 

 arc not available, the same attention has been 

 shown to the gold reserve. Russia had at the 

 end of 1905 an amount of 74,000,000, or nearly 

 three times the British one. Italy had at the end 

 of the same year a supply of 29,000,000 in gold, 

 which in the present year has been raised 'to 

 28,000,000. In the United States the treasury at 

 the end of 1905 had gold of the value of 38,000,- 

 000 in its vaults, against an amount of 24,000,000 

 in 1880. 



Thus France, Germany, Austria, Russia and 

 the United States all keep a larger stock of gold 

 than does improvident England. All, or most of 

 them, have increased their stock to correspond 

 with the growth in the gold production. Italy, 

 with infinitely smaller requirements and obliga- 

 tions than the United Kingdom, has certainly 

 quintupled her stock of gold in the last twenty- 

 five years, while England rests content with prac- 

 tically the same quantity of the precious metal as 

 in the past and trusts to luck to bring her 

 through any serious crisis. 



It is not as though the British Empire did not 

 produce gold in immense quantities. The mines 

 of the Rand before the Radicals got to work 

 upon them were turning out 20,800,000 worth 

 annually ; the Australian output last year was 

 17,104,000, and the Canadian production 2.886,- 

 000. The United States stood next to South 

 Africa, with a production of 17,268,000 worth. 



of public discus-ion during which it seems that 

 the other theory i- being advanced \\ith more or 

 "licrcncy, that the individual is made for the 

 State and not the state for the individual, but the 

 basic fact remains true that the state i- a creation 

 fiir the benefit of the individual. The creations 

 of the state, likewise, were intended and are vet 

 intended to assist the individual, not to supplant 

 him. '1 here is no business which may lie con- 

 ducted by an artificial person, a corporation cre- 

 ated by the state, which cannot be as uell carried 

 on by an individual, or a partnership of individu- 

 als, and which may not legally be carried on by 

 sue an individual or partnership. 



faking this view of the case, it is quite inter- 

 esting to note the verbal form of the laws pro- 

 viding for the organization of corporations for 

 various purposes. Take the railroad acts, for in- 

 stance. They make provision that all railroad 

 companies organized in Michigan shall be organ- 

 ized under the terms of the acts. But they do not 

 say that all railroads operated in Michigan shall 

 be operated by companies organized under these 

 laus. An individual or a partnership can own 

 and run a railroad in Michigan today, and could 

 own and run the biggest railroad in" the state if 

 he or it had capital enougli. The same is true of 

 the street railway acts, the gas company acts, the 

 electric lighting company acts, and the general 

 commercial corporation statutes. Every one of 

 ihem provides that whatever company is organ- 

 ized for these purposes shall be organized under 

 the appropriate act. But not a single one of 

 them demands, because it cannot demand, that 

 whomsoever undertakes to di such business shall 

 organize himself and his associates into a corpor- 

 ation to qualify himself for entrance into the 

 specific line of business. 



The corporation is simply the handmaid of the 

 individual, the artificial creation which permits 

 many individuals to put their capital or a portion 

 ot the capital of each into a given enterprise 

 without further liability than that expressed by 

 his or their subscription. It cannot be more sub- 

 1 stantial than tlu- individual, because the individual 

 ; in doing business as an individual trader puts all 

 of bis capital at the risk of each of his enter- 

 prises. Its convenience and safety commend it 

 for large enterprises. They do not, however, 

 make it necessary for smaller Q 



There are scores of instances in the banking 

 business in which the volume of business done 

 will not afford the machinery of a baking cor- 

 poration. There are scores of instances in which 

 -private banks are immeasurably stronger than 

 corresponding chartered banks. The true theory 

 with regard to the private bank is to let it live 

 just as it can live under the operation of the 

 law of competition. Just why people who lend 

 money to private bankers need the fostering care 

 of the state more tha nthose who lend credit for 

 sugar, flour and hardware is not made clear by 

 the governor and it never will be. 



THE REGULATION OF PRIVATE BANKS. 



In his annual message to the legislature of this 

 state, Gov. Warner takes strong ground in fa\or 

 of legislation which will accomplish the result of 

 state regulation of private banks, even to the 

 point of their extinction. The governor 

 to believe, from his mode of expression, that no 

 institution which bears the name "Hank" shall be 

 pcrmitcd to be operated unless by a corporation, 

 organized under the state or national banking 

 laws. No theory can be farther from that under 

 which our institutions are organized. As the 

 Investor has had occasion to say in the past, 

 here is nothing and there should be nothing in 

 the way of business to be done which should be 

 authorized to a company while it is denied to the 

 individual. The individual is the basis of our 

 government. True, there are times and aspects 



PUBLIC OWNERSHIP FALLACY. 



"While I am far from posing as an autHori'ty 

 on the subject, my observation leads me to be- 

 lieve that municipal ownership in Chicago will 

 not be a success. It is true that it has been suc- 

 cessful in Glasgow, but it by no means fo! 

 that it will be equally successful in Chicago. Pol- 

 itics enters so largely into municipal affairs in 

 Chicago that it seems to me it would wreck any 

 such proposition," says Hon. Tim Mealy, member 

 of the British parliament. 



"Government ownership, it seems to me, is ut- 

 terly foolish, although 1 have not made a close 

 study of the matter. A burdensome government 

 debt, it would seem to me, would quickly be- 

 come much more of a menace than a series of 

 heavy _municipal or slate debts. The question of 

 municipal debt is fast becoming the greatest prob- 

 lem in the United Kingdom. Cities have sunk 

 themselves in a sea of debt for tramways, public 

 utilities and other municipal enterprises, and there 

 is no solution of the problem of how to get them 

 out. 



"Theoretically municipal ownership is a good 

 thing, but such a proposal is always hampered by 

 politics. That has been proved in the United 

 Kingdom." 



