GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF MONEY. 265 



this amount was actually retired permanently. The amount reported as 

 in circulation was $203,662,732, but the $72,279,398 represented in the 

 treasury, by "lawful money," must be deducted, leaving $131,383,334. 

 This is conclusive evidence that the banks are consulting their own 

 interests, not those of the government or the people, in the work they 

 do. A retirement of $225,000,000 in seven years is not a satisfactory 

 way of getting money to the people. These banks not only charge high 

 rates of compensation for transferring money from the government to 

 the people, but as soon as bonds became more valuable than their own 

 notes, they called in the notes and took up the bonds. 



It is conceded by all that some change must be made. The Treas- 

 urer of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Presi- 

 dent, all call attention to this subject as one of very great importance, 

 and more than twenty bills relating to the same matter have been intro- 

 duced in the present Congress. The Treasurer, in his report for 1889, 

 says : " In becoming practically the sole issuer of currency, the govern- 

 ment has assumed the duty of supplying the needs of the public for a 

 circulating medium." Precisely. That is what the farmers say that 

 the government has assumed the duty of supplying the needs of the 

 public, not the banks, for a circulating medium. It is the public, and 

 not the banks, that need a circulating medium, and the reason of it is, 

 that the use of money is a public necessity. The proper use of money 

 is not to be dealt in as an article of merchandise, like wheat, or coffee, 

 or cloth, but to supply a public need. Then let banks be relieved from 

 the duty of transferring money to the public, unless they are willing to 

 do the work as government agents, and for actual cost. Let them be 

 shorn of their power to expand or contract the " circulating medium " at 

 pleasure, and let their operations be confined to the legitimate functions 

 of banking under rules prescribed by Congress, so that charges shall not 

 only be reasonable, but equal for similar service. Let them deliver 

 government money to the people at cost, or let some other agency be 

 established. And money, being prepared for a public use, ought to be 

 free from taxation, just as a public road is. 



The objection which is urged against the banks is not that they are 

 banks, but that they are unnecessarily put between the government and 

 the people at an enormous expense, which the people are compelled to 

 bear. Let the banks become government agents, that part of their 

 business being directed from one bureau at Washington instead of by a 

 corps of expensive officers at every bank. If that be done, there need 

 be no further objection. The people will then receive money at cost, 

 and that is what they ask for, The way to ascertain when and where 



