GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF MONEY. 269 



force of more than about three or four thousand persons to operate all 

 the agencies required in the whole country, and they would do as much 

 work as is now done by nearly a hundred times that number, all living 

 off of commissions which borrowers must pay. Three hundred agencies, 

 with an average force of ten persons each, would be enough for some 

 years to come, and one per cent would pay all the expenses of the loan 

 bureau. 



Money put out on short time and on personal security requires 

 more time and closer attention, with some personal risk to the agent ; 

 the expense is necessarily greater, and for that reason the charges are 

 higher. The banks would go right along as they are now doing, with 

 the changes before suggested. If it be objected that there are too many 

 details for the government to look after, compare it with the Post- Office 

 Department, which consists of a central establishment at Washington, 

 with 59,000 branches in different parts of the country, in charge of 

 150,000 persons, all looking a/ter details, and doing a business amount- 

 ing to more than $1,000,000,000 annually. 



Where will the money come from to start this scheme ? As before 

 stated, the national banks have withdrawn from circulation, since 1882, 

 $225,000,000 of their notes. The steady increase in the number of 

 banks (average 159 yearly the last eleven years, as before shown) is 

 evidence conclusive that, judged from the banks' own standpoint, the 

 business of the country is increasing, needing additional banking facili- 

 ties, and it would seem reasonable that a larger circulation would be 

 needed as much as more banks. But the circulation was contracted by 

 the banks to the amount stated, and this contraction covers precisely the 

 same period in which farming has become discouragingly unprofitable. 

 With the retirement of national bank circulation, prices of wheat, corn, 

 cattle, cotton, and other farm products, and manufactured articles, except 

 sugar, fell about thirty per cent. Let us restore that circulation, and add 

 to it as much as would have been a reasonable expansion, say $8,500,- 

 ooo annually, and issue treasury notes for the whole amount, $300,- 

 000,000. On the first day of March, 1878, the national bank circulation 

 was $313,888,740; and on the first day of October, 1882, it was $356,- 

 060,348, showing an average annual increase of $8,434,321 during the 

 period of five* years. A like increase during the next seven years, to 1889, 

 would have increased the volume of currency $59,040,247. To this add 

 the $100,000,000 held as reserve for the redemption of treasury notes, 

 and the cash balance, whatever it be, say $50,000,000, and we have 

 about $450,000,000 available money to begin with. Repeal the resump- 

 tion law so far as it requires the holding of a redemption fund ; establish 



