June 5, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



897 



Under our. system government revenues in- 

 crease when business is most active 

 throughout the country. The result, unless 

 carefully guarded against, is a lock-up of 

 money in the treasury just when it is most 

 needed elsewhere. When the crop-moving 

 time comes in the fall, and the great money- 

 centers are sending currency to interior 

 points, the treasury is bombarded with re- 

 qiiests for relief. As the rates for money 

 advance, the cry becomes louder. For more 

 than half a century now, it has been the 

 established policy of the government to 

 heed that cry, especially when it is appar- 

 ent that the treasury itself is a disturbing 

 factor. Recent experiences demonstrate 

 what must and should be done so long as 

 our system permits the hoarding of funds 

 in government vaults, and so long as that 

 situation is complicated by an unsatisfac- 

 tory bank-note circulation not related to 

 the expanding and contracting wants of 

 commerce. Within the past few months the 

 Secretary of the Treasury by extraordi- 

 nary efforts succeeded in stimulating na- 

 tional banks to take out some $25,000,000 

 additional circulation. He also increased 

 the amount of public funds which national 

 banks are permitted to hold by $24,000,000. 

 He anticipated the payment of interest on 

 the public debt for October and November 

 without rebate, and for the whole of the 

 fiscal year, to such as cared to avail them- 

 selves of the offer, subject to a rebate of 

 two tenths of one per cent, a month, by 

 means of which latter method he succeeded 

 in paying out $3,000,000 more, with a profit 

 of over $40,000 to the treasury; and 

 finally, when the business of the country 

 demanded still further relief, he antici- 

 pated a portion of the public debt itself by 

 buying bonds and thus releasing some $23,- 

 000,000. By the time the crop-moving sea- 

 son was over the amount of cash actually 

 locked up in the treasury had been reduced 



by nearly $50,000,000, and there was left 

 in the treasury vaults only a little over 

 $50,000,000, which tradition and practice 

 have established as a fair working balance. 

 The responsibility for managing the ptiblie 

 funds is a heavy one, but it has been met at 

 all times, and under all administrations, 

 by every Secretary of the Treasury, with 

 high courage and devoted effort to keep the 

 treasury as near as may be out of the busi- 

 ness world, to avoid the well-recognized 

 evils that exist, and to take advantage of 

 all the good there is in our present national 

 financial system. 



Effects of the Inflow of Gold: Hon. Ellis 



H. Roberts, Treasurer of the United 



States. 



The stock of gold in the United States 

 shows for four years an annual average 

 gain of $107,783,639. All the countries of 

 Europe show such a gain less by $12,358,- 

 639. In per capita the stock of gold in this 

 country is greater than anywhere else, ex- 

 cept in France and South Africa. The 

 treasury of the United States holds $615,- 

 000,000 and gained $412,450,562 in five 

 years, while all the official banks of Europe 

 taken together in the same period lost $37,- 

 477,102. 



Upon such treasures our currency rests 

 solid and impregnable. An attack on our 

 reserves may be conceived, but it would be 

 to besiege Gibraltar with carbines. The 

 inflow of gold has, since July 1, 1897, 

 added an average of $78,238,512 every year 

 to our circulation. Here lies possible peril. 

 Inflation of currency incites to dangerous 

 expansion of business. No one will suggest 

 that the incoming of gold shall be stopped ; 

 but can not paper currency be reduced in 

 dull seasons? 



Prices of commodities have advanced, 

 and wages have followed a little after. 

 How do these conditions affect our world 



