State Convention—Interconvertible Notes. 227 
together in any enterprises that promised to be safe and fairly re¬ 
munerative. Large amounts of money are accumulated in all the 
commercial centers and also in provincial towns. It is not hoarded 
hi banks from choice. It is loaned more freely and cheaply to men 
who are worthy of credit than it has been for years. No banker or 
capitalist likes to see his money lying idle or allows it to if he can 
help it—the great danger to our banking-system has arisen from 
boldness in using balances, not from a miserly hoarding of them. 
The fact is that prudent men, as a rule, are not at the present time 
large borrowers; those who are in business hesitate to extend their 
enterprises with borrowed money and those not actually engaged 
have misgivings about embarking at this time. There is alack, not 
of currency, but of mercantile reliance, on the stability of financial 
affairs; there is incredulity as to the safety of enterprises—which 
will remain so long as the greenback party is large enough to con¬ 
tinue to threaten the nation’s integrity and credit, with its vision¬ 
ary schemes. Over the great bulk of the credit currency of the 
country which is composed of notes, bills of exchange, bank-checks, 
etc., the government exercises no control further than to enforce 
the fulfilment of contracts; but there is a portion of it which the 
government does control, that is the greenbacks, and the manage¬ 
ment of that fraction has been such that it constitutes a loose, un¬ 
stable element, vitiating the whole mass. But put stability into 
our finances, remove the element of uncertainty they now involve 
—and confidence will be once more restored. Not to spring up in 
in a night, like Jonah’s gourd, as the greenback party promise, for 
it is a plant of slow growth; but not on the other hand nourishing 
the embryo of a worm which shall smite and wither it. The ac¬ 
cumulations of capital, ever alert to compete for a chance to earn 
a fair income, will begin to disperse into the channels of trade 
quite as fast as it can be properly assimilated and a healthy stimulus 
will be given to all legitimate branches of industry. 
The superior economy and convenience of a paper currency is, 
of course, admitted by all, and redemption does not imply abandon¬ 
ment of it. It is not probable that the physical character of the 
circulation will be much changed, except by the restoration of sil¬ 
ver for change-money, for which purpose paper is a very defective 
material. In this connection, attention may be called to the an¬ 
nual cost of maintaining the fractional notes. The following fig- 
