Show MONEY OF UNGLE SAM How Parity of Currency Shall Be Maintained OPINIONS OF FINANCIERS Secretary of the Treasury Gage Hor ace White of New York and Others Appear Before the House Committee Commit-tee on Coinage Weights and Measures Meas-ures and Give Their Views on Financial Bills Now Before Congress Con-gress There Are Three Bills the Overstreet Levy and Hill 4 Washington Jan 10 Secretary of the Treasury Gage Horace White of New York and several other prominent promi-nent financiers today appeared before the House Committee on Coinage Weights and Measures at the request of the committee and gave their views on the OverBtrect Levy and Hill bills to maintain the parity of the money of the United States The three bills although al-though containing different provisions each provide for the exchange at the option of the holder of gold and silver coins of the United States To accomplish this the Overstreet bill authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to use the gold reserve fund In the treasury and the Levy bill authorized au-thorized him to issue 2 per cent bonds Before the hearing Chairman Southard read a letter from John H Rhoados chairman of the rlnunce committee of the New York Chamber of Commerce heartily Indorsing the bills and urging the enactment of the proposed legislation legisla-tion at this session of Congress LETTER FROM FINANCIER We believe said Mr Rhoades that the sooncr ill defects in the legislation leg-islation of the previous session relating to the maintenance of the gold standard stand-ard are removed the better It will be for the country at large and for business busi-ness in general and we also feel that action In this direction should be taken now at the present session of Congress rather than be delayed and acted upon at the next session of Congress when another election Is approaching The marvelous development of the mercantile mercan-tile interests now in ogress demands in our judgment the serious attention of Congress in order that the groundwork ground-work may be laid and the superstructure superstruc-ture begun of a broad and comprehensive comprehen-sive banking system which will be adequate ad-equate to the needs of the coming generation gen-eration 1 tear none of us realize what lies before us In the way of expansion expan-sion of business during the coming twentyfive years of this century of grpvvlh and how quickly the vacuum thus created will be filled up and we wJl once more find ourselves face to facewith a need for currency at a lime when a quick expansion of credit Is absolutely necessary lo prevent financial disaster and a monetary panicLEVY LEVY CREATES SENSATION Mr Levy of New York who wag present to advocate his bill created something of a sensation by stating that Mr Bryan the recent Democratic camlidate for President had told him that if elected President he would find a way to pay the obligations of the Government In silver The only question ques-tion at issue was the means to be placed at the disposal of the Secretary of tho Treasury to secure Us maintenance mainten-ance lie then took up the language of the bills and gave tIme IIII1 bill his Indorsement PROMISES TO PAY Mr Shafroth of Colorado asked whether to make silver and greenbacks green-backs exchangeable in gold did not in fact make them simply promises to pay In gold Certainly replied Mr White Then you desire lo Impound 500 000000 In silver and eventually dump the silver on the country as bullion Not at once but gradually replied Mr White We should do Just what Germany has done I think we would be lucky If vo could get back half of what we paid for the silver Questioned further Mr While said a failure of crops anything which would greatly lessen the demand for money would send silver and silver certificates under the present law into the treasury treas-ury and eventually cause a disparity in the price between gold and silver because be-cause of the Governments inability to pay In gold DANGERS TO GOLD STANDARD Mr 1II11 saId In his opinion the two dangers which threatened the gold standard were the greenbacks and silver sil-ver Of those two he considered the former the worst but the country seemed to think otherwise He staked I 1C Mr White did not agree that much of the silver could be recolned Into subsidiary sub-sidiary coin and the remainder made exchangeable Mr White agreed to this proposition Secretary Gage said that the question Involved In the bills before the committee com-mittee was simple He agreed with Mr While that in times of dullness or business depression the bankers and other holders of money In centers of population would gradually withhold gold and allow silver and sliver certificates certi-ficates to pile up In the treasury through the payment of custom duties and taxes If Congress failed to make gold and silver exchangeable it implied L a doubt no matter how slight It might be existed and bankers and holders i of money refused to take the risk Why should they take the risk he asked JMf you refuse to remove It why charge them with responsibilities you will not take1 he asked striking the tabla emphatically GAGES EXPERIENCE Secretary Gage said that his experience experi-ence had taught him that 1C a man m showed the slightest inclination to I evade responsibility for an enterprise he had undertaken he was hurt In his community It was the law of life said he and it was a pretty good law He saw no risk in the Government removing re-moving every doubt as to Its policy and purpose Mr Cochran of Missouri asked the Secrelary If silver was to be made redeemable re-deemable In gold why It would not be better from the standpoint of economy econo-my to sell the silver and place It In the gold fund for redemption purposes 1C It could be done without seriously disturbing the money markets replied Secretary Gage I think that course would be more honest |