OCR Text |
Show CURRENCY REFORM SURE BY COMING CONGRESS WASHIXGTOX, D. C, Nov. 9. The unqualified declaration can be made that currency reform by Congress this winter is now certain. Tbe statement comes from the highest authority in political po-litical and financial circles. The vital question of providing an elastic currency system will be one of the first important measures acted upon up-on at the coming session of tbe House of Bepreesntatives. Agitation of the potential kind has had a salutary effect on political interests, inter-ests, and meetings are weekly being held between prominent New York financiers and politicians of national reputation. Their deliberations foreshadow fore-shadow conclusively the snbstitntion of an adequate currency system or the present obsolete laws, which were intended in-tended to meet requirements of tbe country half a century ago, when it was, so to speak, in comparative infancy. in-fancy. It is recognized that tbe progress of tbe entire Nation is handicapped by tbe existing monetary rules. Tbe recent re-cent arbitrary advance in the discount rate of tbe Bank of England thoroughly thorough-ly demonstrated bow completely at the mercy of international finances are tbe United States under tbe present circumstance. circum-stance. This realization has resulted in a determination by both political and financial interests to take ag-.gressive ag-.gressive action along tbe lines indicated. indi-cated. It means that the United States will aoon entirely liquidate its floating debt to Europe and become tbe creditor of the world, of which we have been the laughing stock because we unnecessarily unnecessar-ily submitted alternately to extortionate extortion-ate 100 per eent money during urgent crop-moving demands and to an un remunerative re-munerative 1'4 per cent rate when the agricultural requirements bad been satisfied, sat-isfied, simply on account of a fallacious theory that because the rates were reported re-ported from Wall street, it was Wall street speculation that was responsible and should suffer, whereas the entire commercial organization of the country coun-try has time and time again felt the pinch without comprehending the fundamental fun-damental cause. But most important of all the points is the fact that our inadequate cur- rency system baa checked industrial expansion. Had it not been for a 60 per cent increase in the money stock of tbe United Uni-ted States during the last ten years by new gold production our present unprecedented un-precedented prosoerity would never have been established. Even now many new and promising enterprises involving further expansion have been postponed or abandoned because be-cause of lack of funds for financing, while vast improvement schemes of railroad rail-road and industrial corporations, contemplated con-templated and in progress, have been hampered on thia aeeonut. Details of the pronosed new law have not been completed, but the elementary feature of automatic elasticity, surrounded sur-rounded by every possible safeguard, is the nacleus of the proposition. |