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Show oo WESTERN CUSTOM IS PASSING. Pacific Coast bankers are receiving a great shock with the inaugurating of the new Federal reserve banks Their gold, when shipped to the government gov-ernment institution, is being weighed and the shortage from abrasion deducted de-ducted from the face value and, as a result, there is an endleBs protest, because gold circulates freely on the coast and its constant use has made all tho coins of that metal short in weight Up to a few years ago, the entire west held to metallic money as a medium me-dium of exchange and the old-timer rejected paper money whenever he could get gold or silver. But gradually grad-ually there has been a marked change .s far west ae Utah. Here considerable consider-able gold is still in circulation, but currency is fast supplanting it. West of Utah, in Nevada and in northern California and Oregon, twenty-dollar gold pieces continue to be jingled in tbe pockets of those who ha'Ne that amount of surplus wealth. Recently, according to a dispatch, a shipment of gold was sent to the reserve bank at San Francisco from a Portland Institution and it was weighed and found short. The reserve re-serve bank notified the Portland bank that the shortage would have to be made up, and this was done, and now gold may disappear as a medium of general circulation on the Pacific Coast as a result of the ruling of the reserve bank, in the opinion of A. L. Mills, president of the First National Na-tional bank and of the Portland Clearinghouses Clear-inghouses association. A customer of the Portland First National bank refused to accept gold when he presented a large check at the paying teller's window to get his usual supply of mone to meet his weekly payroll The teller showed him a stack of "double eagles" containing con-taining $500, and the customer snorted: snort-ed: "Here, here, nothing doing with that; I'xa for rag money after this!" "What's the matter with the gold?" asked the teller. "What's the matter with it?" "Plenty,' came the answer. "You shove this coin out to me at face value and then when I come back with it you pull out your weighing machines and I get about 90 cent6 on the dollar." dol-lar." "Gold Is going to be driven out of California aB a medium of immediate circulation," Is the statement of the Federal reserve bank In San Francisco. Fran-cisco. "This same thing is going to happen in all of the western states. It has happened years ago in every other section of the country. It Is time that we took the same course In this matter. Gold Is uneconomic as a medium of circulation. There Is a wear and tear on it that results in a loss that cannot be replaced. The only way to keep gold intact Is to hold It In reserve and Issue In its I stead gold certificates. The Federal reserve bank i6 not making any new ruling in the matter of deducting from the face value of the coin for abrasion abra-sion and loss through circulation. This is a law of the United States " . on |
