Treasury ample opportunity to supply all the subsidiary silver that is needed. Another provision that the public will greatly appreciate is the authority given to the Secretary to recoin worn and uncurrent subsidiary silver now in the Treasury or hereafter received. The bill makes a continuing appropriation for paying the difference between the face value of such coin and the amount the same will produce in the new coin.

A distinct feature of the bill is in reference to refunding the 3 per cent. Spanish war loan, the 2 per cent. bonds maturing in 1907 and the 5 per cent. bonds maturing in 1904, a total of $839,000,000, into new 2 per cent. bonds. These new 2 per cent. bonds will not be offered for sale, but will only be issued in exchange for an equal amount, face value, of old bonds. The holders of old bonds will receive a premium in cash, to compensate them in a measure for the sacrifice of interest which they make. That cash premium will be computed on a basis of the present worth of the old bonds at 24 per cent., and will begin on April 1, 1900, the date that the new 2 per cent. bonds will bear $105.6851 for the 3s, $111.6765 for the 4s and $110.0751 for each $100 of the 5s. This exchange will save the Government, after deducting the premium paid, nearly $23,000,000, if all the holders of the old bonds exchange them for the new ones. National banks that take out circulation based on new bonds are to be taxed only one-half of 1 per cent. on the average amount of circulation outstanding, while those who have a circulation based on a deposit of old bonds will be taxed, as at present, 1 per cent.

CHANGES IN THE BANKING LAW

There are some other changes in the National Banking act. The law permits national banks with $25,000 capital to be organized in places of 3000 inhabitants or less, whereas heretofore the minimum capital has been $50,000. It also permits banks to issue circulation on all classes of bonds deposited up to the par value of the bonds, instead of 90 per cent. of their face, as heretofore. This ought to make an immediate increase in national bank circulation of something like $24,000,000, as the amount of bonds now deposited secure

circulation of about $242,000,000. If the price of the new 2s is not forced so high in the market that there is no profit left to national banks in taking out circulation, we may also look for a material increase in national bank circulation based on additional deposits of bonds.

National banks are permitted under the law to issue circula'tion up to an amount equal to their capital. The total capital of all national banks is $616,000,000. The total circulation outstanding is $253,000,000. There is, therefore, a possibility of an increase in circulation of $363,000,000, although the price of the new 2 per cent. bonds, as already foreshadowed by market quotations in advance of their issue, promises to be so high that the profit to the banks in taking out circulation will not be enough to make the increase anything like such a possible total.

CHAPTER VI.

The Money Question by William J. Bryan'

IT

T is scarcely necessary to defend the principle of bimetallism. Three parties-the Democratic, Populist and Silver partieshave not only declared for bimetallism, but have outlined the specific legislation necessary to restore silver to its ancient position by the side of gold. The Republican platform (of 1896) expressly declared that bimetallism is desirable when it pledged the Republican party to aid in securing it as soon as the assistance of certain foreign nations could be obtained. Those who represented the minority sentiment in the Chicago Convention opposed the free coining of silver by the United States by independent action on the ground that, in their judgment, it "would retard or entirely prevent the establishment of international bimetallism, to which the efforts of the government should be steadily directed." When they asserted that the efforts of the government should be steadily directed toward the establishment of international bimetallism, they condemned monometallism. The gold standard has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Take from it the powerful support of the money-owning and the money-changing classes, and it cannot stand for one day in any nation in the world.

A JUST STANDARD OF VALUE

It cannot be successfully claimed that monometallism or bimetallism, or any other system, gives an absolutely just standard of value. Under both monometallism and bimetallism the government fixes the weight and fineness of the dollar, invests it with legal-tender qualities, and then opens the mints to its unrestricted coinage, leaving the purchasing power of the dollar to be determined by the number of dollars. Bimetallism is better than monometallism, not because it gives us a perfect dollar—that is, a dollar

* Abridged from an address delivered in New York.