Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1897 — SECRETARY GAGE’S PLAN. [ARTICLE]

SECRETARY GAGE’S PLAN.

Secretary Gage, the banker secretary of t lie treasury, has evolved a plan for a leform of our current c, system« Here / s the j lan: ‘Bonds payable nri.oipal nnd interest in gold. Al silver dollars to be redeemed and retired 11 government issues o<* paper money,greenbacks, Sherman r otes, which are legal 'enders nnd silver certificates which are not, to bo etirei or boa led. National banks to be increased, He taxes on bank notes to be reduced; bank not =>B to b 1 sued to lie full value of tho depo i's and twenty-five per coat over, the payment of all of these being guaranteed by the govern* rnent. Two hnn'red million dol la. s in s'?v r certificates to bo deposited as Becu v itvfor bank notes, wlmh certifioat s oa . be turned into bonds at the pleasure of tire secretary, the certificates to be estrpycii im-l the bods put in their lace. A division of redempti n nnd issue in the treasury which shall have one hundred nnd twenty five million dolln sin gold coin o redeem any m ney that maybe presorted and two hundred million dolln s in legal render notes which shall only bo pa d out in gold.” This is a most ingeniously devised plan to turn over the gov* eminent and the pro erty of the people to the national bank and the money kingß. It could only have been devised by an experi. e ced binker like Secretary Gage and the prol übilities are that be had the assistance of “ths business manager of the admirfstration.” u its preparation, and possibly that of Pierrepont Morgan who held tho same pos;ti n in the last administration.

What does this policy mean? First: A (.ingle gold standard. Sec nd: The contraction of the cuirencv by the retirement v f four hundred and fifty-tw » million dollars in silver, three hundred and forty-six mil ion dollars in greenbacks, one hundred and ten million dollars in Sherman notes, fortyeight million dollars of currency certificates and thirty-eight million dollars in gold certificates, a total of nine hundred and ninetyfour million dollars, show to be in the g-moral st ck of currency by the statement of October Ist. Third: Giving powt-j to the national banks to control the entire currency of the country. Fourth: To nave the government issue and guarantee five dollars in bank notes for every four dollars deposited by the bankers. Fifth: An increase m the bonded interest bearing debt of nearly! one billion dollars. This is tht financial policy proposed by Secretary-Banker Gage with the approval of President McKinley and his cabinet. A mighty good thing for national bank, but disastrous in its results to the people and the government Not a republican newspaper nil daie to deny that this ie a fair analysis of the secretary’s report given out to the press and printed on October 30. What do the republicans of the countrv think of this plan to transfer them as fji lot of voting cattle to the pen of the gold bugs.