United States Treasi rer
Delivers an Address
On American Finance
Iillis H. Roberts, treasurer of the
United States, addressed the Amer
ican Bankers’ convention in New
York recently on “ I'he Strength
and Weakness of the American
Finance.” He said:
The confession that weak, links can be
found in our financial chain shall not
drive us into pessimism. We know the
growth and the reserve of strength. Un
der the act of March 14,1900, every dollar
is equal to every other dollar, and all are
interchangeable. Because they are most
in use among all the people everywhere,
the small notes are in greatest demand.
If conditions point at all to a premium,
the ones, twos and fives will command it
first. But the level is well maintained.
Whatever winds blow or stoitns beat, our
currency has a surface as clear and even
as a mirror. That surface is not of mer
cury, shifting and undulating; it is formed
of the minted gold.
The stronghold of our financial system
is its actual gold ns well rs our statutes.
The world has about $5,500,000,000 of
this metal, of which the United States
has in its stock $1,342,422,740. In the
last reported year the world produced
less than $300,000,000, of which our mines
gave $80,000,000. Our treasury holds
$700,000,000 in gross, and our banks, na
tional and other, have $30o,ooo,oco ap
proximately. So over one-fifth of the
world's gold is in the United States, and
the bulk of it in the banks and the treas
ury. The charge is put forth often that
we are extravagant and wasteful in the
possession of so much of the prec ous
metal. Are we ?
A leading financial journal of this city
quotes the president of one of the largest
banks in San Francisco as alleging that
it costs $20 to get a dollar of gold out of
the ground. Was the metal all that the
picks of the miners and their self-sacrifice
took out ot the earth ? Did not the argo
nauts of 1S49 and their successors create
the California of today ? The ranches,
the orchards, the wheat and the fruit, the
factories and shipyards, the cities, the
churches, the universities, the civilisation
of that prosperous commonwealth, are a
part of the harvest planted by that $20
of the miners.
American finance connects itself with
world movements. While we can not ■
follow the debate relative to the profit of
gold mining, we must recognize the fact
that among the greater commercial na
tions the yellow metal is the only instru
ment for the final adjustment of trade
differences. The experience of mankind
has chosen it for that purpose, and there
is no other instrument at aitatde. A few
countries still cling to silver, hut they
all show signs of adopting the richer
metal. Thus gold bccomr* mote master
ful. Those who put themselves in hostile
array, denounce it as costly, and doubt
the value of the discovery and production,
are bound to provnle. at least in theory,
some other tool for settling the world
coinmrice. The era of crude barter has
pnsard away. The stress of trada insists
upon the best machinery.
Whv cannot an international clearing
house bn organised * perhaps jealousy
•ill tor bid the selection of a single city
fur the yuipae as the Wreck cities were
rivals fur the deposit of I he ug< rings to
Apwtfo The international org miration
may well have it* vault* la Lomlna. Peri*
amt Merlin aa welt an in Mi* Vurh, amt
Its* Measure can bn divntast in the ratto af
the gold of the several countries. The
certificates of the lour vaults can be inter
changeable. The barbarism of shipping
kegs of metal east and west over the At
lantic may go with the method of the
mummies and the cave dwellers.
American finance does not standalone,
a TenerifTe in midocean, a Shasta or
Rainier or Mont Blanc rising in solitary
majesty among their ranges. It is the
vital current of the activity of the people.
Its strength is »ot in theory or in petty
technicalities. It is strong with the brain
and brawn of 82.000,000 citizens; with
the varied resources of mine and soil aad
forestand running waters; with the sheep
and horses on many ranches and the
cattle on a thousand hills; with coal and
iron and all their products; with wheat
and corn and sugar and cotton; with the
inventive minds and skillful fingers of
efficient artisans; with forge and factory
and dynamo and motor; and, not least,
with school and college, with university
and church. Financial strength is in
wealth of every kind, but not less thau
the purest morality and the worthiest
character.
COLONEL OR CORPSE.
An outside paper prints a story
of one George O. Travis, a young
telegrapher, who resigned a posi
tion at $90 a month to enlist in the
U. S. army. Travis says he has
always intended to enter the army
on reaching the age of 21, and now
an uncle has died in Chicago and
left him $130,000 conditional on his
serving three years and receiving
an honorable discharge. In an
nouncing his dete: mination young
Travis says:
I am determined to reach the top.
Gen. Chaffee, who is now at the head of
the army, enlisted the same as I am do
ing and the chances were no better then
thun now. J am coming out a colonel or
a corpse.
The paper telling the story says
“a determination of that kind well
stuck to will win whether it be in
the array or in civil life."
Certainly such a determination
well stuck to will win. It follows,
therefore, that such a determina
tion should be emulated. Pursu
ing this line of philosophical
thought, we may eventually arrive
at a lime when every roan entering
the array will do so with the same
high resolve as Mr. Travis. Bully!
If their resolutions are “well stuck
to” the pension rolls of the future
will contain only the names of a
few colonels anti possibly a general
or two.
Hi. AihIivw'h Mission.
Sunday Service*.
Morning prayer and sermon at II.
Evening prayer and sermon 71,10.
Friday Service.
Litany at 4 p. m.
Presbyterian ('hurt'll.
Services at the courthouse Sun
day evening* at 7 jo
M. K. Koonc*, Missionary
The gold mine of the New Chum
rail<*av in Vktoiia. Australia, ha’
ihcM a depth u4 j.Wu lent ami u
one ol th** deepest in the world
RECEPTION
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12-year-old Crow Whiskey — The Only Stock.
Something New — Try Our Apricot Cocktail
Xhe Flavor You Never Forget
Famous Nl. J. B. Whole Roast
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PACKED IN 1-2-6 LB AIR TIGHT TINS
NORTHERN COMMERCIAL CO.
SOLE AGENTS
A FORMAL CALL
IN ARKANSAS
I was talking with an Arkansas
squatter at the door of his cabin
when a man rode up on a mule and
blandly inquired:
“Stranger, kin you tell me if Abe
Williams lives around yere?’’
“I kin,’’ replied my host, as he
reached into the door for his rifle
and brought it up to his face. *‘I
ar’ Abe Williams, sah, and mebbe
you’ll tell me what’s wanted?”
“Deed, but I shorely will, suh,”
said the man as he exhibited con
siderable chagrin and disappoint
ment over the promptness of the
squatter. “I wanted to inquar’ if
all your fatn’ly was well and seein’
; that they se“m to be I will bid you
; good day and riJe on.”
“What did he want?” I asked, as
; the stranger disappeared.
“Only jest to git the fust shot,
and mebbe I hadn’t orter l»een so
quick about it and disappointed
| him. This is a hard, cruel world,
and no critter otter disappoint an
other critter when he kin git around
it. However, I reckon he'll come
back M^me other day and have bet
ter luck ” Selected.
On the west side of the miues
building, near the main entrance,
Wilson Foster displays some 50,000
specimens from the Klondike mines.
He has commenced publishing the
hrst brrproof newspaper ever punt
ed The paper is punted on as
bestos, four pages of four columns
each, illustrated, and is deeded to
advertising the world’s fair, the
great mining interest* ol the north
west, and the recording wt principal
• vents at the fait F.arhange
WHEN WHITMAN
HELPED CHILDS
Walt Whitman, the poet, was de
pendent most of his life upon the
generosity of his friends and ad
mirers for support. On one occa
sion a friend said to Whitman:
“Well, Walt, how are things going
this year ?’’
“Fine!’’ exclaimed Whitman.
"I’m at work now. Am in the
employ of George Childs. He pays
me $75 a month.”
“What!” exclaimed the friend.
“You, Walt, at work ! May I ask
what is your occupation?”
“Why,” answered Whitman, “I
ride on the street cars. I fall into
conversation with the drivers and
conductors, and find out which of
them have no overcoats. Then I
guess at their size and notify Childs,
who sends them the overcoats
needed. “It’s not very hard work,”
the poet added, pensively, “and you
see it helps Childs along.”—Wo
man's Home Companion.
A pneumatic tube 18 inches in
j diameter i» proposed between Chi
cago and Milwaukee that will
' transput packages and mail be
I tween the two cities in 40 minutes
| at the rate of more than two miles
a minute and give a lightning ex
j press service to all the towns along
the route. The coat of the line is
placed at $5,000,000. As the dis
tance U about (4 5 miles, this H at
a rate of for.500 pet «mle Ka
1 tenses of maintenance and opera
non will he so small, it is asserted,
that tbec«>mi>a»iy can aft>rd to esrry
freight at Ursa than the price now
charged by any common carrier
Exchange