e of bonds best suited to such a purpose, but there seems a
disposition in some quarters to deny both the necessity and power for
the issue of bonds at all.

I can not for a moment believe that any of our citizens are
deliberately willing that their Government should default in its
pecuniary obligations or that its financial operations should be reduced
to a silver basis. At any rate, I should not feel that my duty was done
if I omitted any effort I could make to avert such a calamity. As long,
therefore, as no provision is made for the final redemption or the
putting aside of the currency obligation now used to repeatedly and
constantly draw from the Government its gold, and as long as no better
authority for bond issues is allowed than at present exists, such
authority will be utilized whenever and as often as it becomes necessary
to maintain a sufficient gold reserve, and in abundant time to save the
credit of our country and make good the financial declarations of our
Government.

Questions relating to our banks and currency are closely connected with
the subject just referred to, and they also present some unsatisfactory
features. Prominent among them are the lack of elasticity in our
currency circulation and its frequent concentration in financial centers
when it is most needed in other parts of the country.

The absolute divorcement of the Government from the business of banking
is the ideal relationship of the Government to the circulation of the
currency of the country.

This condition can not be immediately reached, but as a step in that
direction and as a means of securing a more elastic currency and
obviating other objections to the present arrangement of bank
circulation the Secretary of the Treasury presents in his report a
scheme modifying present banking laws and providing for the issue of
circulating notes by State banks free from taxation under certain
limitations.

The Secretary explains his plan so plainly and its advantages are
developed by him with such remarkable clearness that any effort on my
part to present argument in its support would be superfluous. I shall
therefore content myself with an unqualified indorsement of the
Secretary's proposed changes in the law and a brief and imperfect
statement of their prominent features.

It is proposed to repeal all laws providing for the deposit of United
States bonds as security for circulation; to permit national banks to
issue circulating note