United States on the 1st day of December, 1897, was $847,365,620. The
Government money now outstanding (December 1) consists of $346,681,016
of United States notes, $107,793,280 of Treasury notes issued by
authority of the law of 1890, $384,963,504 of silver certificates, and
$61,280,761 of standard silver dollars.

With the great resources of the Government, and with the honorable
example of the past before us, we ought not to hesitate to enter upon a
currency revision which will make our demand obligations less onerous to
the Government and relieve our financial laws from ambiguity and doubt.

The brief review of what was accomplished from the close of the war
to 1893, makes unreasonable and groundless any distrust either of our
financial ability or soundness; while the situation from 1893 to 1897
must admonish Congress of the immediate necessity of so legislating as
to make the return of the conditions then prevailing impossible.

There are many plans proposed as a remedy for the evil. Before we can
find the true remedy we must appreciate the real evil. It is not that
our currency of every kind is not good, for every dollar of it is good;
good because the Government's pledge is out to keep it so, and that
pledge will not be broken. However, the guaranty of our purpose to keep
the pledge will be best shown by advancing toward its fulfillment.

The evil of the present system is found in the great cost to the
Government of maintaining the parity of our different forms of money,
that is, keeping all of them at par with gold. We surely cannot be
longer heedless of the burden this imposes upon the people, even under
fairly prosperous conditions, while the past four years have
demonstrated that it is not only an expensive charge upon the