government bonds there is only a promise to pay. Behind government
currency we have, in addition to the promise to pay, a reserve of
gold and a small reserve of silver. In this connection it is worth
while remembering that in the past the government has agreed to
redeem nearly thirty billions of its debts and its currency in
gold, and private corporations in this country have agreed to
redeem another sixty or seventy billions of securities and
mortgages in gold. The government and private corporations were
making these agreements when they knew full well that all of the
gold in the United States amounted to only between three and four
billions and that all of the gold in all of the world amounted to
only about eleven billions.

If the holders of these promises to pay started in to demand gold
the first comers would get gold for a few days and they would
amount to about one twenty-fifth of the holders of the securities
and the currency. The other twenty-four people out of twenty-five,
who did not happen to be at the top of the line, would be told
politely that there was no more gold left. We have decided to treat
all twenty-five in the same way in the interest of justice and the
exercise of the constitutional powers of this government. We have
placed everyone on the same basis in order that the general good
may be preserved.

Nevertheless, gold, and to a partial extent silver, are perfectly
good bases for currency and that is why I decided not to let any of
the gold now in the country go out of it.

A series of conditions arose three weeks ago which very readily
might have meant, first, a drain on our gold by foreign countries,