VALUE FOREIGN COINS IN UNITED STATES MONEY. *Not including Costa Rica. ↑ Value of the rupee to be determined by consular certificate. Coinage at United States Mints. Total coinage of the mints since their organization, 1792 (Philadelphia), to December 31, 1897, is as follows: Not including $2,501,052.50 Columbian souvenir half dollars and $10,005.75 Columbian souvenir quarter dollars issued in 1893. STATISTICS OF SAVINGS BANKS. NUMBER OF DEPOSITORS, AMOUNT OF DEPOSITS, AND AVERAGE TO EACH DEPOSITOR, 1897-1898. No returns for 1897-98 from the following States, and returns for previous years are given: Alabama, 1893–94, depositors, 2,500; amount of deposits, $102,347. Florida, 1894-95, depositors, 1,148; amount of deposits, $205,710. New Mexico, 1894-95, depositors, 217; amount of deposits, $37,951. Washington, 1894-95, depositors, 5,512; amount of deposits, $1,148,104. Oregon, 1895-96, depositors, 1,631; amount of deposits, $972,298. Georgia, 1896-97, depositors, 5,384; amount of deposits, $288,010. a Estimated. Savings deposits in State institutions having savings departments. Approximate Value of the Product of Gold and Silver in the United States in 1897. Wild-cat Banks.—The fraudulent in- | stitutions known as wild-cat banks were started principally in the West and South after the closing up of the United States Bank and the transfer of its deposits to State banks in 1832. The scarcity of capital in these regions made it comparatively easy to put in circulation anything that purported to be money. Hence, anyone with a very limited capital — or, in fact, without any capital at all-could open a bank, issue $10,000 or more in small notes, and pass them over in easy loans to land speculators, who, in their turn, paid them out in country villages and among farmers, where the standing of the bank of issue would necessarily be unknown. Hundreds of these banks were started, and immense amounts of so-called money were loaned to build cities in the wilderness, and to contractors anxious to build railroads without material, tools, or means of paying wages. In some cases the real place of issue was, for instance, New Orleans or Buffalo, while the bills purported to be issued and pay This method able in, say, Georgia or Illinois. of doing business lasted four years, when the panic of 1837, one of the most painful and prolonged crises in the financial history of the United States, overtook the country. Fortunately this led to the adoption in nearly all the States of such banking laws as rendered similar schemes impossible in the future. These institutions were called wild-cat banks, owing to their utter lawlessness and because their victims were "most awfully clawed." Trade Dollars.- Previous to the coinage of this dollar, which was brought into existence through the demand on the Pacific coast for a coin to be used in commercial relations, particularly with China and Japan, the old silver dollar of 3714 grains was the only one known. The new dollar contained 420 grains, and eventually was extensively circulated all over the Union, but was retired after the Forty-fourth Congress enacted that it was not a legal tender. Clearing House. The clearing house is business on that day, and tables are daily furnished to the several banks of all the banks in the clearing house. By an institution founded not merely upon the idea of saving time and trouble in the use of the precious metals, but also of circulating notes. The Clearing House of London, which Freedman's Bank was established in was the first of the kind, originated among the March, 1865, as a charitable enterprise, to bankers of that city, whose transactions in the encourage frugality and thrift among the checks, bills, and drafts drawn upon each newly-liberated slaves. The institution was other became so large as to call for the daily, started at first in Washington, but afterward and even hourly, use of vast sums in bank- branch banks to the number of thirty-four notes by all of them. Appreciating how readily were located in different parts of the Union. the debts and credits respectively due or held The bank was not intended to be a money-makby them might be set off, one against the other, ing concern, either for bankers or for deposithey formed the clearing house, where, up to tors, but as a place of deposit for the savings four o'clock each day, all drafts, bills, etc., of negroes, which savings were to be invested upon each individual member were taken. in the stocks, bonds, Treasury notes, and other This system of the London Clearing House securities of the United States. During the has, however, been much extended and im- existence of the bank, nine years, it handled proved. Clearing houses exist in New York, no less than $56,000,000 of deposits, the nePhiladelphia, Boston, Chicago, and other cities groes being led to believe that the safety of the in the United States. A description of the institution was guaranteed by the Government, system in use in Philadelphia will, in the main, which was untrue. The institution was mananswer for all. The clearings are made each aged by a number of trustees of unsavory finanmorning at 8.30, just before which hour a cial reputation, and, as a consequence, at the messenger and a clerk from each bank are at expiration of nine years it suspended payment. the clearing house. The clerks take their seats At the investigation which was made by a comat a series of desks arranged in the form of a mittee appointed by Congress a most scandalhalf oval. The messenger brings with him ous condition of affairs was discovered. The from his bank a sealed package for each other regulations of the charter had been completely bank, containing all checks or drafts on such ignored, and the funds had been dissipated by banks. The name of the bank sending, and loans made upon inadequate securities. that of the bank to which it is sent, is printed law the investments of the bank were confined on each package, and the amount sent is writ- to Government securities alone. Unimproved ten thereon. The messengers take their places real estate, unsalable stocks and personal notes, near the desks of their respective banks, and were among the assets of the bank. Deficits they have with them tabular statements of the and embezzlements at the branch banks also amount sent to each bank, and the aggregate. produced many losses. The unsecured debts These are exhibited to the respective clerks owed to the depositors amounted to $2,900,000, and noted by them on the blank forms. At and the assets yielded about $1,700,000. For 8.30 o'clock precisely, the manager calls to some years three bank commissioners were order and gives the word, when all the messen-employed, at a salary of $3,000 each, to wind gers move forward from left to right of the up the affairs of the institution. After $475,clerks, handing in to those clerks the packages 000 had been expended in this " winding-up" addressed to their respective banks, and tak-process the affairs of the bank were all turned ing receipts for them on their statements. The several clerks then pass around a memorandum of the debts, credits, and balances, each of his respective bank. When these memoranda have made the circuit, each clerk has on his statement the debts, credits, and balances, whether debtor or creditor, of each bank. If these debits and credits, or debtor or creditor balances, are found to balance, the clerks now leave the clearing house. If not, they remain until the error or errors are discovered. The balances due by the several banks are paid into the clearing house that day by 11.30 o'clock A. M., and are receivable by the credEach bank is itor bank by 12.30 P. M. obliged daily to furnish to the clearing house a statement of its condition at the end of the over to the Comptroller of the Currency. Dividends have been paid at various times; but many small depositors, through ignorance and despair, forfeited their dividends by not calling for them. In all, 77,000 dividends, amounting to $112,000, were thus forfeited. $170,900,641.49 149,575,062.35 Revenues of the Government, year funds, From sinking fund for Pacific railways, 4,756,469.71 3,693,282.98 2,639,750.54 1,975,849.28 1,243,129.42 1,146,590.41 1,007,352.96 781,986.83 From sales of Indian lands, From customs fees, fines, penalties, etc., From payment of interest by Pacific railways, From immigrant fund, From sales of Government property. From Soldiers' Home, permanent fund, From sales of lands and buildings, Total receipts, 306,992.86 113,049.08 99,273.15 93,086.98 $576,687.41 ist on equal terms; that starvation treads too 576,487.50 closely on his heels to permit his successfully 526,286.13 opposing a reduction of his wages, no matter 224,331.32 how arbitrary or unjust. It is urged that associations of employers are practically uni107,612.49 versal, and that their object is mainly to secure 102,394.87 for themselves the largest possible share of the 94,638.59 profits which are the product of capital and labor united. Yet it cannot be denied that 29.154.30 against these uses may be set many serious evils. 6,303,000.00 Strikes are often determined upon by unions at times when the condition of the market $494,333,953.75 renders success impossible, resulting in severe and prolonged suffering. Unions undoubtedly foster an unfortunate spirit of antagonism. Being constantly and consciously on the defensive, they come at last to suspect evil in every movement and to put a sinister interpretation on every action of employers, and in some trades the practice of coercion has grown into 91,992,000.29 systematic terrorism and crime. 58,448,223.75 89,012.618.55 : Expenditures for the same period :- For the military establishment, includ- For Indian Service, For pensions, For interest on the public debt, For deficiency in postal revenues, For Postal Service, Total expenditures, $86,016,464.75 147,452,368.61 37,585,056.23 Mississippi Scheme. The gigantic commercial scheme commonly known by this 58,823,984.80 name was projected in France by the celebrated 10,994,667.70 financier John Law of Edinburgh in 1717, and collapsed in 1720. Its primary object was 10,504,040.42 to develop the resources of the Province of 89,012,618.55 Louisiana and the country bordering on the $532,381,201.35 Mississippi, a tract at that time believed to $38,047,247.60 abound in the precious metals. The company was incorporated in August, 1717, under the title of the Company of the West," and started with a capital of 200,000 shares of 500 livres each. They obtained the exclusive privilege of trading to the Mississippi, farming the taxes and coining money. The prospectus was so inviting that shares were eagerly bought; and when, in 1719, the company obtained the monopoly of trading to the East Indies, China, and the South Seas, and all the possessions of the French East India Company, the brilliant vision opened up to the public gaze was irresistible. The " Company of the Indies,' as it was now called, created 50,000 additional shares; but a rage for speculation had seized all classes, and there were at least 300,000 applicants for the new shares, which consequently rose to an enormous premium. Law, as director general, promised an annual dividend of 200 livres per share, which, as the shares were paid for in the depreciated billets d'etat, amounted to an annual return of 120 per cent. The public enthusiasm now rose to absolute frenzy, and Law's house and the street in front of it were daily crowded by applicants of both sexes and of all ranks, who were content to wait for hours- nay, for days together- in order to obtain an interview with the modern Plutus. While confidence lasted a factitious impulse was given to trade in Showing a deficit of, Trades Unions.—In one form or another, combinations have always existed since the employed and employing classes became distinguishable from each other. Trades unions, organized for purposes such as those which contemporary unions contend for, have existed for more than three centuries. So early as 1548 a statute of Edward VI. is directed, among other culprits, against certain artificers, handicraftsmen, and laborers," who had "sworn mutual oaths to do only certain kinds of work, to regulate how much work should be done in a day, and what hours and times they should work. The usual penalties of fines, pillory, and loss of ears were to follow a breach of its enactments. Add the regulation of wages and the employment of union or non-union men to the objects enumerated in this statute, and we have in effect the trades unions of the present day. Many fruitless acts were afterward passed to prevent combinations for raising wages; but since that time. the trades unions have increased in numbers and membership, until they include nearly all the laboring classes of England and America. The advocates of the unions insist that they are the only means by which workmen can defend themselves against the aggressions of employers. It is argued that the individual laborer has no chance of resisting the capital |