UNCLE SAM: Well, you fellows have got to show me a thing or two, before we make the proposed changes, because I am from Missouri, as well as from forty-seven other unsuspecting states, and don't you forget it. In the first place, I want you to show me why my I.O.U.'s or the United States Note, so-called Greenbacks, are not a good currency. In the second place, I want you to show me why the present National Bank Notes, which are secured by my bonds, dollar for dollar, are not the best currency in the world. I have been told this for the last fifty years, and if it is not true, it is about time I waked up. MR. BANKER: Well, Uncle Sam, they've been fooling you, for both the United States Notes and these bond-secured Bank Notes are the worst form of currency in the world, and I can prove it. UNCLE SAM: Well, you will have to prove it, that's all. MR. BANKER: In the outset, I will tackle the United States Note, and incidentally, I will state all the other objections to them, as well as the objections to them as currency. _First_: They are demand obligations against you amounting to $346,000,000, and you must stand ready at all times to redeem them in gold. This fact always has and always will imperil your credit. It was the same greenbacks that sent your credit down to 35 cents on the dollar during the war, and again they came within an ace of wrecking your credit in 1894 when the gold in the treasury went down, down and down, until there was only $41,000,000 left, between you and national dishonor. Don't you remember that you then sold $262,000,000 of your bonds to protect your credit which was being sapped by these very same United States Notes? Pretty expensive business that, when you could have had a currency that the banks of the country, and not you, would have been compelled to redeem in gold whenever necessary. You will no doubt remember that in 1879 when you began to keep your promise, and redeem these greenbacks in coin, and make your old due bills as good as gold, you issued $100,000,000 of bonds for a corresponding amount of gold to establish your reserve or guarantee fund, in order that you might keep your promise good in the future. If you add this $100,000,000 to the other $262,000,000 you have issued since to protect your credit against these United States Notes, you will find that you have issued altogether $362,000,000 of your bonds, or $16,000,000 more than the total amount of the greenbacks, $346,000,000, and that you have also obligated yourself to pay interest on these bonds from first to last amounting to $362,000,000 more. Now, the astounding fact is that these old due bills, these I.O.U.'s, these United States Notes, or so-called greenbacks, are still out and you still owe them, just as you did in 1879, when you began keeping your promise to redeem them in gold.