Act through which the United States abandoned a bimetal (silver and gold) backing of the currency and converted to gold.
The Currency Act of 1900 dominated and affected the economic growth of the country for three decades. It reduced by 50 percent the minimum capital needed for a small national bank, thus increasing the number of bank establishments, and it increased the limitations on the issue of banknotes. In 1878, with the discovery of silver in the West and the Free Silver Movement advocating the unlimited coinage of silver, the federal government passed the Bland-Allison Act, which authorized it to buy a limited amount of silver, between $2 million and $4 million, each month and convert it into dollars. In an attempt to pacify silverites (silver mine owners, western farmers, and the lower laboring classes that benefited from an expanded currency) and not alienate eastern investors, Republicans passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which doubled the amount of silver purchased. Because money is a medium of both domestic and foreign exchange, many Republicans felt it was essential to maintain the gold standard if U.S. businesses were to compete internationally. They also believed that Gresham’s Law (overvalued species will drive out undervalued species) would lead to a depletion of gold in federal mints as individuals sold gold in European markets.
With the discovery of gold in Alaska, which increased the nation’s currency supply, President William McKinley persuaded Congress to pass the Currency Act of 1900. The government backed all currency with gold and fixed the price at $20.67 an ounce. By going to this standard, the nation found itself facing several disadvantages in the first three decades of the twentieth century. A growing economy needs a growing gold reserve to back it up. If such reserves decline, the money supply slows and economic growth is restricted. People can also decide to convert their currency into gold in a speculative move, thereby draining the federal reserve of gold and reducing the money supply. Many historians and economists contend that the gold standard led to the Great Depression. In 1933, the federal government feared a depletion of its gold supply, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to go off the gold standard. than 1.96 million Americans were incarcerated in federal, state, and local prison facilities. That figure represents an increase between 1995 and 2001 of 3.8 percent annually. In 1989,57 percent of the prison population were confined as a result of the War on Drugs initiated by President George H. W. Bush. The government loses tax revenues when drug dealers commit their crimes while at the same time the taxpayers must pay for the additional law enforcement personnel and facilities necessary to combat the problem.
Another financial drain on the public treasury involves the detention of illegal immigrants. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of immigration violators within the system increased by 691 percent, again resulting in increased expenditures within the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Based on recent statistics, a disproportionate number of African American males are incarcerated—46.5 percent of all prisoners are African American, although only 10 percent of the U.S. population is African American. Crime has become a class issue.
