Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1834-03-14

sent distresses complained of by few iact.eapaai
spectators, and desperate political gamblers are not
worthy OF comparison with the disasters of that
memorable period. Let not those who opposed to
the administration point to this period example
OF what we may expect from the present policy of the
government The folly and the delusion Of that ace
can never he repeated again " host of British min
lScrlol writers, had taken the pains prove that Bank
OF England paper tto bank had stopped specie paneis
was as good as gold and even better and they had
numerous copysts IN America" This the delusion
OF the day and the fruitful source of ali their caan
ties u is impossible, with experience that incon
verblc bank paper again be esteemed good
as gold and eren better. Sounder views the
of banking operations and the better management
which experience has introduced into most of those
institutions will eectuay protect us from
OF those evils which have just described However
the men OF that day did not profit by their expert
ence 80 desperate the state of credit, that they
thought themselves compelled desperate ex-
pedent as remedy. They thought to cure the evil by
the establishment of national bank "Nr CASTOR of
North Carolina, justly compared this proposition, to
relieve the evil arising from much paper by throw
ing more into circulation, to the remedy which Burke
had described the French Convention, prescribing
Tor every evil, viz: issuing assignats" "The
disease, 1t said, under which the people labor is the
banking fever of the States and this be cured by
giving them the banking fever of the United States"
III Is not our purpose to give, at the present time,
history of the United States Bank We that
important and extensive subject a more convenient
occasion. We wish only to advert or two cir
cusances show that the course is now pursuing
..
1t Is doing now 1t has done before Distresses similar
to those complained of at this tme have been created
IN repeated instances by the operations and the mis-
management of the bank. Curailments to a large
amount rendered necessary by previous overtading,
and creating distress in proportion, have been made:
at time when the national funds, amounting to
several millions OF dollars were actually deposited i'm
Its vaults So this false claor that nothing but the
removal of the depostes could have produced the pres
sure IN the money market put silence by the his
tory of the bank itself What it has done once may
do and will do again, to accomplish its purposes
The Bank of the United States opened its doors at
Philadelphia on the LIST of January 1917. A favorte
object was the equalization of exchange between differ
en parts of the Union. This sought be effected
not by compelling the local banks to redeem their ex-
ira issues and thus bring the currency every part of
the country to u level with specie but by issuing
notes payable at all the offices, and by system of
drawing and re-drawing, carried on by the mother
bank and ITS branches The Secretary of the Treasu
ry increased the inducements of the bank multiply
Its discounts, by redeemng with portion of the public
deposites, eleven millions of the funded debt which
formed part OF the capital stock of the bank. The
effect OF these rnous operations was that the discounts
of the bank, which less than three millions on the
February 1917, were increased to twentymions
by the 30th of April to twenty-five by the 10Th of July,
and to thrtythree millions by the 3is of October At
the close of the year. the amount of unsound credit
dealings was, taking the country throughout greater
than IT at the beginning: for the contraction made
by all the local banks did not equal the expansion
made by the United States Bank. In the July follow
lnS the Board of Directors found it absolutely necessa-
ry TO change their policy. sudden reduction of dis
counts to the amount of two millions at the bank in
Philadelphia, two millions at Baltimore seven hundred
thousand at Richmond, and five hundred thousand in
Norfolk, then ordered to be made before the LIST
of November. reduction of discount to the amount
OF four million five hundred thousand dollars in four
Cities III the short space of three months and days.
had very disastrous effect the merchants, and
through them, on the rest of the community.
Now, fellow citizens, what was the cause of this
general pressure throughout the country? No govern
ment deposites were removed ut that time. The
barassment under which the country then suffer-
,xyfl tnctl
No one attributed it to any other committee
of congress pronounced it. The instance which we
have cited of mismanagement, is not the only
The whole history of that institution is nothing more
than record of alternate excitement and depression
produced by the bank. At one time the country is
thrown into state of eversh and unnatural prosperi-
ty-at another of feless prostraton, Just to suit the
wishes, and to accomplish the purposes of few bank
drectorS-the country is thrown into continual ebb
and tide of hope despair, merely for the benefit of
the "rag. barons"
But the pernicious influence of the bank on CONNER
cial operations, not the only thing worthy of
condemnation at the period of which
speaking Between July 1917, and July 1918, upwards
of millions of specie imported by the bank.
But the original cause of the species leaving the
country, vz the paper issues still continuing
to operate, the money exported faster than il was
imported by the bank. In this state of things the
bank conceived and attempted the daring plan of sub
sung ga paper currency as legal tender instead Of
COIN" Mr.. Niles, in his Register of October Sd, 1915
intimates that ga grand scheme maturing for
keeping the paper mill agong. The first part of the
scheme is prepare the members of congress vote
as directed at the ensuing session of congress. OF
what is designed to be done when sufficient number
OF members secured almost wholly in the
dark present but we believe of the things pro-
posed is the substitution of paper currency legal
tender instead of coin which frequently limited at i'm
certain newspapers, if to feel the public pulse" In
his Register of November 9TH, he says, "We have
several times darkly limited at great intrigue which
going on, relieve the banking system generally
and especially to embrace the grand views of the Bank
of the United States. | am just informed of what
this intrigue is but private honor will permit me
to mention it at present The object is by bits of pr
per- TO prevent The banks from being compelled 10 pay their
debts. This is the long and the short of the whole
affair. Aye, and the pretence is most specious-thc
appearance most seducing But the instantaneous eff