The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-08-01

eonv0rt the amount they resolved into suoh funds
as the government might require. Thus the
Bank of Missouri, located at st. Louis, under
contract with the Treasury Department, held
standing deposite of Sl5O,OOO; for the use OF
which sum that bank undertook to transmit such
funds as might be deposited on account of the
government, to such point as the government
might require On the Esd Of June, 1919, the
Secretary of the Treasury wrote to that bank as
follows:-
Gas the current payments into the Bank of Mis-
.ouri will probably be more than sufficient to
meet any demands which may arise from the
public service in that quarter, over and above
the depostes proposed to remain in the bank,
and as il is desirable that the large sum tohich
is 7lo.o i7 that bank may, soon practicable,
be made available acheTe the public service tciH
REQUIRE it, HAVE to request that measures
7,lau be taken for PAYING IT OVER TO The
BANK OF THE UNITED STATES AS
FAST AS MAY BE CONVENIENT. IL is
presumed that the amount of the bills Of the
Bank of the U4lited States aud of its officers,
7l0tc in the possession of the Bank Of Missouri,
can be Immediately, and t0itho,t delay, trans
.feTred to the office at Louisville"
And under the same date the Secretary writes:
'sThat it is extremely desirable that the most
convenient and conciliatory course should be
iesorted to, in obtaining payment of the bills
which may happen to accumulate IN the bank in
which the public money is deposited"
On the 80 of July, the Secretary is still more
pressing:
"For," says he considering, however, the
precarous state of the State Institutions, except
in the principal cities, it would be act of pru
dence not to retain their notes longer that tohGt
is absolutely necessary"
Now, beg you to remember that on the 18th
of March, 1919, MIR Cleves opened a correspon-
dencS with the Secretary of the Treasury, en-
treating his FORBEARANCE and his AID;
that on the 23d of June, 1919, the Bank of Mis-
souri, was directed to pay over to the Branch
| Bank of the United States, at Louisville, all
the bills of that Bank and of its Branches;
that on the 30th of July, that Bank was directed
not to retain the notes of any other banks longer
than .cas absolutely necessary; and that the
entire proceeds of the bills of other banks well
on the notes of the Bank of the United States,
and its branches were by order of the Secretary
of the Treasury, paid over as fast as they were
received, to the Branch Bank of the United
States, at Louisville =! Similar instructions
were transmitted to the other banks, acting as
depositaries of the public money. Thus, the
bank of Edwardsville, on one side of the Mis-
sissippi, and the bank of Missouri on the others
each of them depositaries of the public money,
were required to cash the notes of each other
and'transmit, blythe same steamboat, the proceeds
of the bills, converted into specie, to Louisville,
there to be paid into the Bank of the United
States.
In the absence of the official report, am not
able to give the precise sum which was thus
cashed by the western banks for the benefit of the
Bank of the United States. But, as the bank of
Missouri alone, within a fewmonths, converted
near one million, there can be no doubt that it
amounted TO several millions of dollars. MIR.
| Cheves tells us that such were the condition of
the Bank of the United States, on the 18th of
April, 1919, that it had in its vaults but ST.
| 522 II; whereas, it owed the city banks balance
of s196,41S &c; and adds that the bank was Gre
lieved by the seasonable arrival on the next day
of S250,00O in specie from Ohio and kentucky
Now, l ask you to look at the fact here stated,
that there were millions of dollars taken out of
the local banks, and put into the Bank of the
U. S. by the Secretary of the Treasury. The
consequence was, that the local banks failed and
the Bank of the U. S. sustained its credit Now,
reverse the picture: say, that the Secretary Of
the Treasury had taken three millions out of the
Bank of the U. S., and put it into the local
banks; the effect would have been that the Bank
of the u. S. would have failed, and the local
banks would have sustained their credit Here,
then have T CLEARLY tracad tbe eusDnns;op ~ tha
local banks in the Western States to the action
of the Treasury itself The Government of the
u. S. induced those Banks, in the first instance,
to make large issues of their paper; that paper
had been borrowed by the Government, and paid
away to its patriotic citizens, who had been en-
gagged in the late Immediately upon the
return of peace, the Government held out strong
inducements to those who had obtained the notes
OF these Banks, and as soon as it gets them In
possession, by the exchange of public lands for
them, at very high price, those notes are i'm
mediately converted into specie, and the specie
paid over into the Bank of the United States.
More | have said that the Government sold
these lands for instalments, one-fourth in hand,
and the balance in two, three, and four years
l have also said that, in 1917, Mr. Monroe re-
commended an increase of the minimum price,
which was then two dollars per acre. The effect
OF this recommendation was to induce the people
of the West to make still further investments ON
credit, paying one-fourth in hand, and going in
debt for three-fourths, under the delugivel hope
that the price would be raised, and that they
could sell part to pay for the whole. When, 10!
no sooner had the Government obtaiaed the last
dollar that they could get in this way, than, in
stead of raising the price from two dollars to
three, they reduced it from two dollars on credit,
to one dollar and twenty-five cents cash. The
effect OF this was to ruin every man who had
made large purchases on credit, relying on a sale
OF part topay for the rest:-to drain the country
of every dollar that could be forced into the