Des Moines courier. ([Ottumwa] Iowa) 1848-1854, 1849-11-09
Banks.

ject, from Wisconsin paper which
struck us as being equally applicable to
Iowa, and which with some alterations
and interlineations, we transfer to our
columns:
Article 9th of the Constitution of To-
wa is as follows:
81. No corporate BODY shall hereafter
he created, renewed, or extended, with
the privilege Of making. issuing, or put
Ting in circulation, any bill, check, tick
ct. certificate, promissory note, or other.
paper, or the paper of any bank, to cir
cula,e as money. The General Assem-
bly, of this State shall prohibit. by law,
any person or persons, association, COM
pany or corporation, from exercising the
privileges of banking, or creating paper
to circulate as money"
This clause in the Cons titutien has
been great impeachment to the growth
and prosperity of Iowa, and "we ven
ture to say, that there is hardly an intel
ligent man in the ranks of the Locoloco
party in the State, who does not honest
ly believe that sound, well regulated
banking Institutions would conduce en-
inently TO its growth and prosperity, and
who does not feel that it suffers from
nothing so much this very day as want
of CAPITAL and CREDIT. We have a
most fertile soil, exhauslless water pow
err, immense mineral resources, easy COM
munication to markets, abundant labor
seeking for employ-indeed every ele-
ment of great and increasing wealth, but
we wan. money and we want credit; and
what boots our wealth in lands and i'm
provements and mineral resources, UNI
less we have the representative of this
value in some circulating medium to en-
able us to turn ii TO account and make it
productive.
stake almost every new and growing
town in The West and it will be found
that the first settlers have TO sacrafice
themselves, for these reasons, for those
who came after them. They have to
bear the blunt Of the battle; they endure
hardships and undergo privation and
spend their strength to develope the re-
sources Of the place, and others come in
and enter into their labors; and why! be-
cause they cannot obtain money to carry
on their improvements, except at ruin
Gus rates of interest, and capital is SO
scarce that they cannot sell part to car
ry on successfully the rest. And the
more enterprising they are, the worse it
is for them. If they will content them
selves with grubbing along, without do
ing anything and without contributing
anything to any public improvement,
the gradual rise of their property will
in time make them independent; but if
they build or improve or enter into any
kind of business, lucky will it be for
them if they do not find themselves in
some money shavers hands and their
whole estate swept away at the rate Of
from forty to sixty per cent, per annum.
AS il is, great part OF the money in the
country goes to pay taxes, anda large
share of the balance makes its way to
the Golfers of large capitalists, (who
laugh and grow TT over the suicidal pol
icy of the saate,) and is doled out again
in small quantities at most exorbitant
interest. If we had a few good Banks
in the State--no shinplaster concern
but founded upon specie basis and un-
der strict legislative supervision, we
should not long see persons of ample
means and undoubted credit going about
through the country begging small
loans at any rate of interest, and pledg-
ing valuable estate for security, which af-
forwards they may consider themselves
fortunate if its mortgage is not foreclosed
at less than half its value.
The whole experience of the civilized
world has demonstrated the utility and
necessity Of Banks. They are the ar
teries through which circulates the life
blood of the material state, and no COM
munity can rise to eminence in the great
departments Of Industry and Prosperity;
Commercial, Manufacturing and Agricul-
tural; without them. In all our older
States, the theories of politicians, or
rather of demagogues, have not been al
lowed to interfere with the sagacity Of
practical minds. and the community rests
very patiently under the theoretical evils
of system which an occasional conven-
ton, in its fitfuI zeal for The ..dear people"
absolutely condemns. while Loco Foco
take special good care not
to subject their theories of no banks 10
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