Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1850-07-29
Ranks Refusing to Redeem.

Banks Refusing to Redeem.
The New York Tribune of the 9th says:
sThe Chester Co. Bank, Pa, the Phoenix
Bank, Westerly, Il. I /, and the Dorches.
ter and Milton Bank, Mass, refuse to re-
deem their notes except on certain cendl-
tions, on the plea that they have been rob-
bed Of large amounts Of notes. Remittance
es from respectable bankers in the street to
these banks for redemption, are returned
without satisfaction"
Its no new thing for Banks to refuse to
paw their debts. OF all the paper money
ever nut in circulation in Ohio, not 20 per
cent Of it has ever been redeemed; while
in the Western States, say Michigan and
Illinois, a much less per cent Of their pa
per money has been redeemed by those
who issued it Paper money banking, as
a system, as it has existed, in the Wastern
States, is only contrlvance "a cunning
and fraudulent contrivance-to transfer
property, without equivalent, from those
who earn it to idlers. 1t is legalized rob-
bery-it is that kind of robbery which
plumbers its unsuspecting victims without
warning, and after it has lulled them into
security by false and deceitful promises.
The time will come, when this kind of bu-
siness will be regarded as is all other kinds
of robbery, as crime against society. All
honest men will denounce it as such, and
the law will infict as severe penalties a.
gainst such practices, as it now does against
counterfeiting. The time is not Distant
Toledo Republican,
True, every word, but the evils Of pa
per money banking are not confined to any
particular system; they are common to all
to greater or less extent. 1t is not the
bank that fails or refuses to pay its debts
or redeem its promises, that is alone guilty
of defrauding the people. The ingenuity of
man never has devised and never will de-
wise system, whether in the East, West,
North, or South, the object, design and eff
feet of which is not sto enrich the rich mans
fields by the sweat of the poor mans brow
All the banks in the State, and all that ev-
er have been or ever may be. have not in
creased its wealth or that of the people in
the least, or added to their prosperity or
comfort. On the contrary, they have been
the absorbers of the wealth produced by
the laborers of the country, and this they
do whether they fail to redeem their prom
ises or not. Wealth is the result Of indus
try, and belongs Of right to the toilers as
the Just reward for their labors, but they
can never enjoy it while the legislative
power of the State is employed to invest
capital with the undue and unnatural pow
er to plunder them. ..@
The banking capital ofthis State amounts
to something over 100000, and with
the privileges conferred on them by special
legislation, it is safe to say, they make an
average profit of l6 per cent. per annum,
and this, too, without having added a sim
gle cent to the general wealth, for, as we
have already said, wealth is the result of
labor, and belongs Of right to the producer.
This Is per cent. upon 100000 a.
mounts to Sl,l2O 900, the sum which the
banks annually tax the people for the use
Of their miserable rag currency. And yet,
there is class of men in the country who
uphold this species Of plnnder, and who,
whenever the gross and feculent corrup-
tions of these legalized swindlers become
so glaring that they are seen and felt by al,
cry out against the system under which the
plundering operations are carried on, but
still seek to justly and encourage the prin-
ciple and practice, but under different
form or system. Such has been the course
Of the whig leaders. In 1887, they upheld
the then existing system in this state until
it went to pieces of its own rottenness, and
they have upheld the present system until
its wrongs and corruptions begin to become
apparent to some of them, who now claim
that @the busidess of banking shall be free
open to all. as though that would rem
edy the evil and protect industry from the
plundering operations of banking; when in
fact the only remedy is, to put an end to @tin-
kering the currency"-to strip from the m on
ey lords the power of controlling it and there
by controlling the destiny Of the people and
Of the State.
g The Washington correspondent OF