The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1857-11-20
VANDALISM.

81, VANDALISM. ts l..t q
We are sorryto see so many unscrupulous
demagogues in the countrYw who advocate put.
ting down all banks and all credit. Notlong
since, the Washington Union, the organ Of
those jewellers. published hard money arti-
Gle, in which the editor emphatically recon-
mended the ending Of the paper system.
| Inreply to this article, the New York Cou-
rier and Enquirer has some very pertinent
and sound views which we earnestly recon-
mend TO the attention of our readers. No
man Of sense believes It possible to abolish
the credit system ia this country. II cannot
and will not be done; nevertheless, dema-
gogues will make It a hobby to promote par
tizan objects. We therefore wish to givethe
people information upon this, to them, vital
ly important subject that they may not be
msled by the Designing !.
Wehsve no. apprehension that ths country
will at this late day be induced to accept any
Of the hard money dogmas which were 80
rife at the time the sub-treasury system was
first inaugurated. The idea of excluding all
paper currency, and of coming down to the
metallic system of China and of India, is
barbaric. 1t Is out Of all keeping with the
characteristics and the processes of modern
commerce and civilization. 1t Is perhaps pos.
sible to start q wild destructive hue and cry
against institutions of credit, which shall in
some measure impair confidence and embar.
rass business, and which may also have the
effect Of arraying one class of society against
another, but Il is idle to imagine that an
end will be put to these institutions. What
the Union stigmatises as the "paper system"
isso deeply and intimately interviewer in the
whole industrial and economic organization of
the country. that It cannot be destroyed with
out fatally paralyzing all, and 1t Is supreme
folly to attemptit
But, though unqualified in our condemna.
ton Of this Vandal spirit, still we do not our
selves regard our banking system as yet per-
feet. The simple fact that every bank In this
State, In time of pence and prosperity, has
suspended specie payments, 10 proof positive
TINT the law which created them is not COM
pletely effectual. True, TINT law has made
the banks secure. There are now no broken
banks-no banks without assets sufficient to
indemnify all bill-holders. And herein the
present system is vast Improvement over
that which existed twenty years ago. But
there Ia another point, quite as important, in
respect to which there has been no such i'm
provement. Though the bank circulation is
secure, it is not steady. 1t is still subject to
expansions and contractions that tell with
most ealamitous effect upon the business 10.
terests of society. Had every dollar of the
eight or nine millions Of our city bank mo-
ney been turned into worthless rags two
months ago, and been forever lost to the
holders, the damage would have been moth
ing, intrinsically, compared to what has re.
suited from the contraction of their dis
counts since that date. A sudden contraction
of this kind following great expansion is
the ulbst terrible visitation that can befall q
commercial community. But the law has YET
applied no fit means to guard against it. II
has virtually left the banks 70 regulate their
movements in this particular according to
their own sense of their self-interest-a self
interest that may be more or less literally
more or less intelllgbly, construed.
To justify this freedom, It should be es-
tablished first that the interests of bank
are always strictly accordant with the public
interests, and second that the directors Of a
bank are men of such perfect intelligence
and expanded views as to be capable Of ap-
preciating what its real interests are, and Of
taking such wise and timely precautions as
would prevent the necessity for those sud.
den and stringent measures which bring up
on its customers such calamitous conseqnen
ces Even though it be admitted that the in
terests Of bank and the interests of the
public are in reality coincident, yet what does
that avail II there be no certainty that these
interests will be rightly comprehended and
faithfully regarded? Banks are traders, and
all experience proves that their dominant no
tives are tho motives of Traders. They are
anxious to make large profits, and in that
anxiety they are liable to overtrade, and such
overtrading in banking business, asin all 9TH
er kinds Of business, draws after it, sooner
or later, necessity for reduction. The banks
find safety IN this reduction, especially when
relieved from the obligations they assumed in
flush times to pay their notes on demand; Il
is upon the heads of their innocent mercan-
tile customers that the penalty chiefly falls
One of the most useful functions of the
United States Bank was to restrain the ex-
cessive issues of other banks, and thus pre-
vent an undue expansion with the conse-
quent calafnitous reaction. But that institu-
ton has gone, and will not for long time to
come, IL ever, be restored. Yet the necessity
Of restraining ard regulating the State bank
issues hns not been superseded. II is still
urgent, in spite Of all the securities that have
been added to insure the redemption of the
notes. There must be some means devised
for keeping bank nccumulations within closer
limits and at some stender level; and II
banks through an unwise selfshness or an
inability 10 act in concert will not or cannot
do this, the resources Of legislation should
be drawn upon and regulations be devised
andhppled TINT shall serve the purpose. The
work would not be an easy one, we admit
The history of Sir Robert Peel's Bank Re-
strlction Act of twelve years ago sufficiently
indicates that. But that It will some day be
successfully effected we have little doubt
This Is proper field for the exercise Of the
practical talent of the country. To abolish
the present banking system, even were II pos
sible, would be madness; to remove all evils
incident to II, ii II be possible, will be proof
Of the highest wisdom. .sli..
WoMAH's LAUcH.--A woman has no natu,
raj grace more bewitchng than sweet laugh
Itleaps from her heart in clear sparkling rill
the heart hears Il and feels bathed in the OK.
h;iava Ain ~ sprinr IA turns the nroao ~ an,