Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-10-24
Commercial affairs.
From the Louisville Courier.


-
We took occasion. a few days since, to make
some remarks about a class Of money changers
known as asserting brokers. We publish q com
municatiOn this morning upon the same subject
which will be read with interest. Our remark:
were intended for the good Of the community, and
we care but little whether they offended the guilty
parties or not, We consider asserting brokers, who
collect the notes of our banks and demand the spe'
cic, in these troublcus times. as q curse to our
prosperity. They do more harm in such times as
these to the business community than any other
class of men, and we should like to see them de-
nounced until the atmosphere of Louisville, yea, OF
all Kentucky, would become too hot for them to
breathe with any degree Of comfort.
We are told, however, that these brokers are
pursuing a legitimate business, and that they have
q right TO buy up tho notes of our banks and dc
mand the specie. We do not deny that the laws
Of the land protect them !. their vocation, 1t is
possible. indeed, that they do some good by acting
as a check upon the banks of issue. 1t usually
turns out, however, that their check acts most siren
uously just at the time when they do the mos
harm The fact of their business being Legitimate
moreover, does not make it respectable and proper.
1t is legal to establish negro-pens and to buy and
cell slaves in our midst, and yet We should not
like to engage in the business. There is no law
against a banker receiving deposits from the poor
and needy up to the hour before be closes his doors,
and vet we cannot approve of such conduct. The
law permits Il soulless Shylock to lend money and
sue his debtor when he can't pay, ard buy his pro-
perty under the hammer at half its worth, and
yet we must condemn all such acts ms these. Nei-
Their do we approve of the course Of brokers', who
in these times of disaster, gather up the notes Of
our banks, and send them off for gold. although
the act is not forbidden by the law of the land
They make money by the operation, but they do 1t
to the ruin of the business community. They COM
pei the banks to contract their issue, which at
once effects the ruin Of those business men who
have depended upon a more extended circulation.
| is possible, however, that the merchants and
manufacturers. and mechanics who deposit with
such brokers'. are as much to blame as the brokers
themselves. They go to the banks and borrow
money. and deposit the same with the broker
the broker at once asserts the money, and sends
off the notes to the d;fferent branches for gold. In
this way the depositer furnishes the broker with
the means of injuring the whole community. lie
enables the broker to carry on a war with the
banks, in which the merchants, manufacturers,
mechanics, &c., are the soldiers, who get all the
knocks, and feel all the bruises, and die all the
deaths,
1t is plain that the depositer thus furnishes the
broker with capital on which to act. He enables
him to make the banks contract their issue and
thus fail to extend accommodation to tho conmun-
ity. lie also lends the broker money with which
to gouge and ohissel himself. He may today depos-
it a thousand dollars with his broker, on which he
will get no interest, and tomorrow can't borrow Of
him five hundred without paying exorbitant usury.
The broker takes his money and buys gold and
then sells the same to him at ruinous rates. In
other words, the broker has the depOsiter's money
lying in his drawer, and he takes it and gets gold
with t,and then sells the gold to the same deposit
er at from three to five pei cent premium. This is
one way these brokers have of paying interest on
deposits, and it is the only way in which they never
fail TO pay interest.
Wedo not know that we have any of them brokers
in our city. We hope we. have not. They are aclass
of Shylocks that ought to be peculiar to Wall st.
and Cincinnati, But yet if we have any of them,
ln,, an,arG ava intended fnr than also They
are injuring the community, aud they must know
it. They are doing more harm at this particular
crisis than an age of better deeds would atone for.
They a e depriying the merchant, the manufactur
eT, and the mechanic of the loans at the bank nee
essary to save them from ruin. They are using the
money of these very men in such a way as to efec
their ruin.
What, then, is to lie the remedy Of the evil
There is but one, The community should rais'
such a howl of indignation that no agent from
foreign asserting house would dare come in ou
midst. They should be treated somewhat like thu
Shareholders are served when they crossed ,he lin,
with their property. Not so bad, however, as the,
treat the stakeholder, for they steal his property
On the contrary, they should be sent back witt
their black carpetbags of balk notes, not by vic
lence but by a deep-set public scorn, and con
tempt and indignation that no human being coult
breast.
As TO our asserting houses at home, let the mer
chants, and manufacturers and mechanics, and al
our people who have money deposited with them
at once Withdraw their deposits. If this can b.
done in no other way, let there be a public meeting
of the merchants. and, manufacturers, and me
chanics, and let them resolve in a body to remov
their deposits, and have no more to do with sucl
houses. Deprive them of the capital furnished b.
depositOrs, and they will be harmless. They hav
no means of their own with which to annoy tn
banks, or to hurt the community. They will be
come powerless so soon as the deposits are with
drawn.
Unless something of the kind is done we ma
have more trouble here than some of the hopeful
~sanguine expect. Our people cannot stand up III
der the present pressure without help from til
banks. The banks are not going to lend much aid
long as their notes don't change hands but once
twice before they return for the gold. The resu
will be that some Of our best business paper will
80 protest, which would stand unimpeached und
any ordinary or fair state Of things. Now is n
the time to talk of banks being able to take up the
entire circulation with ready specie. The peop
have borrowed the notes of the banks, KNOWN
that they had not the gold and silver with viii,
at once to take up their issue. They have borro'
ed notes knowing that by their charter they cou
issue three times the amount of their capital,
The people insist upon every loan that has be-
made with a perfect knowledge of the condition
of the banks, and now is not the time to talk of
gold and silver currency. Our banks occupy t
position of a good business man, who has an hu
dred dollars in gold, owes three hundred, and CIV
property worth nine hundred. If the banks we
compelled az this time to draw in their circulate
and put cut what gold they have in it's stead, OF
half of the business community will be swept in
bankruptcy. 1t is, therefore, duty of the ban
and the business men mutually TO protect one a
other, and one of the surest ways of efectiI
this. is to put down asserting brokers as the en-
mics Of commercial prosperity.
NPuT Tppcpu