The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-06-09

| The Anti-Baak Brokers and the Currency.
THE PIONEER AND DExocRAr does not
sustain any currency which cannot sustain
itself A currency which taxes the people
to support it-a currency which rests upon
legal fiction, does not now and never did
receive word Of commentator from us.
But we have been willing and are willing
now that people should judge for themselves
What currency they will accept-our duty
as journalists being limited to putting them
in possession Of oil the facts on which to
base judgment. And because we believe
that the people should be left to exercise
their own discrimination in a matter in
which..they are chiefly interested, We must
regard any local league Of money-brokers
against particular class Of currency, as a
purely impertinent interposition as far as
the public are concerned-and on its face
hostile to the public interests. Fit were for
the interest OF the brokers to wage war
merely upon currency Of doubtful standing,
to that extent it might coincide with public
interests, although in that case they could
do no more for the public than the public
can do as well for themselves.
But in fact it is precisely against the
banks which have provided the best and
readiest means Of redemption that the bro
kers find their hostility most profitable.
An irredeemable currency, such as that Of
Wisconsin or Illinois, or some Of our own
which passes current in the faith Of public
securities alone, goes through their hands
unscathed, and they receive and pay cut
with alacrity, their very dstrust Of it adding
to its circulation.
But q currency which is regularly re-
deemed in gold an exchange, it is for their
obvious interest TO assert from the bills
received from their depositors and convert
into gold and exchange upon which they
make q premium Of from two to five per
cent. Accordingly if the broker receives
$1,000 from q depositor. OF which one half
is in Rochester bills, which are not redeemed
in gold, and half in Fillmore county or the
Peoples Bank which do redeem, the former
is put out again as soon as possible in order
to get rid of it, while the latter is carefully
assorted till the package swells to one or
two thousand, when it is carried TO the Bank
for redemption.
That is the whole theory as far as the
public are concerned, OF these brokers, anti
bank combinations, the whole tendency of
which is to battle every attempt to establish
good banks and encourage the doubtful cur.
rency. But it is not the whole theory as
far as the brokers are concerned. They
have u paramount private interest, beside
their immediate profits on the conversion Of
currency into gold or exchange, in prevent.
ing the establishment Of legitimate banks.
Profits Of banking are derived mainly from
two sources besides selling exchange and mo-
ney Deposits, which are used 10 various pro.
ftable conversions, and eastern collections,
which pay percentage on collection as
well as on exchange, 10 which 1t is RENTED.
Now, both the eastern collections and de.
posits are constantly and rapidly passing
from the hands Of the private bankers to the
organized banks Of the best standing. This
is especially the case with collections, which
naturally 60 to the most respectable hanks
organized uuder the State law, upon a rec
oguized capital, which afford guarantees for
their reliability and soolvency, which do not
exist in the case Of the private banker. He
has therefore an individual business interest
in bringing the best hanks into disrepu,e
In proportion a. their reputation for solid
ity and prosperity increases. he perceives
that they must, in the natural course Of
things, attract large part Of the business
nov in bis hands. He regards them, not
merely Is rivals, but ss enemies, whose ex.
istence is fatal TO his Own. He must either
kill them of or die himself 1t s a war,
then, Of the brigand fighting Tor place IN
the social system, to whose conditions he
will not subscribe
No man has right 20 receive the depos-
its OF business men, without ahording some
guaranty Of his financial footing. Aud
between the banks which do business upon
recognized and secured capital, and those
which do business upon nooe at oil, the peo-
pie will not BE- long in choosing to which
to entrust their business intcrssts--and by
Withdrawing their deposits from the bellie-