Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1860-12-22
THE HERALD.
LANCASTER. Wis. SATURDAY, Dec. y, 1870.
How and Why we are at lbs NJ
cy Of Wisconsin Banks

letter to us from a friend at Milwaukee,
who does large business and understands
perfectly the machinery by which we are
victimized i'll this State by the Banking
interest, which is as soulless as exists on
earth. The writer belongs TO tie Bu-
chanaa Democracy, which explains, some
what, his blow at the Republicans, though
doubtless his points are more than jokes.
We VIII say here that We opposed and 70
ted against the adoption of the banking
law that now cspshes the people; that for
nearly tenyears we have published the only
anti-bank newspaper in the United States,
so far as we know; that SO far as opposi-
ton to banks and chartered monopoles by
which the people are only more decently
robbed than by the old method Of holding
a pistol to victims breast and calling for
"your purse or your life" we publish the
only Hickory Democratic paper in the
State, and that Of the 5000 votes pollcd
some years since in Grant County for and
against banking law, but about 800 ties
we're given for such law. So we claim
consistency and logged deal Of glory
over the condition Of things the fools Of
this State have brought upon themselves.
Here is the extract alluded to:
We confess to being the victims of the
hardest set of shavers Of any people in the
world For the past three weeks until
Tuesday last, all Illinois money, or bills
payable in Chicago, have been held here
ut three per cent. discount, and since Fri
day at two. the shayers and banks here
made from $3.50 to $500 per day out Of
the business and aboling people of this
city. The interior banks have been doing
the same. But this is not the extent OF
the infamy Of the operation. The banks
of this State exchanged circulation or cur
rency with the Illinois banks to the amount
of almost four millions of dollars, and paid
the Illinois money out to produce-dealers
and farmers Of this State at par for wheat
brought to market in the fall. The ex-
change of circulation was made, of course,
to keep the bills of each State out as far
rs possible from their places Of redemp
ton. This enabled our bankers to make a
penny or two on every dollar out of bill
holders when they wished to convert the
Illinois currency into coin or exchange.
OF course the same operation would be put
through down in Sucker. But our Wis
eonsin shayers or bankers, after getting the
illinois money out into the hands Of the
farmers and laborers at par to the amount
of millions, met and resolved not to receive
Illinois money at less than three per cent.
dSscoagatI One concern told me it had
made $50 per day for 20 days by this kind
of operation. The bankers and brokers of
Chicago were just as deeply engaged in the
same kind of swindling of people in that
State. 1t was amutual agreement between
them.
Nor is this all: a few years ago you Re
publicans and the Forty There's were 90
ING to snalSe this State happy and pros
porous with banks; you passed, carried
and inaugurated banking law. Vim. M. |
Dennis, a tricky and rapaeious country
merchant and Democratic politician, was
picked up and made Bank Comptroller |
He run the banks four years and flooded
the State with them at remote and mac
eessible points; he left the office richer by
100000 than when he took it. He Was
succeeded by your Grant County Squres.
lie held the office two years and retired at
the head of a Bank at Mineral Point. He
was succeeded by Van Steenwyk, the pres
ent incumbent When he, the first Repub-
6can who had gained control of the office,
took his place, then we were promised that
all the abuses which had crept into the of
flee during the terms Of Dennis and Squires
were to be looked into, corrected and ex-
posed. What is the result a little knot
of bankers control and run the office; they
made up bis bond for him and thus they
got to own him. Our currency is 10 per
cent. below par; it takes S10of Wisconsin
currency to buy SO in coin, and your Bank
Comptroller dares not say his soul is his
own, because the bankers who own him
viii not let him. If the Bank Comptroller
would do his duty the present condition Of
things could not exist. If the Banks
would not foot up the margin against them
in the securities filed, let him wind them
np, The four and half millions Of State
Stocks diad, if sold, would furnish Eastern
exchange for more than the bills are now
bringing on our streets. and then we would
be rid of the Stocks and be freed from the
risk we now have il the management of
the Southern States, whose bonds form our
banking basis.
YOU will see.inrthe n. Y. papers that
exchange on New York is from 3 to per
cent. in Michigan, and here in Wisconsin
where we have this year exports Of over
forty miIljsnS Of dollars, New York ex-
change is s to TO per cent. premium. Ia
Mssissipp exchange IS only ! per cent.
premium. Why is this? | answer, Mich
igan and Mississippi have no banks to rec
ulate trade, and business is done On 4 spe-
Gle basis.
Now, HAYS you, Cover the pluck to tell
your readers these pious truths in your pa
per, and invoke the next legislature to in
fnrpasa anil pr0tna4 +I,n e,ssn.4l.,I a~., 80