New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-02-19
MIX. CHAsE,s BANKING BILL.

Banking bill now pending in the House is that
it will give the whole country safe and uni
form currency. Gold and silver, while they
were part of tho monetary circulation, were
safe and uniform; but under our financial and
banking systems, they could not render safe
the currency that was based on them, and did
not aid never can completely supply the wants
of an industrious and commercial people. This
is not the day when it is noedful to discuss
tho comparative merits of specie and paper.
The war has settled, if it were not settled be-
fore, that we must have and use paper and
not specie. The remaining question is, wherher
the paper shall be based on private and. local
or on public and national neutrality-suspicious.
the Government or individuals shall create the
national currency. Both cannot without clash
ing and competition injurious to both. We
must choose between them.
We may undoubtedly have, if we wish an
farous systems now in operation. We may
have bills Of as many different styles and values,
and based on as many different securities, as
there are banks. We may have sound
currency at the East and worthless one at
the West-New-York bills good in Chicago, but
Chicago bills always at considerable and
frequently ct an enormous discount in New
York. We may practically-in commercial
sense-divide the country into antagonstic Sec
tons by adhering to methods which insure
fuctuating rate of exchange between the great
grain producing regions and the great CONNER
cia center. Chicago merchants may buy New
York exchange at ten per cent to pay their
debts-or not pay them because of the exchange;
because their dollar is not worth dollar in
New.Yprk, and they do not choose to pay their
debts and ten per cent additional for the prlvi'
Iege or means of paying them. That condition
of things il of course no better for one place
than the other. 1t is no help to New-fork,
which wants its debts paid; none to Chicago,
which wants to pay them. How much these
relations depend on currency, every merchant,
every person who experienced the inconve-
nences of 1857, and Of every other year when
money was to be RENTED or debts pnid by
the West to the East, have too much reason
to know. No matter how good, in fact
bank in st. Louis may BIO, its bills never will
and never can be worth par in New-York.
Ii we desire to escape the continual recur-
renee, or more accurately speaking, the con-
slant presence Of such checks and hindrances
to the prosperous industry Of the country, and
TO avert such dangers to its solyency, we have
ready and complete means. DIR. Chase's
bill is o National bil--conceived in no sec
tiona spirit asd aimed at no private interest.
II proposes to put all banks on common ba-
sis, and in behalf of the public to require Of
them an equal security for the redemption Of
their circulation, which the Government both
supplies and guarantees. II puts the credit Of
the Nation behind every village bank, and dis
tributes over It's counter the same currency
which is issued in New-York. IL enables
Western merchant to remi. bis debt 20 the
East in bills which he receives from the near
est bank, aud which have precisely tn same
legal value in both places and it renders it
impossible TO disturb the commercial relations
between tho two sections by an inflated rate
Of exchange. A bill which does this offers not
merely conyeniences and facilities, but the
soundest material benefits TO the country.
In order that such measure may have the
fullest success, il should have an unobstructed
field Of operation. 1t is not meant to destroy or
fctter the banks but to strengthen them, and
they ought-as many Of the best Of them do
to favor and assist its passage. But tho two
systems of circulation cannot both be indefin-
tey expanded. One must be contracted, or
both will be deprecated. If there is any CON-
test, which ought TO give way, public or pri.
vate interests-tho Government. with tho inter.
csts Of the people on its side and depending on
its success, or the banks with only the div.
dends Of their stockholders at risk But there
is or need be no contest and no risk. The
banks will DO stronger in public confidence
and financially more secure when once this gen.
era law has united the resources of national
credit with private capital. The banks are not
deprived of their crculation-tbey are supplied
with better. The Government does not enter
the field as rival but as IN ally. 1t taxes
the notes Of private corporations, but it offers
them in exchange q national currency.
- Messrs. Representatives at Washington, we
pray you to understand that this is measure
which the People expect you to pass. They
demand it on many other grounds, often urged
in these and other columns-as a sound basis
of national finances, as o support to public
credit, as a refuge from excessive expansion,
as an escape from an irredeemable currency,
M q promise of speedest return to specie pay