Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1863-12-09
CURRENCY AS 1T WAS, AND WILL BE.

VOC VI mouoy, which every fneTCuant anu oo
siuess man can trust as he receives 1t and as
he pays il, it will not be easy TO induce the
public 10 go back to the days of wildcat cur
rency. The discounts now paid on the cur
rency received by mercantile house IN Its
daily business amount TO little or nothing, yet
for long series OF years in the past they
have constituted an important item in the gem
eral calculation of a years business. How
much, will it be supposed, is the aggregate of
loss from deprecated paper and broken banks
in the United States for the last forty years
forty years of general peace and of general
progress No statistician has computed it,
nor is it easy to begin the calculation. In no
single year of this period has there been any
thing like uniformity or reliability in the
values of the bank notes issued in different
parts OF the United States. OHIO was the first
State to raise crop of wild cats next Ten
nessee and Kentucky bank notes were at the
bottom of the list tor series of years, from
1920 forward, their notes varying from 20 to
40 per cent. discount in the eastern cities.
Next Alabama and Mississippi came in to vie
with the States before named in the depth to
"hiSh thCii ''LuuHcs COuiu DO 10 oiuh
below par. Then came Michigan with the true
wildcat currency and close on her heels came
Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The States
of Illinois and Iowa kept up the system with
great energy and singular success, raising
crops of banks at every ten years. interval, or
thereabouts, and gathering ample harvest of
depreciation and loss to all but the lucky max
ers of money themselves.
What merchant is there Of even ten years
experience in business who does not remem-
Der, feelingly, that singular condition of the
.'circulating medium of the country The
day of its reign is SO recent, in fact, that
scarcely years release from it has yet been
experienced. That release came when the
terrible legal tenders were issued. Whatever
harm they may have done TO others, they
cured the troubles of business men wonder
fully. The producer and the purchaser alike
were relieved ,and for the trst time in busine SIS
history il was known what was meant when
sale purchase was made for specified
number of dollars in hand to be paid. Ard
with every months experience OF the ease and
safety of the new order of things, the puplc
feeling is more and more directed to reliance
on it. There is one kind of currency that
will pass anywhere, paying a travellers fares
or country merchants debts, and there
yet remains a share of another currency which
half those you offer it 10 will tell you is
s'played OUT" Few people have time to con-
suit detector as to the discount on the coun.
try banks OF remote States if the note that
is offered has the United States stamp on it
hey are satisfied; if not, the chances are three
to one they will not touch it.
NO one VINO has nad experience OF the PIE.
sent course OF business preferences can be
made to be iieve that there is to be am retro
grade movement to country bank notes, and to
the old order of unsalabIe broods-whole brood $
of State system issues. There can be and
will be currency with the stamp of United
States authority o2 it, and this every mau will
seek and every man will trust.
Let any man who disbelieves these great facts
| take table of the prices of State issue bank
notes at the commercial centres for the last
turty or fifty years, and note the deep chasnls
| of worthlessuess constantly occurring in some
| section, west or south, or north or east. The
| banks that failed in the year lS41 alone had
Sl2i ,500, 900 of circulation, and SIC, 900 900
more was lost on the circulation of banks that
did not wholly fail. This is but sample of
the proceedings of several years, which many
can remember, and which those who expe-
rienced in their fullest magnitude OF busness
losses can never forget. Such disasters were
the essential condition of the currency system 5
under which they occured-sys by VIII ich
pertinacious applicants to State legislatures
could get charters to make money at almost
any spot they should select, without giving
security 10 anybody that what they issued as
money would remain money any longer than it
was their interest it should and they chanced
to have the power TO redeem" three dollars
of issue with one ofcapital. To say that those
days are over is the briefest form of stating
the il is now.
Our soldiers in Florida supply themselves