The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-01-11

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practlcal business men, that our own CITY need
ed more bank facilities, and we hardly think
ct" will call this "fallacy.n At least gent,e-
men will not do this who have generously in-
vested their money to increase the capital
stock and thus to increase the "circulationn of
some OF our local banking institutions. OF
course their own acts would not be allowed to
back up mere "fallacy."
l3l Secretary Chase and Secretary McCul
loch are responsible for the figures here given.
They are from their reports, not of our fabri-
cation.
l4l The coolness of this question Is refresh
ing, SINCE iu the article which "T." is crit-
cisins we gave the reasons at length, and, as
aoe though, and still think, to the general sat-
isfaetion of the reader. .r.s...
loI II any reader of the Press Is pre-
pared to accept this propo iti,n-that god
noao nils the same place IN the currency that It
did In ls6o-he is beyond the reach of our
loeic, ana we shall attempt none UPON him.
In 1850 gold and silver were found in every
money-drawer, in every house, In almost every
pocket, and could be drawn from any of our
banks with paper, to any amount, while now
they are as rare MS @hen's teeth, so that their
color has almost faded from recollection: no
bank bill viii command the presence of either:
they are not used In any domestic transactions
between man and man, and yet we are coolly
told that they fill the same place in the cur
rency nor as Meni If man at midday de-
nies the existence of the sun In the heavens,
when his eyes blink before its matchless bright
ness, we know of no argument with which to
Offset his assertion. We shall simply oire IL
up! And "the product of our never so pro-
ductive Mines" who does not know that a
very large proportion of this has been diverted
to foreign markets, or that it will as naturally
flow In that direction as water will down hill.
so long as solvent European governments are
Offering to negotiate loans at a much larger
rate OF interest, payable in coin, than our gov
ernment in its greatest extremity has ever of
fered in currencyp !.
l6l Bond will not answer the requirements
Of the law. educational Banks are required
to keep on hand q cartain amount ofIe1aI ten
der notes,-5onds are not legal tenders
amounting to much more than the specie re-
quired by State laws of the banks in 1889. II
IT" disputes this proposition the President or
Cashier Of anv National Bank, of which he is
ssockholder, will probably post him on this
point. The Comptroller Of the Currency gives
the amount of "lawful money" that the au-
thorized National Banks, up to Oct. 1st, were
required to keep ON hand, at s74.261, SAT.
III "Ecery reason" for thus believing, Is
there? The Comptroller of the Currency
who ought to have some reason for his state
ments-puts the volume of tee currency at
very much less than the Secretary of the
Treasury, and the Secretary himself, in his Of
fetal statement for Jan. 1st, actually reduces
the figures he had given ia his annual report,
and yet "T.", discrediting all such authority,
asserts that there is "every reason to believe
they are both rnistakenf Wouldn't it be well
for 1T" to give them the benefit of his fig
ures?
Isl In controversy of this kind assertion
goes very little way Unsupported u by facts, and
these are entireiy wanting to show that the
LEGAL bills are not being retired even faster, at
the present time, than the national bills are
being introduced. The Comptroller of the
Currency is in opposition to @T." on this pre-
else point.
l9l To your own satisfaction, doubtless,
you have shown 1.-THE same as you have
that gold fills the same place In the currency
now as in 1861; but "we don't see il, we doubt
II many of our readers can see it.
[10 This is the richest item of financial
Information that we have been favored with
for many day. A man without dollar in
money, purchases thousand -ollars worth of
goods on credit, for which he gives his note.
He sells the goods on credit, and collects 81 900
in cash, leaving $3.50 on account tiliunpaid-
perhaps to be put down to the debit side of
Proft and Loss. With the money collected he
pays his note. This man In this transae sion,-
which is fair type of much of the business OF
all merchants who transact their bushes on
the credit system,-has had just $1,000 pass
through his ha-ds. Had he paid for his goods
in advance, and sold for cash, he would have
had s2,250 pass through his hands, and vet
1T" tells US that 1t requires less money to do
business on the cash-down than on the credit
system! We can't think any bu .iness man
would have made this wonderful discoyery but
for the light which ct" has reflected upon it.
Another example: Here are twenty-sk
men-constituting q settlement by themselves
engaged in business. A. has a stock of
goods variety Stockton which he owes
$4,000 u, has contracted to build a ship,
the other contracting parties, living outside
the settlement, furnishing the materials. The
other twenty-four men, from @. to 2. inclu-
sive, work for 2 and receive in payment of
their wages every Saturday night, orders on
| A!'s store When the contract Is closed, B.
receives $13,o00, pays A. s12,OO0-being the
aggregate Of orders giyen-and A. pays for
his stock of goods, all the money handled by
the whole settlement amounting TO just the
$4,000, one thousand sticking in the hands of
B., an equal sum in the hands of A., and the
other twenty-four men not seeing the color of
coin or even the form of five cent piece of
currency during the entire operation and yet
vt" would have us believe it requires more
money to do business in this ,cay than 1t
would to purchase the goods for cash, pay the
men In cash every Saturday night, and let
them pay cash down for all their pu. chas es I
He loses sight Of the important practical TACT
that, in order to pay as you go, you must al
,oays hape fands on hand, and that the cash
| down method of doing business is ju.t the
way to secure deposits, small it may be, in
each mans pocket, but in the aggregate
amounting to perhaps hundreds Of millions
among the thirty-odd millions which make up
the busy, Industrious, ever-active population
of our extended country.
l12l Mol emphatically no; not until the
government Is prepared to make every green
back worth its face in gold.
[12l OF course we are aware Of this, and
know it would be rank injustice to repeal the