The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-04
MONDAY, NOVEMBER d, 1867.
The NotionaI Bank Question,

purpose of furnishing the public with au-
thentic data concerning the system and its
workings, and of thus paving the way for
more intelligent apprehension and discussion
of the whole subject. 1t is to be regretted that
his letter has not been more generally discussed
in the same broad and candid manner in which
Il was written. A subject of such magnitude
can only be properly contemplated in a wide
and liberal view. A captious criticism of mere
details, and the fixing upon inoidentals as
though they were essentials, is not the
right way to treat a subject which involves
such vast and varied interests, and is so
thoroughly bound up with the welfare of the
whole country. Still less proper is it to treat
it from partisan standpoint. The question
has nothing whatever to do with party politics.
It is one which equally affects all parties-one
in which all the people are interested. The
national banking system was never adopted as
partisan measure, has never been sustained
and is not now advocated as such. 1t must
stand or fall solely by its own merits, as a safe
and efficient means for securing those great
public ends which are sought to be obtained
by banks in all civilized countries.
There are really but three practical solu-
tiOns of this question: First, to go back to the
old State bank system, which prevailed before
the war; secondly, to abolish all banks Of
issue, and to either have no paper money
whatever, or else to have it issued exclusively
10y the Government or, thirdly, to maintain
the present system, with such notifications
and improvements as time and experience may
suggest.
I % slon I1ono -, Intr nY1ar Ttpek
Shall we go back to the old State bank sys-
temH The strongest proof that such a course
of action would not be desirable is found in
the fact that nobody urges it. In the whole
country we do not know of a single journal
or of single individual of prominence enough
to attract the public eye, that advocates a re-.
turn to that weak, wasteful, unsound and
vexatous system; and for this very good
reason, that the people have still too vivid a
recollection of its evils. The State bank sys-
tenn was distinct and different system for each
of the States. Each State had thus its own
kind of currency, and frequently several
varieties under these different kinds. Thus,
New York had her old special chartered banks,
her safety fund banks, and her banks of
more recent date organized under the Free
Banking law of that State. Each State had
its own laws in regard to the formation of
banks, the issuing of currency, its security,
and its redemption. In some the system was
we'll and fairly guarded; in others it was lax
and fraud-inviting to the last degree. The
result was, so far as the whole country was
concerned, a currency which utterly failed
to meet the two vital requirements Of
sOundness and of uniformity of value.
Vermont currency was not good
in Missouri-Mssouri currency was not good
in Vermont The traveller, the merchant, the
drover, the general business man, were each
at the mercy of the money-changer We
have seen the bills of the State Bank of In
diana, which always paid the gold for its
issues, dollar for dollar, refused from ira
weller by the Camden and Amboy Railroad
Company. The whole business of the country
was laid under an onerous and vexatious
tax by the want of uniformity in the currency.
Added to all this was the fact that
the failure of bank instantly deprecated
its notes from five per cent down to
absolute worthlessness, thus entailing
severe and unlooked-fOr losses on the holders,
who had received them in the ordinary course
of trade. In times of panic and crisis down
went the banks by scores and by hundreds
some never to redeem their currency, others
only in part, and after long interval. Mil
lions upon millions of dollars were thus ilched
from the pockets of the people, without the
hope of remedy or redress until it seemed as
though the currency of the country had been
specially invented to impede business and to
rob the people. We have no doubt that
twenty millions of dollars yearly would have
failed to cover the direct and incidental losses
sustained under the State bank system.
Now, compare all this with our present sys-
tenn. national bank bill no matter where
issued, is good from Maine to Texas. The
mOney-changers' occupation is gone. Bus
uess is relieved from the vast incubus of uu
current money. The failure of national
bank involves no depreciation of its notes
They pass current as before. Contemplate
this significant fact, that during the entir
period covered by the existence Of the nationa
banks no man has lost single cent on their issue,
We have an absolutely safe currency. Anothe
hardly less significant fact is that, although til
national banks have been in existence for for
years, during which time the country hi
II hoo mott