The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-22

What the result of this necessqry action on
the part of the banks would be, any one pos
Beesed Of a single idea regarding financial
matters can easily foresee. The sudden with
drAwal Of two hundred or two hundred
and fifty millions of capital now actively
employed in every channel of enter
Prise and industry throughout the length
and breadth of the land, added to the
temporary retirement Of a like amount
OF currency, would produce such panic, such
crash, and such loss as have never yet been
known in America, and compared with which
the saving to the Government resulting from
the greenbaok substitution would be as a drop
In bucket. Probably one-half of the bust
ness men of the country are dependent on bank
accommodations or loans for the means to meet
their maturing debts, and continue their bust
ness. They may be solvent enough; but their
own capital is tied up in their business-in
machinery or stocks of goods-and they de-
pend on the surplus capital owned by the
banks for assistance through the dull times
Of the present transition period. Suddenly
discontinue these bank accommodations and
compel the people to pay the banks all they
owe them-the result would be suspension of
payment by thousands of the best houses in
the country, failure and bankruptcy in every
city and town of the nation, and such a wide
spread prostration of business as we have
never experienced. Hundreds of thousands of
men and women would be thrown out of en-
plOyment manufactures would stand idle, and
bitter want, If not starvation itself, would over
take the laborer and his children. 1t is both
easy and common to say that none but the
'debtor class" would suffer from such a re-
vulsion; but four-fifths of the American people
happen to belong to the "class' named. Be.
sides, manufacturer who is largely in debt
may employ hundred operatives who are
free from debt; would the hundred opera
tives be unharmed by the failure of their en-
plOyer and the closing of his factory Where
would their bread come from The stagnaton
in business would in turn cut down the reve-
nues of the Government by hundreds of mil
lions, and all this for the purpose of saving an
imaginary ten or fifteen million dollars which
Thaddeus Stevens and his Democratic friends
think the national banks are taking unjustly
from the peoplel
Finally, even though the process of substi-
tutiDg greenbacks and cancelling the deposited
bonds could be accompl he'd without serious
injury to the country, which is not true yet
the ultimate result of the operation would be
injurious far beyond the benefit derived; and
in this way:--Deprive the banks of their privi-
lege of circulation, and at least twelve hundred
of the seventeen hundred now in existence
would wind up business, call in their loans
and invest their capital in Government securi-
ties or in active business enterprises. With
at least two-thirds of the national banks the
circulation is the inducement which led to their
establishment and which alone keeps them in
existence. That taken away, they would make
more money by closing up and investing their
means in untaxed securities; and this would
assuredly be done. In the larger cities the
deposits are the chief source of profit and
there the banks would continue in business
without a circulation, but in the country, and
particularly throughout the West, there
would be a general closing of banks and call
ing in of bank capital. Whether this be true
can be ascertained by questioning any bank
officer outside the large cities. Many banking
corporations that did not abandon the bust
ness entirely would surrender their national
character and do business as private brokers
and note shavers, charging rates of interest
which would soon convince borrowers (and
who are not borrowers y that the people had
gained nothing by taking away the circulation
Of the banks.
There is cemmon-sense method of settling
this whole matter without doing injury or in
Justice to any. Let Congress ascertain, by
careful investigation, what amount of taxation
national banking business can stand, and still
yield fair return to stockholders; then in
crease taxation to that limit. The moment
taxation becomes so extreme as to compel the
closing of banks, that moment it becomes
hurtful to the country and the people. The
country needs more instead of less banking
capital: and any legislation, which, either by
taking away the privilege of circulation or by
Over-taxatiOn, forces the banks to call in their
loans, and enter other fields of enterprise,
thus decreasing bank capital and deranging
business, cannot possibly benefit the people or
relieve the treasury.
There is no antagonism of interests between
the banks and the people, and we hope to see
none produced, for while in case of conflict the
banks would suffer some, the people would
suffer more. Instead of conyulsing trade and
stopping business by wiping out the circula-
tion of the banks, let the people compel the
banks to pay for the privilege of issuing notes
by increased taxation. The result is the same
to the treasury, and far better for the people.
The banks themselves are thermometer 70
tell how high taxation may safely CO. for when
it goes too high, the banks will begin to retire
from business that is over-taxed.