Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-22
The eso. .ooo. 900 RaaIo.l Pes-T-.,

u r
esfOr she Laboring People.
The recent DsmocraticA expose of the
financial workings of the present, Radical
Banking System, has created quite sem
Isation. The Radicals beg and threaten by,
turns. But it will not avail them. Twenty
millions of dollars per year is wrung from
the people by taxation to give to these
banks without farthing's return.F In re-
cent article in the Ne,o 2 YoriE Commercial and
Financial Chronicle, all the arguments Of
the Radicals in favor of this public swindle
are digested and set forth In the most fayor-
able and forcible manner. AS this cabiect
is becoming one of great Importance, we
give the article In full:
ni099 THE NATIONAL BANKS. "Gah
The PROJECT was revived in Congress a
few days ago to destroy the National Banks,
to call In their notes, and to substitute
legal tenders. At the last session several
plans were proposed having these objects
In view, and in the fall the Subject will in
eyitably come up again for discussion at
Washington. The main argument urged
in the present attack on the banks Is the
costliness of the system to the country.
1t is said that the banks receive some
eighteen or twenty millions year for in
for their currency. This large sum is to
be saved. BY substituting greenbacks and
calling in bank notes the saving may be
made. Twenty millions year is the al
legged cost of the banking machinery, and,
these twenty millions year are to be
saved to the country by the destruction of
that machinery.
There are other subordinate arguments
used by the anti-bank men, but no one has
yet shown that the evils complained OF
would not for the most part survive in any
substitute which might take the place of
the present banking system. The main
question raised at present then Is virtually
this. Are the National Banks worth what
| they cost the country And ia the difficult
ty TO be met by Imposing on these institu-
tions larger taxation, or by destroying
them alto yether?
| We are also entitled to ask the opponents
of the banks how, if they abolish the Ma
tional Banks, they will avoid reviving the
old mischieVous State Banks, with ali those
evils which must, follow in their train.
These banks are still in .existence, or ready
to revive. Their powers are dormant, not
extinguished. Withinsix months after the
repeal of the National Banking Law we
should In all probability see the removal of
the taxaon State bank Currency. With
this tax repealed would come a season of
initiation, and in view of the profits of such
initiation, the pressure on Congress would
be too great to resist. [.s
The contrast between the former and the
present condition of the paper currency of
this country is torcibly stated, by one of
the most experienced old bankers of this
city, as follows: Ht q r-.E - 4
1.-THE National Banks have been in full
operation four years, with circulation run
up to three hundred millions, and not one
dollar of this currency has ever been at q
discount. This fact Is worthy of careful
consideration. There is not one in hun
dred of the people of the country that cares
ANYTHING about banks or banking, any fur
ther than to know that the currency is uni
versally at par. and indubitably sound. 1t
is fact that the currency issued in any of
the extreme Southern or Western States is
as good as that issued by our own banks.
No more New England, one-fourth per
cent. discount; New York State, one-half
pei. cent. discount; Michigan wildcat,
Illinois and Indiana stump-tail, at all
rates from five to seven per cent. dis
count. Our merchants have got rid of
their uncurrent money clerk and the
uncurrent expense account of the same.
And the great revolution and reformation
is, that we have got rid of currency panics.
AS the money market grows tight, our safe
and par currency is swept out of Wall
street, because money is wanted, and the
currency is money. Formerly, in a panic,
currency was pushed into the markets and
into the banks tor sale or REDEEM ption, for
it was not money, but it required money to
handle and redeem its notes. 1t was the
most iDfiammable element in a revolution.
a shinplaster bank somewhere would burst
its redemption agent would stop redeem
ing-it would be ''thrown out" here or in
BOston-a dozen more would be reported
broken-and away went everybody's cur
rency to be sold. But who cares if Ma
tional Bank has been robbie and breaks, or
breaks because of doing bad business, or
10 hxyf ff- N ocriu n 10
circulating notes are good ana current new
ertheless, and they continue to be money
good money-everywhere
We would repeat the question as to what
is proposed to follow the destruction
of the National banks. If Congress
should substitute nothing, then the
State banks will revive. If Congress Is to
propose some new scheme of bank
ing, what shall that scheme be? In what
points is it better than the one it is to sup
plant? and shall we be preserved from the
peris and panics which must signalize the
transition from the old to the new?
Although we were not favorable to the
national banking system when it was first
projected, still, as it is firmly established, |
and has worked better than expectation,
we have little sympathy with those per-
sons who would destroy it by asingle act
of Congress, without knowing precisely |
what better financial machinery they can |
put in its place. t
There is not single objection urged at |
present against tire banking system, which |
was not freely canvassed in and out OF
Congress at the time OF the passage Of the |
first and second National Currency Acts.
On the contrary, many of the objections |
then urged have proved unfounded, and
multitudes of observers have come to the |
same conclusion as ourselves, that the |
financial condition of the country Is too
sensitive, aud the interests involved too
stupendous, to allow q judicious statesman |
to contemplate with equanimity the pros
pect of so sweeping financial revolution |
as would be caused by the project 10 which
we have referred. = ..9. ~ %
1t has been said that there is no danger
that such a perilous measure will at pres |
ent find favor with majority in Congress. |
We think this is probably true. The banks |
have friends who are well able to plead
their cause. In many parts of the country1
they exercise no small political influence, |
and although it Is impossible that the or
ganiZed force of the National banks can |
ever be combined by political aspirants for
the attainment of Office, yet it is easy to see
that the banks, when threatened, may and
should unite under the controlling instinct
of self-preservation. 1t would be anation-
al calamity, if the National banks should
ever become political machine, welded
by some unprincipled, ambitious dema-
gogue; but no pusillanimous fear of such
an impossible result would lead US to wage
blind, indiscriminate warfare on corpora
tions so essential to the welfare of the coun-
try, and so conducive to its growth in
wealth and productive power. W .@ .,'
The writer asks the significant question,
IS Are the National Banks worth what they
cost the country ?' and leads the reader to
infer that it is proposed to show what their
worth really is. But, instead of doing SO,
proceeds to attempt to show that these
banks are the least of evils that can be