The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-08-27
rotect themselves against counter

. feits.
d The uniformity has practicall
&c abolished rates of exchange between
the States, and most of the vast sum
" paid under the old system to banker
u and brokers, for the transmission 0
> funds, is now saved to the people.
u III.-COnYertibility.
These notes are convertible at tn,
{ will of the holder into United State!
Treasury notes, and whenever tn,
; Government returns to specie pay.
: ment the banks must keep abreast
J with the Government, and will be
I powerful auxiIiaries in that work
! When they redeem their notes in
) gold the principle of free banking
/, /, may be added to the law, and thus
remove from them all the character
istics of monopoly, and enable the
wants of the country to regulate the
volume Of the currency.
1t ought to be remembered also
that the National system is greatly
superior to the old, in this, that all
the affairs of the bank are made pub
lie in frequent reports, and by a sys>
TEN Of rigid examinations
There are many points in which
the system can and should be amend
ed, and it should be subjected to the
severest scrutiny; but do not hest
tate to claim for it great superiori-
ty over any and all systems hitherto
adopted in the country.
The only specification made against
the system by the Convention is, that
it costs the people $50, 100000 annu-
ally. Under what pretext is this
statement made !? How is this esti-
mate made ? By the fact of the notes
being based on 100000 of inter
est-bearing bonds? These bonds
would be in existence and draw in
terest from the Treasury if the banks
did not exist. Is it that the banks
have the use of S3OO,OOO,OOO circula
ton, without interest? Would the
fact be otherwise if the State bonds
were restored? On any theory, how
does the Convention figure up its
thirty millions
Whatever may be the advantage
which the banks reap from their priv
ileges, our Democratic friends would
have US believe there is no advantage
on the side of the people. Let us see:
Besides furnishing the nation with
a sound, safe and uniform currency,
they do no small share of the work of
bearing the burdens of the nation.
In the year ending January l, 1868
these banks paid taxes as follows: +
United States tax 274 per cent. s,525, 900
State tax S-l0O g S,Sl3OOO
Total H5 is, S,33S, 900
The capital of the National Banks
of Ohio was twenty two and half
million of dollars, and in that year
they paid into the Treasury of the
United States S514,OO and into the
Treasury of Ohio S521,OOO. What
other interest in Ohio paid so large a
per cent. of tax? The stock of these
banks is taxable under State laws.
Abolish them as the Democracy rec>
Ommends, and all their bonds pass
into form In which the State can
not tax them.
". They are fiscal agents of the
Government.
These banks served the Govern
ment as fiscal agents in disposing of
Government stocks and receiving and
transmitting public funds as they
were collected by The officers of the
internal revenue, and thus saved a
great expense. In his report for
1866, the Secretary of the Treasury
says that up to that time these banks !
had COLLECTED for, and paid into the !
Treasury amounts asgrngating. in re-
eeipts and payments $4,000, 900, 900, .
for which, had they been allowed .
only One-tenth of one per cent. com
they would have received {
about S3,5O0,O0O. These services
we're rendered to the Government s
free of charge. :
| make no other defense of the sys- =
tenn than the statement of the facts. :
If they need improvement, amend the G
law. If they charge usurious inter +
est and Oppress the people, punish c
them but do not plunge us back in I
to the old chaos from which this law C
has rescued US.
But some one may say, ave don't q
believe in banks at all, let us not
have any of them" There is no civ f
llized country on the globe that has
not banks and paper money. In b
hard-money country, if d
there be one in the world, no man
travels with gold in his pocket, ex- IL
,ept for change. He carries Bank of a
England notes. In France, with her 0
5000, 900, 600 of idle gold locked up
in the vaults Of single bank where s
It has lain for years, French bank S
notes are the currency of the country v
except for change. In all countries O
The necessity of paper currency is 0
acknowledged. We never have been
without it. Every State has made Il
is paper money, whether Wings or b
Democrats were in power. The ques- I
ion then is not between the present O
system of banks and no banks, but s
between this system and the old sys- G
.em, and when the Democracy pro- f
pose to blot this out of existence, [ Il
lsk them to tell US what they would Ii
put in its place. Some will, perhaps, o
say issue greenbacks and supply f
directly from the Treasury. 8
Every country has some time or 9th C
IT considered the question of issuing n
paper notes to supply the people with b
currency, but every country has re- o
ected the proposition as unwise and S
dangerous. No human legislation is u
wise enough to adapt such a currency b
to the wants of trade, nor virtuous s.
enough to withstand the temptation o
% tighten taxes by increasing the vol t
line of paper money. 1t does not il
become the Democracy to advocate a
iuch policy. n
That party boasts, and justly so,
If having established the Sub-Treas- +,
Try system in 1916, which proclaimed T
hat the Government money should q
De kept entirely separate from the !,
oanks, and that State Bank paper n
hould no longer be received in pay :,
nent of public dues. What does this
of the Democratic party 2,
o abolish the National Banks mean? :,
t can mean but one thing that is, II
he restoration of the old system of +
State banks which prevailed in 1863. !,