The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-25

railroads must be ab once evident. believe
that the erection of q railroad will have
wonderful influence in the civilization and
elevation of the native tribes. The barriers
Of heathenism and superstition will disappear
before the railroad and its ooncomitants. as
frost, snow, and ice dissolve before sum-
mers sun. This n one Of the most efficient
means by which Gods promise made concern
ing Africa is, in my opinion, to be fulfilled.
do not deem it necessary to demonstrate
to you the utility Of railroads. We have nu-
merous examples of their beneficial effects all
over the civilized world. And we should en-
deavor to follow such examples as far as they
can be adopted, in our circumstances to pro-
mote intercourse between distant portions of
the country, and to facilitate the interchange
of commodities, commercial rarities, and in
digenous productions, between Liberia and
foreign countries. The surest and quickest,
as we'll as the most permanent and profitable
plan to evangelize and civilize Africa is first
to invite intercourse with the inhabitants,
through their natural instincts, which are al
ways alive 70 what is curious and profitable in
trade. The natives will readily consent to do
all the manual laber in the construction of rail
roads, for comparatively small pay, kind usage
and enough to eat. After the completion
of the roads the natives will become the
best of customers, to bring the camwood,
palm oil, ivory, Nandingo gold, cotton, coun-
try cloths, peanuts, iron ore, hides, bullocks,
sheep, goats, rice, and other things too nume-
rous to mention, to the Liberian markets on
the sea board and thus multiply indefinitely
the exportable products of the country.
repeat that you, gentlemen of the Legis-
lature, are to conceive such system of legis-
lation upon the subject of railroads as shall
make it to the interest of foreign capitalists
to furnish the money, and to build up Liberia
that her light may illuminate the neighboring
and remote portions of Africa. Scientific
men are also to be invited by the same means
to survey the shortest and most appropriate
route to the camwood and palm oil forests,
and to superintend the progress of the rail
roads, until passenger and freight trains shall
have piled on them long enough to enable
them to be left in the hands of skilled man.
ayers, engineers, and employees from among
our own people, who can substitute their
places
NATIONAL BANK.
The next item in the policy of the admin
istration over which l have the honor and
privilege to preside will be the establish
ment of national banking institution, which
must be founded with great care and delibe-
ration, and clear and distinct appreciation
of the great benefits it can confer.
The Bank should be so established that its
paper can be kept at par. To this end, it's
issues ought to be lawful tender for every
thing, except duties on imports and exports,
and interest on the public debt.
The National Bank ought to be one of dis
count and deposit, without its allowing in
terest on the latter. The best paper should
not be discounted at longer dates than sixty
or ninety days, with grace, according to
usage. None but honest, Industrious, fair
dealing people, who can give one or more
known solvent endorsers like themselves,
should be accommodated thereat. The dis
counted notes should always be issued upon
the fixed law of the bank, to be paid in gold
or silver, or any produce which may or can
be exchanged at once for the equivalent sum
discounted in coin, because the discounted
paper on which bank bills had been paid
might become complicated in dozen trans
actions, all growing out of this one.
For instance, A gets his note of $1,000 dis
counted at ninety days, and receives bank
bills for $940. He then buys with the money
rice at low price; and subsequently sells
the rice he paid $940 for at an advance of
twenty-five per cent. on the total sum, and
trusts B, and takes his note at sixty days.
| A either takes this note to the bank and
gets it discounted, or pays it to G, who
| gets it discounted. So the process might
be continued in manner to break any
bank if such things be not guarded against.
For there might be easily the sum of
| $4,000 or $4,000 growing out of a trans
action of $1,000. Hence, banking must be
understood in the detail of business, to
be successful. For there would be, perhaps,
but $1,000 among them all to pay the first sum
discounted.
Banks, when not conducted by men of
probity, Skill and caution, are very apt to ex-
cite a spirit of speculation and gambling.
They do this by furnishing spectators with
loans and discounts, by means of which they
are not enabled merely, but tempted to en-
gage in hazardous enterprises. And for q
time or while the process is going on, every.
thing wears an air Of prosperity; and those
old-fashioned houses, as they are called, that
carry on legitimate business on capital OF
their own, are frequently undersold and driven
from the market by the competition of adven.
turers, trading on the funds of others, ready
to encounter any risk, and living in the
greatest splendor. But at length the thing
is overdone, the bubble bursts, the worth
less machinery, fictitious bills, rediscouuts
and so forth, are exposed, and the tragic
comedy is wound up by the offer of a com.
position of some one shilling or two shillings
per pound. Bankers and money dealers who
employ the money entrusted to their care IL
SO reckless a manner, are filter for prison
than the situation they so unworthily fill. II
would be great stretch of charity to suppose
that advances of the kind now alluded to car
be wholly the result of imprudence. Bankers
have peculiar means at their disposal by
which 10 become acquainted with the charac
ter, position, and capabilities of those who
apply to them for advances. And it is theil
duty to avail themselves of those means tc
distinguish between the careful and the i'm
provident or reckless trader-between the
man who may and the man who may not be
| trusted" "