Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-09-28
THE PRESENT FINANCIAL EMBAR.
RASSMEET.

THE PRESENT FINANCIAL. EuBAR.
RASSMEET.
While recognizing the good policy of our
banks in forestalling threatened panic and
preventing the locking up, In private draw
ers for selfish gratulations, OF currency now
so urgent y needed in,eyery branch of trade,
yet we cannot close our eyes to the contin-
ued depression in our business circles, and
especially in produce lines. As yet bale
OF cotton cannot be either bought or sold,
nor can the planter even obtain moderate
advance on his property. Inmany cases he
has immediate needs for the money--he
owes wages to bis pickers perhaps-snd
fears are expressed that unless the negroes
are promptly paid in such cases, q large pro-
portion of the staple viii remain unpicked,
and the bounty of Providence be converted
into mockery. We mention cotton, but
all kinds of produce, grain, provisions,
etc., are in the same predicament. Can
not some of our bankers suggest safe
mode Of relief? They have very properly
secured themselves for the benefit of bust
ness; TIE problem now is, how shall this
benefit be dispensed with safely to the
parties for whom it was intended2 . Il has
been suggested that speculation ought to
stand aside in such an emergency-that the
banks nigh. call in all call-loans made, to
Spectators on bonds and stocks, and throw
the currency thus realized into the channels
of legitimate trade. Call.loans, as we I'M
derstand them, are made with the under
landing that they viii be called in emer-
gency, and no such emergency has occur
red here since 1857. It is thought this
hight be accomplished without injury to
our spectators, if they would surrender
their currency, accepting in lieu the certi-
fed checks of our national banks. The
currency thus obtained, ever and above
their present supply, it is thought the banks
could tRrnloose Tor the benefit of regular
trade, with the certainty that the bulk of it
would find IFS way back to the bank in the
usual course, to be issued again over and
over. -'-- y''A'-
Local troubles aside, this widespread
panic is without precedent in financial an
mails. The New York Bulletin of Sept. %
notes the extraordinary fact that s'there has
not been one banking or commercial fail
urs caused by insolvency." and adds: "Be-
yoDd the suppression of weak railroad en-
terprises, it is not the breaking up of rotten
ness-the usual work. Of psnics-it is the
reckless slaughter Of sound and prosperous
business" Why is this? How can houses
perfectly solvent be thus reekIessly siaugh-
tered? How comes it that banks perfectly
solvent have their paper thrown out, they
forced into suspension, and their useful
ness to business arnihilated, while their as
sets are all sound, the same as two weeks
age? Such was no. the case in panics be
fore the war. Such was not the case in the
Vienna panic Of three months ago. Such is
not the normal course of panics. They
feed on rottenness. When cur banks before
The war suspended specie pay
ments, We still had paper cur
rency to continue the. exchanges
of trade. But now, when our banks sus-
pend currency payments, We are left with
absolutely nothing. The panic that ensues
trsmples down all alike, the solvent and the
insolvent, the Speculation on margins and
the mover Of solid du,e-because all
alike are suddenly bereft of currency. This
undesirable impartiality results from our
present Procrustean system of finances,
based GA an irredeemable currency,whieh is
maintained By the Government at a fixed
volume, whether trade needs more or less,
with no elasticity to meet emergencies.
Legitimate trade might perhaps adapt itself
to this peculiar currency, if its diversion
into other channels by speculation could be
prevented. But here, lat the jump, we have
Jay Coo&e & Co. d:verting $50 ,OO0, OOOin one
lump, goodness knows where. Before the
war he might have done this without injury,
because such diversion of currency would
have betrayed vacuum, which solvent
banks could fill with their own issues. Our
Wanted system might suit for Persia, or
some other old stereotyped country; but for
expanding America, with its teeming enter
prises springing into life every day and hour,
it is perhaps the worst that could be devils
ed. Its continuance after tie emergencies
of war was q national blunder, for which
we are low suffering with an intensity pro-
portioned to the length of time that we have
foolisbly nurtured it. The present upheayal
has demonstrated that our national banking
system will not meet The wants of trade and
commerce. If the gold and silver were in
the country, properly distributed, we might
cut the Gordian knot by spontaneous re-
turn to gold values at an apparently enor-
nous sacrifice. Even such sacrifice would,
we think, prove cheaper to every one con-
cerned, than three weeks Of the present ut
ter stsgna.ion. ~ q.
THERE MUST BE NO DIVISION.
The Jackson Wing and Tribune says of