Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-25

al concern. III Is fecOlnIlelQeO.
81. That payment of interest upon
deposits, either directly or indirectly, |
be entirely prohibited.
-. That each bank, while itobserves
the requirements of the law of Con-
gress respecting a-reserve fund, be re-
quired to carry at all times an amount
of legal tender notes equal TO at least,
fifteen per cent. of its liabilities to the
public u. 0HtG
SO. That no bank shall certify check
as good until the full amount of it shall
appear upon its books from a deposit,
regularly entered to the credit Of the
drawer
81. That no check or draft shall be
received by bank upon deposit at par
as cash, drawn otherwise than upon one
OF the banks composing the Clearing
House Association.
IS. That all checks and drafts upon
places out Of the city of New York shall
only be taken at rates Of discount es-
tablished monthly by the Clearing
House Committee"
These proposed reforms are not pc
culiar to greenback currency. They
apply to the art of banking, no matter
what may be the circulating medium.
They are not therefore intended torem-
edy the evils of greenback currency
as such, and if they should be adopted
and should prove beneficial, that fact
ought not to silence the popular clamor
for specie resumption, which is making
itself heard (or would be, if it were not
for the Cuban excitement,) throughout
the country. But, as the committee of
nine Justly remark, the need of some
such reforms is more urgent, If possi-
ble,) for greenbacks, than it would be
if we had specie, under a Ike system.
Experience is the school Ofwisdom, and
it has ever had an almost exclusive mo-
nopoly of the business of teaching it,
no matter whether men, nations or cor
porations have been its pu-
pills. The doctrine that the
summan boRunt Of secular
affairs, is the naninD'ae Of production,
and the doctrine that the greatest and
most enduring good of the whole, Is the
greatest and most enduring good of the
parts, are not worth cent practically,
until each individual, each nation. each
corporation, has learned them, not by
observation, but in the school of ex-
perience at a dear price. Sometimes
experience teaches these lessons with
out charging more than hundred mil
lion dollars, but such cheap lessons are
generally lost on the desert air.
The latest lesson is, How to avert a
panic. According to the understand
ing Of the committee Of nine, this les
son is embodied in the amendments
which they propose. 1t remains to be
seen, whether it viii be incorporated
into the daily methods of business, and
how long it will be retained there. 1t
is one of the lessons which English
bankers learned long ago in the school
of experience, paying dearly
for it and not altogether with
their own funds either. The whole
kingdom helped to pay for it. And
that is the reason the bankers are under
everlasting obligations to heed its
teachings. There was an instance only
a few weeks ago of practical applica-
ton of the lesson. A panic was i'm
minent and the Bank of England avert
ed it by refusing to engage in, and by
actually preventing, certain promising
and tempting speculations, which would
have drained it's vaults. The bank raised
the interest on its loans to nine per
cent, tied up the fast emptying artery
of its funds, triumphed over the per$,
and is now reducing the price of money
to its wonted standard The question
is, Will the recommendations of the
committee of nine, if lived up to, avert
future panics? Did the committee prop
erly comprehend the teachingof experi-
ence? They must have understood this
much without blunder: that panic
is great evil and ought
to be met and repulsed some
how. For panic evidently
means general distrust; and general
Gistrust means general disaster. The
Nepc York Tribune is of the opinion
that the committees suggestions are
wise. The NeW York Bulletin takes
exceptions to them. We think the TIri-
bune is more nearly right. AT least we
believe the first suggestion to be wise,
viz: That no bank shall pay, or pro-
cure to be paid, interest upon deposits.
The payment of interest on deposits by
a number of the Clearing House banks
has certainly had the effect Of drawing
a vast amount Of country capital to
New York during the dull season.
This money thus accumulated must be
employed by the banks somehow, or
else they lose money. The effect has
been to use it in Legitimate channels.
From this practice there cannot be a
doubt that baseless speculations and
unwarrantable stock-gambling have re-
ceived their greatest stimulus. This
custom disused, and one of the heads of
the Hydra is struck off
a DISPOSITION ismanifested in some