The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-30

ing will be found an exhaustive ana ihStruc-
tive article on British politics and Parliament
airy affairs generally A careful perusai OF the
article will enable the reader to watch intelli-
gently the progress of the present election
| contest.
The Financial SkirnAishiug Am Com
gress-The Propositions for Relief.
The skirnishing on the finances and currency
was continued in Congress yesterday. Both
houses are busily engaged in the work OF
complication and the propositions are multi
piled daily. One fact makes itself evident
through all the attempts to befog the real Is
sues-the fact that the influence of the ma
tional banks is all-powerful at Washing
ton, and will, in the end, prevail
| The legislation which will eventually
be shaped out of the various bills and resolu-
tons with which Congress is flooded will be
such as harmonizes with the interests of those
institutions aud is acceptable to the imitation
lists. We may have a surfeit Of debate, and
many sound and wholesome principles may
be stoutly maintained, but the probability is
that there will be at last union between the
national banks and the inaationists which will
carry the day-that is to say, nothing will be
done that will destroy the special privileges
enjoyed by the one or defeat the projects of the
| other
In the Senate Mr.. Fenton presented the i'm
portant memorial of the bankers merchants,
shippers and other large capitalists Of this
! city, who have united in protest against any
expansion Of our present irredeemable paper
currency and prayer that the questionable
issue Of the legal tender reserve may be with
drawn as speedily as possible. The fact
that Mr.. Fenton was made the agent for
ence to the administration Senator, Mr..
Conking, is in itself significant The mem orial
represents the great bulk of the wealth and
commerce of the metropolis, and the choice
the signers have made of a spokesman indi-
Gates that they have but little faith in the dis
position of the administration party to study
the real interests of the country in its financial
measures. At thes same time petition from citi-
zens of Illinois asking that the national banks
may be stripped of the special privileges now
accorded them, and that the whole paper
issue may be made legal TENDER was copfided
for presentation to Mr.. Ferry, of Michigan,
while the Senators from Illinois, Logan and
Oglesby, were ignored. On the other hand,
Mr.. Conkling introduced bill in the interests
of the national banks, providing for o
partial redemption Of the securities
lodged with the Treasury Department for
their circulation and corresponding
contraction Of the national bank currency.
AS we have said, these facts are significant,
and as the administration party possess the
power in both houses, we are induced to
regard them as an indication that the friends
of the national banks and the advocates of ex-
pansion will join their forces and carry
through such measures as may suit their in
terests.
The sense Of the country is, no doubt, ad-
verse to a continuance Of the special privileges
accorded to the national banks and in favor
of free banking. If we are to have con-
dnuance of the legal tender or greenback cur
rency, if the government is to go on issuing
its irredeemable promises to pay and to give
them by legislation the character of money,
then there can be no good reason why
the whole volume of currency should not be
of the same character and of the same value
At present we have say. seven hundred and
fifty millions Of paper money aAoat but of
this about one-haf is in greenbacks and the
other half in the notes of national banks
The former is legal tender by law; the latter
is not. The banks that enjoy this
privilege of circulation lodge government
bonds with the Treasury Department as q
security for their notes, and receive on these
bonds six per cent interest. An individual
who invests million dollars in government
bonds gets his sixty thousand dollars a year
from, the public Treasury as the interest
on the investment of his principal
The national bank buys government
bond, deposits it in the United States Treas
ury, receives its sixty thousand dollars year
interest, and receives back in addition ninety
per cent of its capital in its own notes, upon
which it trades and speculates, and makes in
terest out of the people in loans and discounts
over again. If the whole currency should be
greenbacks and banking free any bank with
q sufficient capital would buy greenbacks. OF
the government and issue them as its circula-
ton, and the government would save the
interest ON the bonds used in such
purchase. If we are to have govern
ment notes at all as circulation this
simple method would strip the national
banks Of their double interest and of their
special privileges but it would give the
country the full benefit of the whole volume
of currency, obviate the necessity of any
| bank reserve, save the nation some
twenty-one million dollars a year interest,
and prevent that docking up" of greenbackf
which has lain at the bottom of all the
unprincipled speculations and combinations
which have so seriously disturbed the country
It is too much to hope for any such legisla
ton from Congress in the interests of thi