The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-08-19

From the sales of exchange on London.
in New York and Philadelphia, in the
months In which there are blanks IN the ia
BILE, the price OF specie appears. then, to have
been few per cent. less in Philadelphia
than in Baltimore, and a few per cent. less
in New YORK than in Philadelphia.
Nowhere did any OF tie banks pretend TO
pay specie for their notes, yet all were on
specie basis. They were specie paying banks
so long as nobody wanted the specie, but If
yOu wanted the specie they didn't have it.
The speaker here related the instance of the
Frenchman who presented his currency and
asked for the specie, and when it was handed
over said if the bank had it he no want it,
but if they didn't have have it he did want
it. Judge Kelley said it was The only tradi-
ton be ever heard where the specie was
forthcoming when demanded, and that was
rather fabulous. The speaker then passed
on down to the year 1878 and read the fol-
following:
FROM REPORT OF THE LEGISLATURE OF
NEW YORK IN 1878.
Of all aristocrscies none more completely
enslave people than that of money, and IN
the opinion of your committee no system
was ever better devised so perfectly to en-
slave a community as that of the present
mode of conducting banking esta blishments.
Like the syren of the fable. they eDtics TO
destroy. They hold the purse strings OF So
ciety. and by monopolisiDg the whole OF the
circulating medium of the country, they
form a precarious standard by which all
property IN the country, houses, lands,
debts and credits, personal and real estate of
all desert ptions, are valued, thus rendering
the whole community dependant upon
them; prescribing every man who dares to
expose their unlawful practices; If he hap
pens to be out of their reach, so as to re
quire no favors from them, his friends are
made the victims. So no one dare complain
The committee, on taking general view
of our state, and comparing those parts
where banks have been for some time es
tsblished with those that have none, are
astonished at the alarming disparity. They
see, in the one case, the desolations they
have made in societies that were before
prosperous and happy; the ruin they have
brought on an immense number of the more
wealthy farmers, and they ard their families
suddenly hurled from wealth and indepeno
ence into the abyss OF ruin and despair. II
the facts stated in the foregoing be true,
and your committee have no doubt they
are, together with others equally repre-
hensible and to be dreaded, SUCH as that
their influence too frequently, nay, often
already begins to assume species of die |
tatiOn altogether alarming, and unless some
judicious remedy Is provided by legislative |
wisdom, we shall soon witness attempts to |
coatroi all selections TO offices in our coun- |
ties, nay, the elections TO the very legisla |
ture. S-nators and members of ass emily |
viii bB Indebted to the banks for their seats |
in this capital, and thus the wise end of
.ur civil institutions will be Frustrated in |
the Dust OF corporations OF their own |
raising"
So it Has in 1918, but let us go a little
farther. In Pennsylvania, my own dear,
native state, the mania for banking, in view |
OF the profits of the business, ran 10 such an |
ex tent that banks sprdng up all over the |
state. Cine speaker gave figures that were
iOst.) The crash came, and with it all the
evils and distress OF an uncertain and
worthless currency in the hands of
tho people. Every man was
driven to the necessity of keeping |
a book in his house called Thompson's