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

|
banded to the size of q family Bible, and
| fitted with cabalistic signs and symbols
which the owner could hardly make out to
understand, in order to find out what his
money was worth, and what bank notes he
could afford to take. Have you ever had any
use for Thompson's Bank Note Reporter
since the greenback came into being, or 20
determine the discount on a national bank
| note? From the largest bills down to 8 five
cent fractional note there has never been
a question raised from one end OF the coun-
| try to the other. And this because the
value is based not upon gold, but upon the
credit of the nation. Permit me TO read
you the views of a writer on the system Of
banking which was in vogue sixty years
| ago:
BULLIoNIsT's DEFENSE OF THE BANKING
SYSTEM OF 1915.
We can not see, with some honest calcula-
tors, how the continuance of the present
state OF things can affect the interests OF the
country. If specie has been withdrawn
from circulation it is because it has been
occupied abroad in more profitable en-
1 ployment than it was engaged in at home.
It's expectation has added to the stock OF
wealth of the nation, by the purchase OF
merchandise abroad, worth more than the
specie itself. TO be sure, we are subject to
some Inconvenience in our transactions at
market and in petty dealings, but as we be
| come accustomed to the use of paper money
the disadvantage will vanish. All large
! mercantile negotiations have been conduct
cd as they have heretofore been, by bank
notes or checks upon banks. AS TO the
agios OF exchange, where balances are due,
they must of necessity continue; but before
1 long they will be so completely understood,
as TO occasion no embarrassment. The
/ merchant who sells bis goods for foreign
notes, will add TO The price of his
goods tho amount of loss he
sustsins upon the notes, and the purchaser
will eventually discover that the difference
which he must pay for his goods. and at a
place where his bank notes are at discount
and at a place where they are a. par, is at
least equal to the agio on his notes. As TO
the solidity of the banks, the suspension of
specie payments has produced no alteration,
although the banks do not pay specie tor
any of their notes, yet the time never has
been when they could pay specie for them
all for a bank that keeps on hand a sulfi.
cheney of specie to meet all its debts, can
never divide six per cent. interest. The
! very principle upon which it is founded re-
quires that it should trade beyond is CAPT.
tai. But the banks have the same means of
discharging all their notes as they ever had,
viz: claims upon individuals who have Dor
rowed their money and who are now as able
to pay as ever they..were, if not in specie, in
merchandise and property of equal value.
rency. One man has horse TO sell and he
wants TO buy a cow. There are half a
dozen COWS for sale, but none
of the owners want horse.
But he finds man at last who has cow, a
SOW, litter of pigs and a bull pup. The
COW does not suit him, he has no use for the
SOW and pigs, and the bull pup is nuisance.
But il being the best be can do, he takes the
lot for his horse. II is an i'll condition, but
no worse than whsn the people go to the
banker and divide with. him
the value of what they have 10 sell in
exhorbltant interest and discounts. Now,
let me turn to Thompson's Bank Note Re-
porter. THE speaker held up q huge VOL
ume I'm not going to preach, for this is
not family Bible. / open to date of Au-
gust, 1856. ! see Net. Sterling Bank
notes are at discount of l per cent. but
here is New Albany Bank at discount of
40 per cent, the Drovers' Bank so
per cent, and so on long list
! OF backs at discounts ranging from one to
eighty per cent. (There was immense hi
lsrity at the memory of those wild cat days
| suspect there was in these parts some
swearing about these little inconvenience.
! Now, | have shown you bow il was in this
state, let me glance at the situation
IN PENNSYLVANIA.
! On the 9th of December committee OF
the Senate of Pennsylvania was appointed
! to inquire into the causes and extent of the
public distress, and on the 29th of January,
1920, the committee made report, through
Mr. Roguet, their chairman. in which they
said: In ascertaining the extent of the
public distress your committee has had no
difficulties to encounter, members OF the
| legislature from various quarters OF the
S. ate, have been consulted in relation to this
subject. and their written testimony in
answer tointerrogstOries submitted to them
/
single exception, on all material points.
With such respectable weight OF evidence,
added to that which has been derived from
| the prothoD diaries recorders and sheriffs of
| the different counties, from an in
teTcourse with numerous private cti-
the state, as well as from the various
petitions presented 10 the legislature, your
Committee can safely assert that distress
unexampled in our country since the period
of its Independence, prevails throughout
! the commonwealth. This distress exhibits
itsel under the varied forms of: 1. Rain
Gus sacrifices OF landed properly at sheriff7s
sales, whereby, 10 many cases, lands and
houses have been sold AZ less than half,
third, or fourth OF their former value,
thereby depriving of their homes, and of tbs
fruits of labOriOus years, vast number OF
our industrious faymers, some of whom hsve
been driven to seek, in the uncultivated
forests of the West, that shelter OF which
they have bsen deprived in their native
state" 2. ''Forced sales of merchandise,
household goods, farming stock and uten-
sils, at prices far below the cost of produc-
ton, by which many families have been de-
prived of the common necessaries of life,
and of the implements of their trade" 3.
Numerous bankruptcies and pecuniary
embarrassments OF every description, as
we'll among the agricultural and manu'ac-
turing as the mercantile classes" 4. "a
general scarcity OF money throughout the
country, which renders it almost impossible
for the hu sandman or other owner of real
estate to borrow at usurious interest, and
where landed security of the most indubi
table character is offered a. a pledge. A
similar difficulty of procuring on loan had
existed in the metropolis previous to Octo-
Der last, but has since then been partially
ramovedv < "A general suspeusion of Ia