The Portland daily press., 1875-08-18

| ana that the Government should have tbs
Deneht OF all the circulating notes in the conn.
try that do not bear interest Suppose it So
ana mat the Government only issued currency
ana that every man in this hall should sign
tnree months note for one thousand dollars.
| would the Government loan on that note?
No; neither this Government nor any other can
tlust ofnclals to loan its money to their friends
| OF to anybody else.
heard man on the floor of Congress sub.
INIT proposition to tax national banks three
| per cent semi annually! He wanted to kin
them OIL, because they received interest on the
ollls they loaned. Before he sat down he ac.
cesec the Government officials in Washington
or ort All SORTS OF dishonesty! Consistency, thou
art indeed a jewell Here was a man who
| would deprive the people of his own state of
| the privilege OF handling their own money and
put IL into the hands of what he just denounc-
| eu al uisnonese Government, to manipulate
Despots alone want standing armies and the
sole charge OF then fances of a country; for a
government to have either. is dangerous to the
lDertles OF the people, and contrary to the
principles OF our Government
rms same man knew that the Government
haa then S4O0,O00,000 in demand notes out :,
woicn IL iailed to redeem, and which the peo-
PIE ala not get much of, unless they were en-
ployeu oy or had contracts with the Govern
henei for most of it was locked up as it is now
In Inc vaults of Washington and New York.
nominally saving sthe country 500, 200, 900 per
year in interest, but really depreciatinp The
Siue Saiue OF ali the currency in the country, about
SSIOo,OOo,oOO; TO say nothing of its causing such
nuctuatlons OF prices to cripple business
enterprises and interest to an incalculable ex-
| tent
we want currency as good as they have in
any other country, and little better; enough
OF 1t to do business with, and not all issued
ftom the same fountain, as it were, but from
fountains among the people and managed BY
them, accessible to ALL
Before the war, we had banks under charter
from the state, as the business of localities
required. When the war came on the Govern
ment wanted all the money in the country and
Congress enacted the National bank law oblie-
ing them to put all their capital in the govern
ment for its use. They complied with the law
without murmur and invested in Government
oonos as sec9rlty Tor their circulation. By
this act the Nation obtained money when It
was in distress for want of it, and the banks
were placed on a better foundation as far as
the Dlll-holders were concerned, as the pay
ment of their bills is secured by the United
| current all over the country
But as the banks at the beginning of the war
loaned all thoir capital to the Government
winch 1t still retains and since in MANY Sec
uons other banks have not been started, the
result is that in those sections now needing
more more money to do business with, on ac.
count OF higher prices, have not more than
half the bank accommodation they mad before
the war, so that much Of the money which
| used to be loaned to business men In the yicin
| ity of the banks is now locked up in Washing
ton and tue money centres inaccessible TO
them.
know that there is great prejudice in very
respectable quarters against National banks
Now what is a National bank? 1t is an associ-
alton OF men who putting their money together
buy bonds, then pledge these bonds to the Gov
ernment for ninety per cent of their face in bills
which atter being signed by the president and
cashier OF the association, and lodging five per
cent OF them again with the Gov
balance or IS per cent. is loaned for
business purposes in the section where the
bank is located. If the men in and about
Alfred who have money or bonds that they are
drawing interest on, should club together, put
in fifty or one hundred thousand dollars in
money or National bonds and start such an as
soclation, they would draw interest on their
bonds or money as they do now, and have S5
per cent. in bills to loan to their entsrprising
neighbors, Who would bs harmed by such an
| operation? Would not rather the whole COM
munity be benefited by this increased amount
| OF currency loaned in it, to say nothing of the
large taxes such an association pays both to
municipal and general g0vernmeuts?est
There are two classes of borrower rs; one that
speculates in stocks and has cheap money ac-
cessible to An almost unlimited amount, by piedg-
| ing paper securities below market quotations;
tne other the legitimate business and produc-
ence in the great money centres as
they can live with their bonds in
the cheapest money markets of the world;
although their transactions generally do not
ping of knives would. The business man has
to wait for the speculators because it Is easier
Tor the manager of large lines of money to
learn by his morning paper the market price OF
the different stocks and bonds and loan his
money with a margin on them. than for him
to learn how sound John Jones & Co, is, or
any other enterprisiEg firm however good or
useful they may be.
1t is not for such bankers or spectators that
Congress should legIsate They ara too pow-
erful now. 1t should legislate in favor of the
producing class and make money as accessible
TO them in their localities. to the stock Job
bers in theirs. To do this would draw from
the 100000 900 fountain of currency at WASH
ington until it became so reduced that the Gov
ernment could redeem :the balance in gold if
one wanted it, and issue from little fountains
located all over the country, currency, as fast
as 1t is drawn from the one at the center.
would substitute National bank currency
for greenbacks. The 10000, 900 issued by the
Government would start four Thousand Nation.
al banks with capital of about $l00, 900 each.
With these scattered over the country aud
managed by men interested in their welfare,
aud the community where located, every man
that conscription would reach, could have
money accessible.
As money is the sinews of war, so it is the
sinews of thrift with the enterprisng; and
would have it so thai every prudent man ON
the farm. in the shop, on the mountain side or
in the forest, on the river or lake, or wherever
he may be, can pledge his personal or real
property, or his friends name, to a national
bank, and hire money from it at low rate of
interest, to carry his produce, improve his farm
or water power, work his mine, enlarge his
shop, operate in the forest, navigate, in a word
utilize and develop all the resources God has
placed within his reach.
Why is it that to. day the banks in this
vicinity have all their money loaned at about
eight per cent. interest when money in New
York is drug at half this rate? 1t is because
there are not banks enough outside the great
money centers; being but few more than before
the war; when they loaned their capital to the
people chat they now loan to the Government.
Banking is free, it is said, why not have
more banks if they are needed? 1t is because
you can not start bank now unless you pay
sixteen per cent. premium on bonds for capi-
tai, on account of the depreciation of the cur
rency which Congress says shall be at par in
1879; thus insuring shrinkage of four per
cent per annum, for the next four years, to
say nothing of the clamor for annihilating
banks altogether.
1t may be said that I have mapped out q
"big thing" and SO 1 have; but don't think
that expect it to be done in one year or in
two. ] believe that our country is in such
condition that some such plan should be in
augerated, and in due time consummated for
the beaefit of all.
The Secretary of the Treasury should have
untainted credit at home; to have it so he
should have out no more promises to pay than
he can meet at maturity. If he would stop
hiring money abroad let him get authority
from Congress to issue banking bonds at the
same rate of interest to our own people, sell
them at par for lawful money, and tax them
and the circulation on them more than we tax
bonds in the hands Of foreigners; let the bonds
have twenty years or more to run to insure a
degree of permanency to the banks; give cur
rency to circulate to an amount equal to the
bonds pledged, pay interest in gold az he does
on the Five per Cents now being negotiated
aboad but only to banks having them pledged
as security for their circulation aud doing q
lawful business under the banking laws. He
Will then have plenty of applications tor new
banks. AS the bank circulation is issued re-
tire the demand notes of the Government; and
thus they will be taken up at as cheap rate as
by any other method.
believe that if the plan should be adopted
the Secretary would soon be relieved of the de-
mand indebtedness of the government and
could resume specie payment. The gold that
he would have to pay as interest on the same
amount of bonds abroad would be paid at
home; his credit relieved of all taint, he could
hire money at the lowest rate in the cheapest
money markets of the world, and take up the
hOndS haa aar;n q ioba ata of intaraSk