Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-04-14
Financial Legislation.


e There are certain parties who will lear
" wisdom only in the school Of experience, an
!. among these may be cllssed those congress
5 men who worked so ntiringly, during tn
v last session, TO initiate the currency. The r.
q suit Of their legislation is such as to full
p Justify the hard money men, and those news
( papers which sustained them. For instance
d we have for the past two years insisted tina
8 the dcarth Of currency at the West an'
, South could not be rcmeded by congres
, sional action, or by setting the government
printing presses at work upon additions
promises to pay, when we had failed to re
deem the promise already made. We did
not deny that such a dcarth existed in those
sections of the country, but held that il
could only be remediod 10y an increase OF
personal capital invested in business, which
alone woud call currency in that direction
and hold it when obtained.
The clamor for more money commenced
early in 1874, after the panic of the preceding
autumn. Alessrs. Morton, Logan and the
rest of the new order Of political economists,
sneered whenever reference was made to the
experience Of older nations, and said yirtu-
ally that ours WAS too great and glorious a
country to be governed 10y the course of ef-
fete monarchies. Thus appealing to national
pride and dazzling the minds OF weak men
with visions Of pocket-books well filed with
new aud crisp graenbacks, they partially sue
cecded in carrying out their ideas by con-
gressional legislation.
After the long discussions Of the previous
winter and spring, an act was finally passed.
last June, giving the southern and western
states the privilege Of increasing their ma
tional bank note circulation by the sum Of
$j5,0O0,0O0 What has been the result af-
ter little more than eight months A re-
cent report Of the comptroller Of the cur
rency shows that instead of rushing to the
treasury for more bank notes, the south and
west have voluntarily returned sl0s00,O00
of the amount already in their possession,
thus showing they had at least that amount
more than they had use for. OF this &c.
100000, the banks Of Illinois-tho home of
Logau-returued nearly one-third.
Not satisfied with this legislation, our f.
uaucial reformers in congress succeeded in
passing, last January a law removing all re-
strictions upon the number of national banks
and the amount of their circulation. Here
was another opportunity to get the additional
currency which the southern and western
congressman claimed their constituents were
yearniug for, and the results show that these
statesmen, to put it mildly, have labored un-
der a very serious mistake. Almost every
one of the new banks established under this
act have been in the eastern and middle
states, while the calls for increased circula-
ton from old banks have come from the
same section of the country. 1t appears that
during the month just closed, these states
added to their bank capital Sl,iG0,000, and
to their circulation $4,000, while for the
western and southern states the amounts
were only $4,000 Of new capital, and $780,
600 Of new circulation.
Perhaps if the inhatioust politicians still
refuse to be instructed by the history of the
finances in European countries, they may be
induced to learn something by the progress
of events at home.