The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1876-07-29
OUR NATIONAL FINANCES.
ny HON. JOHN MAGwIRE.

| (Concuded.l
TRADE AND COMMERCE.
have purposely refrained, throughout
the argument on the question Of power in
the Congress to supply the wants of the
| treasury, from mixing that question with
collateral questions that may grow. OUT Of
! the multltudinous uses that the owner of
the legal token may make Of it after it has
left the treasury and is in possession of
him to whom 1t rightfully belongs.
/ As to the uses, that may be made of the
/ token after it has left the treasury, are
questions that neither the Congress nor
the Secretary of the. Treasury have any
right to maddle with.
Section 8, Article Of the Constitution,
states Congress shall have power to
regulate commerce with foreign nations,
and among the several States, and with the
Indian tribes.
| This is latent power that Congress is
never called upon to exercise unless it be-
comes necessary to remove distractions in
the way Of free transit in exchanging the
productions of one territory for those Of
another Foreign commerce is the same
as domestic The seas belong to everybody
alike, and every nation alike has the right
to protect their own flag,
But commerce, both foreign and domes-
tic, is carried on by individuals in ex-
changing property and products based on
actual values and not on legal or fictitious
values.
For an illustration Of this view the pro
perties and values annually produced by
| the labor of the inhabitants III the Miss
issippi Valley, including the Ohio, by labor
skilled and unskillcd, aided by machinery,
Is estimated III an amount equal to five
hundred million Of dollars; and it is reas-
onabie to assume that in the muItitudinous
exchanges Of &C cmmodities for commodities
in the trade and commerce Of the valley,
not ten per cent, certainly not to exceed
! 20 per cent. Of the amount in money is
used.
The records of the clearing house in one
Of our metropolitan cities (St. Louis) show
that checks to the amount Of three and
one-half to four millions Of dollars pass
through that bureau daily, and some days
the amount has reached the sum Of five
millions. Now, not one Of those checks
! gold were based upon gold coin, or called for
coin, they were based upon the property and
wealth Of the maker that labor had produc-
ed When check is lot responded to, the
holder falls back on the drawer, and by
operation of law, takes his property to the
extent of satisfying the check In addi-
ton to the amount of checks that pass
through the clearing honse, there is from
one and one-half t. two millions that pass
daily through the various banks in the
city, making an aggregate average Of five
millions daily The checks are met with
other checks, dd intanit,t,a, and the final
result is that the net production is absorb
ed by taxes.
| BANKS.
Banks for the safe deposit Of money are
as necessary as store-houses and granaries
for keeping the surplus provisions, or yards
for storing lumber and other property.
| The States, and not the Congress, have
the right 70 grant charters to local banks.
| When public notice is given that indi-
viduals or corporations have established a
bank, for the purpose of taking money on
deposit and for lOanlng money, the ques-
tion as to the amount the bank may require
the depositor tn pay for keeping the money
safe, ready on call, or the amount of inter
est the bank may pay for the use of the
money, is one that concerns the depositor
and the bank, and nobody else.
| The deposit is loan made to the bank,
the only security required is credit of the
amount to the depositor upon the records
of Ihe bank, and copied in a small hand
book delivered to the depositor by the
bank.
Ia like manner when one applies to a
/ -, s., Ln IS K11,- DO -
interest is one that only concerns the bor-
rover and lender. But if the banks dc
not have an amount on hand to meet the
demand for loans, as matter of course,
supply, and demand regulate the price as
in everything else.
If the bank has 20O0 dollars to loan, and
let's it to the borrower at four per cent,
the net return will be the same as a loan
of 800 dollars at ten per cent. But the re-
suits to the borrower may be very defer
ent. If the person carrying on business
can have the use of 1000 dollars at -four
per cent, he may pay the interest and con-
tinue TO make a margin of profit on the
other hand if he pays ten per cent. on 300
dollars, the interest will absorb all his
profits, and finally its capital
The amount of legal tenders in the treas
ury, and out of it, is fraction less than
fourteen dollars per capita Of our popula-
| ton.
If the public debt is paid of. there will
be outside Of the treasury per capita Of
thirty-fve to thirty eight dollars This
will increase the deposits in banks, and en-
able them to lower their rate of interest,
and thereby afford greater facilities to COM
nd tn IN . he
general development of our resources
giving employment to all laborers, skilled
and unskilled-and establishing Just
standard of distribution Of the net produc-
ton of labor and capital, thereby remov-
ing all cause for strikes or antagonism be-
tween labor and capital.
There never again can be a monetary
system established within our republic by
State banks issuing bills OF credit upon a
specie, or supposed specie basis, as former
ly, and as in England, where its bank, with
fifteen million Of gold coin in its vault, has
issued sixty million in bills Ell credit. The
bank sinks the interest on the hfteen mil
lion and receives interest on sixty million.
| So it was in our country when banks issued
$500 to 500 in bills of credit, based on
800 in specie, and often upon straws. The
interest on the 500 was sunk and interest
gathered in on $7OO-often at usurous
rates The people will never hereafter
submit to a violation Of the 10th section Of
the Constitution, which in express words,
forblds the State to emit bills Of credit.
As have said in the outset. THE ne.
cessities Of a nation beget its attributes >
and tie way is now open and clear for the
sovereign people Of America to establish q
monetary system to suit themselves, based
upon the power to execute, their own laws.
As, when the King Of England has declar.
ed, This shall be sovereign, that makes
it sovereign.
In like manner when the sovereign peo
pie of republican America has declared
through their Congress, This token ol