Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-05-06
FINANCIAL 0UACKERY.

Our attention has been called 10 an
lrticle which appeared in the Memphis
Appeal on the subject of Tennessee
finances. It was published over the
signature of the Hon. Geo. Phelan; at
irst we felt disposed to neglect the pa
per, as il is simply proposal TO cancel
the present indebtedness Of the State
by a financial stratagem such as is
constantly proposed to embarrassed
debtors in private life, and when re-
dueed to its simplest terms it is, like
all such schemes, plainly a plan for
our present liabilities by |
getting deeper in debt to some one
else.
The next SIX months will doubtless
swarm with such schemes, for Tennessee
finances are, it must be granted, suffer
ing at this time under serious chron-
ic malady which some men deem
incurable. and it is just such mall
aides which invite the interposi-
ton of seiolists and quacks; but
we are disposed to reject such adj
vice, both because we differ with those
who deem the malady incurable, and
becausesuch panaceas, like most quack
remedies, are only able to dispose of
the disease by taking the life of the
patient. We are only induced to ex-
anime in detail the present proposition
by the feet that it has been noticed at
length in an editorial by the Louis
vile Courier j ournal, which seems to
favor the project as a sound one if
practicable, but to relinquish it as i'm
practicable at present on account OF
the impaired credit of the State. We
propose, with much Difference to our
able Kentucky contemporary, to show
that it is not only impracticable but of
the most pernicious tendency if it
could be realized.
The scheme is simply this, that the
State treasury should resolve itself
into savings bank on a large scale,
receiving as deposits all the surplus
earnings of the people of Tennessee
and paying on them p per cent. inter-
est. The difference between this q per
cent. and the 8 or 10 per cent.
which the bank could get by loan
ing the funds is presumably (for
on this point the writer is not
quite explicitly the source from
which the indebtedness of the State is
to be cancelled. 1t is taken for grant
ed that the people of Tennessee will
be so vehemently enamored of this
financial scheme that the 367 ,987 Ten
nesseeans now engaged in business of
every kind will hasten to abandon all
the banks they at present employ and
rush to deposit their balances in the
vaults of the new concern; nay, it is
inferred that the people, now so Thrift
less and improyident, will became
thrifty and economical for the express
purpose of having something to place
there, and computation is made how
rich somebody is to become by depos-
iting 81 a year for forty years, leaving
it to accumulate at compound interest.
1t almost demands an apology that
we should set seriously to work to ex-
pose so wild scheme, but we shall
hear of many others like it and think
it as well to devote few sentences to
the demonstration of its impraetica-
bility, and its inexpediency if practi-
cable.
Well. then, the State treasury is to
establish a vast savings bank. Imag-
inc a building as big as the capital, with
a corps of president, cashier, clerks,
tellers, &c, &c, all set on foot at the
expense of an already impoverished
State government. Now what is the
programme by which the people of
Tennessee are to be induced to rush in
with their savings to fill the vacuum
In its vaults? We know the difficulty
of any new concern gaining the public
confidence so far as to establish a
banking business, and here is the pro-
gramme, proclaimed with flourish of
trumpets, which is to bring them in:
Citizens of Tennessee, business men,
professional men. artisans, farmers,
laborers white and black, listen: We
owe great deal of money, several
millions-for some time we have been
unable to pay the interest upon this
debt and we have not now one cent in
our safe; wherefore, D Tennesseeans,
come in, bring us all the money you've
got and go and make more and bring
US that too, and we'll keep it for you
forty years, or longer if you like, and
give you q per cent. interest on it;
only you had better not draw that, but
keepadding it as additional deposits for
forty years, that you may discover the
wonderful beauties of compound in
terest Come and grow rich, all of
you, and be happy, and your ehildren's
children after you"
Need we waste any more words upon
such a programme An institution
so started would in six months fade
from men 5 vision with its empty vaults,
and leave no trace of its existence ex-
cept the expenses of its initiation as
an additional burden upon our treas
ury, already overburdened. Our bust
ness men don't need such an institu-
tiOn even if successful; they want a
bank in which they make their depos-
ats one day that on the next their cor
respondents drafts, arriving from New
York or London or Hamburg, may be
hOnored. Our artisans. if they save
anything out of their earnings, know
where to get better interest for it than
- per cent, aRd-as for our day la
borers, that means Cufee-snd Cuffee
is satisfied with his experience in the
Freedman's Savings bank.
That the scheme is impracticable il,
we think, its greatest merit, for ifonce
established it would lead to evils much
more deplorable.
4 banking concern has never been