New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1878-10-19

\ ~ speclal chaEtef; but II perfectSd sys-
tern of national banks, SO that banking
could be free 20 A, B, G and D, orsto any
person desiring it. tApplause. It is 30
to-day. II any five gentlemen in this
crowd choose to organize national hank
they can do so, with one simple condition
The United States stipulates that you may
organise this bank, but before you do you
must put ten per cent more United States
bonds in the, Treasury than the amount of
bills you propose to circulate. Then, if
| you nlismanage or destroy your bank, it
! will take your bonds and pay your bill
holders. Loud applause. A voice; PAY
them in greenbacks?" [Cries; Shut up"
Give him chance. will answer the
| gentleman. Laughter and applause A
State had no power to make bank good
| beyond its own border. You could not
find Boston bill in Philadelphia, nor q
Philadelphia bill in Boston. You could
| not travel to Chicago with Massachusetts
money. The advantage of uniform cur
rency is something of which these people
have had twelve or fourteen years expert
ence, and will not give it up. would
like to say to my greenback friend that
whatever currency you have, you will
never get rid of banks. Banks have always
existed. What sort of banks do you pre-
| fer? Voice: IN. P. Banks" Laughter
and applause.1 Banks are necessary, for
they are the place where the borrower of
money meets the lender. You can not
carry on the great business of q CONNER
| cisl community without any man or bank
to bring the borrower and lender together.
You can not spend your time running
around to see who has money to lend. You
want to go to the bank and get it without
| delay or trouble. If you break down the
national banks under the cry that they are
a monopoly, you raise up behind them the
| ghost of the old State banks. That is the
thing we don't want in this country. Jap
| plause. At the West they had great
variety of State banks. / heard of gen.
tleman who went to buy timber lands in
| Michigan in the times when State banks
we're plenty. He offered the seller three
| prices, according to the currency he took
to pay in. First, and poorest, was wild
cat" That was Michigan bank money.
Second was ''red dog" That was Ohio
bank money, which was still better. Last
we're good counterfeits on New England
banks. Laughter and applause That
was the old State bank currency.
But some gentlemen say that the banks
make double interest on their money.
They have very good Story to tell, it is
| true. But would like TO have any gen.
tlemsn who is familiar with the subject
tell me if he knows of any species of pro-
| perry in any form that begins to pay the
amount the national banks do. Let me
illustrate by figures. The total valuation
of your great commercial city is $50 mil
lion dollars.
Your total tax levy is seventy-eight hun
| bred and odd thousand short of IS, 000,-
900. Your national banks in Boston pay
$855,O0J one-ninth of all your taxes,
| eleven per cent; and besides that these
banks pay sos, 600 taxes to the general
government. The national banks of this
| very city of Boston pay 81, $50, 900 taxes
on capital of $50, 600, 900. Will any
gentleman tell me of any other $50, 900, 600
of property in the city of Boston or in the
State of Massachusetts, that pays that tax.
| Applause. Well, suppose you abolish
the national banks? This is the question
| you have got to vote on.
Suppose you abolish the national banks,
you lose the interest on the bonds which
are placed in the government to sustain
| the circulation, and which form the basis
| of the corporation, which are not taxable
themselves, but which are put in as the
basis of circulation, and are voluntarily
| subjected by their owners to the severest
| ana heaviest form of taxation of any prop
erty in the United States. Applause
Let me generalize. In the United States
the entire bank circulation tonight is
three hundred and twenty-five millions in
round numbers. There are four hundred
and thirty millions of bonds deposited to
secure that circulation, and every one of
that four hundred and thirty millions is
worth more than its face in gold coin.
Applause. And 1 submit, Mr.. Chair
man, that the like of that never existed in
the world. The boosted Bank of England,
the Bank of Amsterdam and the Bank of
France, the great continental banks never
presented such security to the bill holder.
[Applause. The three hundred and
| twenty-five millions of national bank bills
that are out tonight in the hands of the
people of this country, are sustained by
four hundred and thirty millions of gold
coin or that which is equivalent to it, to
redeem them and make them absolutely
good in the hands of the holder. Zap
plause. Now the total amount OF our
taxes paid locally-these figures are not
very hard to remember, and beg some
of you to carry them away, if you haven't
thought of them before-the amount of
taxes paid locally by the national banks
in the United States is nine million three
hundred thousand dollars; the amount of
taxes paid to the general government is
seven million two hundred thousand dol.
lars. Put them together and you get six
teen millions and q half of taxation
derived from the national banks through
out the country. Now want to state as
fairly as can the proposition of the mod
ern Greenback party. 1t is to save soufe-
thing to the people by substituting
greenbacks for the national bank note.
That is the proposition. Now, will, ad-
NIT, for the sake Of argument, that you
can call in that amount of bonds. The
only bonds of the United States that sell
at par are the four per cents, AL that
are above that command corresponding
premium.
But suppose you call in, if there are SO
many out, on the equivalent of three hun
bred and twenty-five millions of four per
cent. bonds, issuing greenbacks in place
of the national bank notes and taking
these bonds. This is fair statement, /
think, of what the Greenbaek party pro-
poses-that they will place the greenback
| in place of the national bank notes, and
take in corresponding amount of United
States bonds. admit for the sake of an
argument, they can do it, though they
can't laughter because the minute you