Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-09-20

The pronounced prejudice and even hatred
toward banks shown by the leaders of the
Labor Reform party is much more easily &C
counted for than it is justified. 1t is to be
explained by the fact that the banks are the
conspicuous owners of and dealers in money,
and what they do with it or how they bene-
fit the public by the use of it, is not readily
seen by the class whom these leaders address.
1t is, therefore, comparatively easy for men
like Gen. Butler or his retainer, Kearney, to
excite strong feeling against the banks Of
which their hearers have no means of testing
the Justice. Banks are lenders, and lenders
are the object of what may be called an in
herited prejudice. which has come down from
the times when very high rates were charged
| for loans, and when men who made loans
were for the most part Of despised and de-
tested race 1t makes no difference now that
the trade Of money-lending is as free as that
of raising corn, or that the competition
among lenders is so great that no such thing
as extortonatc rates on business loans is any
longer possible. 1t is enough that the more
ignorant part of the public regard money
lending as an occupation in which profit is
ga ined without work. This sole fact enables
the demagogues to cast every bitter epithet
which they can devise at the banks, and to
pose in the character of the advocates OF hon.
est labor against the pampered favorites of
fortune who subsist in idleDess on the fruits
of industry.
In this connection, an article in the Sep
TENDER number of the Bankers Magazine,
BY Mr., George Walker, entitled what
Banks do for Labor" is very timely. and
ought to be widely read. Mr.. Walker points
out very clearly and in detail how the
banks are really the custodians and distri-
butors of the available capital of the
country, out of which labor is kept en-
ployed, and without which enterprises of in
dustry could not be begun or carried on,
workmen could not be kept busy, wages
could not be regularly paid, and prices could
not he kept moderately regular and fair. lie
gives the facts in regard to the ownership Of
national bank stock, and shows that it is
not generally held by rich men, but by COM
paratively poor men; that the average
amount owned by each person is only 81
300, Qess than one-eighth of Gen. Buffers
acknowledged fee from one easel and that
while this average is so small there are thou
sands of shareholders who have each less
than 81 600. These are familiar facts. and
any man of ordinary intelligence who is hon
est would be ashamed to deny or ignore
them. But they will not check the cutlery
against the national banks they will not
prevent the advocacy of the absurd scheme
of purely Government currency issued in
practically unlimited amount; in a word,
they will not prevent the laborers' leaders |
from lying for their own advantage and re-
lying on the want of knowledge among their |
followers to escape detection.
But it is not only in the ways which Mr.. |
Walker points out that the banks are really |
the beneiactors of the laboring men. Weio |
not mean to say that they are benevolent in
stitutioss. They work for profit as the hod
carrier does for wages but that does not
prevent the one any more than the other
from doing real service to the community and
and to every member of it. The banks
benefit the public "a much as in any other
way by the rery currency for which they J
are 20 denounced. md which it is proposed
to replace with legal-tendsr notes. In the
HfSt place, their ihsuts are ~ soulu anu Atit
az lcgal-tenders themselves. They are a.
good on Pixies Peak as they are on Wall
street The saving which they make for
the community every year. over the old
State bank system. would pay the interest
on the bonds by which they are secured
twice over. And they arc nearly as much
better than grcenbacks regulated by vote Of
Congrers would be a. they are better than
the wildcat notes used to be. For, il we
once get greenbacks by Mr.. thurman and
Gen. Buffers plan in place Of bank notes,
they will have this peculiar character, that
a rash vote in Congress can any day take
one tenth or one-fitth of the value OF every
dollar away from it. Greenbscks so issued
may he increased in volume a. will indeed,
that is precisely what the Labor Reform
agitstors demand but just as surely as they
are thus multiplied each note will tend to
fall in value. The lall may be checked by
other causes or it may be quickened but.
aided or hindered. the force of
every increase will surely go toward lessen
ing the value Of the outstanding notes