Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1878-11-24

amount of stock held by each share
holder ia but s., 100, and there are
nearly so 900 shareholders who have
be. ween 81 600 and $4,000 each. and
only 767 who have as much as $50, 600.
1t is as absurd To say that banking Is a
monopoly of rich men as il Is to say
that farming or manufacturing
or trading is so. 1t Ia open
to all, and those who have
entered on il have invested
amounts on the average quite as mod
crate as those who own farms or fac
tories. a like error is made by those
who say that the banks make great
profits on their circulation. Their
average profit on the capital used for
this purpose is not more than y per
cent. more than they would get for the
same money loaned directly. For that
additional profit received by the
banks the country gets a currency
better than it could get in any other
way. 1t gets currency worth just as
much in the Mississippi Valley as on
WALL street, on the Pacific slope as on
the Atlantic COSTA currency guar
anteed 10y the Government, protected
by securities worth more than the face
value of the notes, redeemEbIe, not
only at the counters of the banks, but
at the national capital, at slight
expense, with no trouble of sorting
and, what ia of most worth, q currency
which, while always stable in value,
is regulated in amount by the easy and
unresisted action Of the laws of trade.
Mr.. Knox shows that this would
not by any means be true OF a Gov
eminent currency. Unless the body
of Government notes were covered by
an ample reserve of coin in the Treas
ury, they could not be kept redeema-
BILE; if they were so covered they
would be little, If any, cheaper than
banknotes, and in no case would they
be regulated in volume by the laws of
trade, but by the arbitrary action of
Congress. Who knows what this
action would be? Rather, who does
not know that it would be vacillating,
uncertain, uDwise, and probably cor
rupt? The law does not trust the
banks to add dollar TOT their circuls-
ton without giving ample fecurity for
its redemption, and even to that 1t
adds machinery in the control of the
Treasury to max g redemption easy and
the guarantee of the Government, in
case all other means fail. Yet the
hare-brained agitatOTs for the substitu-
ton of greenbAcks for bank uOtes, pro-
pose a currency that may be doubled
by vote of Congress, under the in
huenCe of any motive strong enough
10 affect their action, whether il be
the impulse of the demagOgue, private
interest, or bribery. The force OF folly
in finance could no further
I'VE strongly recommend the careful
study of Controller Knox's report
upon all our readers, and we hope that
those Of them who have the ear of the
hrrest labOTiDg classes will try TO
oEIug the facts here so clearly set forth
to he attention of these classes. There
are few men in our country able TO
earn an honest living who are not in
telligent enough to understand the
leading truths presented in this report,
and TO realize how, under the national
bank system, they are more sure Of
getting pay for their services in honest
N Oney, worth what it claims to be
IA food and clothing, than they would
be under = Government currency,
the value OF which could be changed
every six months by vote Of Con-
Gress. If every man who has a direct
money interest III preserving a sound
currency could be made to- COM prehend
the Unprecedented safeguards which
the law has placed around our bank
syst IN TO make and keep its currency
sound, We would be in small danger of
seeing it replaced by one which it
il only the simple truth to call DEM
sgogue'5 currency