Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-14

land bank of England, and the assig
mats of France. In the latter case tn
assignats were really exchangeable
for church real estate. The first schem
tho English land bank utterl,,
failed and the second brought woe
upon France, which che will remem
ber as long as she does the ReU0lutiOl
or the Commune. Again they pro
pose indefinite postponemcnt of spe
Gle payments, until aoe are able. Thi
was tried in England from 1897 t
1880 and in that case as in all other
produced a succession of crises ant
panics resulting in financial ruin K
half the people. A lingering few
still propose an utterly irredeemablt
fiat money, which is a proposition 81
absurd that it don't make good non
sense and is not worth the attention
of any man of good common sense
Now they have just one other plat
claimed to be sufficient to cure the de
fects of all legal tender issues which
have 80 disastrously failed and tha
is to make them receivable for dutieI
on imports. On this point the recen
history of France is cited and 1t il
claimed that her large paper issnel
were kept at or near par by this pro
vision and not by the confidence II
convertibility which took place Jan
uary lst, 1878. This claim and tht
further one that the recent expert
ence of France is an exception In fa
vor Of imitation shall effectually dis
pose of by giving you the facts.
read from Spaulding and Fawcetl
and would refer you to the American
Almanac of finance for 1873, paget
2S4 and 3Ol or any non-partisan au.
thority for further information
Speaking of non-depreciation of the
French paper Fawcett, page 63
eays -
"In the case of France, which NJ Victor Bon
net considers SO remarkable, there was an in
crease OF coin In the bank of France current with
the increase of paper money. and though is was M
was suhclent TO- inspire the public with conf
dence in the ability Of the French ipanciers to
borrow the whole amount for the indemni y to
bank. In short, this was 'sconfdence'-conn-
dence In the redemption of the paper money in
Spaulding in tho appendix to his
book, pages n and 78, says this Of the
good management Of French finan-
ces:
1.-THE following facts relating to the currency
OF France are compiled from documents accessi-
BILE to all the world:
France was reached on October 81, 1873, when il
was ,0OO 200 francs, or S6l4 200 900 The to.
tai on Sept. 8, 1875, as above given is equal to
e472, 400 900 being contraction of SAL 500, 600
This contraction is not accidental, like the tri-
fling reduction which has taken place during the
rent year in our legal tender and bank note is
"forced,"
turing the war and the payment Of the indem-
nifty, the French Government borrowed Of the
bank an immense sum In notes, for which 1t paid
only one per cent. per annum interest, that rate
being barely sufficient compensation to the
bank for manufacturing and handling the notes.
For the past two years the French Government
has been steadily paying Its debt to the bank,
preferring to iund its per cent loan into five
per cent rentes rather than encounter the risks of
an inflated paper circulation.
no candid man can extract from the conduct of
the french Government and the bank a particle
of countenance for any of the quack money
They have fixed day for resumption, as we have
done, but n OF without making provisions for de-
creasing their paper and increasing their specie
hey have not aimed at a cheap currency, with
the maximum of paper and the minimum of coin
They have not COMPOUNDED gold and government
bonds together, and deluded themselves with the
idea that there Is no essential difference b tween
the two. The end to which the Bank of France
is aiming ID to make its notes at all time and un
der all circumstances convertible into specie and
cannot safely issue all the notes that the business
community will absorb In times of confidence,
nor 40 they trust to any other resources in time
Of Difficulty than an ample stock Of the precious
metals in their vaults"
The only conclusions we can draw
from these statements are these, that
France promised resumption at the
earliest possible moment, that she
took immediate steps to make
that promise good by maintaining q
large coin reserve, increasing it 6y
selling 5 per cent. bonds to replace or
retire notes bearing but one per cent.
interest, by paying her debt to the
Bank of France and, not only a nat
ural, but a forced contraction of the
currency, not ten years after but i'm.
mediately after the close Of the war.
The conclusion is simply overwhelm-
ing that France relied on coin and
unbroken promises to make her bills
good and that every step in her
course exactly and explicitly contra
diets every claim made by the
greenback party in regard to it. So
much for imitation. l Knight proper
ly rest the case here, because no mat
ter how many of the greenback
charges against the republican party
may be true (and very few if any are)
they do not prove the greenback the
ory good or wise. In order, howev-
er, to show how little their facts or
arguments are to be trusted, and not
because of its pertinence, propose to
show how fatally they err in many of
their claims.
NATIONAL. BANKS.
They grow eloquent in their denun-
citation of the National Banks. They
make special point of claiming that
there is an enormous profit in depos-
iting bonds and getting 80 per cent.
back in currency, thus drawing inter-
est on the bond and on the currency
by lending it. To quote his exact
words, Gen. Weaver said at Newton
that "it enables men who draw it (this
interesD to accumulate wealth four
times as fast as the aggregate increase
of wealth." If this enormous profit
is to be made, why do not the Nation
al banks call for the extra SlO2, ,OOO, 900
to which they are entitled on their
present capital as show by the Comp
troller's statement for May 1st, 1878
Why do the Chicago banks use only
about 0ne-tenth of the circulation to
which they are entitled if Gen. Wea-
ver's statement strue? Here are both
statements to convince any man who
doubts. will read them. (Above
reports read to prove the statements
correctly
Again if the profits are so large
and banking 10 free as Gen. Weaver
says it is (and is correct for once),
why do not men of capital go into
the scheme and make this quadruple
increase instead of lending money on
call at per cent. on time from 6 to
8, or investing in 4 per cent. govern
ment bonds? No man on earth, much
less Gen. Weaver, can make the facts
tally with his reckless assertions.
Besides Gen. Weaver has or should
have the Comptroller's statement
which shows in his examination be.
fore the committee on Banking, page
IL, that 'the ratio of earnings of the
national banks to capital and surplus
for the year 1876 was but 6.S7 per cent.
and for 1877 but 5 go. The same re.
port gives the profit on circulation al
q little less than ~ per cent. after
deducting expenses and government
tax. So the two added will make on
ly about s per cent, and it 10 fair to
presume that the banks can do better
or fifty and odd millions of circulation
would not have been surrendered, but
on the contrary the extra 100000, ,O0C
to which they are entitled would have
been called for. How can any one
avoid the force of this reasoning
These are facts--not speculation.
Again, Gen. Weaver tries TO leave
the impression that the bonds depos-
tied by the banks all draw 6 per cent.
whereas the same report, page II,
shows that the bonds are 8, s, Az and
4 per CENTS, averaging 5 per cent. in.
stead of 6, for the bonds amount to
$346, ,242, $50 and the interest $780,.
OIL which is almost exactly per cent
All the other attacks and charges
against the national banks are equal.
ly as false and absurd as those just
pointed out. Let me read YOU What