New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1878-10-12

by special charter; but it perfected 8 sys-
tenn of national banks, so thaA banking
could be free to A, B, G and D, or to any
person desiring it. Applause It is so
tosday. If any five gentlemen in this
crowd choose to organize national bank
they can do so, with one simple condition.
The United States stipulates thatyou may
organize 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 cirenlate. Then, If
| you mismanage or destroy your bank, it
will take your bonds and pay your bill
holders. Loud applause. A voice: 'tPsy
them in greenbacks?" Cries: 'Shut up.'H
| Give him chance / will answer the
! gentleman. Laughter and spplsuse.l 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 a CONNER
| cial 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 1t 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. ZAP
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
were 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
were 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.
tlemAn who is familiar with the subject
tell me if he knows of any species of pro-
perty 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 mill
lion dollars
Your total tax levy is seventy eight hun
bred and odd thousand short of SS,O00,-
900. Your national banks in Boston pay
1855, 00O, one-ninth of all your taxes,
eleven per cent; and besides that these
banks pay sos, 900 taxes to the general
government. The national banks of this
very city of Boston pay s1,560, 900 taxes
on capital of $4,000, 000 Will any
gentleman tell me of any other $50, OOO, OO(
of property in the city of Boston or in the
State Of Massachusetts that pays that tax.
Applause Well, suppose you abolist
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 severes
and 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 il
round numbers. There are four hundred
and thirty millions of bonds deposited tC
secure that circulation, and every one o.
that four hundred and thirty millions i
| worth more than its face in gold coin
Applause And I submit, Mr.. Chair
man, that the like of that never existed il
, the world. The boosted Bank of England
+ | the Bank of Amsterdam and the Bank 0
France, the great continental banks neve
| presented such security to the bill holder
tApplause.l The three hundred an
! ! twenty-five millions of national bank bill
+ that are out tonight in the hands of tn
, people of this country, are sustained b
! four hundred and thirty millions of golt
: coin or that which is equivalent to it, t.
redeem them and make them absolutel
good in the hands of the. holder. Ar
! plause.1 Now the total amount of on
4 taxes paid locally-these figures are nc
! | very hard to remember, and beg som
, Of you to carry them away, if you haven
thought of them before-the amount {
{ | taxes ptllu lOChlIy ny tu6 uht1OudA pdAh
! in the United States is nine million thre
hundred thousand dollars; the amount {
taxes paid to the general government
o seven million two hundred thousand do
2 lars. Put them together and you get siI
+ teen millions and a half Of taxatio
a derived from the national banks through
+ out the country. Now want to state 6
8 fairly as can the proposition Of the moo
q ern Greenback party. 1t is to save some
q thing to the people by substitutin
preenbacks for the national bank not,
/. That is the proposition. Now, will az
nit for the sake of argument, that 20
! can call in that amount of bonds II
!, only bonds of the United States that Sc
: at Jar are the four per cents. All thi
!, are above that command correspondent
o premium.
n But suppose you call in, if there ara /
It many out, on the equivalent of three hui
e, dred and twenty-five millions of four p
Ii cent. bonds, issuing greenbacks in pla'
ID of the national bank notes and takir
s: these bonds. This is a fair statement,
ID think, Of what the Greenback party pr
j. poses-that they will place the greenbse
{. in place of the national bank notes, al
a. take in a corresponding amount of Unite
IS States bonds. 1admit for the sake of {
es argument, they can do it, though the
s, can't Ilaughter1, because the minute y
en- do that the bonds would go ''sky-high
= % the boys saw. in premium. But / ".