Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-07-24

enough, except that the amount should be
limited TO that amount which can be main
tanned at par in coin; otherwise you have pa
per money fuctuating in value. variable as
! the shade, and recurrence of all the evils
which we have suffered since the panic
/ There is but one way of testing the amount
of paper money that is sufficient to transact
the business of the country, and that is by its
convertibilty into coin on the demand of the
holder.
Again, they say that they favor the immcd-
ate use of the coin in the Treasury for the
reduction of the bonded debt.
This proposition is the purest dcmagoguism
unless il is desirable to have irredcemablc
paper money depending for its value only up
pom the mandate of the Government, or what
/ is called fiat money If we propose to re-
deem our money We must have in the Treas
ury coin sufficient to meet any sudden dc
mand. The larger the amount and the great
er the certainty of redemption when demand
ed, the less demand there will be. As a mat
ter of course, bv holding this coin in the
Treasury we lose the interest that might he
saved by its application in the payment OF
the debt. The amount of interest upon the
bonds sold for resumption purposes is S.
925 900, and this is the only price we pay for
the maintenance of resumption, but to com
ponsate for this we have already. since re-
sumption, saved in the process Of refunding
Sl4.297, III a year and are now enjoying the
benefits of reviving industry AMI hopeful
prosperity, largely the result of the nainten-
ancc of specie payments. Without IL large
reserve of coin. Il combination of brokers or
BANKERS wishing to put up the rate of interest
or To speculate in the market, could any day
endanger resumption make panic. 1t is
hard to please our greenback friends. \
year ago they protested we could not accu-
mulatc enough gold to maintain resumption.
and now, after resumption. they protest that
We have got too much.
They say they favor the substitution of
grcenbacks for national-bank notes.
This question of the continuance of the
natiOnal-bank notes is one of grave diff
Guilty. which should be taken up BY the pe0-
pie of the United States and considered and
discussed with the utmost care. | am not
specially the advocate of any kind of banks;
hut it is certain that the national banks are
| the best that ever were devised-conceded to
he so by the leading economists of other ma
| tons. and proven to be so in our own cOun-
try by comparison with the State banks.
They are generally distributed throughout
the United States. and form local agencies to
promote exchanges. Their notes are abso-
lutely secure beyond peradvcntuIc. They
are guarded against counterfciting sue
cesstuly that scarcely any loss happens in
this way. Compared with the old system of
State banks, they are in every respect supe-
rior, and no sensible man would exchange
the National system for the Statc-bank sys-
TEN.
These banks are free. are organized under
general law open to all alike so that the bust
ness of banking is as free rs that of black smith
ing. There is no monopoly H. it, except that
only men having money can bank, precisely
as only those can farm who either own or
rent land. These banks are chartered for
twenty years, and the earliest 10 expire will
be in 1888; so that the question of their dis
continuance cannot honestly be determined
until then. The substitution of grcenbacks
for bank notes, if seriously attempted, would
make such a stringency in money and such
"A disturbance in business, that in comparison
with it the panic of 1873 would be but
! shower to a hurricane. The withdrawal of
the circulating notes from the banks would.
necessarily, compel the sale of the bonds de-
posted for their security, and this would un-
questionalby lead to the collection of loans
and discounts. which woul effect every viii
lage and hamlet in the land
1t is objected to the national banks that
they draw interest on the United States
bonds deposited by them, and also on the
circulating notes issued by them As to the
bonds held by them, they are the property
of the stockholders, and not the property of
the Government. We require them rs Sc
curity to the holders of the notes because il
is the best security If the bank goes out of
existence the interest of the bonds will still
have to be paid by the Government. As to
the circulating notes a part of them must be
held in reserve ard part loaned to business
men; but for this privilege, open to all alike.
they have paid to the National and State gov
ernments, taxes averaging SIG, 90S. ISL a year
for the last ten years, sum greater than five
per cent. of the entire amount of their circu-
lating notes. If the tax is not sufficient YOU
can increase it. But, it is said the Govern
ment might Issue these circulating notes and
save interest. In doing so, however 1t would
lose ut once the taxes collected from the
banks; it would violate the public faith.
pledged in an express provision of the law
creating the public debt, that the amount of
United States notes shall not exceed $780,
DOC, 600; it would make necessary larger re-
serve to maintain resumption on the increased
amount of United States notes, and would
eventually lead to the abandonment of all
idea of specie standard, and again launch the
country on the sea of irredeemable money,
with the inevitable result of wild specula-
ton, panic, and bankruptcy. Can it be that
the shrewd, sagacious people of Maine cannot
see that by yielding an inch to these dogmas
that threaten the public faith and specie re-
sumption they open the sluice-way to repudi-
alton and communism? Let us in due time, as
their charters expire, deal with these national
banks as may seem best for the public inter
est, preserving always the public honor and
the specie standard.
This platform says:
''The volume of our money should not vary
with the chance production Of the precious
metals or the caprice of corporations.
This dogma is an absurdty on its face.
Money is only needed to buy productions, and
the quantity, value, and demand for produc-
tons create necessity for more or less
money in precise proportion to their amount.
A fixed volume of paper money is what the
greenbackers have hitherto complained of;
and one Of the chief merits of the system Of
free banking is, that 1t gives an opportunity
for the ebb and flow of currency, the increase
or diminution of the volume depending, not
upon the caprice Of corporations, but upon
the demand and necessity for currency. In
this respect national-bank notes have greatly
| the advantage OF paper money Issued by the