The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-08-08
sHERMAN's SPEECH.

interest. As we have few Republicans
in Kansas who undoubtedly arc honest
in their Greenback views and their op
position to the national banks, we give
herewith part of the address devoted
TO those subjects:
THE NATIONAL BANKS.
They say they favor the substitution
of greenbacks for national bank notes.
This question of the continuance of the
national bank notes is one of grave diff
ficulty, which should be taken up by the
people of the United States and consider.
ed and discussed with the utmost care.
l am not specially the advocate of any
kind of banks; but it is certain that the
national banks are the best that ever were
deVised-conceded to be so by the lead
ing economists of other nations, and
proven to be so in our own country by a
comparison with the state banks. They
are generally distributed throughout the
United States, and form local agencies
TO promote exchanges. Their notes are
absolutely secure beyond peradVenture
so successfully that scarcely any loss
happens in this way. Compared with the
old system of state banks, they are in
every respect superior, and no sensible
man would exchange the national sys,
TEN for the state bank system.
These banks are free, are organized
under general law open to all alike; so
that the business of banking is as free as
that of blacksmithing. There is no mo-
nOpoly in it, except that only men hav-
ing money can bank, precisely as only
those can farm who either own or rent
land. These banks are chartered for
fuanfU vaaro and the aarliact fO
Will be in 1885; so that the question of
their discontInuance cannot honestly be
determined until then. The substitu-
tiOn of greenbacks for bank notes, if seri-
Ously attempted, would make such a
stringencY in money, and such disturb
ance in business, that in comparison
with the panic of 1873 it would be as a
shower to hurrican. The withdrawal
of the circulating notes from the banks
would necessarily compel the sale of the
bonds deposited for their security, and
this would unquestionably lead to the
collection of loans and discounts, which
would affect every village and hamlet in
the land.
THE QUESTION OF DOUBLE INTEREST.
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
property of the stockholders and not the
property of the government. We require
them as security to the holders of the
notes because it is the best security.
If the bank goes out of existence the in
terest of the bonds will still have to be
paid by the government. AS to the cir
culating notes, a part of them must be
held as a reserve and q part loaned to
business men; but for this privilege, open
to all alike, they have paid to the nation
al and state governments, taxes averag-
ing $16, 9O8, 181 year for the last ten
years, sum greater than per cent. of
the entire amount of their circulating
notes. If the tax is not sufficient you
can increase it. But, it is said, the
government might issue the circulating
notes and save interest. In doing so,
however, 1t would lose at once the taxes
collected from the banks; it would vio-
late the public faith, pledged in an ex-
press provision of the law creating the
public debt, that the amount of United
States notes shall not exceed $780,
600, 600; it would make necessary larger
reserves to maintain resumption on the
increased amount of United States
notes, and would eventually lead to the
abandonment of all idea of a specie
standard, and again launch the country
on the sea of irredeemable money, with
the inevitable result of wild speculation,
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 resumption they open
the sluiceway to reputation and COM
munism? Let us in due time, as their
charters expire, deal with these national
banks as may seem best for the public
interest, preserving always the public
honor and the specie standard.
This platform says: 1.-THE volume of
our money should not vary with the
chance production of the precious met
ais, or the caprice of corporations"
This dogma is an absurdity on its face.
Money is only needed to buy produc-
tons, and the quantity, value and de-
mand for productions create a necessity
for more or less money in precise pro-
portion to their amount. A fixed vol
ume of paper money is what the Green
hackers have hitherto complained of;
and one of the chief merits of the sys-
tenn of free banking is that it gives an
opportunity for the ebb and flow of cur
rency, the increase or diminution of the
volume depending, not upon the caprice
OF corporations, but upon the demand
and necessity for currency. In this re-
spect national bank notes have greatly
the advantage of paper money issued by
the government, which can only be paid
out according to the wants and necessi-
ties Of the government in the conduct of
public business. The true doctrine is
that volume of paper money, always
redeemable in coin and maintained at
par by ample reserves, increasing and
ffimIniohln1 QRRnH6inN n tho dom nd
of business, should be provided by the
national government under general laws,
free and open to all alike. Our present
system, consisting of gold and silver coin
equal to each other, and United States
notes and bank notes, always redeemable,
comes nearer the ideal form of money
than has ever heretofore been devised by
man.
GREENBACK POLICY IN OHIO.
So much for the Maine platform. Let
US turn now to some dogma in the plat
form of the Greenbackers in Ohio.
They say, first: 1.-THE general govern
ment should issue an ample volume of
full legal-tender currency to meet the
business needs of the country, and to
promptly pay all of its debts" Here is
the broad doctrine that the general gov
eminent must conduct all its operations
i,
and supply enough to meet the business
needs of the country. How much does
this dogma demand? For the latter
purpose, to pay its debts, it would need
about 81, zoe, 200 900, and for the former
purpose, according to a moderate esti-
mate of conservative Greenbacker, II
would require anywhere from 800, 600.
600 to $4,000, 100000 more. In other
words, they propose to strike at the
foundation of all values by the issue OF
irredeemable paper money, to be used q
part in paying the national debt in VIC
lation of the public faith, and the bal
ance as legal-tender upon all contracts
and debts between private citizens. 1t is
strange that honest men should proclaim
such q dogma and not be able to see
that the only effect would be to destroy
the value of this currency, and to com.
pei citizens to resort to barter, and, fin
ally, with or without law, to coin again
This is the extremity of Greenbackism
in Ohio.
Again, they say: 1--WE are inflexibly
opposed to the issue by the government
of interest-bearing bonds of any descrip
ton for any purpose whatever" If this
n -