Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-04-26
THE LEADING FINANCIAL MEAS
TRES OF THIS CONGRESS.

ing considered by this Congress are by
no means the least important matters Of
the session, and As quietly as these
measures seemto be moving through the
courses of legislation, the business world
Is watching them very intently.
There are three principal bills which
have been under consideration by the
Committee Oh Banking and Currency,
in this connection.
The first is designed to remove the in
CAPABILITIES Of taxation between green
backs and National bank notes.
The second, is q bill suspending the
issue of silver certificates and the COIN
are Of silver until an international
agreement upon coinage ratio for the
free coinage oflegai tender silver can
lie reached, or until by some other
means, the 'equivalency" of value in
the markets of the world between gold
and silver dollars of the United States
can be brought about.
Thethirdand most prominent measure
is that relating to extending the char
tiers of the National Banks.
All these vii be recognized as very
important financial measures, but the
last named has elected very wide and
great diversity of opinion both in and
out of Congress. \ proposition to ap-
point a day for the consideration of the
bill has been twice defeated, and it Is
very uncertain what will be the ultimate
result.
Judge BUCKNER, who is the leading
Democratic member Ofthe Banking and
Currency Committee, and who was its
chairman during the last Congress, has
given expression TO some very pro-
nounCed and plausible views in this re-
gard. He does not think that the bill
will pass at this session, nor DOES he re
gard it rs necessary.
He calls attention to the fact that the
only banks whose charters have already
expired have been reOrganiZed, and
their charters practically extended for
twenty years by the Comptroller.
There are - banks whose charters
expire between the LIST of May and the
lst of December, and Judge BUCENER
thinks it would be we'll for Congress to
see what effect the reduction of the debt
will have upon the expiring banks, as
well as upon those. which have longer
lease of life.
He believes the extension of these
charters to he fallacious and deceptive,
because Of the probable dangers result
ing to the business Of the country from
the almost certain redemption Of the
three and half per cents. within the
next four or five years, and which has
already begun to tell on the bank circu-
latiOn.
Judge BUCKNER points with great
force to the fact that the national Bank
ing system depends for its existence
solely upon the perpetuatiOn of the ma
tional debt. says he:
"The breath of its life is debt, and with
out debt it ceases to live. National
banks and national debt are the Siamese
can not exist without the other. The
right to continue their existence for am
other period of twenty years, rs proposed
by the committees bill, can not add
day 10 their duration, or prulOng the
period of their final dissolution.
That depends entirely upon
the rapidity with which
the people are willing to discharge the
bonds which guarantee their clrcula-
ton. The President of the American
Bankers Association, and President of
enc of the leading banks of New
York City, said i'm an address before the
Niagara Convention of Bankers, of last
August: at is very obvious that the
continued reduction of the public debt is
fast removing the foundation of the Ma
tiOnal banking currency, and that the
system ITSELF thus losing its character
iStic basis, is approaching dissolution,
and il is evident that the existence of
the present system of banking cannot he
long prOtracted and that very soon
some substantial change i'm the basis Of
our National currency will he ineyita-
hle."
For this reason he regards the attempt
to perpetuate them by law as vainand
useless etiert to galvanize into a short
lived and spasmOdic existence a system
that contains within its own orgauiza-
ton the seeds Of decay and death.
whether" says he, expiring banks
30 into liquidation by operation of law
or by the vote of their shareholders, or
some or all of the shareholders organize
new hank under the same or differ
ent name, or whether their charters are
extended by the promotions of this bill,
the foundations of the system will in
either contingency continue To under
mine and destroy as long as debt
redemption is continued. And no
such patent nOStrum rs pre-
scribed by this bill will exempt
the National Banks from their iuevita-
BILE doom. j say inevitable, because
there is no mere universal sentiment in
this country than the fixed and deter
mined purpose to discharge the last dol
lar of the public debt bearing interest rs
rapidly as the resources of the country
will permit. What the banks need,
therefore, is not deceptive and unneces-
sary legislation, such as We have in this
bill, but something to restore the con-
stituent element Of the system, and to
secure q firmer and stronger foundation
for their mischlevOus and vicious note
circulation"
Judge BUCENER will present sub
stitute for the whole bilL which author
ICES an issue of Treasury notes, to take
the place of the bank circulation. He
thinks this must be done some time, and
may as well be done now. The extern
sions of the charters now can have no
effect whatever to prevent a possible, if
not a probable, monetary disturbance,
resulting from the payment Ofthe thres
and half per cents. The financial
condition of the country, he says, de-
ponds really upon whether, when these