The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-04-27
NATIONAL BANKS.
The Proposed Bill to Extend their
Charters.
The Tremendous Powers and Privileges
of These Gigantic Cor
pOratiOns.

inc and Currency, and in the present
Co1Oress is the leading Democratic
member of the Committee. In view of
the vote of the House, which has twice
defeated proposition to set aside day
for the consideration of the bill reported
from the Banking and Currency Com
mittee to extend the charters of National
Banks, the correspondent to-day had a
chat with the Judge on the subject, TO
get his views as to the Democratic OPP
position to this bill. In the course of
the conversation the correspondent said
"Judge, what do you think of the
prospects of the bill for the extension of
the National Bank charters since the
vote of the House of last Monday"
"They do not seem to be tlatter1ng,
he replied; although it is not imProb-
able, since the majority have committed
the matter of the priority of business to
be considered in the House to a special
Committee, that it may yet be acted
upon by the House. But 1T Is hardly
possible that the Senate will have time
to consider it at this session. It's pass
age is not at all necessary to the con-
tinuance of the bonding system, as
shown by the fact that the only banks
whose charters have expired have been
reOrganized, and their charters pract1-
cally extended for twenty years by the
OOUlDUTOllbIs
banks whose charters expire between
the 1st of May and the 1st of December,
and it may 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 a longer
lease of life"
"DO YOU expect to present your views
to the House on this question before the
bill comes up for consideration
81 shall avail myself of the privilege
of publishing in Tomorrow 8 Record my
views on this question and others kin
dred to it, as there seems to be some mis-
conception of the views of those who
voted against fixing day for the con
sideratfOn of the charter extension bill.
We have been governed, not so much by
opposition to the extension OF these
charters as by the belief that the extern
sion is fallaciOus and deceptive, and
that Congress should take some action
to guard against the probable dangers
resulting to the business of the country
from the almost certain redemption of
three and a half per cents within the next
four OF five years, and which has already
begun to tell on the bank circulation. L
will read to you what 1 shall print on
this point: ~.
to palyaniZe into shOTt-lived and spas
mOdic existence system that contains
within it's own organization the seeds
of decay and death. The breath of its
life is debt, and without debt 1t ceases to
live. National Banks and national
debts are the Siamese twins of our hnan-
cial system. The one cannot exist with
out the other. The right to continue
their existence for another period of
twenty years, as proposed by the Com
mittee's bill, cannot add day to their
duration, or prOlong the period of their
final dissolution. That depends entirely
upon the rapidity with which the peO-
pie are willing to discharge the bonds
which guarantee their circulatiOns. The
President of the American Bankers As
sociation, and President Of one of the
leading banks of New York City, said in
an address before Niagara Convention
of Bankers of last August: ''It is very
obvious that the continued reduction of
the public debt is fast removing the
foundation of the National Banking cur
rency, and that the system itself, thus
losing its characteristic basis, is ap-
preaching dissolution, and 1t is evident
that the existence of the present sys-
tenn of banking cannot be long pro-
tracted, and that very soon some sub
stantial change in the basis of our
national currency will be Inevitable"
"'This sagaciOus and intelligent
banker advocated the substitution of
some other basis than United States
bonds for the bank-nOte circulation, and
neither he nor any other member of that
convention ever limited at the necessity
or desirability Of the law now before the
House. Whether expiring into l1qu1-
datiOn by operation of law or by the
vote of their shareholders, or some or
all of the shareholders organize new
bank under the same or different name,
or whether their charters are extended
by the promotions of this bill, the foun-
dations of the system will in either con-
tingency continue to be undermined
and DESTROYED as long as debt redemp-
tiOn is continued. And no such patent
nostrum as prescribed Oy this bill will
exempt the National Banks from their
inevitable doom. L say inevitable, be-
cause there is no more universal senti-
ment in this country than the fixed and
determined purpose to discharge the last
dollar of the public debt bearing inter-
est as rapidly as the resources of the
country will permit. What the banks
need therefore, is not deceptive and un-
necessary legislation, such as we have
in this bill, but something to restore the
constituent element of the system, and
to secure firmer and stronger fOunda-
tiOn for their mischievOus and vicious
hObO
"What effect, if any, will the extension
of the bank charters have upon the
finances of the cOuntryp"
"The extension. of the charters of the
National Banks can have no effect what
ever to prevent possible, if not prob
able, monetary disturbance, resulting
from the payment of the three and half
per cents. OF the $500,0O0,O0O now out
standing, $245,OOO,0OO are. held by the
Treasury as security for bank circula-
tiOn. They constitute about 50 per cent.
of the entire bond deposit to secure cir
culation; and if we pay $1OO,OOOO 900 of
the debt per annum, nearly $0O,OOO,OOO
will have to be surrendered by the
banks and lawful money deposited to
redeem the circulation secured by these
bonds. The financial condition of the
country depends really upon whether,
when these bonds are called for redemp-
tion, the banks will buy other three and
a half per cents as long as they last, or
four and half or four per cents at the
Ire 'ent premium, to guarantee the cir
culatiOn. Such is the precariOus tenure