Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-19
CONGRESS AND ITS WORK.
THE SENATE DISCUSSES THE
BANKING BILL.


Filibustering on the Mexican Pension
Bill.
WAsHINGTON, Feb. 18.-In the Senate
to-day the bill was reported from the Pub
lie Buildings Committee authorizing the
erection of public building at Macon,
Ga.
Mr. Harrison introduced bill for the
admission of the State OF Dakota into the
Union on an equal footing with the origi-
nal States. 1t was referred to the Com
mittee on Territories.
SENATOR PUGH ADVOCATES PLUMB's
AMENDMENT.
After the passage of number of pri-
yate and unimpOrtant bills, the Senate, at
O'Clock, resumed consideration of the
currency bill, and Mr.. Pugh addressed
the Senate in favor of Mr.. PIumb's amend
ment, which provides for the expansion
OF the volume of the legal tender currency
keeping pace with the contraction of the
national bank circulation. Mr.. Pugh
stated that if Mr.. Plumb's amendment
failed he would vote for the bill of the
committee as temporary expedient.
Inc present currency, he said, was made
up of S346 6Sl. .0l6 in legal tender coin.
l31, 900 in silver certificates, and $l01 ,250,-
62l IN gold certificates, amounting in the
aggregate to nearly one billion dollars.
This volume Of paper currency was
supplemented by about 100000 600
of gold coin and silver. 1t possessed all
the valuable qualities of a well adjusted
mixed currency. 1t was made up of the
elements which in quality amount. and
IN uniformity have secured public conf
dence. and constitutes an admirable svs-
TEN of checks and balances. We were i'm
full view Of contraction, with all its dan
gers, and it was conceded to be the i'm
peratIVe duty of Congress to make imme-
dlate provision against that impending
evil. Two hundred million dollars of
national bank circulation was found
ed on per cent. bonds, now
payable at the option of the government
Ii the revenue derived from taxation was
not to be reduced to the needs of the gov
ernment, then it was made manifest that
the national bank circulation would be
reduced by $200000, 600 in about two years.
1t had been conceded by so experienced a.
hnancier as the Senator from Vermont
{ Mr.. MOrrlll) that the contraction NAV
amount to S2,OOO,000 per week, and with
reasonable certainty to $50, 600, 600 or $60.-
OOO,OO0 per annum. Such a sudden con-
traction of our paper circulation would
produce a widespread arrangement of
business. How should the evil be avert
ed?
The bill of the committee provided for
an increase of 10 per cent. in the amount
OF circulation to which banks would be
entitled on their bonds deposited as secu-
rltY for notes. The success of the plan
depended entirely, Mr.. Pugh thought,
upon the sutficiency of inducement in the
way of greater profits to banks offered by
this additional 10 per cent. of circulation.
Would that accomplish the end when the
profits of the circulation were now less
than they were in the past. being at pres
ent S4,OO0,000 short Of the circulation to
which they were entitled on their
bonds deposited? He felt constrained
to say that it would not answer the pur-
pose. Ii the bill had the effect of increas-
ing the market value Of the bonds all the
good done by the 10 per cent will be neu-
tralized, so that he could not see that the
bill could amount to more than harm
less but disappointing experiment. In
the amendment Of the Senator from Kan
sas Mr.. Plumb there was, in Mr.. Pugh's
opinion, substance and permanent vital
force. 1t was not founded on hostility to
national banks. 1t aimed to do what
every Senator wanted, and it would do
that with absolute certainty, that is to
prevent any contraction at any time
in the future of the present volume of
the currency by the withdrawal Of the
national bank circulation.
SENATOR JONES VIEWS.
Mr.. Jones, of Florida. stated that he
had not made any preparation to speak
on this subject, but could not permit the
statements of the Senator from Missouri
Mr.. Nest) to pass without comment.
When that gentleman said that national
banks were here swaying the cOunsels of
the nation he was saying that which, in
his calmer moments, he would readily re-
tract. For himself, at least, Mr.. Jones
would say that if there was anyone in the
Senate who knew less than another about
national banks he was that one. He did
not think that he had ever owned dollar
of their stock in his life and could
take a calm view of the subject under
discussion. Who, he inquired, composed
the national banks? They were the fell
low -citiZens of every Senator. They were
not the concentrated monsters that ThOs
Jefferson alluded to. Every man knew
that we must have some system of bank
ingunder the government unless we were
willing to give the government powers
which its trainers had never intended. One
of the difficulties with our system was that
it had been concentrating instead of diver
sifying itself as it ought to do, and every
had SAID was in favor of concentration of
power in this great government. That is
already OvershadOwing everything
throughout the land. There was no State
or community that had not national bank
composed of citizens Of that cOmmu-
nifty, who had put their individual capital
into it. Such banks discounted paper
afforded facilities for deposit and gave
cOnveniences to the public that our gov
frixr
beyond the powers designed for it. The
attribute of circulation attaching to
banks, although the principal subject of
this debate, was one which Mr.. Jones
supposed that the banks could do without.
He did not know that he would vote for
the repeal of the tax on circulation so as
to make the privilege of circulating
note on credit common one, which had
been the usage before these banks came
into existence. Would the Senator from
Missouri Mr.. Nest) be willing to take off
the tax on circulation, which gives banks
their monopoly, and relegate to the
States the furnishing of currency?
Whoever heard anybody call the old
State banks monsters? But they had is
sued their notes, not as legal tenders, but
to furnish under the State laws a cur
rency to the people. There could be no
authority found in the fundamental laws
Ol LLt l ultCu DOdlGo lOI lIC government
to establish a great corporation for the is
sue of paper money. 1t was plainly
against the opinion of Thomas Jefferson,
when in WashingtOn's Cabinet, that the
government could create such corpora
ton. He resisted it, but it came to be
accepted by the country that Congress
had power, and the first bank of the
United States was established and issued
notes. That created an diversity Of
fni hot d hn Crr
preme Court decided that it was cOnsti-
tutiOnal. When finally the question be-
came a political one, the Democratic
party destroyed the institution. aud power
to issue paper money was remitted to the
States. Was there to-day any greater
power in the Constitution over this sub
ject than had existed at the time of the
dissolution ofthe United States bank? The
General Government had power to coin
money and regulate its value, but there
was no authority in the Constitution for
Congress to issue paper money as me-
diyTm of circulation, but it may be said
that it had been done, and that that fact
was a sufficient reason. The Supreme
Court, however, had been obliged to fall
back upon the war power of the govern
ment for authority to issue those notes as
a permanent system in time of peace.
AS a Democrat Mr.. Jones said that he
proposed to stand by the organic law, and
if authority were wanted for power to
issue such notes why was not the ques-
tiOn carried to the people by a PROPOSE
tion to amend the Constitution.
Mr.. Vest said that if Mr.. Jones voted
for the bill before the Senate he would be
voting to give banks a power which, ac-
cOrding to his own motion, the govern
ment had no authority to give.
Mr.. Jones did not regard bank currency
as in the category of paper money, as