The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1885-02-05

hate and assail Weller as q crank
and calamity. Some OF their advo-
Gates IRE rejciced that his congress
sional days are numbered; bat whu
can tell?
No Need OF National Banks.
trrom the New York sun)
From the lamentations uttered In
various quarters over the impending
extinction Of the national banks one
would think that these institutions
were Of vital necessity to the country.
Senators, representatives, newspaper
editors and merchants vie with one
another Ia depicting the disasters
that will occur when banking ceases
to be carried on under the laws of
the United States, and they advocate
the most crazy measures for avert
ing supposed calamity.
All this alarm arises from two fun
damental misapprehensions. One
OF them 10 that the country cannot
dispense with the circulating notes
issued by the national banks. The
other IL that In order to have the
banks at all they must be allowed
and even bri5ed to issue circulation.
We have repeatedly exposed both Of
these fallacies, but they still find
respectable supporters.
For example, the Hon. John
Sherman asserts that it will not be
safe for . commercial community to
rely exclusively upon coin and coin
certificates for Its currency, because
the coin may be exported and great
contraction may be thus occasioned,
whereas the supply Of national bank
notes can be regulated to meet the
wants Of trade. H0 entirely over
looks the fact that national bank
notes, In order to have m equal
value with coin, must be made re-
deemable on demand in coin. and
that when coin Is required for export
these notes will be Withdrawn and
presented for redemption until the
needed quantity Of coin has been
obtained. Representative Potter, Of
this city, Is also SO afraid Of the evil
consequences Of cxtinguishing the
notes of the national banks that he
wants the nation to change its four
per cent bonds due in 1907 into two
and one half per cents, and pay
down In advance the twenty. two
years difference Of one and one half
per cent year, In order that the
banks may buy cheaper security
for their circulation. A much better
scheme would be to redeem the
bonds at once in lagal tender notes.
This could be done at the price Of
not more than par and six years
interest, and the nation would then
get all the currency 1t needs and have
no intetest at all to pay on the bonds
forever after. Our erudite contcm.
p0rary, the Times, was betrayed
lately into the assertion that nation
oil bank notes are as good as gold
while legal tenders are redeemable
In silver, forgetting that bank notes
are redeemable in the very legal
tenders 1t deprecates, and conse-
quently cannot be superior to them
In value. The other day it said, also,
that national bank currency is better
than any other kind of paper money
We are likely to have. because it
cannot be contracted or expended
arbitrarily. That this is not SO is
proved by the idiotic fright OF the
national banks at the Carlisle bill in
February, 1881, when their mana
gers threw the wdole country into
financial convulsions by suddenly
Withdrawing millions Of dollars Of
their circulation. Their excuse was
that they did not want to take a three
per cent five-twenty year bond at
par. and yet only eighteen months
afterward they were scrambling for
. three per cent bond redeemahle at
pleasure. No congress and no Sec
rotary Of the treasury could have
done more mischief than the banks
then did; and they can do it ut any
time. Indeed, q currency OF United
States notes redeemable on demand
in coin could not be expanded and
arbitrarily, except by a
suspension of specie payments,
which would only occur in an emer-
gency like that Of the late civil war.
As to the idea that there can be
no banks and no banking except in
with the issuing of cir
business men, in this city
at least, do not need to have it re-
futed. There are numerous incor-
porated banks in Wall street and
other parts Of the country which is
sue no notes, and yet are very prof
table to their stockholders. Private
bankers like August Belmont & Co.,
Drexel Morgan & Co, Brown Bros.
& Co. Seligman & Co., also exist in
numbers here and else
where In the commercial world, and
contrivc to make living without
The privilege Of issuing circulation.
To speak, as Senator Sherman does,
II government bonds as the founda-
lion Of banking, Is talking sheer
nonsense. We have had banks. we
have banks now and we shall have
hem always, whether they are al
owed to issue circulating notes or
not.
The truth Is that, whereas the
national banks were originally ere
ated to makepurchasers for govern
nent bonds, 1t Is now proposed to
create bonds for the purpose OF
national banks. The thing |
s preposterous, and congressman
md others who advocate it commit |
! serious blunder The country is
10 longer in need OF the national
banks, and will witness their depar-
;ure without q pang."
Il
The u. S. House and Senate.
This House OF Representatives has
lone moro for the people than any
,ther House since the war. 1t has
passed q number Of bills reclaiming |
about 6O.OOO.OOO acres Of forfeited
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