The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-01-05
STATE BANKS.

The National Economist calls atten-
ton and sounds a note of warning
against the plan about to be adopted to
side-track the Alliance, 1t says:
Senators have beaten any former
record in the introduction of bills dur
ing the first week of Congress, and
they are still pouring in. Senator
Harris, of Tennessee, has introduced
one to abolish the national tax on State
banks of issue. This is a subject that
now demands more than a passing
notice. 1t is one of the most seductive
sIdetracks yet prepared for the Alliance
by the willy politician. The hope is to
be able to agitate many Alliancemen
into the support of that measure by
accepting their cry of more money and
presenting that as the quickest way.
Never was hope more delusive. Wild
cat banking is a long step backward in
material progress. Money issued by
State banks is not a legal tender and
cannot be made so. 1t cannot, there
fore, be made to be of material assist
ance in raising general prices in times
Of depression. 1t simply adds to the
volume of personal paper, such as
checks. drafts, bills of exchange, etc.
When State bank money passes current
it willfOr all practical purposes increase
volume of local money, but it is entirely
under the control of the capitalists that
issue it, and, therefore, instead of being
a relief from present conditions, may
we'll be regarded as a potent means of
intensifying them, because the trouble,
the curse of the day, is fluctuations in
local prices on account of violent con
fractions and in1a ions of the local
volume of money. The general prices
nor the gross volume of money do not
huctuate near 50 much. With a local
issue in the control of local banks, local
scarcity could be prolonged until local
spectators bought all the local products
and local initiation could be vigorously
pushed during the season in which local
producers were compelled to make pur
chases of commodities the most freely.
Nothing more would be necessary to
completely enslave local producers to
local capitalists, The people are aroused
to a determined opposition to banks of
issue, National or State, and of the two,
State banks of issue are the worst. The
issue of the legal money of the country
under this system of government is a
monopoly per Sc, and as such is the
function of government and should not
be delegated to any citizen or set of
citizens, because like ali other true
monopOlies it carries with it the power
to levy tribute at will, and that is in
compatible with liberty, The true pO-
sition on this question Is, that the Gen
eral Government should alone iesuethe
money. and that it should be supplied
in necessary volume to do the business
of the country, and hat the volume be
regulated by the amount of business to
BE- transacted at all seasons and at all
times.
This State bank side track was pre-
senUed two years ago as a rival of the
Sab Treasury plan, and it has been
vigorously pushed in some of the South
ern States by the professional politi-
clans, not because they believed in it
or thought it a good thing for the peo-
pie, or had any hopes of securing it,
but because they believed the argu-
ments in favor OF it could be so plausi-
bly, presented as to catch some Ali
ancemen who are perhaps not we
posted ON financial matters, and there
by produce division in the Alliance
ranks. But the Alliance school master
has been abroad in the land, and his
name is Sub-Treasury, and prediction
is here freely made that this side-track
will grow rusty ere it is marked by a
single Alliance shoe.