The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1892-08-12
ALLIANCE COLUMN.
interesting Reading OF And For
The Order.
United States Senator PsfRsr, Of Kan
sas, on the Currency Question.

Replying to your request under date
OF the 9th instant in relation to supply
ing the place of national baud .ciicu-
lation, have to say that 10 my own
judgment the best substitute is what
the people Of Kansas favored fourteen
years ago, namely, United States notes,
COMMONLY called greenbscks; Tor as you
know, national bank notes are redeem
able in United States notes. think Il
would bewe%l+n- abolish the wlp,lc -y.-,
tenn sksiG<nEeSte issues No banking
institution should be permitted t, issue
anything which is to be used as legal
tender money unless the issue is support.
ed by the power, and the material used,
whatever it may be, should not he re-
deemable in anything. 1t ought to 60
out to the people as money, fullfledgcd,
ready for duty, without any weight or
impediment or conditions of any sort,
what yer. What we use as money should
be absolutely free from all conditions, so
that there could be no ''runs" on banks
in time Of stringency, and no panics be.
cause debtors are unable to obtain legal
tender money. believe that the time
has come to natiopalize our money. We
took one long step in that direction when
we adopted our national banking sys-
TEN. We taxed State bank notes out of
existence. substituted a national currency
Tor purely local currency; and it was
only a short time after embarking In this
new enterprise untilYe discovered that
tho bankers Of the count--- ,vero mdstcrs
OF the financial situation. We find that
instead of serving the people they served
themselves. In 1882 there were $685.
900, 900 OF bank notes circulation Since
that time about $4,000 0,000 of it has
been retired, not because the people did
not need the money, but because the
banks realized profit from the sale of
their bond at premium, the bonds that
they had deposited rs security for circu
lation- Our experience and that of other
nations has been that banking corpora
tions are private schemes for profit to indi-
vidual persons, and our observation has
taught us that there is only one safe way
to avoid the dangers to which that sort
OF financial management subject us; that
Is for the nation itself to prepare its own
money, every dollar of it, issu, it to the
people directly though government
agencies, wholly without the use a1d in.
tervention of banking corporations or
other private agencies.
vnato ~ WA asFssSaA iy substSe-fo fore4hiteed
States notes, or treasury notes, il you
choose, for national bank notes as they
are being retired, but would substitute
that sort of money for all bank issues;
aud I would do even more than that;
would not make money out of a promise
to pay; that is to say, I would not write
ont promise to pay money and call that
promise money; but would use piece
of paper just as we are now using a piece
of gold or a piece of silver, and make
that money, providing in the law what
its functions shall be. That puts the
influence, the credit, and the power OF
all the people behind the money Then
we will have gold and silver and paper
at par, one with the other; and that, If
we will reduce rates of interest down to
the level of profit on labor, so that men
can make as much money farming or
biacksmithing or carpentering as they
can by lending money, will give us a
safe currency, sound financis system,
and no more money panics.