Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-09-14
STATE RANk sRNrIMENr.

The demand for a greater and
more elastic currency, Lot dependent on
eastern money centres and the few
who control them is growing stronger
and louder every day and Con-
gress will shortly Hnd It one of
the prominent questions Of the hour.
The Fort Worth, Texas, Gazette voices
the sentiment OF the Southwest in de-
clarlng that the Capitalization Of the
country's money supply by Wall street
has aroused the whole people to the ne
cesslty for distributing the money CEN
ter5.
1t calls for 'the sound and elastic
currency which State banks will be able
to furnish, /" and remarks:
Under any system Of exclusive national
supply, whether the medium be gold, silver
or paper or all combined, the money Of the
country will gravitate 70 Wall street as the
needle to the pole. Distribute the source
Of supply and the. crops Of the country and
the improvements Of the country, and the
upbuilding of the country and the necessi-
ties OF the country will not be, as at pres
ent dependent upon Wall street whims,
demands or necessities.
Wall street has ruled the fortunes Of the
republic flong enough, and the time has
come for . declaration of financial indie
pendence Of men two thousand miles away.
The Atlanta Constitution, which voices
the sentiment of the South. declares:
The action OF the federal government in
imposing a prohibitOry tax on State bank
notes was unconstitutional and tyrannical.
liz was a high-handed invasion Of State
rights. 10 destroyed our local currency and
gave US a centralized financial system
which left the commercial and industrial
interests of the South ana West at the
mercy of the money rings Of the East.
Worse than ell, 10 allied the national treas
ury with Wall street ana entangled the
spectators with the government TO such
extent that it is hard to tell who is bosslng
the job.
the past they gave the country safe cur
rency, and they would do it again. The
notes of the State banks would not be a
legal tender and nobody would be forced to
take them. Nor would any State be COM
PEELED to charter such banks. The system
would be the proper cOncOmitant Of our
system of home rule. IL would give US an
elastic currency that would enable the
South and West TO move their crops with
out awaiting the pleasure Of Wall street,
and il would free the farmers and owners
Of real estate from the Outlawry OF the ma
tional banking system.
Even the gold men have been driven into
the admission that the country needs more
money. They know that the national
banks will soon die natural death. What
reasonable objection can they offer to
State banks Of issue, with notes so fully
secured that they can be readily exchanged
for green backs and coin.
A writer in the New York World who
is vouched for by the World as finan-
cisl expert says:
The writer is convinced that the very
best system is one controlled by the States
aud founded upon such successful eX-
perience as that OF the State bank Of In
diana and the Indiana bank. There were
never sounder. institutions than these, and
there was never, anywhere, banking cur
rency more perfectly secured than theirs.
They passed unscathed through the sew
crest panics the country has ever known
without suspending specie payments for an
uOuE, WITHOUT uG4GNlAlAk IA oLl NlAAb0EAun
and without resorting TO any Of the make
shifts which the national banks are forced
to adopt IN every time Of severe stress.
The experience Of those banks, Of the
Suffolk bank, Of Massachusetts, and others,
completely refutes the cry Of wildcat cur
rency. Il shows that it is perfectly easy,
by simple and obvious devices, to make
the notes of State banks absolutely secure
and certainly redeemable on demand, as
every bank note should be which is al
lowed by law TO circulate at all. In re-
pealing the prohibitory tax Congress may
easily attach certain simple conditions
which will compel the States TO provide
adequately for the security Of all notes
issued, and with that done the only real
objection 10 repeal will disappear.
In the West the sentiment is almost
unanimous for the re-establishment of
State banks in order TO release the peo-
pie from their dependence upon far
away and monopolized Eastern money
centres in the movement Of craps and
the conduct of business. Sowide spread
a sentiment cannot be ignored. II is an
adjunct 20 the silver question, which
will shortly confront the students Of
monetary affairs in Congress