The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-06-15
STATE BANKS.
STRONG TESTIMONY IN
THEIR FAVOR.
They Will Come with the Repeal
Of the Ten Per Cent. Tax, and
There Will be no Wildcat Feat
ures About them Either.
Wilmington Star. !

llmlnNtOn StaT.
Three of the leading commercial
and financial papers in this country,
the New York Journal ef Commerce,
the New York Commercial! Bulletin,
and the New York Financial Chroni-
fIe, have declared in favor Of State
banks. This is somewhat remarkable
as these papers are published in the
great financial centre Of this country,
and would naturally be expected to be
influenced more or less by the fl
nanciers who shape the monetary
policies of the country.
The men who write the financial
articles for those papers are better
Judges of the actual situation, and are
more qualified to suggest methods of
relief from the embarrassments which
have troubled statesmen and finasCiers
than the statesmen and hnanClers are,
for they are Influenced neither by
politics nor self interest, which as a
rule govern the politicians whose party
is interested and the flnaDCierS whose
dividends come out Of the money they
have invested in banking or in seCuri-
ties which bring in money. The
money kings would never recommend
the establishment of State banks, for
the day that was done they would lose
their grip on the money market and
the practical monopoly they have
enjoyed SO long would pass away
forever.
The demand for State banks, like
the demand for free silver coinage,
comes from the West and the South,
and for the same reason. They want
silver coinage because it would add to
the volume of the currency, and they
want State banks because thus would
be supplied money which would be
within the reach OF all who could COM
mand security or endorsement, and
money the volume of which could not
he influenced, contracted or expanded
at the dictates of combination of
money magnates in New York, Boston
or somewhere else.
This question has been SO much
| discussed, and has taken such hold
on the popular mind that it will not
down unt;l the obstacle in the way,
! the tax on State banks, is repealed and
the people of the States are left free to
establish banks or not, as they see fit.
1t is common with some Of the
organs of the money kings to refer to
State banks as wildcat" institutions,
as if it was impossible to establish any
other safe and sound system of bank
ing but the national bank system,
and for still another reason, namely,
that the repeal of the bank tax is one
of the planks in the Democratic
national platform, adopted at Chicago.
This being SO the majority of the Re-
publican organs think they are serving
their party by opposing it. The Re-
publican stumpers in the last cam
paign played opposition to it as one of
their strong cards, and both President
Harrison and Mr.. Blaine blew bugle
blasts on it with the hope of soaring
the country with the " wildcat" fright,
the organs and the lesser lights on the
stump echoed them, and the press and
the hustings rang with the wildcat
chorus. But the country didn't scare
worth a continental. Mr.. Harrison
and MIR. Blaine were simply playing
that for politics, for they both knew
that there was not the remotest danger
of the State bank system being
established on wildcat basis, they
knew that the people of this country
had sense enough to want their money
to be money that would command
respect and confidence and answer the
full purposes of money. They knew,
too, that in the various plans that had
been proposed in and out of Congress,
and which had commanded public
attention and elected discussion from
men eminent in finances, there was
not the suggestion Of wildcatism.
In leading editorial in the New
York Journal Of Commerce the wild
cat bugaboo is thus pertinently and
cleverly disposed of:
! The cry of Z. wildcat money" as an ap-
peal to popular prejudice against the
issues of State banks is unworthy OF at
tentiOn, and those who utterit ought to
be heartily ashamed Of their ignorance
or partisan malice, from one or the other
OF which it has it's origin. 1t is said that
If,ItI I.n lf.I
to visit the capital OF his State because
he made a similar journey when boy
seventy years ago, before there was a
railroad running in that community and
the stage coach was mired i'm the spring
mud and left him to finish the trip on
foot. Whenever he was urged to travel
he could think Of nothing but the part
ing of the frost from three feet of aHuvial
soil. When a State bank is mentioned
there are some who recall only the days
before iron rails were laid and fail to see
that new methods of transportation
have rendered the circulation Of an ire
sponsiblc issue utterly impossible even if
there We're no laws against.
We notice that some partisan Journals
are still harping on the Insolvency OF II
number Of Western banks and repeating
the exploded falsehood that the country
would now be flooded with the worthless
issues of these institutions if the Federal
tax had not restrained them. Apart
from the fact that most of the broken or
suspended banks were operating under
the act Of Congress, with a circulation
sent them from Washington, it is certain
that not one dollar Of an unsecured
paper currency could have been issued
by them ii they were organized under the
State laws, since these are very stringent
in their requirements. No one favors an
unredeemabIe or deprecated paper cur
rency, but the repeal OF the tax would nc