Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-03-15

6esnng bonds etc, etc. This would
include Abraham Linc0ln who approx
ed these laws.
9Th. "The national tanks could and
did substitute their bills drawing in-
terest for those burned by the treasurer
which were not drawing Interest.
The banks got this money aud do yet
at l per cent and can loan it 81 theif
own figures, anything frJn s 70 30 per
cent ss times were good or hard.
This il q remarkably lucid, grsmatlcal
and exact statement ot 9 desperate aud
pOrtentiOus condition Of affairs.
Whether the banks really got this
money or their own interest drawing
bills Is not 80 material a. the question
a. to how they got them or it at l per
cent and loaned them or it at as high
az 30 per cent. Let u try to untangle
this maze. The national banks when
organizing go into the open market
and buy bonds st the market price,
At present figures .he bonds net about
8 per cent interest. For 10000 in
bonds they are allowed to issue $50, 90
in bank notes, Is per cent Of their
capital must be laid aside as q reserve
drawing no interest. Besides this they
are taxed / per cent yearly upon their
issue of notes. They have to meet the
expense Of printing and issuiAg these
notes. They have 10 publish a semi
annual statement Of their condition.
They have to submit to an annual ex-
animation by a national bank ex-
aminer. The penalties, taxes and other
requirements exacted from them by the
government is more than enough to
Offset the per cent interest they re-
ceiye upon the bonds which
they have deposited in Washing
ton. When national bank
retires from business it is entitled
simply to the par value Of the bonds
forming the basis OF its circulation. In
case they have an issue Of $4,000 in
notes, they don't 60 of with both this
$50, 900 and with the 500, 90 in bonds
back Of it as the average Populist seems
to imagine. They take simply their
bonds or the par equivalent Of the
bonds. Now as to that 80 per cent
profit. The diYidends Of the National
banks Of the United States, for 1891,
averaged 40 per cent upon their cap
ital. For 1898 their dividends certainly
averaged much less. Their average
dividends haYe not reached 10 per cent
any single year in the last twenty
years. These are official figures, and
are not furnished By Swank or Prof.
Roarick, and they cannot be contro-
verted or blotted by Populist resoln-
tions, or the yawp Of Populist politi-
clan.
II would make this paper too long to
dwell upon the statements that the
power to increase or to diminish the
volume Of money is in the hands of Ma
tional banks, and that green backs were
called in and burNed in steadily in.
creasing volume and bonds issued in.
stead until 1873. a word will show the
fatality of this statement. The amount
Of outstanding legal tender notes is
b346, 6sl, ,0l6, and this has not varied a
dollar in the past fifteen years. The
total outstanding in 1866 at the close
Of the civil war was 500, $50 ,3O6. Now
FOR the last expiring wall that 1873 was
As disastrous year as 1898. The busi-
ness failures for 1873 were only 5ls3.
For 1898 they were l6, 757.
SO much attention has been given to
the article Of your correspondent SIM
ply because it is a sample Of Populist
Arguments generally. There is no
statement too absurd or extravagant to
lind favor In their eyes, and they never
tire of telling how "blind" and 'dis.
honest and "subservientn is every
man who does not pay his devotions at
the shrine Of PopulisIn.
Nerbum Sat.
COUNTRY JAKE.