The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-01-29
EIGH, N. c.. JANUARY 20. 1895.

in this country and in England, from
1910 to 1860; and the policy Of entrust
ing the creation and regulation OF a
paper currency to banks, or in any
way to the control of private interests,
has been pronounced against, and
abandoned. by every enlightened ma
tion on the earth. It would be a dis
grace for this country now to return
to it. No other enlightend country
would even entertain, for a moment,
such a proposition.
The business of banking the duty
of providing people with money are
functions 80 separate and distinct that
they cannot be blended together with
out doing mischief. For fifty years
this has been the almost unGisputed
verdict of the enlightened world, and
has been~concurred in by all the fore
most writer's on the subject, as shown
in various Parliamentary Reports and
elsewhere; and especially is this true
as to multiplicity of banks.
The world has never devised any
plan of automatic regulation of money
supply, except through the production
of the precious metals; and, from the
very nature of money and it's relation
to prices, automatic adjustment of
paper money to the wants Of business
is impossible.
The bill now before Congress, should
it become a law, will prevent, for this
generation, at least, return to the
only tried and approved method of
automatic regulation of money; that
is, through the production and coinage
of gold and silver.
A loud clamor is raised, whenever
the question of restoring the free coin
age of silver comes up,. against Civ
ing q profit to the miner. While it
can be easily shown that under free
coinage there can be no difference be
tween the value of bullion and the
coin made from it, and that conse-
quently there can be no direct profit
to the miner, or profit of any kind not
shared in by thegeneral public through
the influence on prices and business of
an ample supply of primary money,
both the measure proposed by the
Secretary of the Treasury and the
Baltimore plan give forever a profit to
issuers of paper, as often as it is loaned
out. Both plans virtually make banks
paper mints, with the right to coin
money out of paper, and to have all
they can make out of it, without cost
of production and without limit as TO
amount.
It is admitted that four ffths of the
gold of the world is now gathered into
a few great treasury boards, and CON
trolled by few hundred men at most.
With this control over gold. give to
banks entire contral over the paper
currency, on a gold basis, as is now
proposed, and what safety is there for
the worlds industries or for the worlds
businessl
Can people be enslaved so easily
or so certainly in any other way3 No
poverty and servitude for the great
mass of the people are the necessary
consequences of this system of money
We therefore earnestly recommend
that before it is too late to resist this
new attempt to subjugate them abso
Iutely to the money power. the people
everywhere hold meetings, and, by
resolutions and petitions, protest tx
their Representatives and Senators
against the passage of the proposed
bill, or of any measure that puts il
the hands of banking associations th'
absolute control of the money of th'
people. A. J. WARNER, Pres.