The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-05-07
IMPROVED BANKING METHODS.

A Congressman who Gives Some Atten.
tion TO the Will of His Constituents.
Our representatives should be more
sorupulous in getting the will Of the peo-
pie, and when they do not represent this
will they should resign; otherwise they
become misrepresentation.
Congressman Brosius of Pennsylvania
set his fellows good example recently
by writing to II. @. Baird, the able
economist to indicate what changes he
would make in the banking and money
system Of the country. Among other
things Mr.. Baird said:
First, in regard to our banking sys-
tenn That system is based upon the
same great fallaoy as the wickedness Of
Lord Overstone's bank act of 1914,
known as 'Peel's bank act. This fall
lacy is that Of attempting to regulate
the bank operations through the cur
rency instead Of acting directly upon the
bank itself. The currency belongs to
the whole people, and If the British gov
eminent or the United States govern
ment abdicates the right Of furnishing
the currency it should not permit the
bank or banks to tamper with it or to
regulate their loans by the amount Of
currency In their possession on q given
day. AS far back as 1888 Carey in
The Credit System In France, Great
Britain and the United States, demon
strated oonclusively that tho test Of safe
banking was to be found in the relation
which the capital Of q b.nk lore to the
amount which it had due it - its debt
ors. The proper way to regulate the ma
tional banks Of this country would there
fore be provision of law by which no
bank could loan more than 100 or 100
per cent over and above its capital and
surplus
But If the Overstone law is still to
be fixed upon the people Of the United
States, then the reserves of the banks
should be kept at home and not in the
banks Of New York, there to stimulate
speculation, to oentralize business and
create panics, as the present quack sys-
tenn does, placing the whole country at
the mercy Of Wall street.
''Now we come to the much larger
question Of the currency. would cease
absorbing myself with the one idea of
the standard and what it should be,
and devote myself to putting in opera
ton, in full vigor, the great function Of
association which money fulfills. In a
word, would have gold if we could
get enough of it. would add silver,
too, If that would be enough. and if
not, paper until we had enough Gold
is utterly unfit for the currency of a
country, because it is always liable to
export, giving you one day feast and
another day a famine. If we could have
large volume Of silver which was
overvalued in the coinage, that would
be an immense advantage, as only the
bullion and not the coin would be ex-
ported. The attempt at a gigantic sacri-
fee (tens Of thousands Of millions Of
dollars) during the last 81 years to
give us currency at par all over the
world is one Of the most mischievous
results aimed at by any Legislators in
the world. What Is wanted is AN mex
portable currency which by its contin-
ual presence will give to the whole body
of the people the ability, promptly and
vigorously, to associate and combine,
to exchange services, commodities and
ideas among their several selves What
you and Mr.. Walker, the chairman of
your committee, would do would be to
make enormous sacrifices to the end
that the people should wake up one day
and find almost the entire basis upon
which their power to associate rested
fleeing across the Atlantic ocean. This,
permit me to say, is not statesmanship.
1t does not lead to prosperity, to bust
ness, to virtue, to civilization, but it
leads to the waste of labor power, the
most perishable Of all commodities, to
poverty, to decentralization, to crime
and to barbarism.
IF you will once recognize in its full
force that great truth enunciated by
Carey, that the greatest need Of man is
that Of association with his fellow men,
and that money is the instrument Of
that association, you will then prepare
yourself to leave the company of the
men who are now driving these people
to desperation, and you will join the
silver men, who would rescue them
lIOnl ucStl
HERBERT SPENCER ON FREE LAND.
Given race Of beings having like
claims to pursue the objects of their de-
sires, world into which such beings
are similarly born, and it unavoidably
follows that they have equal rights to
the use Of this world. For if each of
them has freedom to do all that he
Wills, provided he infringes not the
equal freedom Of any other, then each
of them is free to use the earth for the
satisfaction Of his wants, provided he al
lows all others the same liberty And
conversely it is manifest that no one or
part of them may use the earth in such
way rs to prevent the rest from sim
ilarly using it, seeing that to do this is
to assume greater freedom than the rest
Equity does not therefore permit prop
erty in land. For If one portion OF the
earth's surface may justly become the
possession Of an individual and may be
held by him for his sole use and benefit