The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1896-04-14
TUESDAY, APRIL II. 1876.
LEAVE THE SUBJECT TO NATURAL
LAWS,

LAWS.
day or so back there was another
of those discussions In the United states
Senate which periodically show the vast
amount that the people we send 10 inc
Congress Of the United states 90 not
know of the most important matter lh1t
concerns the people-towit their imam
c1al system. Senator Teller got up
bill he has offered, which undertakes 10
tinker a little more with the national
banks, and TO prescribe rules OF conduct
for a business which should be LETT abso-
Iutely TO itself. with no Government IN
reference or restraint Of any KIND what
ever. Teller says the banks outside oil
the large eastern cities send their re-
sarves IN the banks of those cities Tor
safe keeping. which they are tempted 10
do by receiving interest on the de-
posits. and Teller is right about thls'
So long as the only paper currency al
lowed 10 the people is a currency founded
upon the national credit. note, wherever
issued. will circulate at par in every part
of the Union, and the New YORK, CHI
caeo. and Boston banks Will always DC
bidders for them, and will always get
them: so that, whatever the amount OF
the currency might be, while IT Is ma
tional currency. it will be at all times
I'm the commercial centres, and the neigh
oorhoods will be destitute. Teller said
that the New York city banks had last
September $200,O0O0OO Of the reserves oil
the outside banks tied up, and that he
was informed 20 per cent. OF 1t was used
I'm the speculation Of the exchanges. Tel
Ter was, no doubt, perfectly rlsht about
this. That is what the banks get the
money for, and the gambling specula-
tors increase just as they get more
money. ard they bid for more money just
as the gambling spectators increase. 50
Teller wanted some law passed that would
stop the outside banks from sending thelr
reserves to the large cities, and that
would make them keep those reserves in
their own vaults.
Ignorant Teller, AS well legislate that
water shall not run down hili, or that
a brick dropped from the top OF house
shall not fan to the pavement. Rather
Teller, direct your legislation towards
changing the impulses ana the passions
of the human heart. When YOU sue
coed in doing this, you can arrest the flow
of national currency 10 the commercial
centres, but never Will you arrest II
until you do make that change.
The debate on Teller's bill serves TO
show the radical error tnat prevails al
most universally upon this subject. Nine
men out of ten-yes. ninety nine out OF
every hundred-assume, as a matter OF
course, that the paper currency the people
use should be controlled and supervised
by the Government. a Mr. Nelson, of
the firm of John \. Hambleton q Co,
of Baltimore. made a speech at the meet
ing of Maryland bankers last week, which
those bankers thought so well OF That
the venerable EnOch Pratt, one OF them
declared that 1t ought 10 be sent TO every
congressman and senator MT. Nelson
had a fine antipathy to the greeuDacks,
and he also minated that ne thought
the national banks a failure but he said
the plan for Il banking system adopted
by the Baltimore Bank Convention
year or two ago was the ideal plan. and
that plan restricts bankers by law from
issuing more than fifty per cent. or tneir
capital in notes. Nelson therefore. with
all his fine oratory. is just as ignorant
and just as wrong as Teller or any
other United States senator.
We shall never have any more sound
banking until men learn that banking
and the issue of currency notes Is just
as much a private business as IS seihng
tin pans or wel-buckets, and mat The
Government has no more right 10 man
age and control the one than II mas TO
manage and control the other, and il has
no business 10 meddlc in any way what
ever with either.
This is the era Of steam ana olectricity.
Quick transportation and quick trans
mission OF intelligence enable men 10
transact business by Transferring on
books the credit values OF commodities,
and. as that is far simpler and more handy
than transferring money or currency. notes.
men have adopted that as their pro
cess for doing business. and nothing can
ever make them change the process
back 10 the use Of money ana currency
notes, unless steam and electricity Should
become unknown agencies. II IS a step
back towards barbarism 10 make men
transact their affairs with money or
currency notes. Great Britain. whose
shipping tonnage is half that OF the whole
world. and whose foreign and domestic
commerce Is too colossal for the human
mind 10 grasp II. has less than lvO.OU0,V0
OF money and currency notes OF All
kinds. while this country has some $780,
10000. Her Dusncss Is done by the
transfer OF credits. What is needed.
then, Is that the Governments hand
shall be wholly removed from the sub
sect. Let banks issue all the notes their