Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-08-07
THE BANKS IN THE GOVERNMENT
BUSINESS

BUSINESS.
One of the cleverest utterances that Mr.
bryan made in his now famous Chicago
speech was to the effect that '.Many people
IhlnK the government ought to go out Of
the banking business; 1 think the banks
ought to go out Of the government bust
ness" This government business of the
banks has never been as clearly shown to
The people as is being done in the present
political campaign, and traditional, timid
capital, as represented by banks, is rush
Ing about bristllng with epithets and de-
nunclatlons of the people and seeking to
the extent of its ability thus to stem the
tide now sweeping over the country. The
first four men in Virginia who announced
that they would not support the Democrat
&c nominees were four bank presidents of
Richmond, and it seems that the banking
associations had been trying to influence
Virginia before the Democratic State con-
vention met, as the following paragraph
from the Richmond State would show:
"Mr. Walter Jordan, of Nansemond coun-
ty, is at Fords Hotel. Said he last night ::
While our district sent gold delegates to the
Democratic State convention, in my opinion
the silver element largely outnumbers the
gold following in the district. am sure that
Nansemond Democrats are overwhelmingly
for silver and think that man favorable
to the white metal will be nominated and
elected to congress. A Suffolk banking in
stitution secured the delegates to Staunton in
our county, but it can't control majority of
the voters as the November election will
show
This short sighted playing with politics
by banks is due largely to ignorance; GER
tainly not to any superior knowledge of the
of the effect of any great financial movement
Not one Of these bank authorities knows
to-day whether free silver will not bring
great prosperity to his bank, the greatest
it has ever enjoyed. He is totally ignorant,
as is everybody else, of what the effect OF
free silver will be. All that he knows is
that under existing laws his bank has a
good thing of it, and having that, he does
not want any change. His pictures of dis
aster are all furnished from New York,
from whence, indeed, all his ideas of fnan-
cial questions-other than the solvency of
his home patrons about which he is very
careful, as he should be-and all his gen.
eral ideas OF banking come. He takes up
the calamity predictions of the money
centre, makes them his own and repeats
them with an impressive ex cathedra air
that makes his hearer forget what a limited
field he has had for gaining that information
that comes from experience. The truth is
that the country banks are not whit more
interested in the free coinage OF silver than
any other business house. and another truth
is that no institutions would sooner begin
to realize the benefits of that coinage than
the country banks.
What is called the ''money power" of
this country, a power not loved by the peo-
pie, is behaving very foolishly over this
question of free coinage of gold and
silver. The two great political parties, and
nearly every side party that has sprung up
have stated their faith in it and their de-
sire to have it. The only question at issue
is whether this country can successfully
carry it through alone and without Euro
pean aid. The Democratic party has taken
the affirmative of that question and is
going to try it-nothing can be palmer than
that the experiment is going to be made.
Good policy and good sense would dictate
to. the money power of the United States
to join with it and help to make the free
coinage victory here so overwhelming as to
make it clear to the European States that
free coinage has come to stay. Great
Britain alone has Three Thousand Million
cannot afford to let our experiment fail.
A 'sFIfty-cent dollar" would mean to her
the loss Of Fifteen Hundred Millions of
Dollars There will be no failure nor dis
aster whether the money power" here join
in the experiment OF not, but it must
strike the world as very peculiar picture
"a great, strong and wealthy nation
marching on to try-not something new
but simply to restore something old, the
free coinage OF gold and silver. under which
the Nation greatly prospered in past days,
and great money interest holding back
with timid greed. And in this case most
dangerous timidity, for it is filling the land
with prophesies of disaster and as far as
in it lies sowing the seed for financial
panic. The people who run the Nation al
banks should throw off the Wall Street
nightmare that has overcome them, recov-
Ell their clear business heads, and join in
movement that promises prosperity to them
and 10 the nation. When ever before did
the people of this country see National
Bank people running about with cries OF
calamity trying to create panic-an ex-
hibition of lunacy that far exceeds any
"craze" the free coinage people have ever
showed. Let them recover their senses.
go out of the government business, and
devote their attention to the banking
business.
SHIPMENTS TO EUROPE OF
SILVER.
If you listened to the silly 80 cent dol
lar talk'' of gold fnanc1ers, you would
think that silver was coin orphan, that