Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-08-21

The VINDICATOR, which has been making
, war on the banks of the country for some
time past, and asserting that they have ever
been ON the alert to "corner money!" ''pro-
duce panics,' ETC., advises its readers in its
last issue not to miss ''The Wall Street Epi-
sode Of july" published in the same issue.
1t turns out to be so good an argument to
prove the falsity of the INDICATORS charges
against the banks. that we can't help quoting
| the gist of that article to which the VINDIcA-
! TOR points with such pride. That article was
written to show how indicitl1als, and not
banks, as the INDICATOR has been asserting
| undertook to raid the stock market and to
produce panic; and it shows how they were
prevented from doing SO by the 5anks.-Stau,a-
ton Nel0s.
The Neacs could hardly have found an
incident more damaging to the banks than
that which it quotes. In intervening in
July to enable the U. s. Treasury to MAIN
tain gold payments, they showed clearly
that they might have done this at any time
and saved this country a bonded debt of
over quarter of a million dollars. They
have on three separate occasions let the
, Treasury go perilously close to suspension
Of gold payment, in order to force the bond
issue out Of which they made many mil.
lions. Their intense greed ate up their
patriotism if a money corporation can be
supposed to have that noble .rait. They
would not nave interviewed last month if
they had not known that another bond
issue between now and November means
| the election Of Bryan by an almost unanl-
nous electoral vote. The Richmond State,
a paper very far from being a free coinage
in it's joint debate column) has this to say
| about it:
"We have several times expressed the opin-
ion that the issue of bonds to protect the gold
reserve was fatal blunder, and ithas reacted
upon the administration as we'll as upon those
persons who forced the issues i.
''f Mr.. Cleveland had not discovered that
old law under which he was empowered to
issue bonds, the bankers would have done
! originally as they have done recently. They
would have come to the relief of the govern
ment and protected its credit. Instead, they
played upon Mr. Cleveland's determination
to keep the gold reserve intact and thereby
secured gold and government bonds, both Of
which they desired. 1t was an awful thing
to put debt of 1862 ,OOO, 900 upon the people
of this country, and no wonder the people are
up in arms about it. 80.
"We do not blame the President. We be-
lieve that he acted honestly with the lights
before him. But it was mistake. The fact
is the President should not be vested with
the authority to issue bonds, except with the
consent of congress. Its a dangerous power,
and SO long as he has that power, just SO long
will designing men find way to force him to
exercise it every now and then."
The State quotes from Southern paper
the following utterance of ''sound-money;
advocate on the July episode in Wall
street:
81 have defended the bond issues of Presi-
dent Cleveland, because thought it was a
necessity: but since l see that the bankers in
New York and other cities averted the neces-
sity in the past three weeks, am sure they
could have done it any time there was call
for one. am for Bryan and Sewall from
now on for that reason
The fact is that our contemporary, which
formerly had quite breezs' indepen-
dence Of thought about it. has put its neck
in yoke that gals at many points. There
is nothing to defend about banks any more
than there is to defend about any other
money making business. Their good
points are those guaranteed by the laws of
the United States, their bad points are
those emenating from the fact that they
have their share of the general greed TOR
money, in pursuit of which they have cet-
tain privileges not enjoyed by occupatisss
of other kinds. The great gambling deals
and corners of the country by which ruin
is brought to so many have germ, stalk and
flower in the back rooms Of the banks. In
this we do not mean to say the country
banks have hand. They have little
knowledge of or share Except lend
ing their funds on call) in these things,
which are several cuts above them. The
banks of all sorts stand together to save
each other, but not to save the country.
They stepped in in the Wall street
episode because they knew that
another bond issue between now and No
vember means the election of Bryan.
You'll not see them step forward
after November Sd to save the Treasury.
They will cold)y advise another bond issue
and stand ready to handle the bonds. r.