The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1897-02-18

Emul ting the Ways and Means Com.
mitt ,e e the Fifty -fourth Congress,
wtic., IL the aming Of a tniff ill to
be prtsut,d tl the Fifty fifth, has taken
time by the for,l OK, the House Com
mitt on Banking and Currency has
taken in hand the working out Of fi,csl
sy te t. be tctsd upon not by the Pres-
eDt Congress, but by the next. To this
end it has gone on search for light,
au1, anxious 10 profit by the research,
expeii4Lc, and advice Of these who, mold.
ing position bigh iu the fiscal afrsits Ct
the n8tion ore presumably skilled 10
flnaIcr, it has called upon 81 ch men to
give the conn ittee the teneft Of their
views.
And so, nothing loath, we flnd Mr..
Eck,ls stepping into the arena to give to
the comm ittee the benefit of his views
as TO fiscal reform, and to rehearse the
lessons ne has gathered as comptroller of
the currsrcy. These lessons he has
gathered through banking spsctsclss,
and he rehearses them b,fore the com
mittee as If he was the advocate Of the
banks. 1t is ever an agRrsndize nent Ct
the banks, by the surrender TO them Of
sovereign powers rightly vested in the
government, that he urges. He looks
upon the banks as better fitted to issue
currency than the government he sees
that the cancellation Of our national cur
rency and the substitution Cf u bank
currency would relieve the national
treasury of the tssk Of providing gold
for export that has proven 50 onerous !;
he sees the banks are ready to take up
this task that has rested so heavily on
the government, and he strenuously ad-
vocates the shoul1ering on the banks of
this responsibility which they seem so
willing to assume. That the banks
would profit by securing to themselves
a monopoly over the currency is un-
doubte1, that the people the banks are
created to serve would be benefited is
us every one would be bsnefted-that
the banks would be benefited, the gov.
ernment benefited, and the people bene-
dted.
And first how Is it that the banks are
better fitted than the government to issue
paper currency, how is 1t that the banks
could msintain geld payments better than
the governments Mr.. Ecbels answer, the
banks possess the machinery to build
up their gold reserves, while the gov
ernment has no machinery which it can
put in operation either TO check drain
on Its gold or to build up depleted gold
reserve. And what is this machinery
that the banks possess and the govern
ment does notP 1t is the machinery by
machinery by which prices can be forced
down until our fort ign creditors will pre-
fer our commodities to our gold. In |
short, it is by cIrtailment CT lJsns, by
II contraction Of their issues Of currency,
that the banks could put check to gold |
exports and protect their gold reserves.
This is what Mr.. Eckels tells us, it is
what Mr.. Gage tells us, it is what all
the currency monopollsts tell us. 1t is
for this reason that the banks are pc.
culiarly fitted to guard over the issue Of
paper currency.
But this checking of gold exports by
depressing prices is not very cheerful
prospect to those who have already been
brought to ths brink Of disaster by the
shrinkage Of values. Moreover, there is
no certainty that the banks could so
contract the currency after they had
Ii an so depress prices as
to prevent gold exports. On the con-
trary, it is well nigh certain that they
could not, for to push down prices by oou-
tinued contraction Cf our currency, is
to push thousands Of producers thous-
ands Of men who have borrowed Of the
banks into bankruptcy. And If the
banks pursue course that pushes those
who borrow If them int bankruptcy,
they will soon find themselve brought
up with short turn.
IL is all well enough, IrCm the Selnsh
standpoint, for the banks to depress prices
so lnng as those who have borrowed of
them have sufficient capital to make good
the shriDkaGei but let this shrinkage be
carried 50 far that borrowers cannot
realize from the sale of their property
sufficient to pay their debts, and then
the banks must suffer loss. Let the
shrinkage be carried to this point, and
the banks cannot c, lleot the money due
them, and II they cannot collect the
m oneys due them, they cannot pay the
moneys they owe. For this reason the
banks have not the power to prevent gold
exports by contraction, for contraction
would cut them off from the possibility
of collecting their bills receivable make
1t impossible to keep themselves In funds
with which TO meet the demands Of their
and force them to close their
doors Therefore, the banks ara no bet
ter fitted, indeed not so well fitted, to
maintain gold payments as the govern
meat, for though they possess the machln-
cry to prevent gold exports they dare not
use IL.
So, to place the issue Of 0ur paper cur.
rency in the hands Of the tanks would,
instead Of insuiing the maintenance OF
cold radan,ntiona 1aaI dirpctIv tO tha