The Topeka state journal., 1897-10-09
BETTER BANKING SYSTEM
Will be One of the Chief Aims of the
Monetary Commission.


Washington, Oct. 9.-The members of
! the monetary commission will convene
| again Monday morning and begin their
real work of investigating the currency
problem. It is not likely that the COM
mission will take another adjournment
for so long a time until it finishes it's
1abOrS, though it is proba BILE that it will
frequently adjourn over Sunday. DUR
ing its brief session in October its time
was devoted to q discussion of the ma
ture and scope of its work. and to
properly organizing so as to carry out
its work in a systematic fashion. The
work was divided under three general
heads, metallic currency, demand obli-
t cations of the government, and the
banking system. The commission di-
Vided itself up to handle these three
subjects with the following committees:
On Metallic Currency--C. Stuart Pat
terson, of Pennsylvania; Louis A Gar
nett. of California; ]. Laurence Laugh
lin of Illinois.
On Demand Obligations of the Gov
ernment-Robert s. Taylor, of Indiana
StuyVesant Fish, of New York; J. w.
Fries, of North Carolina; George F..
Edmunds, of Vermont.
On the Banking System-Charles s.
Fairchild, of New York; T. G. Bush,
of Ala bama; W. B. Dean, of Minneap-
oils; George f. Leighton, of Missouri.
In the meantime the secretaries have
been very busy classifying and prepar-
ing IN convenient shape the great mass
of data and suggestions that have al
ready reached the commission. Much
of it had accumulated in the hands of
the executive committee before the
commission was appointed, and a great
deal has been received since.
The executive committee did not
cease operations when the commission
was appointed and organized. In fact
Chairman Hanna regards it's work as
only begun He regards the commits
sion as a quasi-judicial body to pass
judgment and make report upOn the
presented Will
that experts upon finance and banking
are brought before the commission to
give their views, and that all data
obtainable from ali parts of the world
is properly presented.
The work of the committee on metal
lie currency Will be the simplest of the
lot The monetary convention de-
clared for gold standard, and this com
mittee will probably report the same
way, though it will make an investi-
cation of the operations OF the single
gold standard and the single silver
standard in various countries. as we'll
as the efforts to maintain a bi-metaIlic
standard, and will report upon the re
suit of their Investigations.
The committee on demand obligations
of the government has a much more
difficult task It will report upon the
| history of the various paper currency
systems the world has known and give
its estimate upon the value and the eff
feet of the various systems of paper
currency.
ne cOInfnlttee on banking Will not
only investigate and report upon the
various systems of banking that the
world has known, but will endeavOr to
make such recommendation as will in
Its Judgment bring about better Sys-
tenn of banking in the United States
The commission is impressed with the
idea that American methods of banking
do not afford facilities they should for
the small farmers and men of very
moderate resources. There are two
or three difficulties said one of the
members of the commission, that
think can possibly be ObViated. In the
first place our banking facilities and
banking capital might, to advant-
age be somewhat more evenly distri-
buted throughout the country. There
IS surely some method of doing away
with this thing of having money COM
mand nine and ten per cent interest
in the southern and western agricUItur-
al communities, upon paper that is
perfectly sound, when it will only COM
mand four and a half and five per cent
upon paper of equal SOundness in the
northern SeabOard states. Then we
should find a way to encourage the
making of small loans. 1 am con-
Vfnced that half the discomfort that
finds expression in the periodical de-
mandS Tor currency imitation, arises
from the fact that the man of small
resources finds it difficult, if not i'm
possible, to obtain a loan at a reason
a Bile rate of interest. Under our Sys-
tenn the banks do not care to bother
with loans of less than $1,000 and I
have never heard of them making one
for less than $780, Yet a man who
has single bale of cotton, one hundred
bushels of wheat, two or three hund-
red bushels of corn, ought to be able to
obtain loan that will enable him to
carry that commodity until in his ilIdar-
ment the market price for it is right
1t is seldom that wheat commands
the highest price just at threshing time
or that cotton can be sold to best ad-
vantage right after the picking. or that
corn can best be sold in husl<inyr time
Yet the man who has not enough to
I'LL a large apartment in the ware
house, and take out warehouse receipts
has nothing upon which he can borrow
money, as collateral. If he did hold a
warehouse receipt for a single bale of
cotton or one hundred bushels of
wheat he would find it impossible to
go to the bank and get a loan upOn if
The bank will not do so because the
care of such loans, the salaries of cIer-
ical help necessary to do it the cost of
exchange and that sort of thing
would eat up the profits of the loan.
The borrower is therefore compelled if
he cannot borrow from personal
friend, to go on having things
charged to him at the store. at the
highest prices, or hypothecate his pro-
ducts, or pay chatteI mortgage rates of
interest for a loan. They do these
things better in France
with their proverbial thrift and care
for the interests of the small propria-
tors, the French people have a hanlriner
system that enables them to get loans
from the banks as small as one hIInd-
red francs, and through the bank Of
France these loans are carried at a
very small profit. I believe it is pos
sible for US to show the wav In tbis
matter and to educate our banks ana
our people up to a system that viii
give much wider distribution of bank
ing capital, and will afford the poor
man banking facilities as convenient
as those enjoyed by his weaIthier
neighbOr."
HOT TINE GIRL.