The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-22

The paper read by A. B. Stick
ney, Of this city, before the Chautauqua
assembly will be conceded by all to
possess exceeding interest and value.
whether they agree or not with its
premises and conclusions. Mr.. Stick
ney is a careful student of current
problems, a deep thinker and a tren-
chant writer. Upon the subjects which
he touches he gives information and
sheds new light. This is true of his
address upon a programme of national
finance, which is the elaboration of a
particular theme chosen from a pam
phlet which he published during the
campaign last year, and which is espe-
The conclusion pointed to in that dis
cussion-namely, that national bank
ing institution is a necessity for the
consolidation of financial interests, the
careful and proper distribution of bank
ing credits and the successful working
Of national financial SYSTEM is here
crystalized and presented with clear
ness and force.
The Introductory part of Mr.. Stick
ney's paper is particularly clever. There
are few readers in the country who
will not confess to the ACQUISITION of
new idea when they read the de-
scription of the method by which for
eign countries, and particularly Great
Britain, acquired a financial stake in
this country so immense as thew now
possess, practically without furnishing
either property or cash in exchange
They sold us banking credit and took
In return, the bonds and other So
curities that they now hold. Rv an
interesting compilation of statistics Mr..
Stickney shows that, while we were
heaping up the immense debt that we
now owe to the foreign investor. wa
were also sending him more commod-
tiles and more gold and silver bv
thousands of millions than we receiv.
ed from him. What he gave his Dor
roWerS was the banking credit of the
greatest banking center in the world.
We paid for it in bonds, with interest
coupons attached. He cut off the con-
pons and returned them for pavment
OF his side of the transaction. and
later ne multiplied transactions of the
same sort. The Illustration is mar
ticularly happy, as showing the enor-
nous value attached by the modern
system to commercial and banking
credit, and the Importance of making
and keeping that credit as valuable in
the public mind as the money metals
themselves all over the world.
The ability to do this Mr.. sticknev
attributes largely to the existence in
England, as in all the other great ma
lions of the world, the United States
alone excepted, of a single great finan-
cial institution known as its national
bank. Into and out OF this. as q can-
trail clearing house, flow money and
exchange, and upon the consolidated
credit thus created, through the rela-
ton between it and all the other finan-
cial institutions of a country, or the
principal of them, come stability and
wealth. From this point Mr.. Sticknev
proceeds to a discussion of the circum-
stances of the wiping out of the old
Bank of the United States, and draws
the argument that the restoration of an
institution similar in it's general char
acter is Indispensable to a sound finan.
cial system. He points out with ire
sistible logic the worse than weakness
of the subtreasury system, and the
fact that the treasury, by it's practice
of locking up cash, contributes to every
financial panic; while the banks them
selves, disordered, disconnected and
terror-smitten, are forced, in self-de-
Tense, to measures that intensity and
spread the prevailing CONSERVATION and
distress. We refrain from any further
summary of an exceedingly valuable