The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-03-24

send to any ADDRESS a lTeablse on 'duSt
and cure Of piles. also book Of testimo-
malls.
have changed all that. The only persons in
.convenienced by the discount would be the
Texans who travel outside Of the State.
and not one I'm one hundred does that
Are all the people Of Texas to be sacrihc-
ed because few Texans who travel may
be Inconvenience? And they can pro-
iect themselves by carrying gold or bank
checks. exchange being obtainable for
all directions.
STATE BANK TAX.
Repeai the tax OF ten per cent. on tho
tissues Of State banks. then so that every
J ocality that has banking resources can
,,ut out the notes that locality needs and
al OF our ills will disappear ] know the
rejudic against the name state banks
makes this hopeless But accomplish the
same thing in another way; allow ma
ttonal banks 10 put out all the currency
they please, without any security for II
but what satisfies their directors. the
notes Ia be payable on demand in gold or
the bank to go at once into liquidation
with provision for the most stringent gov
eminent inspection, and the GOrdian knot
would be cut.
The prejudice against State banks arose
from the course of things in the new and
growing West for some fifty years before
the great civil war. Ii was new and
growing up with boom towns. boom
banks and boom everything else, and
many persons suffered great losses from
| the boom banks incident to that state OF
society. They will have a repetition Of 1t
| in the Klondike. But whilst events in this
new territory were discrediting State
banks in the old. Atlantic States, where
! State banks had grown up by a process
4! OF evolution. they supplied the people the
! best currency system any people ever
| had. Take the case of Virginia.
Ia 1861 she had 100000 people. but 500
| ooe wSe slaves incapable OF contracting.
| and. therefore not TO be considered in the
| case. Her banks for twenty-five years
had had out ten millions of dollars Of
Dotes that circulated at par all over the
State There was a bank at almost
VERY cross roads store. whose managers
h NV the farmers and gave them such
AZ Sommodations as they were entitled TO.
Tn e8e notes were at n discount Of only
one -paiarter of one per cent. in New York
and no man ever lost "A dollar by a Vir-
ginia bank note. Contrast that situation
with Nirginia's present situation Now
she KS 100000 people. all capable Of
contra NtHlSs oilt mas lNllLN-StNe0 ma
tional banks and great districts as large
as som,s States of this Union that have
no banl x. If YOU should rake up all the
currency in the State outside Of the cities
and tow NJ. / don't believe YOU could find
$3.50 COO. say. then. that her condition
before IL war was an ideal one and
that the condition OF her farmers to-day
is a pitiab lc one and | say further that
If that con dltion was possible for Virginia
before the war. 1t Is possible for all the
States now. In point of fact. the condi-
ton Of ever y Atlantic State in 1861 was
just that Of Virginia The evil of State
banks was co ufined 10 the new and grow
ing West anC' IL was rapidly graduating
the evils and occurring the blessings when
the constitutio was violated during the
war and the pr, ,sent absurd financial sys-
tenn was forced upon the country
The fact that currency good evervwhora
at its face value will not stay with the
country people is not the only vice I'm tho
present system The national banks being
all In the cities. their managers do NOT
know the farmers and will not, there
fore give them accommodations. II time
sufiiced | could give some striking illus
trations Of how this fact kills the apuli-
cation Of the farmers for accommoda-
tons.
THE TRUE SYSTEM.
The true banking system. then. IN an
immense territory like our; is one that
issues notes that will stay with the peo-
pie for whose use they are intended
and which secures bank directors who arc
acquainted with the farmers and know
which can be trusted We ca never have
cOntentment and order until these two
ideas are recognized as ecessities.
The official reports OF the Virginia
banks show many most important and
interesting illustrations of what / have
been saying. Take those for the year
1S59-'60. The Farmers Bank Of Virginia
was a great institution with branches in
many parts Of the State, and one of
them WIS at BiacksbIrg. a small village
of two or three hundred people in Mont
somery county. which Is a blue grass
grazing region OF country as fine as any
in the world. This branch had a capital OF
$50 900 and a surplus fund OF $50 0oo-that
is. II had 100000 Of resources. But II
had cut its notes 10 the amount OF sl46
ga end Il kept in its vaults only 500 SIS
OF specie against those notes With notes
capital and surplus IL had therefore
s256. 900 but it's deposits were. only s7042.
II had out loans. however amounting TO
1927 600 which. added to the coin on hand.
about balanced its resources.
Now. this trifiing deposit acc cunt has
deep meaning. 1t means that the farmers
around who borrowed the banks money
did not take their loans in the form OF
credits on which they checked II means
that they took the bnnk notes and put
| them in their pockets and carried them
| home and paid them out 10 their neigh
| bors. and, as everybody had perfect con-
| fidence in tic bank, whose managers
| were the leading people OF the COM
| munity, nobody ever thought of going
| h. hop
| OF the notes in coin. so that once out
| they remained out indefinitely end cir
| culated around amongst the people per-
| forming all the functions OF money just
| as we'll as the purest gold do BARS could.
| This Is the way in which Virginia
| banks were able TO put out five and even
| eight dollars of notes for one of specie
| kept in their vaults, and this Is the rea-
! son why they were able TO issue on
| small capital just as many notes as the
/ people had any use for. The result was
that they could so multiply their capital
that they could afforc TO charge very low
rates Of interest. and the people gene
| rally had an abundance OF money at the
most reasonable rates. Now the y can't
ret IL at any rate whatever. and reading
In their papers that a New Yoke can
, get Il at 1-2 per cent. they are natu-
| rally disconnected.
| BANKS MUST BE LOCAL.
This Blacksburg case (and The BANK
reports show BlnekshuE cases every.