The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-11

located al the powers of executors, administrators, guardians and trus- tees. Unless thIs step is taken the ad- vantages now enjoyed by the trust companies will gradually but inevitably compel the national banks to surrend- CT their charters for trust company charters; for if trust company is re- quired to carry only one-fifth of one half the reserve of national bank, it can afford to pay much higher rate of interest upon de- posits and eventually undermine the national banks.
 The right should be given to na- tional banks to issue an amount of credit currency equal at least to their capital.
 These two powers would have the effect of bringing into the national system practically all the trust compa- nies and state banks if our recent ex- periences have confirmed the public opinion that the required reserves of the national banks are none too high. | "If our banks were authorized to convert their bank book credits into bank note credits, upon the demand of depositors, there never would be a currency famine such as we are suf- fering from now.
 "A credit currency cannot in any way lead to expansion, but it would rather tend to prevent expansion, if put upon the same footing in all re- spects as checks and drafts. Our cur rercy will then be perfectly co-ordi1l- ated to the needs of business, being neither too great nor too little, the cashiers checks springing into being with business needs, and automatical- ly disappearing precisely as checks and drafts too.
 "No civilized country now has bond secured currency such as we have; and no civilized country of consequence ever did have such currency except one, and that is Japan, who copied it from us only to reprdiate an,l discard it in favor of a credit currency.
 Yet while we are still in the throes of our commercial catastrophy there are those who, ignorant of the causes and thoughtless of the future, would have US take another plunge in the same direction by adding to eur over whelming load of txed, immnvable bond-secured notes and other mass oi bank notes based upon State, munich pal and railroad bonds. Could any one conceive and plan a more gigantic scheme of imitation?
 q now declare that if this govern ment continues It's present policy oi injecting into the arteries of trade land commerce fixed, bond-secured cur rency. by swapping securities. by bono speculations, by treasury naanipula' tions, and by executive orders, we shal continue to move only with an acceler. ated speed and with the directness q a musket groove, and the absolute certainly of passing time, toward { commercial breakdown--a cor,mercia crisis, a commercial tragedy-cOmpar ed with which the present currene. panic is only pleasant summer out ing.
 If there Is such 0 thing as an abso lute sound currency which will at tn same time perfectly reflect the vary ing conditions of trade and commerce and, with never failing accuracy, re spond to every call and meet every re quirement, let us with intelligence courage and patriotism proceed t adopt it. fe6
 "of course, above all else it must b absolutely sound; and every dollar Q 1t must be as good as gold. Scotlan has had such a currency for more thai 200 years France has had such cur rency for more than 100 years, In deed, practically all the civilized na tions of the world, except our owr have such currency to-day, and therefore, we must conclude that it i sound.
 < T assert that in point of safety credit currency with guaranteed fund of five per cent, is equal in point 0 safety to our present national notes and 1t may be claimed that both ar perfectly safe if the proper reserve are held to protect them.
 When universal panic struck GU beloved country in the very midst o abounding prosperity, and we were Ii the throes of commercial distress, nat ural law, pointed the way. It wa through the use of current credit, re lated to and based upon the commer cial commodities of the country, tn things we eat, wear and use.
 what was 1t? It was the clearinI house certificate and cashiers check a pure credit currency. This spranI Into being under the pressure of neces sity. and will automatically dlsappea as that necessity recedes; perfectly ad 1usting itself to every condition iron day to day.
 The clearing house certificates an, cashiers checks were issued wlthou authority of law, and under very grea disadvantages; because it was neoes sary to successfully evade the law An, yet will any man say that this credi currency did not save us from com mercial disaster which would begga the imagination of any human being
 ''7as this lesson taught us nothing God forbid.
 Now mark this--While all thes credits will soon disappear, you wi find that the irnmobile, sodden mass c government bond secured notes wi remain to single dollar; and will pill up and crowd themselves into the re serves of our banking institutions State banks, trust companies privat banks and even into our nations banks, forcing out correspondin amount of gold and so underminin the s12,OO0, ,O00,OO0 of credits in thi country.
 T warn you TOW against the fath omless abyss of imitation we are slow ly but certainly approaching. Sha .... -A... :. .-.. =. .....-......l ,...l l,n.tn