Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-01-10
Miseellaueuus Rsadin9.
CALHOUN ON CURRENCY.
Ideas of Great Statesman Applicable to
Present Day Finance.

Present Day Finance.
In a recent issue of the Manufacture
crs' Record of Baltimore, is presented
an epitomized exposition of the views
Of John c. Calhoun on the currency
question. prepared by Mr. Gustavus
Nj. Pinckney of Charleston, at the re-
quest of the editor of that paper, who
makes the following editorial refer
ence to the article:
The Older the country grows the
more convinced is the careful student
that John G. Calhoun was in many res
reefs prophet. There has been hard
Iyapublic tendency of moment in this
country in the past twenty-five or thir-
ty years which was not broadly fore
cast by the great South CarOlinian six
~ or seventy years ago. Students OF
the currency question, brought to the
front strenuously in the November II
nancial disturbances, will therefore find
profit in a consideration Of Calhoun's
principles of finance for the country.
They are ably and lucidly epitomized
in one of the chapters of the compre-
hensive Life of John c. Calhoun" by
Mr. Gustavus NJ. Pinckney Of the Char
lesion Is. c. bar. At the time of It's
publication four years ago, it so i'm
pressed the Manufacturers Record
that, when a short while ago, a Boston
lawyer and business man suggested
that an exposition Of CalhoUn's finan-
cial views would be timely, we re-
uuested Mr.. Pinckney to undertake
the task in a really too brief space.
How acceptably he has met the request
is shown in an article by him publish
ed on another page Of this weeks is
sue. The article should be read care
fully by every member of congress and
by every other citizen of the United
States who may contribute to the body
of public opinion, as 1t throws some
light upon one interesting side OF a
suggestion for simplifying our cur
rency system"
Mr.. Pinckney's article reads as fol-
lows: Pretty much everyone, 1 sup
pose. has found by personal experience
how unsatisfactory it is to have an
other speak for one and to be restrain
ed from explaining ones own views at
first hand and in person. In under
taking to give some account Of CAL
houn's view Of finance 1 am strongly
mindful of this fact and reflect how
much more complete and satisfactory
it would be to present a collection OF
Calhoun's speeches on this subject and
leave the reader to secure the informa-
ton for himself at first hand. There
is so much that Calhoun has left on
record in this connection, 1t is so lu-
minous, so profound, so satisfactory, so
comprehensive, that one longs for
complete presentation of the whole OF
it. He develops a theory and view OF
finance so different from many theories
and views commonly current as to give
& strong impression Of novelty and
discovery. He represents questions OF
currency, the financial system and in
stitution banks and banking as deeply
connected with the vital processes or
the body polite, as exercising a po-
tent influence and profoundly modifying
the habits. the ideas, the morals, the
civilization Of society. He considers in
retrospect the growth of financial in
stitutions in Europe and America
through more than two centuries, and
forecasts the future, so that at this
hour his views hold a sort of freshness
which seem to render them as applica-
BILE and available at this hour as when
they were uttered. One wonders con-
stantly how society has neglected so
long to avail itself of the benefit of
his explanations and his counsels Of
fered in this behalf.
While one despairs of doing justice
in short compass to Calhoun's view of
finance, yet, on the other hand there
is a certain simplicity Of outline and
prominence of the salient features
which to some extent render descrip-
ton and reproduction in miniature
comparatively easy. He points out the
palpable fallacy. which, however, is so
fundamental in its nature that it stands
as a sort of rotten cornerstone upon
which the unstable edifce Of modern
finance has been reared-the fallacy by
which deposit is confused with some
thing different from a deposit He
shows how this fallacy leads to the
treatment of bank notes as money,
leads government to receive bank notes,
in payment of dues to itself; how this
leads to a union or partnership of gov
ernment and banks. by which the gov
ernment blends its credit with the
credit Of the banks; how this rears
up a tremendous engine in society
whose vast influence is constantly
thrown on the side of more power,
more taxes. increase Of tariffs, reve-
nues. spoils: how it accumulates pow
er and privilege in the hands of a few
pets and beneficiaries, divides the peo-
pie into classes and rears up the most
odious aristocracies, q moneyocracy,
as he called it once. with apologies for
the mongrel word. The fallacy in ref
erence to the meaning of deposit and
thesfatal influence Of the union Of gov
ernment and banks-there. in word,
one might say is the substance of CAL
houn's financial philosophy.
More than half the errors of lte'
he said on one occasion, may be traced
to fallacies originating in an improper
use of words, and among them not the
least mischievous is the application OF
this word to bank transactions in a
sense wholly different from its original
meaning (the word deposiD. Original
Iy it meant thing placed in trust or
pledged to be safely and sacredly kept
till returned to the depositor, without
being used by the depOsitary while in
his possession. All this is changed
when applied to a deposit in a bank
Works III, p 2170
The union Of the government and
banks was never legally SOlemnized. 1t
originated shortly after the govern
;,,fn in