The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1908-06-20
Republican VS.. Democratic Ideals of
Sound Banking.

Tile HeXC annual meeting OF Cne American Bankers
Association, which is to meet in the city of Denver
appears to have reconcied itself to defeat by paying
the western bankers the following compliment:
The influence of the association in spreading
enthusiasm for sound banking ideals in the west
where such ideals need to be cultivated, might be
much increased if once in a while it brought the
meeting of that body so that western delegates
inarge numbers could fraternize with those of the
more experienced east"
No doubt our republican bond based-currency
bankers are highly elated over the prospects of
fraternzing'' with the aristocratic eastern bank
ers, meeting them face to face and receiving such
instruction as will enable them to tap the till of the
national treasury and pick the pockets of the in
dustrial and commercial people, their customers,
more scientifically than they have been heretofore
enabled to do. However they are liable to run up
against few of those old fashioned hard headed
bankers of the Pacific coast who have not discard
ed that old-fashioned democratic ideal that sound
banking means honest banking methods, and that
business morality as we'll as business acumen is
essential to sound banking.
Now the Examiner pleads guilty of not being
in line with the republican banking ideas Of the
efete east and possibly the United States Investor
can enlighten us upon the subject
We would like to be informed as to what dispo-
sition the New York banks made with their specie
reserves held on the Both day of December 1861,
the day they suspended specie payment. What did
the Suffolk bank of Boston, the depositary of 504
banks in the six New England states belonging to
the Suffolk system, do with it's metallic reserves
when it followed the example of New York and
suspended specie payments in 1865, and what did
these 504 New England banks of the Suffolk system
do with their ten millions of specie reserves when
they suspended specie payments and substituted
the governments legal tender note as the solvent
of their exchanges? Did these banks come for
ward with their accumulated coin and endeavor
to support the government in it's dire distress for
money with which to carry on the war for the
preservation of the Union and national integrity,
by using their great influence in an effort to hold
up the governments note issue to as near par
with coin as possible? Or did not all the eastern
bankers at that time connive together to withdraw
all the coin from circulation and lock it up in their
vaults there holding it intact until the United
States note had deprecated to 80 cents on the
dollar in coin, or in other words, until $500 in coin
would buy $1,000 in those notes, so-called green
backs, " in July, 1864, which were fundable into
five-twenty bonds drawing go interest. And did
not those bankers then and there convert their
large specie holdings into those go bonds which
they deposited with the Secretary of the Treas
ury, receiving therefor the treasury's guaranteed
demand note for 800 of bonds deposited, coun-
tersigning those notes and paying them to their
depositors in settlement of their credit balances?
Now, we have very strong crcumstantial
evidence that the New England bankers connived
with the bankers of New York and New Jersey to
break down the credit Of the government at the
breaking out of the civil war by hammering at the
4lo,,L Lol
down to 40 and so cents on the dollar, when they
turned loose their large specie holdings, convert
ing them into go government bonds at that ratio
then issuing their own notes, guaranteed by the
government which they used in liquidating obliga-
tions to their creditors. Our proof that such a
course was pursued by the eastern bankers is
found on pages sol to sos, comptroers report for
1907, which shows that Notwithstanding the orig
inal national banking act passed. approved by
President Lincoln February 25, 1863 only 13 of the
banks in New York, New Jersey and the six New
England states entered the national system in 1863
for the reason that government bonds at that time
could not be had for less than 76 cents on the
dollar in coin. However, when those eastern
banks had succeeded in forcing government issue
of notes down to 40 and so cents on the dollar
as they were in 1864 and 1865 comptrollers report
1907, page 448), 1903 of those institutions in those
eight states took out national charters during 1864
and 1865 after they had succeeded in annihilating
the governments credit by sending its note issues
down to 38 cents on the dollar in coin in july 1874
It is with regret that the Examiner feels called
upon to rake up these old dsgracefu historical
facts, disclosing an utter abandon and lack in pat
riotism of eastern and New England bankers and
capitalists at a time when the government was in
such dire distress for money. 1t humiliates US
now to even think of it, and more especially to