Lower coast gazette., 1909-12-04

y. y. Scndlc, IldQe tllS SSdooll q IllldliNldl IOuI
through Europe and recently q tour in the west.
His mission was stated to be to learn more
thoroughly the measures taken in Europe to
maintain a proper degree Of steadlness in the
money market and to prevent such panics as we
seem to have every ten or twenty years. 1t IS
said that in a recent address in the West he
estimated the loss in market values brought
about by the panic of October, 1907 at 1900
millions of dollars. We are not much disposed
to discuss this matter from an economic point
of view, as the finances of the good people OF
the Parish of Plaquemines are not at present in
such an progressively good condition as to de-
mand suggestions for proper investments, but
to look at Senator Aldrich's advocacy of a Gen.
trail bank from a political point of view.
The oldest bank in the city of New York is
the Bank of New York. 1t was founded in the
revolutionary days and the fathers Of the COL
ony of New York and Of this republic were so
conservative in their views that for many years
they refused to allow any other bank to enter
the field. AS the business of New York in
creased at the end of the 18th century earnest
efforts were made to secure an additional bank
and they generally failed, but Aaron Burr,
whose skill as a lawyer was at the time unsur-
passed, secured from the New York legislature
a charter for the organization of the Manhattan
Co. for the purpose Of supplying the city of New
York with water and any surplus capital
to be utilized in any other manner not incon-
sistent with the constitution of the state Of New
York or Of the United States. This trap caught
the people of the city of New York and Of the
state and the charter of the Manhattan Co. was
secured. A small waterworks was erected in
Chambers Street, near Broadway and this was
kept in operation nominally at least, up to the
civil war. Every time any Broadway excava-
ton occurred they formerly, and probably now,
turned up some Of the old wooden water pipes
of the Manhattan Co. All this, however, was a
mere blind to the purpose of the company.
which was to inaugurate a bank and this was
done and the Bank of the Manhattan Company
became a very prominent institution and was
one Of the two or three banks that did not sus-
pend in 1887 or in 1857.
We only mention this to show how conserva-
tive the founders of this government were and
how reluctant they were about granting any
rights to chartered companies. The individual
istic, or democratic idea practically prevailed
with all the people. Those interested in indi-
vidualism as the condition belonged to the DEM
ocratic party under it's then title of ''Republi-
can" and those more disposed to favor %centrali-
cation belonging to the Federalist party. In
due time a United States bank was formed and
one of the first things that Andrew Jackson did
was to order the deposits to be taken from the
U. S. banks and to be placed in the u. S. Treas
ury and it has been only since the civil war that
the public monies have been deposited to a very
considerable extent in the banks of the country.
Before the civil war the various states Of the
union had excellent banking systems. OF course
there was a whole lot of wild cat currency in
the country where the banks were organized
upon miscellaneous stocks and bonds, but the
Louisiana banks were regarded as good through
out the length and breadth Of the land, the
Louisiana banking laws being considered excel
lent and the banks were always held in high re-
pute up in the western states. The Kentucky
banks were good as were also the state banks
of Ohio and Indiana. During the civil war all
of these banks were shut out of business by an
arbitrary tax of 10 per cent. upon any %circula-
ton that they might choose to issue, with the
results that they all discontinued issueing notes.
Louisiana is big enough to control her own
finances. The state is big enough to do a great
deal more in the way of it's state institutions
than it does at present. By the report of our
own insurance department we find we are now
sending out of the state four or five millions of
dollars annually to the various insurance COM
panies Of the other states of the: union, thus
losing monies that ought to be declared in divi-
dends to our own people, as it was so largely
done here a generation ago. We believe that
every patriotic citizen of Louisiana should o.
pose the recently launched central bank idea
and should oppose Capitalization by the national
government in every practical way.
The question may be asked of us as to what
we would do about our levee system, without
national intervention. We would say that the