Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-10-06
State Central Bank Idea.

Struck with the eXtreHle SeHSiliNe
ness Of the Columbia Record on the
state central bank idea, as evidenced
by it's excited eXhortation to kill 1t
quick" The Enquirer took occasion
to offer a few observations on the
subject last Friday, and now comes
the Record back again, with full two
columns of loaded plea editorial to
show how utterly impossible and i'm
practicable. is the whole proposition.
The Record denies that the situa-
ton in South Carolina is desperate"
and denies that a heroic remedy is
necessary. 1t takes occasion to say
that this central state bank idea
originated with Governor Colquitt of
Texas, who after four years as gov
ernor wants to go to the United States
senate, and has thrown out this sug-
gestion to keep himself before the
public 1t tells us that bankers,
business men, financiers, capitalists,
professional men and farmers Of Texas
are protesting, and gives us to under
stand that while Texas has perma-
nent school fund of $1S,000,O0O, South
Carolina has nothing, and as banks
cannot be started or maintained on
wind, the whole idea is chimerical.
Now, as we have already said, we
are not prepared to say that the estab-
lishment Of central state bank is
either desirable or necessary; but at
the same time we have not been favor
ably impressed with the attitude OF the
Record to the subject, with its unwar-
ranted haste in trying to secure con-
demnation of the idea without consid-
eration or its claims as to the imprac-
ticability Of the proposition. 1t seems
that the Record protesteth overmuch'
too quickly, and with too little regard
to either reason or justice, and there
has been awakened within our mind
some suspicious as to the probable
springs Of it's concern.
The situation in South Carolina may
not be desperate. Indeed from some
standpoints there is nothing desperate
about it. In a speech at LenoX, Mass,
the other day, w. P. G. Harding, men,
Der of the Federal reserve board, and
student of present economic condi-
tions in the SOUTH" told us that with
in the next few months there will be
an increasing demand for raw cotton
both by the local mills and for export
and although the raw cotton may pass
out of the hands of many of the pro-
ducers, it will remain in other stronger
benefit of the enhancement, etc. Now
we believe all this; but it does not en-
courage us. We want the man who
made the cotton to get the value of 1t,
at least what it cost him and a fair
profit We want him to be able to pay
his debts, to feed and clothe his chill
dren, help support his preacher, hold
on to his farm and maintain his inde-
pendence. OF course his farm will re-
main here, even though he lose it, and
the money that should have been his
will be here even if prices do not go up
until after his crops have passed from
his hands; but surely no one is going
to tell us that the country will be as
we'll off after the profits of a years la
Dor have been squeezed out of the
hands of their proper owners as ii
would be otherwise. The idea is toe
cold blooded.
The Record tells us that a bank can
not be started or maintained on wind.
That is true, but we beg leave to re-
mind it that banks and even newspa-
pers are sometimes started and main
tained on something hardly less sub
stantial than wind For instance the
state of South Carolina spent hundreds
Of thousands of the hard earned dollars
of these same cotton producers we
have been talking about, digging an
immense canal at Columbia, and Great