If the Government should pass a law refusing to redeem our silver dollars with gold dollars, our silver dollar would then pass for just what the silver it contains would be worth from day to day. It is now worth 47 cents. In 1902 it was worth 40 cents. In other words, our silver dollar is not its own redeemer at 100 cents any more than the United States Notes or the National Bank Notes are their own redeemers. A silver dollar is a demand or a check calling for a gold dollar. The silver dollar, the United States Note, the National Bank Note all pass at their face value because they are convertible into gold, and are temporarily redeemed by Uncle Sam in gold, while gold is its own redeemer, and a ten dollar gold piece, or any other gold coin, is worth just as much, if hammered into a spike, or melted into a slug, as when it bears the stamp of Uncle Sam, certifying its quality and its quantity.
Mr. Lawyer: Mr. Banker, what are subsidiary coins?
Mr. Banker: All these token coins are properly called subsidiary coins. Let me read to you what Horace White says on that point:
"The word 'subsidiary' is usually applied to coins which constitute the small change of a country, and which are legal tender only for limited amounts. In the United States the silver dollar must be classed as subsidiary also; for, although it is full legal tender, the Government does not coin it for private individuals as it coins gold. It is subsidiary or subordinate to gold coin."
Mr. Laboringman: Uncle Sam, why do you make these token or subsidiary coins?
Uncle Sam: I make token or subsidiary coins out of silver, nickel, and copper just as a matter of convenience to the people, and as a result of custom also.
Mr. Lawyer: I think what Horace White says upon that point is particularly good, and answers your question, Mr. Laboringman, completely. White says:
"If subsidiary silver coins circulate at a value which is largely imaginary, the question may be asked, why not make them of some other metal, or even of paper?There are no reasons except custom and convenience. A coin, not heavier than a half dollar, is more convenient than a piece of paper; it is cleaner, and in the long run is probably cheaper, as it does not require frequent renewal. A cheaper coin might be made out of some other metal, but it is generally best to conform to the habits of the people. Having been always accustomed to a silver subsidiary coinage no good reason is apparent why we should depart from it."
Mr. Merchant: Of course, you must use something besides gold to make the 50, 25, 10 and 1 cent pieces out of, because even a gold dollar would be found to be impracticable on account of its size. It would take a microscope to find a piece of gold worth only 5 cents.
Mr. Laboringman: And it would take a telescope to find a piece of gold worth only 1 cent.
Mr. Banker: Mr. White has this to say also about the silver dollar: "The silver dollar is a larger kind of subsidiary coin, and should be treated by the Government exactly as the smaller ones are treated. The Government has received the value of a gold dollar for every silver one emitted, and is therefore bound in equity to redeem the dollars as it redeems the halves, quarters and dimes.... There are additional reasons, however, for direct redemption of the silver dollar. One is that such coins are unlimited legal tender between individuals. Another is that there is a certain amount of public apprehension and lack of confidence touching any coin which passes for more than its metallic value."
"McLeod says that in 1691 in a posthumous work Sir William Petty pointed out that one metal only should be adopted as the standard unit, and other metals should be issued as subsidiary to the standard unit. The same doctrine was advocated with great force and at great length by Locke in 1693, and also by Harris in the middle of the last century, and was finally embodied in the great masterpiece of the subject 'Lord Liverpool's Coins of the Realm,' published in 1805."
Now, gentlemen, it must be apparent to everyone that a silver dollar is only another form of a debt of Uncle Sam over there, and that unless he continues to stand ready to exchange gold dollars for silver dollars, and so keep the silver dollars in circulation at 100 cents, they would circulate at their metal or bullion value, or at about 47 cents.
Mr. Farmer, do you think that stamping One Dollar upon that silver coin, added one-hundredth part of a cent to it, or affected its value in the slightest degree? Are you not convinced that it is not money at all, but a mere debt of Uncle Sam and that it is a mere demand for One Dollar in gold, and nothing more?
Mr. Farmer: I am bound to admit that you have surprised me, indeed paralyzed me, for I thought the Silver Dollar was money, but it is certainly exactly the same sort of thing that the Greenback and the National Bank Note is, and if they are not money, neither is the Silver Dollar money.
Mr. Merchant: I am sure we all agree on that point now, but what about this silver certificate? Do you pretend, Mr. Banker, that all our Silver Certificates are not money either?
Mr. Banker: That is just what I assert, but I claim still more than that with regard to the Silver Certificate; for, if you will read it, you will find that it is only a warehouse receipt for silver dollars, which have been deposited in the United States Treasury; and therefore is not a promise to pay anything, but simply to deliver so many silver dollars, which, as I have just demonstrated, must be redeemed in gold to keep them going for 100 cents on the dollar.
Mr. Lawyer: I am going to ask one question in this connection, and that is this. The United States Notes are a legal tender for everything except to pay taxes on goods coming into the country and interest on the debt and silver dollars are a legal tender, unless the contract is made payable in something else. Does not the fact that theUnited States Note and the Silver Dollar are legal tender, make them money?
Mr. Laboringman: What's legal tender?
Mr. Lawyer: Anything which can be lawfully used in payment of a debt, or which creditors are compelled to accept, is called legal tender currency.
Mr. Banker: The fact that the United States Note and Silver Dollar are legal tender does not change the real character of either of them. Don't you know that the very fact that you are compelled, or think you are compelled, to make anything legal tender, to make it go for something it is not, lowers its value and depreciates that very thing?
The price of the United States Notes or Greenbacks from the day they were issued, until January 1, 1879, the date Uncle Sam redeemed his promise to pay gold for them, was simply a quotation of the government credit. This credit ranged from $1.00 to 35 cents. White says: "The difference between these extreme quotations may be taken to represent changes in the public credit, or various vicissitudes and states of mind, dependent upon the war."
Again he says: "In 1864 Congress attempted to check the depreciation of the currency by closing the gold exchange, and prohibiting sales of gold or foreign exchange for future delivery. The premium on gold advanced more rapidly after the passage of this Act than before, and Congress repealed it two weeks later."
Mr. Laboringman: Now, men, let me see if I understand what this is all about. If I have caught on to just what you have been saying about gold, which is all the money we have, and all these promises to pay money, these United States Notes, Bank Notes and Silver Dollars, the difference between gold coins and these promises is the same as the difference between a meal and a meal ticket. And when you come to the Silver Certificate that is only an order for a meal ticket.
Uncle Sam: By Jove, he's hit the thing plump andsquare on the head, hasn't he, boys? But what I want to know now is how many of these meal tickets I've got out in one form or another? And, Mr. Banker, I want to know another thing. I want to know how many cans of pork and beans I have on hand to meet the meal tickets with?
Mr. Banker: Well, Uncle Sam, as I look at it you have 1,659,000,000 meal tickets out, and only 150,000,000 cans of pork and beans to meet the demand for meals.
Uncle Sam: Great Scott, what unbounded confidence the people must have in me not to shove those meal tickets in, before I get ready to supply the meals. What is worrying me is this, if anything should happen to cause any suspicion on that score, the jig would be up with me, and I can see the end of my credit; but of course that wouldn't be my finish. Now, what I want done is this: I want to shift these meal tickets over to the banks where they belong, or make full provision for them myself, so that I can stop worrying, and shall be ready for business, if called upon to meet a first-class nation in a protracted war.
By the way, Mr. Banker, just how did you make those meal tickets amount to 1,659,000,000 and that I had on hand only 150,000,000 cans of pork and beans to meet the meal tickets with? You must remember it takes one can of pork and beans to redeem one meal ticket.
Mr. Banker: Uncle Sam, you will remember that you have $346,000,000 of United States Notes to pay. You have also $563,000,000 Silver Dollars to redeem, and there are $750,000,000 National Bank Notes, making a total of $1,659,000,000, all resting on your $150,000,000 of gold in the reserve of your Treasury.
Uncle Sam: Yes, but I don't have to pay those National Bank Notes, do I?
Mr. Banker: Well, Uncle Sam, it's this way, you know, you have to pay them out of a 5% fund created by the bankers, but the bankers can turn right around and askyou to redeem the United States Notes which you pay them for the National Bank Notes, in gold.
Uncle Sam: Mr. Banker, tell me another thing. If these silver certificates are nothing but warehouse receipts calling for silver dollars, and the silver dollars are nothing but token coins, then all these silver certificates are nothing but token or subsidiary coins in another form.
Mr. Banker: That is literally true.
Uncle Sam: And you say I have $563,000,000 of silver dollars out good for nothing but token or subsidiary coin?
Mr. Banker: Precisely so.
Uncle Sam: Now, what I want to know is this. How much of this silver is needed today to supply the people with the token or subsidiary coin, up to and including the $2.00 bills; that is, the $2.00 bill, the $1.00 bill, 50, 25, 10 and 5 cent pieces?
Mr. Banker: There are in circulation today about $400,000,000 of these various forms of subsidiary or token coins, or about $4.00 for every man, woman and child in this country.
Uncle Sam: What is the total amount of silver in the country then, of all kinds, silver dollars and pieces of silver less than one dollar? Tell me that.
Mr. Banker: There are, as I just said a moment ago, $563,000,000 of silver dollars and $147,000,000 of silver pieces less than one dollar, or a total of $710,000,000.
Uncle Sam: Well, well, you frighten me, for at the rate of four dollars each, the amount necessary for the convenience of the people, I am stacked up ahead for at least fifty years, or until we have about 200,000,000 of people; for you say we have all told $710,000,000 of silver coins in the country now. I want to tell you gentlemen, right now, that I want to get out of this hole, and I want to keep your mind steadily on that point as we go along.
The whole situation is a most embarrassing one. Tell me how much gold coin we have scattered about everywhere over the country?
Mr. Banker: There is about $1,850,000,000 of gold available in the country.
Uncle Sam: Then I am confident there is great plenty for the present, if we can devise some plan, or scheme, to avail ourselves of it.
Mr. Lawyer: I am convinced of that also, but the trouble is going to be to bring it together, centralize it and so mobilize it that we can make the most of it. We have learned one great and most important lesson tonight, and that is that the only money we have is gold, and that we cannot substitute an agreement to pay gold, a debt, a mere demand for gold itself, for it. Such a proposal when you think of it is an absurdity, a contradiction of terms.
To state the result of our conversation, or our conclusion, as I understand it, it is this: Money must be coined out of a commodity that is just as valuable in the form of a commodity as it is in the form of coin. A piece of gold weighing just the same as a $20 gold coin, if as pure, is worth just as much as a $20 gold piece.
Last Wednesday evening we all agreed that, as the result of our conversation, gold was the standard of value of the entire world, and was our standard of value as well.
Tonight, as I understand the result of our talk, we all agree that the only money we have in this country is gold coin; that our money is gold coin, and that our gold coin is our money.
Next Wednesday night let us investigate our currency and ask ourselves "What is currency?"
Before we separate, I want to read to you what Webster says currency is, because I want you to be thinking over the matter in the mean time. Webster says:
"Currency is the state or quality of being current; a continual course or passing from person to person or hand to hand; general acceptance; circulation."
Mr. Laboringman: You mean something that everyone takes and is glad to get.
Mr. Lawyer: Precisely so; it is that which is in circulation, or is given and taken as having value, or is representing value, as the currency of the country.
If we all keep this definition in mind, we shall have very little trouble next Wednesday evening in agreeing upon what currency is, and what it ought to be.
Uncle Sam: I want you men to remember one thing, and that is this, that we want no currency in this country that isn't as good as gold, and currently redeemed in gold coin to prove it. Nothing will satisfy Uncle Sam but the best, and don't you forget it. On top of that I want to plant another proposition, and that is this: It's not my business to be exchanging gold for that currency either. Compel the banks to do that, for that is their business.
But first, we will settle what our currency is, and what it ought to be.
Good Night.
THIRD NIGHT
WHAT IS CURRENCY?
Uncle Sam: Well, boys, when we parted last Wednesday night, it was agreed that we should take up for consideration and discussion tonight the question, "What is Currency?" And just before we left Mr. Lawyer read Webster's definition of Currency.
Mr. Merchant: I am very glad that he did so because it gave me a start, and set me to thinking, and as a result I became very much interested in the subject.
Mr. Banker: I have made the question of currency a study now for several years, and regard it of prime importance in any financial and banking system; but especially so considering the peculiar conditions existing in this country with our vast extent of territory, and the many distinct commercial centers there are here, each specializing in some one kind of production or industry. But more particularly is a right form of currency essential in this country because of the great number of our individual, independent banks now exceeding 25,000.
Mr. Manufacturer: Well, Mr. Banker, it strikes me that you are getting a trifle on to a side line. Let us get right down to business, and see if we can make any progress in determining just what Currency is, what kind we have and what kind we ought to have, if any change is to be made.
To my mind, and I have put all the spare time I had upon the question, that definition when fully understood described currency perfectly, and will help us amazingly in arriving at a clear idea of just what currency is as well as what it is not. Let me restate a part of it, which I think covers all of it. "Currency is that which is in circulation, or is given and taken as having value, or as representing value." That is, currency may have valuein itself, as illustrated by our gold coin, or may only represent value, as illustrated by our gold certificate.
Again, the definition described another quality, when it said that "currency passes from person to person, or from hand to hand; general acceptance; circulation." To be a piece of currency then, a thing may or may not have actual value, as a gold coin, or as a gold certificate, which can be exchanged for the coin. But the thing must have general acceptance, that is, it must be received by the people generally, as a matter of course, and without hesitation, and without taking anything from it, or adding anything to it, such as a stamp, or a signature.
That is, a piece of currency having passed through a thousand hands, remains identically the same thing, except the ordinary wear to which it has been subjected.
Mr. Merchant: Mr. Banker, taking that explanation as correct, what would you say that our currency consists of?
Mr. Banker: Our currency consists of the following things:
First: Gold coin, which is generally accepted, and has actual full value.
Second: Gold certificates, which are generally accepted, but have no actual value.
Third: All token, or subsidiary coin, including the silver dollar.
Fourth: Silver certificates.
Fifth: United States Notes.
Sixth: Bond-secured National Bank Notes.
Mr. Merchant: I read an article recently in which checks and drafts were spoken of as currency. Can it be possible that they can properly be called "currency"?
Mr. Banker: Certainly not. They come under an entirely different head, and I hope we shall spend an evening considering them very soon. Checks and drafts never pass from person to person and from hand to hand and are not of general acceptance. Herein lies the mark of distinction. Checks and drafts do not pass from personto person and from hand to hand and are always of special acceptance, that is, they are considered before they pass. They are taken according to the strength of the makers, acceptors and endorsers and usually pass only by endorsement. We must make no such mistake because it will lead to a confusion of ideas.
Mr. Merchant: Mr. Banker, you have just told us of what our currency consisted. Gold coin, gold certificates, token coins, silver certificates, United States Notes and our bond-secured Bank Notes. Taken altogether I presume you would call that our currency system. Do you call it a good system?
Mr. Banker: It is our currency system, but it is without doubt the worst currency system in the world, if you include only respectable commercial nations.
Mr. Merchant: Well, Mr. Banker, what is wrong with it?
Mr. Banker: To tell you what is wrong with our currency system, I would first have to tell you what a right kind of currency system is. And I will proceed to do so in a word. A right kind of currency system consists of three forms of currency only.
First: Gold coin, or the gold certificate.
Second: Token, or subsidiary coin.
Third: A credit bank note or bank credit currency.
All these forms of currency are absolutely essential to a right currency system, as I shall proceed to demonstrate.
First: Gold coin, or its substitute, the gold certificate, is the very foundation of a right currency system, because there must always be present, or immediately available, a sufficient amount of gold to prove, protect and redeem, if necessary, all other forms of currency.
Second: Subsidiary coins are absolutely essential as a matter of convenience to carry on the small trade of the country.
Third: A credit bank note which will always spring into being, precisely as a check does, to perform somespecial transaction, is the most efficient and most economic form of currency in the world, because it always just equals the demand for currency, and costs no more than a deposit account, subject to check.
Mr. Manufacturer: Just what do you mean when you say that a credit bank note currency will cost no more than a deposit account subject to check?
Mr. Banker: I mean just this, that if you had a deposit at a bank of $1,000, and the bank upon receiving your check for $1,000 could convert that book account, or book debt, into a note account, or note debt, by giving you its bank notes for $1,000, in exchange for your check, the bank note currency would cost only the interest on the reserve carried against the notes, which would be identical in amount with the reserve carried against the deposit.
To illustrate, if the bank were in the country it would carry 15 per cent reserve, if a National Bank, or $150 in cash against that deposit of $1,000. The interest on that $150 for one year at 6 per cent would be $9. Now, if that deposit were convertible into notes, and you kept the same reserve of 15 per cent against them, the thousand dollars in notes would cost only $9 per year, and could and would in turn be reconverted into a deposit, subject to check.
Not only does this form of currency cost only about one-sixth as much as our present currency in the form of United States Notes and bond-secured Bank Notes, but it is the only form of currency that will always be precisely equal to all the demands of trade. It will never be too great in amount. It will never be too small in amount. It will always just exactly equal the ever varying requirements of business and will always be as good as gold, because currently redeemed in gold.
The principle of converting bank book credits into bank note credits, in accordance with the requirements of the customers of a bank, is the bank credit currency principleand there is not a single instance in the history of banking where it has ever been tried and failed.
Let this be laid down as one of the eternal laws of banking.Current coin redemption is the very soul and breath of life to bank credit.
Mr. Merchant: That is certainly most interesting and I must say a most impressive fact, if we can secure a currency, equal at all times to the requirements of trade, and always as good as gold coin, and at an expense of one-sixth of what our present currency costs us in the form of United States Notes and bond-secured Bank Notes. There are today outstanding $346,000,000 United States Notes and $750,000,000 of bond-secured Bank Notes, or about $1,100,000,000 in all. Now, since any bank must pay par, or 100 cents on the dollar, to get possession of either of these forms of currency, the cost of carrying either of them will be 6 per cent on the total of $1,100,000,000, or $66,000,000 per annum. Of course if the banks are compelled to use such an expensive form of currency, they will have to charge their customers accordingly, and in the end it comes out of me, Mr. Manufacturer and so on down the line, until, finally, the cost or burden reaches Mr. Farmer over there, or Mr. Laboringman over here.
Now, you assert that a credit currency would only cost the country one-sixth as much, or only eleven million per year, whereas the same amount of currency in United States Notes and bond-secured Bank Notes now cost us $66,000,000 a year, or $55,000,000 more than it should. Of course every cent of that must in the end come out of labor.
Mr. Banker: I said one-sixth for the country bank. The average reserve held by all the National Banks is 20 per cent, not 15 per cent. So that the unnecessary cost to the people of our present United States Notes and bond-secured Bank Notes is five times as much as it should be, or we are losing every year $53,000,000, every dollar of which must come out of labor.
Mr. Merchant: Now, let me see whether I understandthis matter correctly; to illustrate, let us suppose that your bank needed today $1,000 more currency than it has on hand to accommodate a customer. You would have to go out and buy it, and pay $1,000 for it, or obligate your bank to do so. With interest at 6 per cent it would average $60 per year to carry it, but if you could exchange your bank's notes, amounting to $1,000, for your customer's note of $1,000, and carry a reserve against your bank notes outstanding of say 20 per cent or $200, and interest is at 6 per cent, it would cost you only 6 per cent on $200, instead of 6 per cent on $1,000; or you would make a saving of $48 on the $1,000 of currency. Am I correct in my understanding of the difference of cost upon these two forms of currency?
Mr. Banker: Yes, you are absolutely right. No one could state the principle better than you have.
Mr. Merchant: Well, then, it is clear, that if there is a saving of $48 a thousand on $1,100,000,000, we are wasting annually on that one item alone $52,800,000.
Mr. Manufacturer: But, gentlemen, let me call your attention to another fact. This country is losing several times as much as that every year on the average, because of our present rigid form of currency. Just as soon as there is any fear anywhere in this great country about a bank of any consequence, or about the business generally in the country, every banker from Dan to Beersheba begins to grab currency in whatever form he can get it, because he knows the amount is fixed and limited. It is not nearly so much a run on the banks by the depositors, as it is a run by the bankers on each other, just to accumulate cash. Everything comes to a dead stop, just as it did in 1907, and it always will under present conditions. Now, it seems to be perfectly plain that if the banks could convert their book credits into note credits, they could immediately meet the demand for cash, and so avert these commercial catastrophes, which set us back years. You know we are just now beginning to realize that we are getting over the panic of 1907.
Gentlemen, instead of the panic of 1907 costing us $53,000,000 a year, it costs the people of the United States more than ten times as much as that every year. God only knows what these commercial tragedies mean in the life of a nation like ours, and it is up to us to prevent them, if possible, and it must be possible. It looks to me as though Mr. Banker was on the right track.
Uncle Sam: Well, you fellows have got to show me a thing or two, before we make the proposed changes, because I am from Missouri, as well as from forty-seven other unsuspecting states, and don't you forget it. In the first place, I want you to show me why my I.O.U.'s or the United States Note, so-called Greenbacks, are not a good currency. In the second place, I want you to show me why the present National Bank Notes, which are secured by my bonds, dollar for dollar, are not the best currency in the world. I have been told this for the last fifty years, and if it is not true, it is about time I waked up.
Mr. Banker: Well, Uncle Sam, they've been fooling you, for both the United States Notes and these bond-secured Bank Notes are the worst form of currency in the world, and I can prove it.
Uncle Sam: Well, you will have to prove it, that's all.
Mr. Banker: In the outset, I will tackle the United States Note, and incidentally, I will state all the other objections to them, as well as the objections to them as currency.
First: They are demand obligations against you amounting to $346,000,000, and you must stand ready at all times to redeem them in gold. This fact always has and always will imperil your credit. It was the same greenbacks that sent your credit down to 35 cents on the dollar during the war, and again they came within an ace of wrecking your credit in 1894 when the gold in the treasury went down, down and down, until there was only $41,000,000 left, between you and national dishonor. Don't you remember that you then sold $262,000,000 of your bonds to protect your credit which was being sappedby these very same United States Notes? Pretty expensive business that, when you could have had a currency that the banks of the country, and not you, would have been compelled to redeem in gold whenever necessary.
You will no doubt remember that in 1879 when you began to keep your promise, and redeem these greenbacks in coin, and make your old due bills as good as gold, you issued $100,000,000 of bonds for a corresponding amount of gold to establish your reserve or guarantee fund, in order that you might keep your promise good in the future. If you add this $100,000,000 to the other $262,000,000 you have issued since to protect your credit against these United States Notes, you will find that you have issued altogether $362,000,000 of your bonds, or $16,000,000 more than the total amount of the greenbacks, $346,000,000, and that you have also obligated yourself to pay interest on these bonds from first to last amounting to $362,000,000 more. Now, the astounding fact is that these old due bills, these I.O.U.'s, these United States Notes, or so-called greenbacks, are still out and you still owe them, just as you did in 1879, when you began keeping your promise to redeem them in gold.
One of your expert clerks in the Treasury Department at Washington, the Chief of the Loan and Currency Division, published a calculation in the Congressional Record of April 29, 1908, Page 5638, that showed that, if the greenbacks had been funded on the 1st day of January, 1879, into 4 per cent 30 year bonds, and canceled and destroyed, the total cost to the Government for principal and interest to July 1, 1907, would have been $741,897,340, whereas the total cost and liability actually incurred on account of them has been $1,081,881,562; the difference in favor of converting into bonds being $339,984,222.
Now, don't you think, Uncle Sam, that as a matter of business you'd better get rid of these demand debts, these United States Notes?
Second: Don't let this most important fact escape yourattention either; that if you should be called upon to use your credit extensively, as would be necessary in case of a great war, these demand notes would be a very black cloud upon your credit, and your loans would cost you vastly more, on account of the interest you would have to pay, because they were still outstanding. I hope that you are not hugging that sweet delusion that war is impossible.
Third: These United States Notes, as you are aware, are made legal reserves for the national banks, who hold them against their deposits. Now, if your credit goes to pieces, the credit of the banks will go with it of course; because precisely to the extent that the banks hold these debts of yours as reserves, they are driving gold out of the country, and therefore instead of being better able to help you, they will attack your credit by demanding gold from you for these old demand debts.
You are also, of course, familiar with Gresham's law, so-called, under the operation of which, the poorer money always drives out the better. I assert without any fear whatever of successful contradiction, that if you had paid off these United States Notes in 1879, you would not only have saved $340,000,000 by so doing, but that today there would be in the United States in our banks, and in circulation among the people, $346,000,000 more gold than we now have. In other words, instead of our gold amounting to $1,850,000,000, it would now amount to $2,196,000,000.
Uncle Sam: Well, you have certainly demonstrated that I have made some very expensive mistakes. Let's see just what the net result of this blundering has been. I have lost $340,000,000 on account of the greenbacks and I have lost the great advantage of having $346,000,000 more gold to further strengthen the commercial credit of the country; and yet, I still owe every cent of these due bills and what seems to me equally certain is this: that if I should get into a great war, these very greenbacks will make me more trouble by injuring my creditin the future to a much greater extent than they ever have done at any time in the past. There is no doubt whatever about that. By the eternal, something must be done to get me out of this apparently bottomless pit.
But you have not told us yet why these I.O.U.'s of mine, or United States Notes, are not fit for currency, as you declare. You know that you sort of hurt my feelings, and for half a minute I was fighting mad, but as I said I am from forty-seven states, besides Missouri, and therefore I am ready to be shown.
Mr. Banker: I am coming to their use as currency right now. There are three distinct reasons why the United States Notes are a bad form of currency.
First: Any Government issue of bills, or of I.O.U.'s such as these are, must be very limited, if they are kept as good as gold.
Second: The United States Notes do not spring into existence in connection with business transactions, as the right kind of a currency always does.
Third: It costs those who use it, as currency, five times as much as currency should.
It is precisely as Mr. Manufacturer over there asserted a moment ago. Any system of currency that is of necessity limited in amount, and fixed as these United States Notes must be from the very nature of the case, breeds panics, because everybody realizing that the amount is limited, begins to scramble for cash upon the first intimation that there is any business trouble brewing. For this reason, they are utterly unfit as a system of currency.
Again, a right currency system is the natural product of business, and the amount of the currency will always rise and fall with the demands of trade. This can never be the case with the United States Notes, and they are on that account utterly unfit for currency.
And finally, certainly, if they cost the users of currency five times as much as the right kind of currency would, then we should replace them at once with the right kindof currency. Now, let me illustrate and demonstrate this.
If, over at my bank, we are compelled to furnish an average of $10,000 in currency a week, our average expense for the year will undoubtedly be $10,000 invested for that purpose. And if money is worth 6 per cent interest, it will cost us $600 to supply that amount of currency. If we can buy United States Notes as cheap as any other kind of currency, and we should carry them in stock, they will cost us $600 per annum. Now, our bank, being a country bank, we carry 15 per cent of all our deposits to meet current demands. Is it not a perfectly simple and self-evident fact that if instead of being compelled to buy this $10,000 of United States Notes every week, and so keep $10,000 invested all the year around at a cost to us of $600, the interest on $10,000, we could convert $10,000 of our deposit debts into $10,000 note debts of the bank it would only cost us 6 per cent on $1,500, the amount we are carrying as reserve against our deposits of $10,000, or only $90. In other words, we would save $510 on the transaction. Of course, if we have to pay out $510 more in the one way than in the other, we will have to get it back from Mr. Merchant here, Mr. Manufacturer, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Farmer and Mr. Laboringman; and if we should collect it from Mr. Merchant and Mr. Lawyer, they will in turn take it out of Mr. Farmer and Mr. Laboringman.
Mr. Farmer: You bet they will. We always get the gaff in the end.
Mr. Laboringman: Where do I come in? I don't come in anywhere except to carry the load, as usual. I come out at the little end of the horn, as always heretofore.
Uncle Sam: Well, fellows, you see, don't you, that everything gets back, sooner or later, to the producer? He carries the load.
Mr. Merchant: But we carry the worry.
Mr. Banker: I wish you did. You would have an easy time then, but—
Mr. Laboringman: You needn't say "but" to me. You have it on all of us. There is no doubt about that. However, Mr. Banker, I'm not going back on you, for you have helped me out of several tight pinches.
Uncle Sam: Well, it does really look to me as if I had been living in a fool's paradise. Those dear old greenbacks they have been about as much of a fraud as the dollar of our daddies. I do declare this whole thing makes me half sick. But if you are actually finding out what really ails me, I'll get over that pretty soon, and, boys, if we stick to this job, and play fair and honest, we'll have the best banking system in the world yet, and don't you forget it.
But you forgot to tell me about the safest and best banking system in the world because every bank note was secured by one of my Government bonds. That's what they've been telling me, you know. Now, what about that?
Mr. Banker: Well, I could not interfere with your confession that you had been living in a fool's paradise, and dreaming dreams about making something out of nothing, while your credit was in peril, and you were losing hundreds of millions and furnishing the country a currency that was costing the people five or six times as much as the right kind of currency would.
Now, a word about your bond-secured bank note illusion, and I will be through. Uncle Sam, you remember that during the war, you were looking around in every direction to find some new method for obtaining means to carry on the war. You had busted your credit wide open with your United States Note issue, and the question was how to find some new resource. Your Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, concocted this scheme of giving the banks the right of issuing notes if they purchased Government bonds, and deposited them to secure the payment of the notes. It is very strange, but he did not get much from this source, as there were only $98,896,488 of notes out when the war closed. However, the scheme was started, and has been going ever since, precisely as it wasinaugurated, a bond investment scheme. The amount of notes in circulation has never borne any direct relation to the demands of trade, as you can see by the following facts: In 1880 the notes outstanding amounted to $352,000,000, and in 1891, eleven years afterwards, they amounted to only $162,000,000, or about $100,000,000 less, although the country was growing and business expanding all the while. We ought always to expand our currency during the fall months about $300,000,000, and we ought to contract it during the succeeding months, or during the springtime just as much. But a careful investigation shows that these bond-secured notes have decreased as often in the fall months as they have increased, and have increased in the spring months as often as they have decreased. This proves conclusively that the amount of notes outstanding has never borne any relation whatever to the requirements of trade. The scheme is today precisely what it was when first concocted, purely a bond investment affair.
Uncle Sam: Well, well, now that is mighty strange, but my greatest Chief Justice, John Marshall, pointed out the necessity of having a currency directly related to the business of the country, when upholding the constitutionality of the Act incorporating the second United States Bank. He said: "The currency which it circulates by means of its trade with individuals is believed to make it a more fit instrument of government than it could otherwise be." One of my presidents, James A. Garfield, used this language: "No currency can meet the wants of this country that is not founded on business." Boys, both of these great men must have referred to credit currency, and declared that it was essential to our business.
Mr. Banker: Furthermore, Uncle Sam, these bond-secured Bank Notes are indirectly just that much more of a burden resting upon the United States Treasury, upon you, if you want to know the truth, as I explained to you last Wednesday night.
The fact is, these bond-secured Bank Notes are onlyanother form of Government credit put into circulation through the disguise of Government bonds.
Every single criticism and objection that I have made tonight to the United States Notes are applicable equally to these bond-secured Bank Notes.
First: For all banking purposes, economically speaking, they are practically rigid and inflexible, at least so far as current needs go.
Second: These bond-secured notes do not spring into existence, or into being, as checks and drafts do in connection with some business transaction, but are tied up with a bond speculation.
Third: They cost those who use them as currency from five to six times as much as the right kind of currency would.
Fourth: If we adopt the right kind of a currency system, it will set free $750,000,000 of capital which is now tied up in these Government bonds, and this vast sum which would be realized from the sale of the bonds will assist to an amazing degree in supplying much needed capital to the commerce of the country.
Mr. Merchant: How is that?
Mr. Banker: The banks could then sell all the bonds now deposited to secure these bond-secured Bank Notes. They amount to $750,000,000.
That these bond-secured Bank Notes are a monument of our stupendous folly, and have been a curse to the business interests of the country, I am sure no one here will attempt to deny.
Mr. Lawyer: The Japanese, thinking that we were a smart people, copied this bond-secured bank scheme from us, but immediately discovered that it was worse than worthless and repudiated it. No one else has been foolish enough to adopt it.
Mr. Banker: I challenge anyone here to urge a single reason in favor of either the United States Notes, or the bond-secured Bank Notes, which are only another form of United States Notes. No one can meet the objectionsraised to them. In fact, there are two objections to the bond-secured notes, in addition to those urged against the United States Notes. First, as stated, they have tied up $750,000,000 in the bonds. Second, they have proved such a successful delusion as to prevent any sane legislation until sad experience has driven us to take the matter up seriously and compelled us to act.
Uncle Sam: Well, boys, so far as I am concerned, I am thoroughly convinced that you don't want any of my I.O.U.'s for currency. Nor do we want any bond-secured Bank Notes, which are really only another form of my I.O.U.'s. But I am still from Missouri, as I have not yet been convinced what we ought to do by way of a substitute. Mr. Banker has told us something about credit currency, and he declares that it is the only real thing in the way of currency.
Now, I suggest that we take that matter up next Wednesday night, and decide definitely whether we want to adopt that principle, and substitute that system, or some other. What do you all say to that?
Mr. Merchant: I think that should be the programme. In the meantime, let us all dig into the question and go to the very bottom of it, and if possible stump Mr. Banker.
Mr. Banker: All right, gentlemen, I am ready for you, and if I don't convince you that the only thing for us to do is to adopt a credit currency system, I will retire in favor of anybody you name. Possibly you'll select Nelson W. Aldrich.
Uncle Sam: No, you won't do anything of the kind. We'll look around a long time before we'll take him on. It is my candid opinion that he don't know a thing on earth about the question. I have known Nelse about thirty years. He came to my house after he had been engaged in the grocery jobbing business, and he has been a jobber ever since. A man who could stay in Congress for thirty years, declaring that we had the best banking system in the world, would not recognize an economic principle, on a cloudless day, walking down the middle ofPennsylvania avenue at noon time. Now, as I said, Nelse has always been a jobber, and he would detect a crooked political deal crawling down a gutter, lizard-like, in the densest fog at midnight. He was prominent in a way in my home town, but it was only as a broker in senatorial favors. He kept books with the rest of his associates, his fellow senators. He was the clearing house of the United States Senate. That's all. He would be the very last man in the United States, the very last to join in clear, intelligent, unselfish, patriotic thinking. He just couldn't do it. Why, boys, he had rather go down a ram's horn than a gun barrel. He likes the twisting sensation. We don't want him at any price. Mark my word. What we want is honesty, intelligence, patriotism, unselfish devotion to duty and some good hard work.
Let us hope that we shall find a way out.
Good Night.
FOURTH NIGHT
BANK CREDIT CURRENCY
Uncle Sam: When we parted last Wednesday night, we had an understanding that everybody would give all the time he could to looking up Credit Currency. Now, I think before we take up that subject, it might be well to recall and review what we've settled among ourselves up to the present time.
First: We learned that gold is our standard of value.
Second: We all agreed that our money consisted of our gold coin alone.
Third: We agreed that our money, which consists of gold coin, is identical in amount with our gold currency; that they are one and the same thing.
Fourth: We found that we had at present a large amount of other currency, consisting of subsidiary coins (including the silver dollar), the United States Notes and our bond-secured Bank Notes.
Fifth: We came to the conclusion, however, after our last talk, that neither the United States Notes nor the bond-secured Bank Notes were fit for currency; and, in our quest for the best substitute possible, Mr. Banker proposed a Credit Currency currently redeemed in gold coin as the form of currency best suited to our condition. Indeed he asserted that it was the only form of currency we should think of.
I have gone over the road we have traveled so far and called attention to all the mile posts so that we should become perfectly familiar with them; for unless there is a complete harmony between our conclusions reached from time to time, our talks will in the end lead us to no practical results.
At our last talk it was decided, you will remember, that both on account of the peril to my credit, and becausethe United States Notes and the bond-secured Bank Notes were unfit for currency, we should tonight consider Credit Currency as a substitute.
Mr. Merchant: Uncle Sam, I am more than gratified that you have called our attention tonight to just those things we have agreed upon, because unless we keep all these points constantly in mind, we will have trouble in the end in reconciling our views. On the other hand, it has began to dawn on me that possibly what we have always considered beyond our comprehension may after all prove a comparatively simple matter, because I have discovered, since our talks began, that truth here as in all other subjects is simple when we arrive at and comprehend it. Our great problem in this connection is to disentangle the great or fundamental truths and make each one stand out in bold relief. So far, I think we have succeeded to a remarkable degree.
Mr. Manufacturer: We must have done so, for we have not yet struck a single point upon which we have not unanimously agreed. Let us hope that we shall be as successful in the future. At present, I must say I am a little dubious about the results of tonight's discussion, for I have run up against a snag or two, which I half fear will stump Mr. Banker, when he tries to pull them. However, he has been pretty successful so far in holding his own, and he may surprise us tonight.
Mr. Banker: I have no desire, or hope, of surprising you, but I have perfect confidence in convincing all of you, that there is only one system of currency for us to adopt, or even think of adopting, and that is a pure Credit Currency.
Let us assume that two men, A and B, who are of equal and unquestioned standing in some country town, start in the banking business at the same time.
A begins by taking the deposits of his neighbors, and continues until he has received $100,000, and has loaned the same out to the people of the community. He nowowes $100,000 subject to check, and he has $100,000 owing to him, as he has loaned out all his deposits.
B starts a banking business, but upon an entirely different plan, or basis. He takes no deposits in the ordinary way, but if anyone comes to him desiring to borrow, or sell him promissory notes, he will lend his credit, and take all good notes and checks offered him, and in exchange give his own notes in such denominations and form as are suitable for circulation as currency, until he has exchanged $100,000 of his notes for $100,000 of the notes of the same people who have borrowed the $100,000 from the other banker.
Now, this is not a strange thing for B to do, because the bankers of Scotland did this for one hundred and forty years before they took deposits subject to check.
Now, let us return to A and B. As a matter of course, some of these notes of B will be deposited in A's bank, and B will have taken in some of the checks on A's bank. At 10 o'clock each morning A and B meet; A presents B's notes for redemption and B presents checks upon A for redemption, and the one pays the other the difference. Sometimes the balance is due to A and sometimes it is due to B. At the end of six months or a year, it will be at a stand off. A has paid B as much as B has paid A.
Now, can anyone of you men here tell me what difference there is in the transactions of A and B, except this, that the notes of B amounting to $100,000 payable to bearer on demand are outstanding, while the deposits at A's bank amounting to $100,000 and payable to order are outstanding. Those notes of B's amounting to $100,000 are a bank Credit Currency. They are issued against, or upon B's credit. They pass from person to person, from hand to hand and are currently redeemed every day. While the deposits at A's bank amounting to $100,000 are against A's credit, and the checks against them are redeemed every day. It is perfectly evident that if the capital of A and B combined is ample to meet the business requirements of that town, the form of credit offered bythem will also adapt itself to the peculiar needs of each citizen. In other words, on a limited scale, you have a perfect banking system in that country town; bank credit being given to each person in precisely the form he wants it.
Now, let us go a step further. Let A and B unite and incorporate the A-B Bank with a paid-up capital of $100,000, each man paying in $50,000 and the bank, so organized, taking over the liabilities.
The one bank could then furnish the people of that community their deposit, or order credit, and their current credit, or currency at exactly the same cost to the bank; for the amount of the reserve will determine the cost of the note credit as well as the book credit. The bank being a country bank will carry a 15 per cent reserve, or $15,000 cash, to protect the deposit of $100,000 subject to check, and also a 15 per cent reserve, or $15,000 cash, to protect the $100,000 of demand notes outstanding. The actual cost to the bank in each case is 6 per cent on the reserve of $15,000 or $900 per annum.
If this bank should be located in the cotton-growing section of the country, and from August until January, the people needed more currency than at any other time of the year to pay for picking and handling the crop, and the customers of the bank came in and drew their checks for $50,000 and asked the bank for currency for that amount, and the bank should, as it ought to be able to do, under such circumstances change its deposit debt of $50,000 to a note debt of $50,000, so that instead of owing $100,000 in deposits, it owed only $50,000 in deposits, and instead of owing only $100,000 in notes, it owed $150,000, would it make any difference whatever to the bank except the trouble of making a few book entries?
In the springtime, probably, the situation would be just the reverse. The notes having served the convenience of the cotton-planters would be returned to the bank by various people, and deposited to the credit of the depositors, so that now the deposits are $150,000, and the notes outstanding, or note debts, are only $50,000; the total debt of the bank being precisely the same all the time, $200,000. It has made no difference whatever to the bank, but the customers of the bank, and all the people of that community, have been perfectly accommodated at the smallest possible expense to them. Now, if that bank had been compelled to go to some financial centre and buy that $150,000 of currency in the form of United States Notes, bond-secured bank notes, or the notes of a central bank, it would have cost the bank at the rate of 6 per cent per annum on $150,000, or $9,000; whereas, it has only cost the bank 6 per cent on the reserves carried to protect the $150,000, at the rate of $15,000 for each $100,000, or six per cent on $22,500. The cost to the bank you will see would be only $1,550, as against $9,000, if compelled to buy the currency, or would result in an actual saving to the bank of $7,450, an item, gentlemen, well worth saving.
Mr. Merchant: Mr. Banker, as I understand your contention from the illustration you have just completed, it is this, that there is absolutely no difference whatever, either in principle or in practice, between a bank book credit and a bank note credit, except as a mere matter of bookkeeping. That it is wholly immaterial whether there are 1,000 men walking about the streets of a town, each having a $10 bank note of the local bank in their pockets, or a thousand men walking about with check books from which they can issue 1,000 checks for $10 each. It is wholly a question of having a banking system that will adjust itself every hour of the day, and every day in the year, to the requirements of trade in that town, at the least possible expense to the people.
Mr. Banker: You comprehend my contention perfectly.
Mr. Lawyer: I will agree that your plan is structurally perfect to accomplish this purpose; but, before I can concede that the plan is all that can be desired, and all that we must insist upon having, I must know that your plan contemplates the current redemption of these bank notes in gold coin. For, as we have already agreed, ourcurrency must be as good as gold coin, and this can only be demonstrated by daily gold coin redemption.
Mr. Banker: These bank notes or this Credit Currency will always be interchangeable with the deposits of the bank of issue, and, like the checks against the bank, will be daily redeemed over the counter of the bank, and also at some clearing house centre. The life of the notes will probably not exceed on the average thirty days. I hold that it is the duty of the bank to supply its customers with exactly that form of credit, either current credit in the form of notes, or book credits subject to check, which their business demands, and that both forms of credit must be kept as good as gold by giving gold if gold is demanded.
Mr. Lawyer: With this point of current gold redemption covered and settled, I am willing to agree that theoretically you have completely convinced me. Now, what have you to offer in support of your theory by the way of any practical illustrations?
Mr. Banker: I am glad that you have demanded illustration and proof by way of banking experience; but, before taking up the historical evidence in support of my condition, I want to define a Credit Currency, so that you will have a concrete idea, if I may express myself that way, in your mind.
I define a Credit Currency as follows:a note issued by a bank against its credit, without depositing United States Bonds, or any other kind of security, to guarantee its payment, is bank Credit Currency.
In speaking of the marvelous prosperity of Scotland, MacLeod used this language in 1860 about the effect of Credit Currency in Scotland, where it has now been in use 217 years.
"All these marvelous results which have raised Scotland from the lowest state of barbarism up to her proud position in the space of 170 years are the children of pure credit."
The great achievement of the Scotch system of creditnotes is exceedingly well stated by Mr. Charles A. Conant in these words:
1. It has provided Scotland with an elastic currency adapted to the condition of her industries and adequate in volume to their changing needs.
2. It has enabled the people to carry on numerous commercial and agricultural transactions for which they could not have found the necessary quantity of coin, and has economized the locking up of capital in the precious metal.
3. It has made the use of notes of small denomination familiar and popular, and has taught the people the distinction between bank notes as the representatives of credit, and the precious metals as the measures of value.
4. It has brought into active use the available savings and capital of the country.
5. It has afforded an opportunity for entering upon business to thousands of poor, but honest men, and enabled them to lay the foundation of a comfortable home, and in many cases of a fortune.
6. It has convinced the people so conclusively of the value and safety of the banking currency system that no serious panic has ever lasted beyond a few days, or has ever affected any of the banks, except those which were justly the subject of distrust.
Horace White, describing the Scotch system, says:
"Notes are issued in denominations of five dollars, or one pound, and upwards. They are exchanged daily at the Edinburgh Clearing House, and settlements are made between banks by drafts on London. The notes remain in circulation on the average eighteen days after issue, the whole circulation being redeemed twenty times each year. Noteholders have a prior lien on the assets."
That is, if a bank should fail, the noteholders are paid first, and before anyone else gets anything.
Mr. Merchant: What is that? Did you say that the noteholder had a first lien on the assets of the ScotchBank: that is, that the noteholders are paid in full before anyone else gets anything?
Mr. Banker: Yes, sir, and for the very best reasons in the world.
Mr. Lawyer: Certainly, the noteholders should have a first lien upon the assets of the bank issuing them, because bank notes are a public convenience. Bank deposits, on the other hand, primarily are a private convenience. It is a matter of public importance that bank notes should flow through the channels of trade, pass from person to person and hand to hand unquestioned by any member of the public, and have ready as well as general acceptance. The man who selects his bank for the purpose of making deposits has time to investigate and decide deliberately which one he will choose. While a man in a transaction must accept the currency of the country offhand. At all events, it is a matter of the greatest public importance that he should do so without hesitation, and yet be protected, be absolutely safe in doing so.
Mr. Merchant: Come to think it over, I believe you are absolutely right. Our present bank notes are made a first lien upon the assets of the bank issuing them. We were talking about that the other day over at the bank, and while I had never thought of it before, the cashier of the bank explained the matter fully to me, and gave the same reason for making bank notes a first lien that Mr. Lawyer has. When I told him that I did not quite understand the thing as he did, he satisfied me completely by using his own bank as an illustration.
He said, you will remember that we were a State Bank until about a year ago, when we became a National Bank. Our capital of $100,000 is all invested in this bank building which we occupy. Our deposits were $500,000. We took $100,000 of our deposits and purchased $100,000 of Government Bonds, which we deposited with the United States Government, and received in return $100,000 bank notes which we have put out, or, as we say, put into circulation. Now, since we actually took $100,000 of our deposits to buy the bonds with, and then placed the bonds up as collateral, to guarantee the payment of $100,000 of notes, it is perfectly clear that the noteholders will get their money, in case of our failure whether anybody else gets anything or not.
I then asked him this question: Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that the $100,000 of the United States Government Bonds should not sell for $100,000? Say they sold for only $75,000, would the noteholders lose the other $25,000, and he replied as follows:
"No, if the bonds should sell for only $75,000, the remaining $25,000 due the noteholders would be taken out of our assets, before any depositor got a cent."
You see, therefore, gentlemen, that our National Bank Notes are a first lien upon the assets of the banks that issue them, and that they will always be paid in full, before the depositors get anything.
Mr. Manufacturer: I am very glad this point came up, and has been explained so completely and satisfactorily, because during the week when I was studying up this question of a credit currency, that matter came up, but I found no explanation or reasons given for making the notes a first lien. It seems to me to be a fundamental principle that they should be, and the reasons are the soundest for making them a first lien. The bank note is a tool or instrument of trade for the benefit of the public, and is of general importance, while the bank deposit is a tool or instrument for the benefit of the individuals composing that general public, and primarily of individual importance. The distinction between the two must be very clear to all of you as it is to me.
Mr. Laboringman: That is just as it should be. The working people should always have a currency as good as gold, something that will not turn to ashes during the night; that cannot deteriorate to the extent of a single cent; for we are all practically compelled to take whatever is in circulation, or comes along, in the way of currency. It should certainly be as good as gold. I don't care howyou fix it, but I do insist upon that. I say that it is one of the very first duties of the Government to the people; for, of all the ways of doing the laboring masses out of their earnings, and cheating them, a depreciated currency is positively the worst. Make your currency redeemable in gold, and so safe that no toiler can lose by holding it any length of time.
Mr. Manufacturer: I am quite sure that we all agree that not only should the bank notes be currently redeemed in gold coin, but to make them doubly safe, safe beyond any peradventure, they ought also to be a first lien upon the assets of the bank issuing them.
During the week I read somewhere that the Scotch Banks had been in operation 217 years, and that they did not start the deposit and checking system until they had been in operation for 140 years. During all that time they simply exchanged their notes for the notes of the farmers, the shopkeepers, the manufacturers and anybody who was entitled to credit.
Mr. Banker: Now, if you will allow me, I will produce some further historical evidence.
The greatest financial genius that the United States has produced, and one of the greatest the world has produced, drew the charter of the first United States Bank upon which the second was modeled. Both of these banks were pure credit currency banks, and were founded upon the very soundest banking principles; but both of them were the victims of political strife and party feud. No man who has ever lived more clearly comprehended the principle of credit than did Alexander Hamilton.
The highest note issue of the first United States Bank was $5,900,000, and deposits were $5,000,000.
The highest note issue of the second United States Bank was $23,000,000, and the deposits were $2,600,000.
In 1800, under the inspiration of Napoleon Bonaparte, undoubtedly as great an economist as soldier, the Bank of France was organized, and is the most striking single example in all history of the bank credit currency principle. It has to all intents and purposes always had the right of unlimited note issue, as the limit is always fixed far beyond the requirements of trade. The amount of the notes outstanding are usually ten times as large as the deposits. The notes now exceed $1,000,000,000, while the deposits are only about $100,000,000. In a single week there has been a conversion of $75,000,000 of deposits into notes, and a reconversion of a corresponding amount of notes into deposits.
As a result of the destruction of the second United States Bank by a veto of President Jackson, there were established in various states of the Union banking institutions, largely modeled upon the work of Hamilton. These institutions showed remarkable strength and rendered most significant service to those sections of the country where located.
Probably the most noted of them all was the State Bank of Indiana, organized in 1834, which continued its almost matchless career until 1866. It was a pure credit currency bank, marvelously suited to serve the people of Indiana, under the conditions in which they lived. Its capital was $3,300,000; its maximum of note issue was $5,700,000, always currently redeemed in coin. In 1857, during the crisis when every bank in the State of Indiana, and all the banks in New York, except the Chemical, closed their doors, the State Bank of Indiana kept on redeeming its notes in coin. This Indiana State Bank had thirteen branches. The central office was at Indianapolis. Hugh McCullough, afterwards one of the wisest secretaries of the Treasury we have ever had, was President of the Fort Wayne Branch. He wrote this interesting paragraph:
"Fort Wayne was three good days' ride from Indianapolis, mostly through the woods. For fifteen years I made this journey on horseback, and alone, with thousands of dollars in my saddle bag, without the slightest fear of being robbed. I was well known upon the road, and it was well known that I had money with me, and a good deal of it; and yet, I rode unharmed through the woods, andstopped for the night at the taverns and cabins on the way in perfect safety."