serve when we return to the principle of bimetalism, and use the option of paying gold or silver in the interest of the people.

The second great objection to banks of issueand it applies to both State and national banks-is that it places in the hands of interested parties the power to regulate the volume of the currency, and through it the market value of all other property. I have already spoken of the dangers inherent in a monetary system when the volume of money is regulated by a legislative body. I stated these dangers as strongly as possible, for I believe them to be real dangers which can scarcely be exaggerated, but dangerous as it is to place such tremendous power in the hands of a legislative body, it is infinitely more dangerous to place that power in the hands of banks.

If we depart from metalic money, whose volume is largely dependent on natural laws-if the Government will keep its hands off-we must lodge somewhere the power to control the currency. It must be controlled by the Government or by individuals, and we are to choose in which way the stability of the dollar can best be secured. If value becomes a matter of chance when the volume of money is regulated by law, it is no advantage to go from pure chance to loaded dice. I would far rather trust the exercise of this power to representatives who act before the public and are responsible to their constituents, than to bank officers, who act in private and are responsible to no one.

If banks control the volume of money they will control it in their own interest, and will be abso

lutely indifferent to the general welfare except as it conduces to their own welfare. This is not a harsh criticism of bankers; it is only a declaration that they are human, like other people, and do business on business principles.

Jefferson once said, in speaking of the power of public opinion:

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to public affairs you and I, and Congress and assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves."

If representatives are likely to become wolves, unless restrained by the watchful eyes and the ready reproof of those who elect them, is the temptation not greater when the individual is a financial master instead of a public servant? Let me call attention to Jefferson's opinion of the manner in which banks regulate the volume of the currency. In a letter written from Monticello, November 7, 1819, to John Adams, Jefferson said:

"We were laboring under a dropsical fulness of circulating medium. Nearly all of it is now called in by the banks, who have the regulation of the safety valves of our fortunes, and who condense and explode them at their will."

In a letter written January 24, 1814, to Ex-President Adams, he said:

"I have ever been the enemy of banks, not of those discounting for cash, but of those foisting their own paper into circulation and thus banishing our cash. My zeal against those institutions was so warm and open at the establishment of the Bank of the United States that I was derided as a maniac by the tribe of bank mongers who were seeking to filch from the public their swindling and barren gains."

Some one has already referred to the remarks of President Buchanan on this subject, but they will bear repetition. In his first message to Congress in 1857, when he had before him in plain view the distress caused by the suspension of State banks, he said:

"In all former revulsions the blame might have been fairly attributed to a variety of co-operating causes; but not so upon the present occasion. It is apparent that our existing misfortunes have proceeded from our extravagant and vicious system of paper currency and bank credits, exciting the people to wild speculations and gambling in stocks. These revulsions must continue to recur at successive intervals, so long as the amount of the paper currency and bank loans and discounts of the country shall be left to the discretion of fourteen hundred irresponsible banking institutions, which, from the very law of their nature, will consult the interest of their stockholders rather than the public welfare."

Testimony like this might be submitted to an indefinite amount to show that State banks acted for their own private gain in the issue of money and not for the public good. The fact that national banks have been less reckless than State banks must be credited to circumstances rather than to any special wisdom or virtue in the banks. Being confined to Government bonds as a basis for their money, their notes have been kept at par with greenbacks and the volume of bank notes has not been subject to such violent fluctuations as marked State bank issues. But in so far as they could, national banks have consulted their own pecuniary interest in regulating the volume of outstanding notes. I give below a statement of the volume of national bank notes in circulation on the first day of each month since July 1, 1893:

July 1, 1893...$178,713,872 | Jan. 1, 1894...$208,538,844 Aug. 1, 1893... 183,755,147 Feb. 1, 1894... 207,862,107 Sept. 1, 1893... 198,980,368

Mar. 1, 1894... 207,479,520 Oct. 1, 1893... 208,690,579 Apr. 1, 1894... 207,875,695 Nov. 1, 1893... 209,311,993 May 1, 1894... 207,833,032 Dec. 1, 1893... 208,948,105 June 1, 1894... 207,245,049 It will be noticed that the volume of notes increased last summer when bonds went down and the issue, therefore, became more profitable, and it will be noticed, also, that the volume decreased afterward, when bonds rose, there being $2,000,000 less in circulation on June 1, 1894, than on November 1, 1893.

The volume is now decreasing, altho the issue of silver certificates has ceased and more money is needed rather than less. The demand made by the banks for the privilege of issuing notes up to the face of their bonds, accompanied by the promise that they will issue more notes if the privilege is granted, is an admission that the issue depends entirely on the profit there is in it, and not upon the demand for more money. When we are trying to destroy other kinds of trusts shall we put ourselves in the power of the worst of all trusts-a money trust?

Another important objection to banks of issue, whether State or national, is that, as soon as they begin the issue of money themselves, they become interested in preventing the circulation of any money which will operate to the injury of their currency. They acquire what they call a "vested interest" in the country's money, insist that it is a breach of faith to disturb the business into which they have been "invited," and resent any inter

ference whatever with what they regard as their exclusive right to control our finances.

So strongly was Jefferson imprest with this danger that he wrote to John Taylor:

"I sincerely believe with you that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

We have found the national banks opposing as far as possible a reduction of the bonded debt, because that would diminish the volume of their securities. We have seen them opposing legislation favorable to silver, and prophesying all manner of evil. But they are unlike Cassandra in this, that, while her true prophesy was unheeded, their false prophecy finds ready believers. Just now most of them are fighting the State bank currency because it may destroy their monopoly of bank notes. This is not strange, it is to be expected. Two thousand years ago the silversmiths at Ephesus banded themselves together to drive Paul away because his preaching interfered with their business-the making of images. The cry that went up then was so similar to that which we hear now that it may be worth while to quote the account given in the nineteenth chapter of Acts:

23. And the same time there arose no small stir about that way.

24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen :

25. Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.

26. Moreover, ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands.