Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question: Between Uncle Sam and Mr. Farmer, Mr. Banker, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Laboringman, Mr. Merchant, Mr. ManufacturerFowler, Charles N. (Charles Newell)
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Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question: Between Uncle Sam and Mr. Farmer, Mr. Banker, Mr. Lawyer, Mr. Laboringman, Mr. Merchant, Mr. Manufacturer
Fowler, Charles N. (Charles Newell)
Banks and banking -- United States; Currency question -- United States
MR. BANKER: That is it precisely, and the only way that this can be
accomplished is by granting the specific power to the national banks of
the country:
_First_: To continue to do a commercial business.
_Second_: To do a savings business.
_Third_: To do a trust company business.
_Fourth_: To do a note issue business.
This step taken, no bank in the United States, with the rarest
exception, can afford to remain out of the system, and the result
will be to bring the banking business of the United States into one
harmonious whole. The present conglomerate condition will be wiped
out. Holding companies, which are probably the most prolific source of
business iniquity and a curse to the country, generally will cease to
mark American banking as a game of jugglery and sharp practice wherever
the managers of double-headed or triple-headed banks are inclined that
way. Furthermore, unless this is done, you will in the future as in the
past, know little or nothing of the true condition of the banks of this
country as a whole. For what can you know about the true inwardness of
a bank, which is composed of three distinct institutions: a national
bank on one block, with the stock of a trust company located on another
block, and the stock of a savings bank located on still another block,
and the stock of the two institutions lodged in the strong box of the
national bank. The managers of the national bank may be of the very
highest character, and of unquestionable and absolute integrity, and
they might manage their business just as well as if there were no laws
at all. But laws are made for the lawless, not for men of this class.
Laws are made to compel the greedy, the over ambitious, the foolish and
the unscrupulous to toe the line, and maintain certain standards, which
have been established by the highest class of men of the banking world.
You can readily see that a national bank, under national supervision,
with two other institutions under its control, which might be under
state supervision, or under no supervision at all, could engage in
practices that no upright man would stand for; and practices, too, that
usually result in terrific losses, and consequently breed panics.
These powers having been granted to the national banks, the law
should then compel the separation and complete segregation of all
these various accounts, as they are all distinct in their nature or
character, economically speaking. Part of them are active capital, and
belong to the commercial fund of the country, while the others are
passive capital, and belong to the investment fund of the country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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