County Banks shall be subject to examination and supervision by the Government of the United States.
These observations may be crude, but certainly they are worthy of consideration. Is the general idea not worthy of attention?
Perhaps much that has been suggested should be eliminated entirely; much probably should be changed; much more perhaps should be added.
Time and trial of the system would bring to mind many good ideas. Consider it and see if a little thought given to the matter won’t make it look feasible and open up a much wider field for thought than merely the idea of a people’s bank.
What are the possibilities of some such system? Not only what are the possibilities, but if you please, what are the probabilities as to the results that would follow such a system?
It will settle the Trust Question because, it will take the control of money from the men who are interested in the Trusts, and thus enable competition to the Trusts to borrow money with which to go into business in opposition to them.
It would hardly be possible, under present conditions, for a person or syndicate to sell bonds to supply the money with which to go into business in competition with the Standard Oil Company. The men who are in control of the money market would not dare to incur the ill will of such a powerful influence as that which is behind the Standard, by buying bonds of a rival concern. The men who are interested in such gigantic Trusts are the ones who control the money of the Country. So it is with competing lines of railroads. The men who now are in control of the through lines of railroad have too much influence over the money market to permit competing lines to be built.
Give to the Government banking power, with local County Banks, and the currency question will settle itself. The much talked of standard of value will become fixed. The currency will be made as elastic as the exigencies of the times shall demand.
We will have not only gold and silver for a basis but as well all of the broad acres of fertile land, the mines, the grain, the horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, in fact everything that goes upon the assessor’s book will stand behind the dollar. For the County and the Government will guarantee it.
It will be elastic because each particular locality will have the power to issue emergency currency to meet the immediate needs of the community. The County with all its property will stand behind it, and surely all of the land and property in the County will furnish a sufficient security to make good a sufficient volume of currency to get the product of farm, or mine or manufactory to the market.