Why are they made? The persons making them know well what they are doing. The bankers themselves may do a profitable business, drawing interest on their bonds and on the circulation at the same time. But the difficulty is that their profits are their own and do not benefit the business community; for the amount of loanable money which is to accommodate business men and help along enterprise is not only not increased but is seriously curtailed by the operation, and the result is not that the West or the South gets more, but that the East gets more and the West and South less available funds after it than they had before.
The Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. Anthony] was perfectly candid when he said, in opposing the bill now before us, that he did not do it because the transfer of twenty-five or fifty millions of national-bank currency from New England to the West would decrease the capital of New England one single farthing, for everybody can see that it would not, but he was pleading merely for the interest of the banking institutions, which do not want to have their business disturbed.
Now, sir, carry out this system on the largest scale, by a free-banking act, and what will be the result? It will be exactly the same, only much extended and intensified. And it is very probable, nay almost certain, that what may be called the banking monopoly of New York and New England will, by a free-banking act, not be weakened, but it will become stronger and more firmly established than ever before. And why? Simply because in the East, in New York and New England, they have the capital to invest in banking establishments; they have the bonds themselves, and can establish national banks without sending money away. They will, therefore, then as now have and keep a vast majority of the banks, and a preponderance of the national banking currency. They
