8 The Conservative.
tiou now , but we never refuse one when
it is offered to us in payment of n debt ,
and we seldom notice , when it is hnnded
to us , whether it is a banknote , or a
greenback , or a "coin note , " or a silver
certificate. I suspect that very few per
sons whom we meet on the street could
tell the difference between them if they
were asked.
ELASTICITY OK HANK ISSUES.
Now , the advantages of the banknotes
over the greenbacks are these : In the first
place , they can be made "equal to the
wants of trade , " as the saying is. They
arise out of the wants of trade and in
no other way. When crops are to be
moved it is only necessary for the grain
buyer or the cotton buyer , or the wool
buyer , to offer his promissory note for
discount and he gets the banknotes im
mediately. The bank exists expressly
for the purpose of supplying them on
adequate security ; and no security is
better than crops in warehouse or on the
way to market. This is in a case where
the banks are enabled to issue their
notes expeditiously in the manner pro
posed by the banking committee's bill.
INFLEXIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT ISSUES.
But the government never discounts
anybody's note. There is no law auth
orizing it to do so. It is not fitted for
such tasks. The first and indispensable
requisite of a banker is ability to dis
criminate between good and bad com
mercial paper. The government has no
machinery adapted to that end. Some
people think'that such machinery might
be devised. I do not agree with them ,
but it is sufficient to say that it has not
been devised. Therefore , the govern
ment's circulating notes are a fixed sum ,
limited in amount by law , an ironclad
mass incapable of expansion. They are
capable of contraction , however , in the
sense that when they are not wanted
they flow into the Treasury vaults , or
the bank vaults , and stay there. When
a demand for money comes to move
crops , or for any other legitimate pur
pose , the quantity cannot bo increased ;
nor , if it could be increased , would
the government have any machinery
for placing it where it is needed. This
is one of the advantages of the banknote
over the greenback.
HANKS CAN HE COERCED AND PUNISHED.
Another is that the bank has com
mercial assets to pay its notes with , and
can be compelled by law to pay them ,
whereas the government has no commer
cial assets and cannot bo compelled to
pay. The paper that the bank has dis
counted for the grain buyer , the cotton
buyer , etc. , represents the circulating
capital of the country and is usually secured -
cured by bills of lading , warehouse re
ceipts , etc. If that property is not good ,
nothing is good. Even the government
credit rests upon that in the last resort.
It is needless to recall the spasms and
struggles of ISDiJ-'UG over the question
whether the government could , if it
would , or would if it could , pay
its notes on demand. The contrast
between that scries of events
and the usual procedure of banks
when their notes are presented for pay
ment is sufficiently glaring. Not the
least advantage of the banknote is that
if the bank refuses payment , its assets ,
including its deposited bonds , are at
once seized and applied to that purpose ;
and if there has been any fraud in its
management the managers are sent to
jail. We commonly think of the na
tional banknotes as secured by the gov
ernment because government bonds are
deposited against them. These bonds
are in fact the bank's property. They
wore bought with the bank's money in
the first place , and they remain its pro
perty so long as it redeems its notes on
demand. By retiring its notes it can
resume possession of its bonds at any
time. There are details of the banking
committee's bill relating to the security
of the notes which they propose to allow
the banks to issue , which I have not
time to examine now. I am not in favor
of any banknotes which are not abund
antly and oven superabundantly se
cured.
CONCLUSION.
The advantages of banknotes over
greenbacks , then , are twofold : They
can be made elastic in volume and equal
to the- wants of trade , and there can
never be any dispute about their re
demption in gold , whereas greenbacks
are not elastic and cannot be made so ;
they no have relation whatever to the
wants of trade ; disputes about their re
demption may arise at any time and are
in fact the very pabulum and bono of
contention in our national politics.
This I consider to be the present phase
of the currency question.
Mono y aclver-
tisca' ° "e "
?
upon farm mort
gages in THE CONSERVATIVE of this issue
will be loaned at a rate of interest less
than one-third of what the original set
tlers paid for money in the territory and
state of Nebraska prior to the crime of
183 ! !
, T. Sterling Morton has been asked by
the government of the Argentine Re
public to organize a Department of
Agriculture for that nation , based on
the plan of the United States depart
ment. Mr. Morton has not yet an
nounced his decision in the matter.
The invitation is certainly an honor ,
and cannot be otherwise considered
both by Mr. Morton and the people of
the state of which ho has been an hon
ored resident for so many years. Hav
ing recently commenced work as editor
of one of the'most brilliant papers in
the West , Mr. Morton may well bo ex
cused for hesitating whether to leave it
oven to accept the flattering offer from
Argentina. Seward Reporter.
The foil owing
ASCIIAPOF
HISTORY. relation is com
municated by one
of THE CONSERVATIVE'S friends ; one of
the men best qualified of any now living
to speak of the early days in this region
of the West. He gives it as illustrating
the Indian gift , commented on by many
writers , of seeing straight to the heart
of a matter , and laying it bare to their
hearers with a few vigorous words. It
deals with two names , famous in the
Indian wars of sixty years ago.
After the death of the half-breed
Osceola , taken prisoner by the United
States forces in Florida against the laws
of nations , while ho was covered by a
flag of truce , the leading spirits in the
resistance which the Seminoles main
tained for a year or two longer were a
chief named Opothloholo , a man of near
eighty years , and another who had
gained the proud distinction of a white
man's name : Billy Bowlegs. Their
little war was soon extinguished , and
those who remained of their people
were transported to the Indian Terri
tory ( or Indian Nation , as the old-timers
call it ) where they were bidden to live
long and prosper. They wore not the
strongest there , however ; and upon the
breaking out of the Civil War they
were driven from their new homes and
across the border into southern Kansas by ii
tribes that had been enlisted in the cause
of the Confederacy. Indians are bravo ,
and are not averse to fighting with men ;
but they take a pleasure that an English-
speaking white man cannot understand ,
in what conies after with the women
and children. A baby is taken by the
feet and waved in the air , and then his
little fat brown head crushed against a
rock or tree ; while a yelling squawwith
a sharp knife , a strong arm and good
nerves can be made to furnish a whole
program of amusements. It does not
appear , however , that a red-skinned
husband and father particularly enjoys
witnessing these festivities , nor learn
ing of them afterward. '
The eviction of these Indians was ac
companied by a vast amount of the
most horrid atrocities , and the govern
ment was obliged to take cognizance of
it. It was decided to allow them to take
part in the recovery of their territory.
Mr. Robert W. Funias was instructed
to enlist them in the regular army for
that purpose , having the rank of colonel.
He accordingly raised the 1st , 2nd and
3rd. Indian regiments from among the
Seminoles , Creeks , Choctaws , Cherokees
and Chickasaws , all those tribes having
like wrongs to complain of.
Among them cauio old Opothloholo ,
now over a hundred years old , and of
unquestioned authority , as well from
his character and record as from his
great ago ; and with him a nephew of
his old associate , who maintained the
luster of the family name , being called
Billy Bowlegs , junior. Colonel Furnas
took the field in 18(52 ( and operated in
