Franklin Repository

Our attention has been informally called of late, to the oft talked of projects for another railroad in this county. Charters have been from time to time procured in Harrisburg, for roads to lead to and from different points, but the energy of the applicants has always, apparently, been spent in the application. Having talked the matter over freely with well informed parties, we have the following suggestions to offer. In making them, we distinctly disclaim having anybody's interests in special view, but we look to the welfare of the county of Franklin. Let a road be begun, as soon as maybe, to lead, ultimately, to Gettysburg. Starting at Chambersburg, it need not now go farther than Caledonia Furnace, at the base of the South Mountain. These ten miles were surveyed, together with the Mountain crossing, in the summer of 1866, and were found to offer an easy, gradual ascent of half the maximum rate in plain grading. They can be made at a very cheap rate and will speedily become one of the most profitable branch roads in the State. Upon the line of the road stand a large furnace, six flouring mills, and ten saw mills. The lime trade, the creation and growth of the last ten years, now employs a large number of teams in transporting our kiln products to Adams county. This trade will, gladly, come to the road's terminus at the mountain foot, rather than to the scattered kilns in the valley. In amount, the freights upon lime alone will prove no mean addition to a company's revenues. The moment that a road is talked of, in earnest, by anybody to run from Chambersburg eastward, the Mont Alto Iron Company, we are informed, stand ready to assist in its building, and to tap it at or near Fayetteville with another branch road to their own works. The whole of the immense freight, disposable by this company, will be placed on the road. It is said, moreover, that the completion of railroad facilities will lead at once to the erection of a first-class Anthracite Furnace, the business of which will exceed the whole of the present freighting of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, and prove itself a sufficient support for the new road. The energetic proprietors of those works, whose restless eyes have explored as well the ravines of the South Mountain as the slopes at its foot, will rapidly, even if no one else has enterprise enough to attempt it, develop the wonderful richness of our mineral deposits. For, we assert that within the limits of our broad Commonwealth, the State of iron par excellence, there are no such beds of iron ore as those of south-eastern Franklin, whether quantity or quality be considered. With a railroad, their development is certain and immediate. It is premature, perhaps, to attempt a depicting of the prosperity which a work so feasible would bring, yet we cannot forbear saying that the farmers of Venango county did not, more nonchalantly, tread over their grease-spots and around their oil springs, ten years ago, than do the citizens of portions of this county over their mineral wealth.

We think the town of Chambersburg has a deep interest in the building of this road. A single line of railway never builds a town. At the least, a crossroads is required to push it forward.

Fayetteville, Funkstown, Quincy and Waynesboro are directly concerned in the project. The plan proposed is the only chance they ever will have while steam propels and locomotives run. The districts of country in which these villages lie, the most fertile, populous, and productive in the county, will be benefited, the day the roads are completed, in a degree not to be measured by the cost of the road. We call on the business men of Chambersburg and of the eastern half of the county to consider this matter and to act upon it as speedily as they can.

Several months ago the Hon. Mr. Randall, we believe, introduced a proposition in Congress for the repeal of the existing National Bank Act and the substitution of legal tenders for the national currency. We do not remember that he then made any serious complaint against the soundness of the system. If there was any special point of dissatisfaction it was that the bank circulation, being based on Government bonds, all the benefits were enjoyed by the banks without any participation in them by the Government. His ostensible object was to save the country the eighteen or twenty millions of gold which was paid to the banks in annual interest on their bonds deposited with the United States Treasurer. Fortunately the proposition met with little favor at the time, and was but little discussed. It has become more popular of late. Moreover, the discovery has suddenly been made that the whole system is rotten and specially open to abuses of all sorts, and that the public interests demand a radical change. As is always the case when new measures of reform are suggested, there are a great many persons, wholly ignorant of the first principles of finance, who join in the sweeping condemnation; and each successive failure among the weaker banking institutions elicits a renewed cry of alarm. Reports are circulated unfavorable to their credit and general management, most of which have no foundation in truth, but which nevertheless tend greatly to create popular mistrust.

No doubt some of the banks are shaky and will break, as others have already done; but when have there been so few failures as under the present system? When have there been fewer frauds and defalcations, or fewer revelations of corruption among bank officers? There will always be temptation, under whatever system, to use the credit of the banks for individual profit, and no safeguards can be made wholly secure against dishonesty. The truth is, that no system has been devised during our existence as a nation so nearly perfect or so well adapted to the public necessities and the public protection. All the objections now raised against it were brought before the notice of Congress when it was under consideration. They were fully discussed then, and the fact that the National system was adopted in face of all objections is the strongest argument against any change now.

Great stress is laid upon the assumption that the banks are specially favored by drawing interest upon their deposited bonds, while they receive additional interest from loaning out their circulation; whereas they enjoyed the same privilege under the safety fund banking law of New York, only that they issued notes to the full amount of the stocks deposited to secure their circulation, instead of only ninety per cent. as now. In other States the advantages were equal, or greater. But the National Banks do not receive the full interest on their three hundred millions of circulation, because fully one-fourth is kept constantly in their tids, to meet the daily requirements of their business.

One very serious thought to be considered by those who would force the Banks into liquidation is, that the Banks hold more than one-fourth of the national debt in bonds deposited for their circulation, and as security for public deposits. Should these bonds, which are now kept permanently from sale, be suddenly thrown upon the market, it would very seriously affect the public credit. The real fact is, that this proposed measure for a forced cancellation of the national currency is but one remove from a violation of the public faith; it is nearly akin to that other measure of semi-repudiation which would pay the gold interest on the Five-Twenty bonds in paper currency. The public should be cautious how they indorse any of these plausible financial schemes which shrewd speculators are so fond of conjuring up for their approval.

We have now a uniform currency, which is a blessing of itself; the Government being responsible for the circulation, bill holders are secured against loss. Even when banks fail, as they have done, their notes are just as good as any others, for the Government must redeem them. The safety of depositors, to be sure, is only assured by the successful character of the business done by the banks, although beyond the capital they have a further security in the individual responsibility of the stockholders. In this respect they are as well off as under any previous system. In addition to the salutary checks provided by law, there are examiners appointed by the Treasurer to make periodical investigations. It is doubtful if any change in the present system could be made for the better, though it has its defects, and may possibly be improved upon. Most of the intelligent portion of the community have a general idea of its operation. They may well question the policy of the measure proposed. That a forcible withdrawal of the National Bank circulation would be alike injurious to the interests of those banks and the general interests of the country is beyond peradventure. One effect at least would be to retard for an indefinite period the resumption of specie payments. Indeed, forced contraction of any sort, even when limited to $4,000,000 a month as authorized by law, is not calculated to produce the effect anticipated, as the result proves. We are certainly no nearer specie payments now than when the Enabling Act was passed. Political quiet and confidence is needed more than new measures of finance.