The Cameron Compromise

The New York Time says of the free banking proposition made by Senator Cameron a3 a compromiso betwoen the inHationists and those who aro opposcd to inflation : Our own approval of the principié undcrlying frbo banking is well known.- We regard its application as one of tko measures which promise most relief to our disordered rinances. But it is only one. It is not of itself adequate to repair the evils from which wo suffer, and it cannot bo made so. It will, properly regulated, give elasticity to the currency. It will be possible, with free banking, to cali into use an additional amount of bank notes at those seasons of the year when more currency is needed, and to withdraw those notes when the currency is no longer needed, and flows back to produce a redundanoy at the main center of trade. And this can bo done, under this system, without that pernicious interference by the government which is apt to be more injurious than the difficultics it is meant to remove. Bmt freo banking will not do evorything, and will do very much less in the present condition of the national notes than it otherwiso would do. There is no charm in the system to counteract the mischief that is constantly done by the rofusal of the government to pay its honest obligations. If the government notes can be- not " retired," as the fashionablo pnrase is, but- paid, as any other noto should bo paid, then free banking can be made a thoroughly safo system, and can bo frced from all ijrobabilities of misearnage. Thcn, as remarkod by an ablo bank officer to the Financo Committeo in Washington Jast week, tho national bank notes will beconie redoeinablo in fact as in theory, becauso, the greenbacks being of less valuo than tho bank notes, the fortner will be more desirable than the latter. It is of the lasthnportance, therefore, that the proper treatment of the national currency should be kopt elearly be boforo the minds of Congress. That body will be doing far less than its duty if it shrink from providing for a steady rodemption of the legal tenders; and the advantages to be got from freo banking will not compénsate for tho injury tho neglect of this plaiu duty will produce. - Free banking in any shape, as a compromiso intendod to complete tho action of Congress on finance, will be a lamo and impotent conclusión.