Money Time Research Articles

American Banks in Times of Crisis under the National Banking System

American Banks in Times of Crisis under the National Banking System

Geological Chronology 1

THE vexed question of the age of the earth has passed through several distinct phases. Lyell and his contemporaries, accustomed to dwell on the oextreme slowness of geological processes, considered themselves free to make unlimited “drafts on the bank of time”; but, since 1862, this position has been seriously challenged from the physical side. The chief argument brought against it was that, granting the globe to have cooled from a molten state, it would attain its assumed present thermal condition in a few scores of millions of years, only a fraction of which time would be available for the stratigraphical record. If the general body of geologists, influenced by the high authority of Lord Kelvin, have tried to adapt themselves to this narrow limitation, it has not been without reluctance, and some sturdy dissentients have refused any such coercion. To these, during the last few years, welcome support has come from unexpected quarters. The nebular hypothesis of the earth's origin, upon which the estimates of Kelvin and King were tacitly based, has been shaken by Moulton's calculations and other arguments put forward by Chamberlin, Moreover, the remarkable discoveries in the domain of radio-activity have compelled a reconsideration of the thermal state of the globe. Estimates of the earth's age deduced from its supposed rate of cooling clearly become futile if we have no good reason for believing that the earth is a cooling body. On the other hand, from the radio-active properties of various minerals Strutt has deduced geological ages liberal enough for the most extreme uniformitarian.

The Proposal for a Central Bank in the United States: A Critical View

Introduction: the success of existing central banks, 363.—Minor obstacles in the United States, 365.—The functions of central banks, 369.—I. The activities of central banks in normal times, 373.—The absence of branch banking an insuperable obstacle in the case of government deposits and the issue of notes, 380.—Credit notes a dangerous instrument, when the use of deposit credit is general, 386.—II. The precautionary stage in the policy of central banks, 388.—The sliding scale of discount would be ineffective in the United States, 393. —The kind of central bank which has been proposed for the United States is unlike those in Europe, because it would not be able to restrain credit expansion, 396.—III. Activities of central banks during crises: a central bank not needed to handle the foreign exchange situation, 400; or to insure the continuance of loans, 403.—The suspension of payments can be remedied without revolutionary changes in our present system, 407.—Conclusion, 413.

VI.—The Geological Chronometer

The pleasant relations normally existing among geologists, biologists, and physicists have of late become a trifle strained on the question of the age of the earth. Biologists, having failed to induce either geologists or physicists to draw sufficiently large cheques on the bank of time, have taken to signing the same them-selves, adding the ciphers ad lib. Professor Poulton has ably championed the rights of the biologists to do so, and in the course of his argument he contends that there is evidence in the sedimentary strata to show that their rate of formation was not greater than that at which deposits are now being accumulated.So far as I am aware, Professor Poulton's contention has not been either controverted or supported by any geologist. Hence it seems to be a suitable subject for discussion in the Geological Magazine.In the first place, then, what would be the nature of the evidence we might a priori expect to find to show that one set of beds was accumulated in a shorter time than another of equal thickness ? Would there, in fact, be any difference such as would enable us positively to decide the question ?Secondly, we may examine and compare rocks which we know, or have reason to suppose, have been formed at different rates. Now, according to Sir A. Geikie, if the rocks of the stratified systems were laid down at the greatest rate suggested by the facts of denudation. 73,000,000 years would be required; if at the least, 680,000,000.

II.—Suggestions as to Geological Time

But a few years since geologists were in the habit of drawing largely from the Bank of time, and the more they drew the greater was the supply they seemed to want, till at last the thought seemed to come quite natural to them that the supply indeed was inexhaustible. Quite lately, however, these time-speculators have had it suggested to them that there is a limit to the supply, and that the countless ages on which they have depended seem to be very probably but some one hundred millions of years, and untold ages to be reckoned by telling numerals.