.7
A
The Wealth Makers and Lincoln Independent Consolidated.
VOL. VIII.
LINCOLN, NEBR., THURSDAY, July 2,. 1896.
NO. 4.
BANKS
They Wrecked Business and Brought
Ruin to Thousands.
HAVE NO BIGHT TO ISSUE NONEY
That is the Sole Prerogative
Government.
of
"I Will Vote to Wipe out Banks of Issue.'
The following extracts from speeches
of Senator Teller on banks and banking
will be read with interest:
We are here to determine what the evil
is; and when we have determined that
we are to remove it if we can. If it can
be demonstrated here that any statute
on the statute book has brought about
the evil which now exists, you can get
my vote to take it off. But I will not
take the say-so of a New York banker;
will not take the interested statements
of the people who desire to be put in
position where they can command all
the industries of the country as they
could do if they could command the
money of the country.
Since I have been iu public life I have
had fixed and determined views as to
the right of the General Government
reference to the issue of its , money.
ID
hold, as I have on this floor many times
stated, that the control of money is the
prerogative of nationality and sover
eignty; that no government is justified
in surrendering it, not justified in surren
dering it even for the most patriotic and
most intelligent and helpful of all the men
who could be selected; but it cannot be
safely intrusted in the hands of corpor
ations. It must be controlled by the
general government in the main. There
fore I have always given my vote against
the continuation of the national banks
as banks of issue. I believe as banks of
deposit they have had some value, but
as banks of issue none.
Why are banks instituted? Not for
tne benefit or the , banters. They are
quasi-public concerns, instituted for the
benefit of the public. Banks have three
great functions: First to receive the
money of the people and keep it safely
until they call for it; secondly, to pay it
out when the people demand it. Another
function is to transmit the money by
bills of exchange from one part of the
country to another. I think perhaps I
should properly say there are but two
functions of the banks, because the re
ceiving and the payment may be said to
be one.
Those are the functions of a bank
How have they discharged their func
tions? When a bank takes money and
puts it in its coffers, unless the depositor
makes a contract otherwise, it is paya
ble on demand. Today, in the greatest
city on the continent, no matter how
much or how little money a man has on
deposit, he is absolutely debarred by the
rules of forty-six or forty-eight different
banks of that city from drawing it. lie
is told, with an impudence which has
never before been exercised even by
banks, that he connot have it.
Mr. Ueorge. W hat do the banks ao
with ihe money?
Mr. Teller. I understand that when a
man goes to a bank and draws his check
and says, "I want my funds which were
deposited with you, say last winter or
last spring," the officers of the bank
say to him, "we will give you an account.
we will certify a check, we will say that
sometime (no time being fixed) we will
pay you, but we will not pay you now
If that is not an act of insolvency, no
bank ever committed one.
One hundred and forty banks in other
parts of the country within the last
three months have closed their doors be
cause they were compelled to say that to
their creditors; and yet the great banks
of the city of New York, with an impu
dence and effrontery almost unheard of,
have declared that they will not recog-
nize Ithe Lht of a depositor to claim
his money n demand.
NEW Yi jtR AND THE OUTSIDE BANKS,
The banks have another function,
wnicn is to transmit monev from one
bank to another. Commerce can scarce
ly be carried on unless that function is
in active force. Business cannot be done
between New Orleans and Chicago and
New Orleans and New York, and all
around unless bills of exchange can be
used. They are the agencies of com
merce.
Have these banks fulfilled that func
tion? For more thau six weeks the banks
of the city of New York, and other cities
which I might mention, have simply de
clined to pay drafts drawn on them by
outside banks for the money that those
Danks nave on deposit. Between a city
that is entered by at least six railroad
trains a day, and can be reached in
twenty-four hours, and the city of New
York the rates of exchange have been $3
on the hundred; and between the city of
New York and the city of Philadelphia
there has been an absolute refusal on
the part of the'banks of Philadelphia to
pay drafts on the city of New York in
, any kind of money.
I have in my drawer here a letter from
1 a western banker, who tells me that
i through his bank he had a draft of $7,
) 000 on a Philadelphia bank, which he
' sent to a bank in the city of New York,
and the bank there returned it to bim
saying: "We will present no drafts to the
banks of Philadelphia, because they de
cline to pay." Then through other
agencies, this banker sent his draft to
Philadelphia for money admitted to be
long to the drawer, and the banks of
Philadelphia simply said: "We cannot
afford to pay this, and we will not pay
it."
The other morning when the senator
from Kansas Mr. Peffer introduced a
resolution here making an inquiry con
cerning the banks, there was fright in
this chamber, and we were told that we
were going to disturb the banks. Mr.
President, there is not a bank boy or a
page boy who runs the errands for a
bank in Chicago who does not know
that the banks of New York have sus
pended; there is not such a boy in the
city of New Orleans who does not know
that the banks of New York have sus
pended. It is public talk everywhere.
You cannot frighten the people anymore
than they have been frightened by that
kind of conduct.
These banks have abandoned their
functions as banks of deposit; they have
declined to perform the functions im
posed upon them by law, with the
money in their tills. They have broken
down as banks of exchange. They have
declined to keep the business of the
country in motion. Is it any wonder
then that there is stagnation in com
mercial circles when men who own the
money cannot draw it from the banks
where they have deposited it, and men
who owe debts cannot transmit the
money wherewith to pay in such a way
as that they will be sure it will reach
their customers?
This may be an attack upon banks.
I shall htar tomorrow from the public
press of New York that we are attacking
the banks. If these facts were unknown
it might possibly be said that it was not
worth while, in an excited state of af
fairs, to talk about them. But every
body is aware of them.
I again call the attention of the sen
ate to the conduct of the banks in the
early part of the spring just before the
adjournment of congress, when they be
gan to "hold up," if I may use a west
ern phrase, the treasury department in
order to compel it to issue bonds. They
then stated . to the department, "We
will give you a little money," and they
gave it; "You can not have any more,
and if you touch the reserve, if you get
below the auiouut which has been held
in the treasury, there will be a financial
panic and convulsion, and you dare not
do that."
The 8100,000,000 reserve ran down
to $90,000,000, but the world did not
come to an end. Business was infinitely
better than it was a few .days ago when
the reserve was over 8100,000,000.
Thev did not succeed in securincr from
congress $200,000,000 of gold bonds or
any other kind of bonds upon which
they could bank.
THE SCHEME OF THE BANKERS.
I may safely assume that the opinion
is very general in the country that a
scheme was organized early in the sea
son in New York for the purpose of cre
ating a financial panic which would com
pel an extra session of congress for the
repeal of the Sherman purchasing act,
and I think the well-known, undisputed
utterances of the . executive and the con
duct of the secretary of the treasury
bear out the inference that it was not to
be the act of the banks alone, but that
when the New York Sun says that the
bankers were to work not only in New
York, but elsewhere with the administra
tion, it spoke by authority.
I would not have anyone infer that I
believe the bankers of New York intend
ed to create just ttie condition of effairs
that now exists. I think they under
took to create a distrust and disturb
ance in the country that would justify
the president in calling congress at an
extraordinary time, and thus secure
action, first, on the purchase bill; sec
ondly, on the proposition suggested by
the senator from Ohio, and suggested
by them in their conference of bankers
with the secretary last spring the issu
ance of a large amount of government
bonds, upon which they could continue
to do banking business.
This panicgot away with them a little.
They rather overdid the business and
frightened the people beyond even what
they had intended. However they are
responsible for the condition, and if they
get hurt, they ought not to complain.
1 stated yesterday that banks have I
two great functions one to receive
money and pay it out, and the other to
transmit money from one section of the1
country to the other by way of bills of
exchange. I demonstrated that the
banks of New York City, Philadelphia,
Uoston, and of, perhaps, some other
cities, have absolutely broken down as
banks of deposit or banks of exchange.
CIRCULATION.
There is another function for national
banks and that is to maintain a circu
lation for the people. That was one of
the great purposes for which these banks
were organized in 1864. We were told
then as we have been told since, as we
were told by official utterances as late
as last December, that the banks of the
country were ready and willing, or would
be when properly organized to furnish to
the people of the United States a su
ciency of the currency which should be
always as good as gold.
Ihere are two things with reference to
the currency that the people are partic
ularly interested in; and which of the two
they are interested in most it would be
somewhat difficult to sav. They are in
terested primarily, I suppose, that there
shall be a sufficiency of money, for by a
sufficiency of money, only can you main
tain prices. By a sufficiency of money
only can you maintain the equity of con
tracts. They are also interested that it
shall be good money: that if the banks
undertake to issue circulation it shall be
as good as any money the government
issues.
I propose to deal with these banks for
a few moments as banks of issue, and I
think I can demonstrate very satisfac
torily to everybody that as banks of is
sue, they have been as great failures as
they have been as banks of deposit and
banks of exchange.
LHere follows a technical discussion,
more appropriate for a scientific work
than a newspaper, demonstrating their
complete failure to furnish a proper
amount of circulation.
TIME TO REFORM.
Iam opposed to the extension of the
(Continued on 6th page.)
DECLARES
A Free Silver Democratic Candidate
Will be Snowed Under.
PEOPLES PABTYT0G0 IT ALONE
The Democrats Will be Third In Al
States West of the Mississippi.
It Will Lose 80 Per Cent of Its Voters Who
Favor Gold and Gain Few
Silver Votes.
i.ne JNew lork world has been re
questing statements from prominent
men of all parties. Chairman Taube-
neck sent them the following:
St. Louis, June 20. The republican
party cannot secure a single elector in
any state west of the Mississippi river if
the silver republicans and populists
combine on a national ticket, which
have no doubt they will do.
ine silver democrats cannot carry
more than half of the southern states
without the aid of the populists and eil
B. E. TAUBENECK.
ver republicans. The moment the Chica
go convention declares for silver, 16 to
1, the democrats will lose at least 20
per cent of tijeir strength, which is the
sound money element who will vote the
republican ticket or remain at home on
election day.
vV ith a loss of 20 per cent the states of
Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia
and West Virginia will give their electors
to the republicans. The same loss in
Texas, Alabama, Georgia and North
Carolina will give those states to the
populists.
in all the old republican states west of
the Mississippi river, with the exception
of Iowa and California, the democratic
party is the insignificant third party.
while the peoples party is the strong
second party. The democrats cannot
secure a single elector from any of these
states without co-operating with the
populists, nor can they elect their state
and congressional tickets.
o president who favors the free coin
age of silver at 16 to 1 can be elected in
1896 without the assistance and undi
vided support of the peoples party.
11. L. Taubenpck.
Chairman Peoples Party National Com
mute.
Iu the New York World of June 24
there is a further statement from Mr.
Taubeneck in which he is reported as
follows:
Henry h. Taubeneck, chairman of the
populist national committee, said today
mat nis party wouia not accent an o d
line democrat as a candidate for presi
.dent.
"Do you consider Bland an old-line
democrat, and would you support him
11 nominated
"Bland is an old line democrat. I do
not believe he would receive the vote of
the populists or of the silver republicans
ror the reasons l have already stated
Lnless the demqerats see things in this
light we will hold our convention in St.
Louis and nominate our candidates for
president and vice-president on a distinct
platform. 1 would deplore such a condi
tion. It may defer the triumph of silver
lour years longer, but it will sweep the
democratic party out of existence and
leave the peoples party to throttle the
republican party four years hence. I
have reason to think that Blackburn of
Kentucky, Jones of Arkansas, Bankhead
of Alabama, Daniels of Virginia, and
other southern senators and representa
tives are inclined toward Teller and a
single currency plank platform. I shall
be in Chicago during the democratic
convention. There will be ample time
before nominations are made to lay be
fore them reasons which should make
them meet us half way."
HE LIED TO THE PEOPLE
And Now Parson Andrews Will Have to
Give Way for a Populist.
A preacher by the name of Andrews,
who, it will be remembered, was elected
te congress here a couple of years ago,
has admitted to some intimate friends
that he is feeling mighty "shaky," and
entertains some very grave fears ot de
feat in the coming campaign.
But this is no news to the people
of the big Fifth. The best men of
every party are fully aware of the peril
ous route the parson is compelled to
travel in submitting his
claims to the
people for re-election. They know he is
against bimetallism the vital question
now regnant in the whole west and south
the issue which he pretended to favor
until elected. They also know be voted
for bonds, after telling his constituents
that a man who would rote tor bonds in
time of peace is a traitor to his country;
they know that instead of being honor
able he has been corrupt; they know he
has lied to the poor people of this dis
trict, to gain their confidence for the
gratification of a personal ambition
they know that on the last hour of con
gress he introduced a sickly bill for th
coinage of "domestic" silver; and that
by his oollusiou with the moneyed class
he has forfeited the right to ask the sup
port ot tne debt-burdened and distressed
people who desire a faithful public ser
vant.
It is but natural, therefore, that all
eyes are turned upon the bimetallic
forces the populist party anxiously
awaiting the development of conditions
which will plant their leader squarely in
the tleld of the people s rights.
The people of this district never did
better thing than when they sent the
late Wm. A. McKeighan to congress.aud
the sighs of regret on every side indicate
a disposition to triumphantly elect an
other man of his principle this fall.
There are numerous brainy populists
sincere and honorable, who have been
mentioned favorably for congressional
honors. Among them, Prof. Jones
Judge Thompson, It. D. Sutherland, fig
ure most prominently. Ked Cloud Na
tion.
HARVEY'S ANSWER.
What He Has to Say of Whitney'i
Statement.
Chicago, June 22. My answer to Mr.
Whitney's statement, that the election
of a free coiuage president and congress
would plunge the country in ruin is as
follows:
On the election of a president and con
gres in November committed to free
coinage, the danger of a panic will pass
in a day. We will cross the danger line
the moment that fact is known. The
next day silver will begin to advance
and gold to decline. Declining gold will
coine out from its hiding in a few days
after the election, in a hurry to seek in
vestments and will go actively into cir
culation. It will seek to invest itself in
the things that are rising, for it will fall
in value. This is a law inexorable as any
of the certain laws of trade. 1 be wheat
iu existence is sure to fall in value when
it is known that a large new crop is com-
ng; the effect is felt before the crop is
harvested. So it will be with gold when
it is known that a new crop of money is
coming. Air. Whitney s statement ot
predicted ruin is the threat of Wall street
and is intended to frighten business
men and to intimidate the people. If it
is true that the money power can do
what is threatened, it is a sufficient reas
on for its overthrow, for treating it as
the enemy of the republic.
W. 11. HARVEY.
Author of "Coin's Financial School.'
MORE WALL STEET THREATS.
Come On The West and South are
Ready for You.
Now comes the New York Journal con
taining an interview of a New York dera
ocrat with Julius Chambers, a Washing
ton correspondent, in which the New
Yorker says: ,
"The western and southern men of our
party are certainly out of their minds,
ihey never have felt the weight of the
commercial interests of the east arrayed
solidly against them. The green-
backers and populists, siiventes and
grangers never have withstood a cavalry
charge by the combined money interests
of the country.
"Ihey will see it in November. The
south will suffer most, I fear. Its loans
will be called to the last dollar. Its cot
ton will be left to rot in the compresses,
because the railroads that are owned
and operated by eastern capitalists, in a
majority of cases at a loss, will refuse to
carry it. In the west every mortgage
that is held against every farm in the
silver states will be foreclosed. All lines
of credit for dry goods and groceries in
these independent regions will be closed,
because the eastern bankers and mer
chants regard the silver movement as
absolutely dangerous to the financial
future of the country."
Let them try it The eastern states
on t raise enough to feed themselves
three months out of the year. If they
don't get our beef, pork, corn, cotton
and wool they can go naked, freeze and
starve. They will get no more interest
money, either. Ed. Independent.
Will We Join His Party.
Austin, Texas, June 22. The Demo
cratic cougressional convention for this
the ninth congressional district, met here
today and renominated Joseph D. Say-
ers. lie addressed the convention and
tated that lie was unequivocally for
free coinage at 16 to land that that
issue was the only one on which he dif
fered from Cleveland, lie also said there
was no political doctrino that he would
ot advocate and no political rartv he
would not support rather than see the
populists gain control of the government.
Populist Indorse Teller.
Spokane, Wash., June 23. The Spo
kane county populist convention, held
today to select two delegates to St.
Louis, declared for free silver and in
dorsed II. M. Teller for president. H. N.
Maguire and C. W' Bushnall were chosen
as delegates.
AMERICAN SILVERDNION
An
Address to the
Nebraska.
People of
THREE-FOURTHS FOB SILVER.
Will This Immense Majority
Given Expression at the Polls.
be
The Fight of Old Wan to Make Men
This is to Keep Them no.
Free
American Silver League, Ileadquart
ers lor Nebraska.
Lincoln, Neb., June 18, 1896.
To all unconditional friends of silver i
Nebraska: Two of the existing national
political parties of the United States
have held their conventions, nominated
their candidates and defined their pol
1C10S.
une ot these parties has declared .in
favor of the existing gold standard and
against the free coinage of silver
as
standard money.
mi i . . .
meouier party has divided on that
issue, the east against the west practic
any, and has begun the canvas for the
presidency with two tickets asking the
suffrages of the people.
Another of the great political parties
will hold its national convention July 7,
next, and sufficient is now known to
warrant the conclusion that, that party
will declare for the free coinage of silver
at the, present legal ratio of 16 to 1
without waiting for the
consent of other nations.
concurrence or
A fourth national party, controlling
more than 2,000,000 votes will hold its
convention July 22, 1896, a party that
has always advocated the unrestricted
coinage of silver as primary money on
equal terms with gold.
It appears therefore that of the four
national parties, two will declare un
equivocally for free coinage of silver, and
that ou that question the prohibition
party is about equally divided.
It is unquestionably true that three
fourths of the people of the United States
favor the free coinage of silver as against
the existing gold standard.
Whether the will of this immense and
earnest majority can be given effective
expression at the polls next November is
the question of supreme importance then
to be settled by the American people.
me American silver organization
is
not a new party and may never be
pome a party, its purpose and aim being
to aid in securing unity oi action, that
those who think alike may be induced to
vote alike and by so doing clothe with
official power the voice and the will of
the great middle and industrial classes
who now toil without profit, that others
may pront without toil
The organization will hold a national
conference in St. Louis, July 22. 1896.
wherein Nebraska will be entitled to
fifty-one reprsentatives, to be selected
without regard to former political affil
iations, nationality, creed or color. It
is desired that the representatives shall
be men of broad and liberal views who
love their country and their kind, who
can sink the partisan in tne patriot and
who can lorget all personal considera
tions and unselfishly serve God and hu
manity in this hour of our national peril
and distress.
....
The question has been asked in this
state, "what would be the effect in this
country -on unborn generations, if, at
the close of the nineteenth century, the
people of the United States became so
corrupt that they repudiated one half
of their debts by paying them in money
worth only halt of its face value?" Let
ten million freemen answer in November,
"We will pay all our honest debts as
honest men with honest money, in full
and complete compliance with our con
tract, but we will not basely surrender
our homes and our liberties to exact-
rig Shylocks.native orforeign.who know
no country, serve under no flag.are loyal
to no yarty and who have no sympathy
with mankind."
If there is no danger along the lines
suggested, then there is no wisdom in the
repeated warning given us by our states
men and patriots in the past.
Daniel Webster said: "Liberty cannot
long endure where the tendency is to
concentrate wealth in the hands of the
few."
Wealth is so concentrating and the
power and spirit to resist its encroach
ments are growing less, because of en
forced idleness and poverty.
James A. Garfield said: "Whoever con
trols the volume of money of any coun
try is absolute master of all industry
and all commerce." Does not Wall
street control the volume of money of
this country?
Ihomas Jefferson said: "I believe
banking institutions are more danger
ous to our liberty thanstandiugarmies."
He also said: "They (the banks) have
already raised a money aristocracy
which has set the government at de
fiance." And so tbey have. Henry
Clews, the WhII street broker, in his
financial circular, speaking for Wall
street, May 24, 1896, says: "Wall street
as learned to believe that there are
greater potencies than party platforms,
than legislative subserviency to popular
ignorance," meaning legislative enact
ments of the popular will. Again Mr.
Clews says: "The near prospect of the
authorization of free coinage, a counting
of heads showing a certainty of two
thirds vote in the house and in tbe sen
ate for sixteen to one would evoke in
Wall street the kind of condi ons that
INDEPENDENT INDEX.
Paw 1
Teller on Banks.
Taubeneck's Declaration.
He lied to the people.
Harvey's answer. .
More Wall Street Throat.
Will We Join Die Party!
Popullstslndorse Teller. . .
American Silver Union.
Pae J
' Populist State Convention.
Lancaster Comity Populist Convention.
State Central Committee.
Sovereign for Tel lor,
Greenbacks and Silver In London.
Is Teller Our Moses f
Page g
Associated Press Reports.
Markets.
Page 4
Editorial. '
Miscellany.
at Chicago.
Washington Politics.
Now for Union.
Lincoln Foretold it.
Ex-Senator Ingalls Bolts.
Populists and Silver.
PageU
Nebraska Crop Report.
Denel County Described.
Cattle and Sheep Raising.
Populists Will Contests.
Page 7 '
No Use for Money.
Our Messenger's Wanderings.
Gone to Her Long Home.
Spicy Short Items.
Pages-
Insurance
Miscellany.
no congress has ever yet dared to disre
gard, and the cause of freecoinage would
ds overthrown at the moment when its
success seemed most certain. It is this
reserve power on which Wall street is
now relying,"
And what is this "reserve power on
which Wall street is relyinar?" Evident
ly the power to control the money of the
country and with it "all commerce and
trade," the power to inaugurate another
panic, as was done in 1893, compared to
wnicn Tne aangers oi jenerson s stand
ing army are as a dream. , An invading
army ui nan a mimon men in a cam
paign of years could not work the ruin
to the people of the United States that
the panic of 1893 has wrought, and yet
vau street boldly asserts that, should
the people of this country elect a con
gress that could pass a free coinage bill
over a presidential veto, Wall street
would overthrow the legally declared
will of the people by "invoking a pqwer
that no congress has ever yet dared to
disregard."
With a knowledge of these treasonable
utterances and the well known fact that
congress repealed the Sherman law at the
demands of Wall street, the question
suggests itself, "Who rules the American
republic?"
March 11 1896, New York bankers
sent out a circular to all banker in the
United States, urging them irrespective
of party affiliations to see that none
but "sound money," gold standard dele
gates were elected to any of tbe great
party conventions.
1'erhaps not in answer to this rennesf
but a mere coincidence, that the one
hundred and fifty thousand farmers of
the state of Nebraska were represented
in the St. Louis convention by twelve
bankers and lawyers, two merchants.one
stock raiser and one city official, as
gathered from the state press.
And this very able delegation selected
as the Nebraska member of the national
committee on resolutions the one man
on that delegation who declared that he
was in favor of tbe existing trold stan
dard and opposed to the free coinage of
silver, and that he believed the conven
tion platform ought to say so. All
honor to Peter Jensen for this uneoui vo
cal declaration of his convictions. "God
hates a coward," he said, "and tbe peo
ple admire courage," and so they do.
JNo larmer s voice was heard on that
delegation. Did the price of gold stan
dard wheat shut out the Farmer vote?
If so, who governs Nebraska? The peo
ple or Wall street?
As to our money, it is claimed on as
good authority as any that the coin
money of the world amounts to about
8,000,000,000 abou t f 4,000,000,000
in gold and about $4,000,000,000 in
silver.
Should one-half the volume of this
money be destroyed in any way, the
value or purchasing power of the re
maining half would be doubled, and the
value of all property would be divided
by tTo, or reduced one-half.
When silver was demonetized gold was
the standard money for less than forty
millions of people, bold is now doing the
work for more than two hundred mil-
ions. Uence an increased demand and
advancing standard of money value and
decreasing property value. It is not
claimed that one-half of the money of
the world has been destroyed by the de
monetization of silver, but as just stated
the demand for gold has been more than
doubled by the demands made on that
metal by Russia, Italy, and by some
other countries for storing, and by indi
viduals for hoarding, because of the los"
profit in all business enterprises
caused by declining prices, bad debts
and shrinking volume of trade.
i o stop this ruinous decline in prices,
and to check the rise in the price of gold
let the mints of the United States be
opened to the free coinage of silver,
thereby adding to the world's supply of
money and lessening the purchasing
power of gold.
No party in this country has ever
dared to declare unequivocally against
bimetallism. In 1888 the republican
party in national convention demanded
the use of both gold and silver as
money," and condemned the democratic
party then in power "for its enorts to
demonetize silver." Yet the republican
(Continued on 3th page.)
