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The Commoner.
5
FEBRUARY 7, 1913
about forty years the First National Bank, of
which he is the responsible chairman, had made
profits amounting to eighty millions of dollars
on an investment of five hundred thousand
dollars, a single yearly dividend amounting to
nine million five hundred thousand dollars.
Another thing that has been proven under
oath is the immense power over banks and bank
ing exercised by clearing house associations.
These are voluntary private organizations which,
in spite of the grave and almost indispensable
functions which they discharge in the banking
system of the country, steadily refuse to be in
corporated and thus bring themselves under
reasonable public control and supervision.
It has also been shown that through identity
of directors in potentially competing national
banks and in subsidiary companies of national
banks, with identical directors, officers and
stockholders, it has been possible, and in many
cases customary, for bank directors to borow
from their own banks beyond the limits set by
the law. The banks refuse to make public the
lists of the assets upon which they loan money
or the names of the borrowers. This system
of secrecy has made it impossible for the
depositors In the seven thousand five hundred
national banks, with total individual deposits of
nearly six billions of dollars, to know how far
the bank directors are using the assets for their
own personal profit, the nature of the securi
ties on which loans are made and the character
and identity of the borrowers.
Comptroller of the Treasury Murray testified
that the national bank examiners, in appraising
the value of stock exchange securities as against
the loans made upon them, usually took the
current published quotations of stock exchange
prices as the standard of value. Yet the New
York stock exchange and other similar ex
changes are voluntary private associations which
absolutely refuse to be incorporated, and steadily
fight against all attempts to subject them to such
regulations of law as will provide an adequate
safeguard against "wash sales" and other
methods by which stock exchange quotations are
manipulated up or down according to the pur
pose of stock gambling pools and individuals.
It is sober truth to say that all this makes a
black picture. Mr. Baker was forced to con
fess to the Pujo committee that if the new
power over American money and credit got into
the hands of bad men it would be a dangerous
thing for the country.
Mr. Morgan is seventy-six years old, and has
not been in the active management of his firm
for about seven years. Mr. Baker is seventy
years old, and on the witness stand he declared
that he had had little to do with the details
of his bank for five or six years. Mr. Stillman
is sixty-three years old. In every direction the
great figures in the control of money and busi
ness are disappearing. The stupendous power
which they have massed in a few hands is
about to pass to new and younger men. It is
admittedly a power for inexpressible harm to the
people when in the wrong hands. It is actually
a power that should not be permitted in any
hands. Such ability to control the capital and
credit of a great nation Ib a menace to liberty
and progress. Its very existence is immoral and
anti-social.
CHANGES THAT MUST COME
The most dangerous and evil features of this
system, through which the business and indus
trial life and 'enterprise of the United States are
being strangled and which now challenges the
strength and courage of the people, can be elimi
nated by intelligent national legislation.
No bank director should be permitted to serve
as a director in any potentially competing bank.
The names of all bank stockholders and de
tailed lists of all bank assets should be made
public.
No national bank should be permitted to be
come a member of a clearing house association
which is not Incorporated under national or
state law and subject to regulations which will
prevent it from denying membership to any
solvent bank.
The stock exchanges should be compelled to
be incorporated under laws that will prevent
the manipulation of quotations by fictitious
purchases or sales and that will provide for a
just and open method of determining when
stocks shall be listed and unlisted, for the
power to put prices up or down, and should not
be exercised in secret by irresponsible private
committees. This compulsion to incorporation
can be exercised through a law prohibiting the
use of the United States mails or of interstate
telegraphs or telephones for the quotations of
any unincorporated stock exchange.
The minority stockholders in all interstate
corporations should have representation in the
"The Folks at Home" Are With You
Mr. President
Editorial in the Cleveland (Ohio) Press:
There was a time when tho gamblers in Wall
street, arrogant with tho power that control of
the country's credit gives, could by a throat of
panic bring Undo Sam to his knees in terror.
That was in tho days when the producing mil
lions had very little to do with the men who
constituted tho government in the days when
government was run as a private and select
affair through Standard Oil's payroll from 2G
Broadway; from the Philadelphia offices of the
Pennsylvania railroad; from Jim Hill's offices
in St. Paul; and from Harrlraan's headquarters
in New York and San Francisco, aided when
necessary by lessor overlords here and there.
Those were good old days for the money
kings, for the people wore as docile and unsus
pecting as sheep at tho shearing.
And they surely wero sheared.
Thank heaven, times have changed! Twice
since tho election of Wilson the Wall street zinc
has been rattled and the Wall street powder
flashed in stagy imitations of financial thunder
and lightning designed to scare him into aban
doning his progressive pledges.' Wilson hasn't
soared worth a cent. He has just stood pat and
smiled.
Tho pressure may incrcaso until his mottle is
desperately tested. The forces of privilege aro
formidable when focused. Our history is strewn
with the wreckage of men who have dared the
money power. Ono man, even though clothed
with the mighty authority of tho president of tho
United States, can't do much unless loyally
backed up by the massoH of his fellow citizens.
This is to inform you, Mr. President-elect, that
tho homo folk aro with you and will stay with
you as long as you fight for them. Nobody
relishes even the throat of a panic, much less
the serious possibility of one. But the plain
people know that there isn't tho ghost of a
reason for a panic now, except among persons
who aro afraid of Justice.
If a panic should be manipulated they will
grit their tooth and go through with it, cost
what it may. And they will help you to make
certain that thoso who are responsible for it
are gibbeted as high as Human and twice a
dead.
directorates through a simple system of cumu
lative voting.
NO DOOR CLOSED TO OPPORTUNITY
What Is there in such legislative suggestions
as these that they should not be frankly adopted
if not in form, at least In principle, by the men
whose united genius and energy havo been
sufficient to amass and direct wealth on a scale
hitherto undreamed of?
Remedies are necessary. That point is be
yond discussion. Tho existing money trust, or
whatever It may be properly called, can not and
will not be permitted to endure. It is incom
patible with public safety and the general public
welfare. It closes the door to equality of oppor
tunity and thus tramples in the dust the moral
idea upon which the republic was founded. It
strikes at rich and poor alike. If allowed to
continue and grow it must be inevitably an un
answerable argument for state socialism, for
there can be no competition of any kind in a
country whose private capital and business
credit is in the power of a few Individuals
working in concert.
To enter into another prolonged grapple with
the radicalized American people on such a
question as this would bo madness. Common
sense, experience and patriotism alike condemn
such a course. This is not a matter to bo
settled in a spirit of arrogance or pride. It
reaches down too deeply into tho roots of things.
It touches every bank, every railroad, every
insurance company, every industry, every busi
ness and every home in tho country. To attempt
the dictatorial, belligerent and cynical methods
of the past would be simply to inflame tho
popular mind into a passion for retribution.
Mr. Morgan, Mr. Stillman and Mr. Baker, all
white-haired men who have gained their for
tunes in this their native country, should be the
first to propose and support reforms that should
altogether do away with the abuses revealed
through tho Pujo committee. They should
come out In the open at once and take advantage
of the present great opportunity to secure peace
and a reasonable and intelligent solution of the
situation by taking tho lead themselves in the
work of setting 'our national business house in
order, a work that will be done whether they
assist in it or not. Surely in a country like
this there should be vision enough, leadership
enough and courage enough to be found in the
great banks, railway companies and other great
corporate enterprises to successfully bring about
a restoration of the older and better condition
of financial and commercial freedom in America.
The character of the legislation that must in
evitably be enacted by congress to deal with
the tyrannous and unendurable conditions which
have heen confessed to congress through its
committee will be largely determined by the ex
tent to which the present leaders in American
finance, commerce and industry now exert them
selves to abate the evils complained of and pro
vide against their recurrence, and this will also
considerably influence the future attitude of the
people toward "big business" and high finance
The passage by congress of the laws provid
ing for the government regulation of railroads
and railroad rates was bitterly opposed by Wall
street and tho railroad magnates. President
Roosevelt tried to get the rajlroad interests
to propose tho law themsolves so ihat they might
get credit with tho public for sijch, a broad and
reasonable attitude. Tho mattef was discussed
at a conferenco of railroad presidents in the
Metropolitan club In this city, but the old blind
rule-or-ruin spirit fell upon them nnd it was
decided to fight tho president's moderate and
necessary scheme of government control and
beat It on tho floor of congress. Everybody will
remember what a crushing defeat the confede
rated railroad interests met when once tho mat
ter was fought out In sight of tho whole coun
try. Yet that wise and practical legislation has
so changed and bettered conditions that tho
former fierce, vengeful and widespread outcry
against railroads has died out and little is now
heard but moderate, good-natured criticism.
WILL THEY HELP OR HINDER?
What will tho men who havo it In their power
to get rid of tho present concentration of money
and credit In the control of a few men do, now
that they aro faco to faco with an awakened
and quickened national conscience? Will they
be foolish enough to invite a costly and destruc
tive war, with possible results that no man can
foresee, or will they seek peace and good will by
acting together with wisdom, patriotism and
energy whilo thoro is yet time?
President-elect Wilson sounded again tho new
note that is thrilling tho purpose and policy of
this continent when he warned tho business men
of tho country that they themselves must help
tho government to solve tho business problems
of tho nation.
KANSAS1 GOOD FORTUNE
When the people of Kansas read Governor
Hodges Inaugural thoy will understand how
fortunate" they were In securing him. He Is a
reformer just such an ono as his friends
counted on.
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READ IT TO YOUR NEIGHBOR
Q
A. L. Blxby, writing In the Lincoln
Neb.) Journal, says: Some men harbor
the foolish notion that one Is greatly
honored In the holding of a public office,
whether qualified to fill the place accept-
ably or not. The only real honor is that
which one earns in the faithful perfor-
mance of his duty to those he serves.
One may break into the legislature, or
obtain a certificate of election to con-
gress (under false pretenses) and re-
turn home smeared heavily with obloquy,
and where is the honor and glory to him,
In having been trusted only to betray the
confidence reposed In him. The honor-
able man deserves consideration for what
he is, and not for what has been done for
him by his indulgent neighbors.
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