Ami
- Vol. XVI. ; - LINCOLN, 'NEB., OCTOBER 6, 1901 No. 20
111 ... ' u. " n"; i
the money power E5;rh:
It will be well in the very beginning
of this speech to correct the error so
prevalent among the people that popu
lists are opposed to all banks and
banking systems. Like eve.y other
tenet of the people's paity its position
on banking, as well as upon the money
question haVbeen persistently misrep
resented by the public press. Fopii.ists
.are universally opposed to tanivs of
issue, but recognize the legitimate
functions of a bank and prize them as
highly as any one. ;
The Populist Banker
For a concrete example, let us take
this beautiful little town. Thuc are
some twenty different kinds oi busi
nesses carried on here. Every day, I
am informed, there are about $3,000 in
money paM in to these business houses
some days many times more. Ail these
business men want some safe place to
keep that money until it is sent off to
buy more goods. They take it to the
banker who agrees to safely keep it
without charge and pay it back on de
mand. The banker performs a useful
act. He has constructeda place where
the. money, is measurably safe tiom
robbers, and he charges nothing to the
depositors for this service.
- The experience of centuries has
taught the banker., that, there w 11 al
ways be a certn - per cent of vthat
has agreed to pay every doi.a.oi it
back on demand, he can sa ely loan
out a certain part of it and in that
way he gets pay for-hls services.- All
authorities upon banking agree that it
is not safe for the banker to loan
more than 15 per cent of these deposits
and when the national banking law
was first enacted the banl er ;was ob
liged to keep a- 25 per cent . reserve.
So far ther'bahUer is an nonstable
and efficient servant of societ and is
doing as much toward the upb-.-iiding
of your community and town &s any
business man in it; But he does even
a greater .service. There was. a ;oung
man in this town, bo I was tofd, today,
who was a miller. He had be jii work
ing at that trade for some years, was
prudent and frugal and had saved
about $3,000. With that amount of
money he could dam the stream near
by, and put up a mill that would be a
great accommodation to the f aimers
and the residents in the tpwu. b'uch
a mill would tend to bring traue to the
town'and help build it up help your
schools and your churches but $b,000
was not enough to put Fn all the ma
chinery needed and furnish money to
run it. Here the banker, who was. a
man of prudence and business ability,
looked the whole matter over. Ho was
convinced that the young man was
honest, knew bis business and tnat a
loan to him was safe. So h iet the
voung map have ,$1,500 and the mill
for three- years. The loan has beer re
paid, the young man has bulit x nice
residence in your town his chi.dren at
tend your excellent school, and he
helps support your churches, &; of
which would not have been Jrr.c, if
you had had no banker, and each mer
chant had kept his money in hi.- own
safe until he sent it off to purchaso
more goods. In an investigai'ou that
did not occupy me more than turec or
lour hours I found several oth? enter
prises, even in this small tcvr .hat
could never have come into eir fence,
had you not had a bank her;. With
that kind of banking the pou-.iisls
have no quarrel.
Banks of Issue
. But when it comes to nanks of issue,
that is an entirely different iu.,Uon.
If your banker here, whom I highly
respect, although for want of Informa
tion he honestly believes tha I am a
wild-eyed anarchist and socialist, alt
done up 'a one pae.'age, ha 1 taken
hlsj $r,0ua with which he -slabiii.hfd
his ltttl bank, bought a novrnnunt
bond with It, Hint th bond to Wash
ington and received laek his $V0 and
continued to collect Interest on bin
bond J'lnt the satno as If he ha 1 not
sent It to Washington at nil. h would
have been granted a special irlvi!c;e
to Ret double Interest on hie money.
Then If hp hat! gone Into the biMlnoss
of Inflating the currency by 4frc.tir.R
ft "credit money," as It H catted, pio-
moted unsound business ventures for
the sake of getting his "credit money"
to drawing interest? carefully pi ovwing
that he lost nothing on the loas, if
every time he had found a man in hard
lines who must have money to fay his
debts, he discounted that mau a note
at about 25 per cent, in a fey jears
you would have had a community
made - up mostly of' renters ana pau
pers, just as they have down in New
York city today, while a few would
own everything and the many would
toil for a bare existence.
The Plutocratic Banker
There Is. a community not tat" from
here that is in exactly that situation.
The land is just as productive ; as it
is around here; the people are just
as industrious, but the bank1 down
there owns many of the fa. ins ; and
has mortgages on most of the othei-3.
Many of you here know the town
I need not mention: it. The renters
come and go. The farm houses and
barns are going to decay. TUo groves
are neglected and the trees are dying.
There is no happiness in the laces
of the people and even the banker
himself wears a sour -vissage and 'is
forever denouncing the residents be-
LABOR
iTBIBBITETfl'tlWlsT'flM
Sa ii u u iLwwftp&m
. The laboring men of New York . City planned a
labor banquet in honor of Thomas E. Watson; Peo
pie 8 1 arty candidate-for president. . Preparation's
were made to accommpdate one thousand guests at
the banquet board; .Howl well these laboring men
"have succeeded in demonstrating their great interest
in the cause of the People's Party in New York,
state,, where one of theirj own number,' Alfred j. v -
BoultoD, heads the ticket for governor, is evidenced
by the following telegram received at the hour of
going to press: "
TELEGRAM.
New York, Oct. 5, 1904.
Editor Independent, Lincoln:
Watson dinner remarkable success.
A thousand dinners: Tremendous ova- -tion
to Watson. Masterly speech by him.
The Empire State will give the great
Georgian fifty thousand votesy
henry m. Mcdonald.
frTiroli
edition next week. Seiid in your orders for extra
copies at once. -
come to a stand still and starvation
cause they don't pay., their interest
and rents on time. The difference in
these two towns results from tue tact
that you have a banker here practic
ing populist theories of banking and
down there they have one who has
been operating upon republican
theories. -
However I suppose that if I called
your banker here a populist ne would
want to fight, (laughter) Hut that is
exactly what he has been doing, and
it is only for want of intormatlon, he
imagines that he is not a populist.
Of course In a popular address a
political speech. If you are so pleased
to tall it I can not go technically Into
the science of banking. I can only in
very imperfect way, point out Kime
of Its willent feat tiros. The bunking
businctisi creates a flood of money,
Som times, It lx called '"credit money,"
idino tlmoa "bank rtdiM," and one
writer. Mr. UrlRln, htM called it "ho.
cu poUus" monty. Hut wha ( vi r it
ia tailed It "" money and jrrtcumn
all the functions of money f.nat
volumn have leen written by eatned
men uwn this fmhj'ct. and ! hardly
Know bow, In a few words, to cjp'A'n
the -power - and force , of this sort of
money. Perhaps I can illustrate It
in some degree by a little thiag that
came under my own observation.
A Bankrupt Republican
In 1893 I passed through the little
town of Fpstoria, Ohiq. The train was
disabled and we. had to remaU there
for two or three hours. , Every factory
was closed. Not a wheel was turning.
The merchant stood idle benina his
counter. The; citizens were standing in
little groups about the village, and the
blackness of dlspair rested upuj every
thing. I enquired what thj ' trouble
hvas. The citizens said that th's manu
facturing plants ana mucn oi me town
was owned by the secretary of the
treasury, Mr. Foster, and thst he had
failed. (Mr. Foster believed that
nothing but gold could be money and
the practice of that belief had brought
him as well as many hundred thou
sand more to bankruptcy.) ;
I said to , the citizens; 'Why all
this despair and gloom? All the prop
erty is here that was here a week ago.
All the money is here, none of it has
been destroyed. The citizen art all
here and are as willing to work as
they ever were. Why has every thing
seems td be facing you?"
It was some time before anyone re
plied, and I pressed the question time
and again. At last one man said; "I tan
again. At last one man said " 'I can
tell you what has caused this terrible
disaster, and it is a greater disaster
than if the whole town nad been
burned down. Tho banks reusco to
extend the usual amount of eierM to
Mr. Foster. If the town had' been
burned down, with the amount of in
surance that Mr. Foster carrier and
the usual credit that the" banks had
been giving him, t lere would Lave
been no twffeiing here, for be would
have replaced the build Ingsj, mq would
all have work until they were Unshed
and tho factories would have suited
np ngaln! Now it, seems that th.ie Is
nothing but utorvatlon ahead ot m,"
You can understand from tl u in
cident what nn Important part this
thing called "credit money" pltt) In
producing prosperity or brliulr.' des
truction upon tho people, an t d:at in
part of thl.i great qneittion of banking.
That Object Ltnon
The next day after that ty conic
panic struck uh In IHict, there m jat
Ai much money m there had ever Ueu,
but this credit money had disappeared
in the twinkling of an eye. 'Che men
who held that awful power in their
hands did not realize what a force
they controlled. They simply proposed
to give us a little "object lesson," but
they brought poverty and distress up-
on this country, lasting for six years. -The
number of insane, and the suicides
that it produced can never ba knoAvn,
but want and suffering spread all over
the land. The echoe of their moans
is still In our ears.
Such a thunderbolt, - more powerful
than was ever, launched by Jove, can
be hurled at the prosperity ' and and
business of this country at any time
without a moment's notice. .Men can .
have no warning of Its coming. Dunn's
weekly s. review at the close of 1S92
said: "The. most properous year ever
known closes today, with strongly fav-'
orable indications for tho future." The
last business day preceding tho panic"
disclosed not even a cloud du the fi
nancial; horizon. The next day there
swept over the nation' a fiananciul
hurricane before .which the business"
structures of the whole, natlc u " v,cnt
down. .The "credit money'. of " tlie
country had .disappeared. The same
awful power rests in the hands oi the'
bankers today. In.,fact it 'is even .
greater , than it was in : rav
accprdtpgjothejJfflcial ..reports of lho ,
sworn - f a t pmon tontt rZ r.-rf::Xt J
there is over $7,500,000,000 of this
credit ; money, which carries with it
all the functions of money and per
f6rr8 all the ofllces of money in these '
unitea states. Comnared to" this vat i
volume, .all the silver , and sold and !
r,reen.oacKjs is but a ? bagatelle. The '
disappearance of i this money aa; Vn'
1833 1 ,wo44 create a greater disaf,! er '
thavwarrceUnce and famine. The
"power to destroy? is In the' hands of
me, Daniters.i An order to refuse utl ;
loans and call in all loans out&tlndfng',
is all that is necessary to destrev it.
There la' nothing "intrinsic" not 'even
rt m . .1 A .1 l a. i . . . - a . ..... . :
rne power to control the destiny of
the nation" lies In It. , That in what
populists . refer to when they &pealc
of 'the money power."
; The 1 Money Power .
' Go .down any business street of any
city in the land and ask the mtu who
business what would happen if Iheir
bank credits were shut off and you
will not find one in a hundred, who
if he answered you truly, b'.t wo-ild
say; "I would have to shut up within'
a wek." I ; A careful investigation by
any. honest,, competent man will
convince him that not more ihan ten1
per cent of tho business of this co;;n-
try is transacted with money. Indeed -it
is sometimes asserted that that not'
five per cent oiti'isso transacted.1
that If the credit money was destroyed
that CO per cent of business would be
destroyed, and "the power to deploy"
is in the hands of a few men down on
Wall street.
Jackon's Courage
When NIckolas Diddle com? to An
drew Jackson, telling Jackson that he
could not fight the national bank and
described the pover that Ijc bank
could exercise, Jackson InUau of
bending before the odds against hlra
replied: "If the national btak has
that much power, then II mua; be de
stroyed." (Applause.) Tho populist
looks this mighty force in the fuce and
with Andrew Jackson says: 'It mi'st
be destroyed."
How can the creation of this my
thical money be controlled? U there
iany power In the people to do It?
Dullness Men
If I have found It dlfilcult to explain
to you what tho "money po.ut" U,
1 shall have fttlll more dlfiuutly In
explaining to bard working u.ca nucli
as comport thH audienre. the many
technical ultlltfrH that underlie
tho citation of this money and we
muni un b i jtand that, before Ae ran
move toward the controlling of this
power that dominates every tltins In
the- business world, let tne s.iy that
it hai become the fashion to euli only
thiwe men who engagt In trade fur