The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-11-15
THE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK

II al We estimated II At =, AK. 600 Wn We
should fall short Of the amount.
The causes that produce these terrible
disasters have been very little discussed,
and what has been said has been calcula
ted to divert or turn the public mind away
from the real causes.
When Wildcat banks were IN vogue
the bill failure Of the bank was looked up
On as the principal cause, and the bank
failure was attributed to over speculation,
and Misrepresentation was strongly mixed
up in production. The merchants
had over-traded, and as produce brought
little or nothing the farmers were accused
of producing 50 much As e glut the mar
ket.
Now the notes Of woe are sounded loud
and long that il is the investment and
speculation in non-productive railroad and
other stocks, and thus the attention Of the
public is to be diverted and divided to dis
pute over tweedledum and tweedledee,
which the bankers are a solid phalanX
laying their well digested plans to have
Congress pass an act 70 aid them IN get
ting out Of the dilemma they are nov in
by some indirect aid from the National
Treasury, while under some new-fangled
scheme they secure, under some enticing
name. another banking lease to rob the
industrial classes
t. meet this, meetings should be held
all over the country, IN which this bank
ing and railroad monopoly should be fully
discussed and the system explained ii all
its details Besides this, at every meeting
wcll-drawn petitions Oh memorials should
be drawn, petitioning Congress for All Is
sue Of the peoples convertible money with
no other limit than the extent Of the ma
,ional debt. Of course the whole Wild
| cat crew Of monopolists would howl and
the commercial papers would be filled at
the bankers expense with their doleful
notes Of woe about an inflated and ire
deemable currency. but let them howl, il
is the only measure which will kill the
banking aud stock jobbing crew. Stop
their usury robbery monopoly and lay a
firm and the only foundation to redeem
the people from. the banking and railroad
monopoly. The first question then to be
discussed and acted upon at this pr sent
hour is the cause and the cure Of these
financial pressures.
The two primary causes may be stated
to be usury and limited currency i'll the
place of money in the hands and under
the absolute control Of corporate despot-
ism and monopoly as uurelenting as the
autocrat Of all the Russias.
We place usury as the first and PRIMARY
cause The short period III which these
pressures now occur might be extended to
eriod Of fifteen or twenty years even,
under the 'tsury robbins system now III
vogue, if there was any reasonable provi-
sion made for an increased issue of cur
rency, although such an experiment un-
the time while it increased the evil For
the reason, as we shall presently show,
then the interest would soon absorb all
the increased issue. But from the fact
that there is 50 General an impression in
the public mind that the present issue is
SO large that it causes a depreciation u the
currency, it would very likely hasten
general panic and that panic would be
the more virulent III proportion to the in
creased amount Of the currency circula-
ton
But we come nov t. consider the bear
ing which usury has in producing these
financial crashes The curreucy in cir
culation at the present time is not $500
100000. Its utmost limits would not
much exceed S7OO, 900, 900, if It was all
ahoat But the reserves and the amount
in National and State treasures and lying
idle in the banks would reduce the actuvl
circulation much below SJOO, OOO, 900, but
put it at 800, 900, 900; that amount can
not under the present and past systems be
increased, but by usury it can easily be
decreased until there is not one-third cur
rency enough to meet the demand for usu-
ry, say nothing about the principal. To
understand the full force Of this usury
statement, it must be borne in mind that
usury is constantly accommodating, not sim
ply on the amount Of money loaned, but
the same amount may be re-loaned several
times the same day not only 50, but the
principle introduced into business by usury
is TO make interest payable on all notes,
bonds and accounts individual and corpo-
rate for lands, goods, wares and merchan-
disc, the amount Of which usury transac-
tons exceed the amount Of currency in
circulation more than tenfOld. So that in
stead Of sos, 600, 600 bearing interest, we
have some 80. OO0, O0O, 900 interest bearing
obligations. Out of this vast sum large
majority has only the interest paid when
it falls due; and it is safe to assume that
upon one-half of this amount from 10 per
cent per annum to per cent per month
asury under the usury lAw is paid, or
agreed to lie paid, for this special privilege
Of being eaten up or skinned alive by these
usuEy. obligations The character u usury
il lem understood by its Hebrew origin
that n being 80 bite like serpent, and