St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-27
THE NATIONAL BANK TRUST.

10 tne Editor or the Globe:
The able and timely article in the
DAILY GLOBE of the oath inst, de-
Scriptive of the various trusts which
af1iict and curse our country and its peo-
pie, entirely omitS all mention of
trust which for evil outranks all the
others. Like the others, it is creature
fIthe Republican party. The work it
has done was designed from the begin
ming. Its mission was and is to fix the
price to be put upon every days labor
and upon every commodity of the farm,
the factory or the workshop. Its meth
DDS of producing these disastrous re-
suits was i'll obtaining control of the
volume of money which the business
and laboring community might have,
thus fixing the price upon labor and it's
products. Its hostility extends to
every form of currency the
material for which is so
abundant that it places its volume
beyond their control. For a quarter of
a century, nearly, it has been exercising
an usurped sovereign prerogative con-
ffded by the constitution exclusively to
the federal government. 1t is the
octopus which your article should have
designated the National Bank Trust.
The precious lot of knaves who organ
but their government its victim. They
legislated that the obligations of the
government, its treasury notes, should
not be valid to pay the interest on it's
bonds, nor received for import duties at
the custom houses; that these should
be paid in coin, a commodity that the
government just then happened to be
without. They also legislated that the
treasury notes should be exchanged at
par for nOn-taXable government bonds,
bearing per cent interest, and that the
government might anticipate the inter-
est Oh the bonds not to exceed one year.
Now the knayeS are ready for
business. The government collects its
import duties in coin that it had no use
for, except to pay interest on its bonds;
the bOndhOlder had no use for the coin.
except to exchange it with the importer
for treasury notes, So OF which are re-
quired to buy one of coin, the importer
paying the coin to the custom house,
which handed il over to the bondholder
again in payment of interest On his
bond. Thus was the robbery continued
from day to day, week to week, month
to month and year to year, until the
fraud of frauds, the resumption act,
took effect Jan. l, 1879. Associated in
this national bank trust are more than
$500 of these individual corporations.
What they are and how they work is
best described in the letter of presi-
dent of one of these banks Oh surren-
dering the trust to the stockholders.
The bank of which he was president
was the First National Bank Of Indian
apolis. WequOte from his letter:
81 congratulate the officers and stock
holders of our enterprise. The bank
has been in operation fourteen years
NV fol Of
100000. In the meantime it has vol
UNFAIRLY returned 100000 of capital
stock back to its stockholders besides
paying them in dividends S1,496,1 $50,
part of which was i'll gold; and now l
turn it over to you with capital unim-
paired and $327, 200 of undivided earn
ings on hand. To this may be added
the premiums on United States bonds
at present prices, $4,000; besides quite
large amount for destroyed bills
Now let us recapitulate and realize
this one trust out of $500 similar ones.
The average premium on gold, when
this bank started, was such that its
100000 in bOnks cost but $3.50, 900.
Capital returned. ............ S50OOO0
Dividends to stockholders. ....... 1.496, $50
Undivided earnings ............. 1927, 600
Premium on bonds. 800. ......... $4,000
Profit in purchase of bonds. ..... 250, 900
Total profits ..................$2,9 300. $50
This shows that this trust Oh gold
basis, at simple interest, received more
than 66 per cent annual interest. This
undemocratic trust is the creature of
Republican legislation. The first and
highest duty of Democratic congress
and administration is to pay the bonds,
sand wipe out the national banking sys-
tenn, and restore to the government its
Legitimate function of providing the
country with its circulating medium.
Il w. II. MEAD.