Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-11-04
THEY SEE IT AT LAST.
Even the Bankers and Business Men Are
Beginning to Understand What Is Meant
by the Term Money Power.

Even the bankers and Business Men Are
Beginning to Understand What Is Meant
by the Term Money Power.
Mr.. J. p. Holden, of Emporia, Kan,
banker and lender of eastern capital
by profession and occupation, has writ
ten and published book to which he
gives the significant title of Metallic
Money and Hard Times" In this book
Mr.. Holden comes out unequivocally
for the demGne Lization of both gold and
silver ami the establishment of a scien-
tifc system Of finance, which shall use
and recognize nothing but legal tender
absolute paper money. His preface
reads as follows:
1T is within the power of 210 men,
constituting majority of the American
congress, by a single just legislative
act, to produce among the Industrious
people of the United States an era of
unprecedented prosperity, among whom
now reigns industrial depression; an
alarming condition of private, corpor-
ate and municipal indebtedness, and the
evils generally that are inseparable
from the Capitalization of q nations
wealth in the possession of a few of its
citizens.
''This seemingly exaggerated state
ment will, in the opinion of the writer,
appear the more so to those least famil-
lar with the one immediate cause of
existing social evils-gold and silver
money.
"An attempt is made by an appeal to
the reasoning faculties of such as are
capable of arriving at correct conclu-
sions from given statement of facts,
to establish the truth of the following
propositions viz:
81. That the present inequitable dis
tribution of wealth is attributable to
the operation of cunning legal enact
ments rather than to the superior
energy or mental power of the few
who now legally possess the bulk of
the nations wealth.
80 That, as in the southern states of
the union prior to 1861, few thousand
masters enjoyed the surplus earnings
of several million black slaves by the
operation of legal system of chattel
slavery, so, at the present time, by the
operation of a more subtle but equally
effective legal system of interest
slavery, do few thousand fnanciers
appropriate to their use, without max
ing due return therefor, the greater
portion of the earnings of the indus
trial classes of the country.
''3. That the wealth producers of the
world are enslaved by single errone-
Gus belief-a general belief that the
natural value of gold approximates its
coined value as money"
Explaining the causes which led to
the Investigation instituted by him.
which eliminated in the production of
his book, Mr.. Holden says;
"Some three years since, the writer
began an investigation of the various
theories advanced by different eco
nomic writers as to the immediate
cause of industrial depression; such
investigation being prompted by the
discovery that, although, in the prose-
cution of reasonably successful busi-
ness (that OF loaning eastern capital to
Kansas fariners) he was accommodating
property, yet from some unseen cause
such property was gradually decreas-
ing in value. In vain has he sought
for satisfa try explanation of this
fact IN the theory SO ably presented in
Progress and Poverty" and in the
writings of those who attribute busi-
ness paralysis to the effect of the dis
eliminating features of ? protective
tariff.
I'm venturing to present to the pub
lie the results OF his Investigation
+ which are SO widely at variance with
prevailing ideas-a desire to treat dry
subject as briefly as possible has re-
suited In an expression of his own
views rather than in discussion and
refutation in detail Of the theories of
those who attribute existing evils to
other causes In the presentation of
these views no claim is made by the
writer to exceptional philanthropy, his
| dominant motive being an earnest de-
sire to restore that value to property of
which it has been insidiously diyested
by the operation of a financial policy.
which in augmentinG the value of
money fin the interest of owners of that
form Of vaiue), necessarily proves in
| furious to all wealth producers and
property owners"
The publication of this book and tha
utterance of these sentiments by the
author are significant and noteworthy
events just as sure as the dwellers in
the cities tine professional and business
men and all those myriads engaged in
the labor of distribution) examine into
the soundness of the principles and the
business OF the demands of the Farm
ers' Alliance. just 50 surely will they
become willing and earnest workers
and voters for such demands I'm
trinsie value" specie basis" usury,
all must vanish in the light of investi-
CATION to make room for scientific
and equitable monetary system.
GEORGE G. WAED.