Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-11-18

investment is 81, ITO; interest on bonds,
$40, and interest on bank currency, S72;
total, S112; per cent, ST. Now, let us
see what revenue the 81, ITO would
yield, invested in other channels,
as that is the only true way of
determining the advantage in favor of
the bank investment Say S1,17o at
per cent, (the rate as before, plus tax
on circulation) the interest would be
S1O5. 80. less tax, say $42. so; net S62. 80,
or $40 less than the bank investment
In other words, the bank investment
pays Q. 81 per cent, while the business
Investment pays 5. SO per cent. Upon
the basis of two per cent. bonds at par,
the banking investment would yield
0.2 per cent, as against the yield from
. business investment of S. SO per cent
But these are subordinate, correlative
questions. and are not to be compared
In importance to the vital and para
mount issues. which are inseparably
connected with the national bank ques-
ton Mr.. Wheeler has kindly furnished
in his communication arguments and
ideas tending to show the iniquity and
imbecility Of the whole system. For
AuoS8uSoS NO BoJS' OuEelys 0ou6UOr
Stewart and his co-miners could not
object to the government borrowing
money from our own people at one per
cont per annum, when it is now COM
pelled 70 borrow money and is paying
four per cent Shades of Lincoln, JEFF
ferson and Calhoun! Into what sort of
straits has our proud and mighty
nation fallen that 1t should have
to borrow money from any man or set of
men? A nation with sixty billions Of
national wealth, half of which has
been amassed in the last twenty years,
and yet compelled to borrow? A ma
ton of SO. 900. 900 people, possessing the
right and prerogative, under the con-
stitution ITO coin (stamp and issue)
money and regulate the value thereof" :"
and yet obliged to go to private indi-
viduals and crave the loan Of their
credit to use as money. Away with
such bosh! To perdition with the fall
lacies metallic currency" and ''specie
basis, upon which this impudent as
sumption is built
But will Mr.. Wheeler tell US just
where the government borrowed any
money at four per cent? Does he pre-
sumo to tell intelligent men that the
calling in and destruction of the peo-
pies money, and the issuance of inter-
est-bearing bonds in its stead, consti-
tuted the act of borrowing? That is a
new name for it. The people have al
ways called it robbery. And now for
Mr.. Wheeler's implied threat. which 1
italicized just above as follows: "And
this loss must be borne by the people
in the way of tax of high interest to
the borrower" That is to say that if
the people. in their organized capacity
as government do not accede to the
| demands and bow to the dictation of
the banks. granting them such terms
as they demand, then, in that case, the
people, as individuals. will in any event
have to pay the demanded tribute, in
the shape of high rates of interest
upon the money they must have and
which they can obtain from no other
source. This should cause Andrew
jackson to turn over in his tomb. And
oh! the impudence of it, the calm as
surance and mighty assumption. These
men aspire to usurp the peoples pre-
rogative of coming money and regulat-
ing its value by controlling its volume
and debating the rate of interest it
shall bear, and having almost reduced
the masses of the people to condition
of serfdom with their internal gold
basis, they now seriously attempt to
affix limit beyond which the volume
of money must not go. This is the
peoples first Indictment against the
banks. "Thst they usurp rights, which
are the sole prerogatives of the whole
people through their congress-" In
the Cincinnati convention, these rights
were defined and demanded as follows:
The right to make and issue money
Is q sovereign power to be maintained
by the people for the common benefit,
hence we demand the abolition OF
national banks as banks of issue, and
as substitute for national bank notes
we demand that legal tender treasury
notes Be issued In sufficient volume "a
transact the business of the country on
\ cash basis. without damage or special
advantage to any class or calling, such
notes 10 Be legal tender in payment OF
Al debts. public and private"
And now l have . question to ask
Mr.. Wheeler. He demands that the
government shall refund the bonds aa
one per cent, which he says viii just
about defray the expense of engraving
the currency plates. etc. and then upon
those bonds issue to the banks their
face value In bank bills. redeemable in
greenbaclxA Now. what ] want to
know l.: If the people were
TO loan their credit to themselves.
As individuals. instead Of TO the
banks ut rata of interest to cover ex.
ponseR how long would it take the
people 70 pay on those bonds. with q
shaking fund amounting annually tc
~ gnD thGy now pay banks u The