The great West., 1892-01-08

day only gold has been issued as de-
scribed.
Much money has gone to the people
through the national banking system
and few farmers it has been who have
borrowed direct from banks. Specula-
tors have done the borrowing, at
enormous rates, always presenting
their account to the producer when
they bid on products. The masses are
not conscious of how dependent they
are on national banks The farmer
goes to market with his product, wheat
say. When the speculator comes to bid
on it he knows his price at the elevator;
he knows the cost of storage, insurance
and transportation; he knows the cost
of interest in the bank for money with
which to pay for same; all this he
counts in and then makes very wide
margin for the fluctuations consequent
to speculation in futures. Then it is
that he makes his bid, the farmer losing
all these incidental expenses. The
speculator gives his check on a
bank with which he has previ-
ously arranged to deliver bill of
lading (which simply transfers the
wheat to the bank until the wheat is
sold, thus securing the bank These
banks do not deal altogether with money
extracted from the channels of trade.
To begin, few men-at least five
must take out articles of incorporation
and, in town of small size, purchase
$50, 900 worth of United States bonds.
In larger towns $1OO. 900 worth. These
bonds are held by the government,
locked in the vaults as security for 80
per cent. of their value, which may be
issued to the company in new bank
notes at a tax of one per cent. This
gives an auxiliary amount of money.
Note here the bottom, backing or secur-
ity given for these national bank notes
is the bond of the United States, an
obligation, if you please, of the United
States to pay; so it is the government
taking its own paper as security. We
are not afraid to say it is the first case
on record where an evidence of indie bt-
edness is accepted as security. 1t is
clear that on the governments solvency
depends the entire banking system.
The governments promise to pay is the
sole backing for the national bank
notes; then why is it not sufficient
backing for treasury notes issued as
money independently of the national
banks?
Thus we see the methods adopted to
carry out the provision of the constitu-
ton relating to the coinage of money
With metallic money, the free coinage
is an admirable plan. It gets into cir
culation without being preyed upon by
the money vultures. It is true as its
drifts through the channels of trade it
frequently lodges in the national bank
vault, where it is held for ransom.
No one has been heard to complain
that it was class legislation to allow
the gold or silver miner to have his
product changed to money. The sys-
tenn is void of complication. Not so
with national banks They Sc the
money at simply the cost of issuance,
just as the miner does. Then, through
their gigantic combination, they not
only retail the auxiliary volume out to
the people at a usurious rate, but clutch
every dollar from trade for speculative
purposes
How would a system do by which the
volume of money in circulation was
made absolutely dependent on the de-
mand for money? Let the method of
issuance partake somewhat of each of
the present plans Let it be issued as