Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-02-17
PEOPLES BANKS.


United States.
The debt burdened farmer, the pow
erty-stricken laborer and the business
man who is trembling on the verge of
bankruptcy, ali suffer from the same
causes, and would be benefited by the
same measures of relief. Neither the
producers of wealth nor the legitimate
business classes who render useful
service by its exchange. have any con-
trolling power over the machinery by
which all exchanges are effected. BY
law and custom, money Is the medium
by which all debts must be paid on the
demand of the creditor. The price of
products Is expressed in the language
of money, and when prod lcts change
hands money is the consideration
Hence money is the chief factor in the
mechanism of exchange, and money is
controlled by the favored few, who by
law are enabled TO dictate the manner
of its distri button.
This legalized monopoly of money
is equivalent TO monopoly of all that
money will purchase. The people
create wealth by labor, but money can
only be created by law, and the few
who have secured monopoly of
money also control the law makers
elected by the vote of the people. This
imperial power of money controls the
press, the politician and even the pull
pit, and at its command false ideas are
disseminated among the people. The
press ami the politicians raise false is
sues and seek to keep the people
divided into warning factions concern
ing matters which have but little or no
bearing upon their social or financial
condition, while from the pulpit they
are taught to owe no man anything; to
pay all their obligations to the utmost
farthing according to the strict letter
of the contract
All agreements to pay are agree
ments to pay money, while the masses
of the people have nothing to pay with
but the products of their labor. Or
ganized wealth is the creditor, and or
ganized wealth controls the legal me-
dium by which debts must be paid. To
pay the debt would stop the interest
and cut off the income of the creditor,
and such creditor as this imperial
money power, which is the product of
usury in its varied forms, will not per-
NIT this. Hence the people are COM
PEELED to compromise, turn over the
products of their labor at price fixed
by the creditor, pay the interest, ex-
tend the mortgage, and in case of de-
ficiency, negotiate a new loan, and
thus increase the burden of debt
This imperial power of money stands
between the producer and consumer,
and exacts tribute from each. With
it's control over the medium by which
debts must be paid and exchanges effect
ed, it is practically both the buyer
and the seller of the products of labor,
and hence has but little use for money
The large operators who constitute the
Imperialism of wealth, effect AL settle
ments through banks and clearing
houses, where one account canoe S
another, requiring only a very small
percentage of money to pay balances,
and this may take the form of check,
secured, perhaps, by a Kansas mort
gage. The money thus saved by
minimizing the demand for it, is loaned
! to producers and to those who pur-
| chase their products and furnish their
supplies. In every exchange effected
by this borrowed money the interest
is added to the product that is sold and
deducted from the product that is pur-
chased, thus heaping usury upon usury,
to be paid by the consumers. Under
this system it is only the farmers,
wage workers and retail dealers who
have any pressing need for money, anC
the large operators who control the
supply see to it that they are not able
to get the use of it without high rate.
of interest, secured by cut-throat mort
cages on property.
It is thus that the producers of al
wealth, who are also the great mass o.
the consumers, have become the grea
debtor class of the country, while the
few who control the medium by which
debts are paid constitute the creditor
class. The debtor class, as produce
of wealth, pays interest to the creditor
and as a consumer, it pays profits t,
the same class. Thus this imperia
power of money obs the people accord
ing to law, and has established despot
ism, in the name of liberty, more power
full than any political despotism tha
has ever been established on earth. I
absorbs all the wealth created by tn
people, as interest profits, etc, and
continually re-investing its accumula
tions in interest-bearing securities, uE
on which the people must pay interest
The more wealth that is created by tn
people, the more this Unsuitable cred
tor is enabled to absorb, and the NOR
effectually is it enabled to oppress tn
debtor without violating a single la,
of the state or nation, and in strict az
cordance with the popular code of bus
ness morals which has been establishe
among men by the false teachings of
money despotism.
According to law and custom, a.
property possessing money value
regarded as entitled to percentage c
increase equal to the legal interest tha
would be allowed for the use of tn
money that it would sell for in til
, market Even many reformers recos
. nize this as a correct principle, and j
counting the cost of any Enterprise, ad
. interest on the investment as som,
;, thing that justly belongs to the inves
!, or outside of a fu1 compensation fl
: all the services rendered to society, t,
gether with cost Of repairs and insu
ance against loss. Such calculations al
" presented with simplicity that woul
be amusing to an acute reasoner, wei
it not for the serious nature of the errc
Q to which they give countenance. L
this rule, a railroad. for instance, tn:
s cost 500, 900, 600 to construct, would /
= Justly entitled to legal interest on 500
. 600, 600 in addition to full and equitab
!, compensation for all the service rel
. dered to the people. 1t thus becom,
70 in effect permanent interest bearir
le debt The same principle applies