The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-05-06
The Three Fold Contention of
Industry.

From an uncommonly able articl,
published 10 the March number Of th,
arena, by Gen. Weaver, we make thu
following extract
Our national banking system is th,
result Of a compact between Congress
and certain speculative syndicates
Congress agreeing to exercise the power
to create the money, to bestow it as .
, gift, AID to eforce its circulation; while
the syndicates are to determine the
quantity, and say when it shall be issued
and retired. No currency whatever
can be issued under this lay unless il
is first called for by associated usurers,
and then they may retire it again at
pleasure. If they decline to call for its
issue, the affection must be borne. II
issued, and spectators desire to destroy
| II, the disastrous sacrifice must be en-
dured. The power of the government
to issue lies dormant until evoked by o
private syndicate. Then the money
flows into their hands, not to be ex-
pended in business or paid out for labor,
but to be loaned at usury on private
account. 1t cannot be reached by any
other citizen of the republic except as
it may be borrowed Of those favorites,
who arbitrarily dispense it solely for
personal gain. To obtain it, the Dor
rover must pay to these dispensers of
sovereign favor from six to twenty
times as much (according to locality
as was paid by the first recipient. 1t
is fine exhibition Of Democratic gov
eminent to sec our Treasury Depart
ment create the currency, bestow itas
a gift upon money lenders, and then
stand by with cruel Indifference and
witness the misfortunes, the sharp com
petition, and the affections of life drive
the rest of its devoted subjects to the
feet Of these purse-proud barons as
suppliants and beggars for extortionate,
second had favors. This system was
borrowed from the mother country,
where it was planned to foster estab-
lished nobility, distinctions of caste,
and imperial and dynastic pretensions ;
and those who planned it have always
been satisfied with its operation. This,
then, is our situation -
For home upon the earth, the poor
must sue. at the feet of the land spec
ulator.
For cur currency, We are remanded
to the mercies of gigantic money
trust.
For terms upon which we may use
the highways, we must consult the
kings of the rail and their private traffic
associations.
For rapid transit of information, we
bow obligingly to a telegraph monop-
oily dominated by single mind.
Our money, our facilities for rapid
interstate traffic, the telegraph, the
three subtle messengers Of our intensi-
fed and advanced civilization,-all APP
propriated and dominated by private
greed; wage labor superseded by the
invention of machinery, and the cas-,
of laborer forbidden to return to the
earth and cultivate it in his own right
population rapidly increasing; highways
lined with tramps; cities oyer crowded
and congested rural districts mort
gagged to the utmost limit, and largely
cultivated by tenants crime extending
its cancerous roofs into the very vitals
of society; colossal fortunes rising like
Alpine ranges alongside of an evel
widening and deepening abyss of pow
erty; usury respectable, and Gods
law condemned corporations formed by
thousands to crowd out individuals in
the sharp competition for money, and
the trust to drive weak corporations t.
the wall.