The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-01-29
STATE BANKS AND CORN.

STATE BANKS AND CORN. ~
offered as substitutes for the SUBJ Treas 2
ury Plan.
The Alliance has always said: II
you don't like the sub-treasury plan
give us something better. We are not
welded to anything, says the National
Economist. What we want is relief,
and we do not care from what source
it comes or what its principles pro-
vided it is honest constitutional. no
class legislation and promises to be
permanent in its beneficial effects"
The press reports that Senator But
Ter offers as substitute state banks of
issue. If he means such banks as
those that existed before the war. hav-
| ing the same or similar powers and
privileges his plan is open to these
objections:
l. The plan is not honest. No in
dividual or corporation has the right
to live and grow rich on the interest
of the money he or it owes. I mean
just what l say-'on the interest of
the money he or it owes" 1t is right
that you collect interest on what is
due you. but it is robbery to make
your neighbor pay you interest on
what you owe him. This is what the
state bank of Senator Buffers does.
The bank issues for every dollar of
coin it holds three (more or less)
promises to pay dollars. II the
issue is three dollars in paper promises
for one dollar in gold of course two
of these paper bills rest only upon
thin and insubstantial air. But
when the people borrow these two
notes from the bank-these two notes
which are the mere promises to pay"
of the bank-the people pay interest
to the bank. to the extent of two
thirds of It's issue. and the bank is
enabled to grow rich upon the interest
on that money which it owes to. and
has promised to pay the people. I
leave out of view the interest the bank
collects upon the money it owes to the
depositors. The old free bank sys-
tenn is no better.
2. There is grave doubt as to it's
constitutionallty. The trend of decis:
ions. and of enlightened public senti-
ment is certainly against it. The
national government alone has the
right to make money. The states
have delegated the power to coin
money to the general government.
Can the state delegate to the citizens a
power that is inhibited to it by the
constitution?
8. 1t is class legislation of the worst
character. 1t is legislation in favor
of money capitalists 1t compels the
people in the first instance to lend the
capitalist twice Or three times the
amount of his capital without interest
and then as bonus pay him interest
on two-thirds of ia currency that
ought to reach the hands of the peo-
pie without price"
4. No permanent relief will result
to the people from such a course as
Senator Butler suggests. It is prop
osition to go back again into the mire
from which we are just beginning to
emerge. Apart from the curse of sin.
the delegated power of one class to
create money and exact interest for its
use from all other classes has caused
more misery and suffering to the HUI
man race than all other causes COM
bined. 1t has created the rich to live
in luxury and ease. but at the expense
of the poor who must live in squalor
and suffering.
One would think that no one with a
knowledge of the past however bitter
the present waters or burning the
present sands, would propose return
to the bondage of Egypt Look back
one hundred years over our own his
tory and that of the mother country
and see the lurid panic fires that
burned up the substance of the people.
At every decade they CLEAN in the
sombre light of history-1857. 1S47.
1887, 1927, 1S15-'17. The national
banks. an improvement on the old
free banking system Of Senator But
Ter, came in with the war of 1862 and
postponed the crash until 1873. No
one can deny that the banking system
of our own and the mother coun try was
the main cause OF all these disastrous
crises. No; the substitute will not do.
The people have gotten too far along
in their study of political economy to
return to an old relic of financial bar
barism. 1--WE the people" will make
and issue our own money to ourselves
without interest
1t is no experiment 1t is simple in
its workings. It is free to all No
class legislation is necessary to carry
it into effect and beyond doubt it is
constitutional.
The New York Tribune plan is to
raise more corn. and it is convened
to the people in these pleasant words:
With better weather the mortgages
( vanish. and also the idea that there
ust-be a new party in order to raise
more corn"
In other words, bad weather ere.
ates the mortgages. and your relief
lies not in the organization of any DO
litical party. but in raising more
corn"
Yes, men of Kansas and Nebraska!
You who burnt your corn because il
was cheaper than fuel. are told by the
Tribune that bad weather made voul