The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-12-15

its means sacrificed to the deficiency
of currency which the panic sharply
reveals.
It is attempted to countervail these
facts by saying that in a panic money
is "hoarded" No preteRse is more pre-
posterous. Do men who have money
find less occasion to use it in time of
panic than at any other time? Do
firms with large means hoard their
| money instead of placing it where it
may stave off bankruptcy? When pros
perity abounds money may be boarded;
but not in the financial straits that
drive men to desperation.
Equally senseless is it to adjure peo-
pie to have confidence The fearful
revelations of panic make it impossi-
BILE. The bitter conditions forbid. Men
are benumbed by the terrible facts;
and a sentiment cannot obliterate
fact. When men see banks and bust
ness firms lettering all about them,
and tumbling to swift ruin, what
mockery it is to cry 'sconfihence!' The
cry would have as much effect in the
midst of an earthquake. Mol if the
people are to find relief, let them en-
large the circulation of money-the
life blood of business and industry.
Have we not seen what an abundant
currency could accomplish? In the
throes of civil war, when craven, cow
ardly gold deserted the flag, the gov
eminent was compelled to issue vast
sums of money, under a necessity that
the usurers could not countervail, and
unexampled prosperity followed. While
Wall street was madly gambling in i'm
agininary gold, the prairies of the west
sparkled with beautiful harvests of ma
lures annual gold; and the price of
the poor mans flour was no more af-
fected by the quotations of the gold
room than it was by the rings of sat
urn. No Black Fridays then filed the
land with panic.
To make panics impossible, usury
must be bo1ished-because the s., O0O,-
100000 which productive industry
pours every year into the vaults of the
unproductive few is extorted mainly in
the form of usury-the horror of
which is disguised under the euphem-
ism of interest
Whether the claim of usury has any
just economic or moral basis is a deba-
ted, if not debatable, question. On
this point it is enough to say that any
advice which enables man to live
without labor on the labor Of others is
a self-evident and eternal wrong. Did
not the anti-slavery agitation convince
this people that no man had political
or moral right to make another man
his slave? AS usury does this, there is
an end of the question. In abolishing
usury it is doubtless true that the
banks will no longer remain a part of
our financial system-because, without
usury, banks could no longer exist.
There can be no hazard in this, for the
| disappearance of an unproductive
class can but give new wings to pro-
duction. What! shall we stake our in
dustrial prosperity upon the existence
of an institution which, when a crisis
comes, cannot pay it's debts? The
money of the country is the peoples
money; and may not a man order the
use of his own, if he does it justly?
There is not a dollar in legal circula-
ton today that does not stand on the
faith and integrity Of this great people
1t has no other basis. And this is why
it passes current all over the land
without discount or depreciation. Now,
which is wiser-for the people to use
their own money for their own good or
permit few usurers to lay vast an
nual:tax on the productive industry of
the country? Does this need an an
swer?;
To effect a complete reform, it is on
ly necessary for the people to do this.
Withdraw the currency they have graf
uitously loaned the banks, and issue
all money directly from the fountain
head-the central organization of the
public service. Then-and this is the
fundamental provision-let the people
decree that their money may be loaned
to all who can give good security
without interest, and without other
charge than the expense of transacting
the loaning business. Do this and US
ury is abolished at single blow.
Without pointing out all the far-re-
aching blessings of such reform, it
can only be said now that it would
tend nightly to secure to every man
the value of his own product, that it
would make panics impossible, and
that commercial wrecks would be un-
known.
For the convenience of business, the
loan repositories could be made the
safe receptacles of individual deposits,
at which, to the unspeakable gain of
the commercial world, depositors'
checks would never be dishonored.
With the establishment of the sys-
tenn thus briefly sketched there would
be money enough for the use of manu-
facture and commerce, productive in
dustry would be freed from the snare
of the money-lender. and production
and consumption go hand in hand. It
would task the imagination to forten