People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-04-21
OUR BANKING SYSTEM.
1t Robs the People to Enrich Bankers and
Banking Corporations.


1t Robs the People to Enrich Bankers and
Banking Corporations.
Having, in my last communication.
touched to some extent upon monetary
matters and entered into a discussion
of money, its nature, functions and
utility, | have concluded in this article
to continue the consideration of the
financial problem and try to point out
one channel into which labor's legiti-
mate wages are diverted.
Productive and distributive labor is
vitality interested in a Just and scientific
solution of the many intricate problems
which, taken in the aggregate, form
what is known as the financial ques-
ton: careful. critical and intelligent
study of monetary science being indis-
pensable to proper understanding of
the difficulties and burdens under
which labor struggles Before we can
prescribe for and reasonably hope to
cure disease, we must first diagnose
the symptoms and locate the seat of
trouble. This must be done intelligent
ly and with impartial Judgment Land,
money and transportation are the three
principal factors in the production and
distribution of wealth, and labor's con-
tention is based upon a determination
that the issues inseparably connected
with these three factors shall be ad-
justed and settled in accordance with
the principles of justice and equity.
The present monetary system is cum
ningly and skillfully devised, with the
end in view that the landlords and
mOney-mongers of the earth shall be
enabled to live in luxury and idleness
upon the proceeds of the labor of the
toiling masses.
Some kind of money or medium of ex-
change is an absolute necessity, unless
we return to the primitive practices of
barter and exchange. 1t is not in
money as money that prevalent evils
inhere, but rather is humanity op-
pressed: First by the limitation and
monOpolization of the volume of
money and control of its purchasing
value by the money power through the
medium of our idiotic relic of barbar-
ism called ''metallism" and ''specie
basis second, by the monopolization,
for private ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, of the dis
tributiOn of money and control of the
rates of interest by bankers, through
the medium of our private banking
system.
In this communication | propose to
show up the true inwardneSs of the pri-
vate bank steal and the extent to which
labor is or should be interested in the
naturalization of the banking system
of the United States. From a recent
issue of the American Banker, | clip
this item:
New Orleans is becoming savings bank city.
says the Times Democrat The growth OF
manufactures here, the large amounts paid
weekly to the hands call for the establishment
OF institutions where these workers can deposit
q portion Of their earnings The success Of the
savings banks already In operation prove this
and the two new ones can count therefore, on
business prosperity. They will be great boon
also to the thousands in New Orleans who want
some place to put their savings
The following paragraph faithfully
portrays the state Of affairs, not only
in New Orleans, but in other large
cities. Labor wishes to lay by a nest
egg for future contingencies-the pos
sible loss of job and consequent idle
ness, sickness and old age, prospect
i've home, etc, etc. Attracted by the
legend so familiar to Kansas City
eyes
4 PER CENT. INTEREST PAID UPoN SAY
INGs DEPOSITS.
Per CENT. INTEREST PAID UPON TINE
DEPOSITS,
labor deposits its savings and fondly
dreams of the accruing benefits from
money at interest. But, labor does not
read, or, reading, does not weigh the
import of this sentence: "The success
of the savings banks already in opera
ton prove this; and the two new ones
can count, therefore, on business and
prosperitylw If labor would only
think, it would soon find itself asking:
From whence comes the prosperity to
these banks which makes their stock
shares worth anywhere from % to 200
per cent. premium" Turning to Off
cial statistics, labor would gaze in won
derment at these figures:
NATIONAL BANKS SEPT. 30 1892.
Capital, s6S6.57SOl5; surplus, 1898 S7l, 425; un-
divided profits, ilOS6525Jl; United States
bonds, sls3, 49,, $50: cash, 49,, 9il, 1888
NET PROFITS OF NATIONAL BANKS.
Table showing the net earnings OF national
banks from 1870 TO 1891, both inclusive: