The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-02-17

By far the greatest general evil,
and the most serious wrong to the
people, growing out of the national
power they have under the system.
and a power they freely use, to in
crease or decrease the amount of
money in circulation at their pleas
ure. When money is scarce prices
are low; when money is plentiful prices
are high. By issuing more money or
withdrawing that in circulation. the
bankers make prices high or low.
When they want to sell they loan
freely and sell high. When they
want to buy they stop loaning and
buy cheap. This is not done in occa-
sional cases, but is systematically
practiced. Every year when the
great crops of the country, cotton,
grain, etc., are harvested money be-
comes tight, because the banks call
in the money, and prices fall in the
interest of the speculator, who COB
bles it all up; when the last is in the
speculator would sell, money is
again plentiful and prices high.
Have you ever borrowed 81 900
when cotton was ten cents per pound
and had it to pay when cotton was
five cents per pound? You had to till
twice as many acres to get 81. 600
when you had to pay as when you
borrowed In other words your debt
was doubled. This is the power we
have placed in the hands of moneyed
interests. whose only regard Tor the
people of the country lies in the
amount of money they can squeeze
out-the power to say that every
mans Indebtedness shall be doubled,
that the value of the soil tiller's and
wage earner's product shall be cut
down.
Not only has there been a sys-
tematic and continued contraction of
the money in circulation for the past
quarter OF century in this country,
contraction brought about by legis-
lation, instigated by and in the in
terest of the money power, legislation
which has constantly increased the
purchasing power of the dollar, and
by doing this deprecated the value Of
all our property and products; not
only is there periodical contraction
at harvest time each year in the IN
terest of speculative buying; but
bankers, spectators and money lend
ers frequently precipitate money
stringency simply because they can
make more by boarding than they
can by loaning at ten per cent.
They can absorb faster through
bankruptcy and foreclosure, rendered
unavoidable by the scarcity of money
they have created and they never hes
itate to squeeze and take
The delegation of this power to
control values by the manipulation of
the volume of the circulating medium,
to private corporations is one of the
burning iniquities of modern times
The subborning of Legislators by the
stupendous interests which benefit by
it. has given color of law to whole
sale robbery which in the amount of
plumber, and in the result of reultant
misery and suffering, has been before
unequalled, even including the results
of conquest, in the annals of his tory.
Said Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's
secretary of the treasury: '.My
agency in procuring the passage OF
the national bank act was the great
est financial mistake of my life. 1t
has built up a monopoly that effects
every interest in the country. 1t
should be repealed. But before this
can be accomplished, the people will
be arrayed on the one side and the
banks on the other, in contest such
as we have never seen in this conn.
try. Jacksonville Advocate.