The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-05-15
THE CAUSE OF rHR PANIC.
Bankers Infamous Panic Bulletin Of
March II, 1903.

uHLs because or their occupations so
long as they follow recognized honest
commercial usages, but we have serious
dlterence with certain institutions of
the law, prominent among which is
the national bank. Mark this aaser-
tion. When man becomes a national
banker he ceases to be good citizen.
he becomes traitor to his patrons and
60 the community at large, and is a
positive menace to prosperity. In this
unreserved charge we do not except
the national bankers of Mt. Pleasant.
They are part and parcel OF the foul
conspiracy to demonetize silver, and
did, at the command of the national
bankers association, retire e large
| amount Of their circulation to help
preclpltate the panic that was falsely
attributed to an over supply of silver.
One of these banks alone sent $S5, 900
of it's money to Washington and took
up the bonds held there for their
security, the other bank probably did
the same. AS this was done when our
business men were pleading with them
for money to save them from bank
ruptcy, Offering the best security un
questioned by the banks. One of these
banks is recognized as a Democratic
institution, the other as Republican,
and representative from each of them
went together among our business men
and prominent citizens, and solicited
them to sign petition to Congress to
repeal the purchase clause in the Sher-
man law. They represented to those
they asked to sign the Infamous docu
ment that silver was causing the hard
times and panic, when they knew it
was false, for with their own hands
they had helped to produce the money
stringency by Withdrawing their circu
| lation. They were conspirators, and
every business firm in Mt. Pleasant
and every farmer In Henry county,
every producer and consumer, every
citizen in fact except the taker of
usury, has these same home banks to
thank for large part of this local de
preston. They are directly chargeable
with much of the suffering in our
midst for lack of employment of la
borers, the natural consequences of
privation, inadequate food, clothing
and fuel, added to the mental fortunes
of destitution being sickness and death.
Every business man who is q bOr-
rover at these banks knows that his
line of discounts was arbitrarily re
duced or entirely cut off, but he was
not told that it was part of a con
spiracy to make him bankrupt He
was not informed that the national
bankers association, whose power ex
tends without question to every national
bank in the Union, not member of
which dares disobey it's mandates, had
ordered a uniform retirement of ma
tional bank notes, the proportion of
which for such banks as those of Mt.
Pleasant was $25, 900. No, the cause
of the "stringency" was kept q pro
found secret, and the damnable false
hood constantly reiterated that it was
silver, too much silver, repeal the Sher-
man law and money will appear like
Jack in the box. Silver was the cause
of the panic in one sense. Silver, in
measure, was the friend of the people,
and stood in the way, slightly, of base
financial schemes, and to destroy the
white metal the panic was ordered on.
And it is still largely on, though q
large list of accounts have been bal
anced already by a change of owner
ships of property, and the panic is
going to stay on until those $500, 600, 900
of bonds are issued. 1t will come of
of it's own ocoord then and wait for the
proper conditions for another squeeze.
We are told that our home bankers
could not safely disobey the orders OF
the national bankers association; that
they would have been boycOtted and
compelled to redeem their notes In
gold and greenbacks as provided by
law that their credits would have been
repudiated and line of exchanges cut
of. Perhaps this is true. We pre-
sumo 1t is. We would rather believe
so than to think. our own townsmen
guilty of willingly participating In the
infamous conspiracy. But, neverthe
less, the fact remains that these same
banks, the national banks of Mount
Pleasant, are curse to the community,
and their managers compelled, in self
defense, to be traitors to their patrons,
They are, by force of circumstances,
enemies to prosperity and disloyal
citizens
THREE OF KIND.