The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-08-07
ing them as money, which was the

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When the resumption law was passed
there was no thought or intention Of
establishing a national brokerage for
the purpose Of aiding foreigners to de-
plete this country Of gold and then
selling it back again for interest-bear-
ing bonds. Every paper obligation Of
the United States having the form of
currency, except perhaps the gold GER
tificates, can legally be discharged in
either gold n silver. But a decision
OF John Sherman, sustained by every
succeeding secretary of the treasury.
without warrant of law, gave to the
creditors of the United States, what is
denied to the creditors Of states, coun-
ties, corporations and individuals, the
right to demand gold in payment Of the
obligations they held.
Thus the treasury gold reserve be-
came the reservoir from which foreign
nations could draw their supply Of gold,
end -four times has Mr.. Cleveland re-
sorted to the expedient Of selling in
terest-bearing bonds for gold to re-
plenlsh this reserve. Had the secre-
tary of the treasury exercised his right
under the law to have paid off even
one-half the demands made on him in
silver, it would have put an immediate
and effective check upon the raid on
the gold reserve AS it was, the very
men who c%onspired to raid the treas
ury and force the sale of bonds, were
the ones who profited thereby by OBJ
tanning them at a lower figure than
the market value.
And this is the process by which it
is expected to force the government
"out of the banking business and
turn the whole paper money business
over to the banks. Now the question
presents itself that this is either a
conspiracy or a bare faced fraud. If
the government, the people, with their
seventy billions of wealth can't sustain
their paper at par without placing it.
self at the mercy of foreign Jews and
Shylocks, how are the banks going to
DO 1t without government aid? The
banks would do just what they do now,
they Would not pay a dollar of gold in
redemption of their obligations. They
are now demanding of the government
a thing they would not think of doing
themselves, and if the people would as
sumo the same attitude toward the
that the banks have toward the
government, they would force every
bank to suspend within the period vi
six months.
$3.50
One OF the most contemplate frauds
IN this country is d%elegating to the
banks both the power and credit of the
government to issue their own notes
and collect interest thereon have be-
fore me a bank note which says, "'The
First National Bank of - will pay
the bearer five dollars" Now what
does that mean? It means that that
bank is owing somebody (the bearer)
five dollars; yet the bank is collecting
interest on that notion what it
actually owes. Anybody that can see
through a ladder can see at once that.
this is a fraud on the face of it. If
there is any credit attached to that
note 1t is because the government
the people-are back of it. The whole
scheme in a nutshell consists in US
the people-loaning the banks our cred.
1t at n per cent and borrowing It
back at ten per cent, or whatever the
banks want to charge.
| don't know that the bankers ought
to be seriously blamed for doing this
as long as they can find a set Of min
MES willing to wear patched clothes
n pay the freight, yet it is a serious
thing to bequeath such a burden to our
children without a protest. The BAN
ker, however, is to be blamed. He is
not satisfied with the laws he has for
fleeing the people, but wants addi-
tlonal ones, and the assurance that the
present ones will be made permanent.
OF course there will be an end to all
this, as there is to all else that is wrong
and unjust. The money power have tho
people enslaved now with debt, and
seek to make that slavery
by imposing conditions that will make
it impossible to pay the debt. To ac-
complish this end they are corrupting
our legislators, our courts and execu-
tive officers. Not content with this
they have Q begun to tamper with
the ballot, and accuse the people OF
being too ignorant to vote. How It
will end God only knows, but that right
will prevail we have absolute conf
dence, ii wrong has to be shot to death
as was chattel slavery.
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