The bee., 1896-10-08
Extract from the Letter Of John
c. Latham.
THE MONEY POWER AS II EXISTS.

vi DuSiuSSS' iuC Nhpitdi 10 bSh
orally furnished by hundreds OF
people, most of them in moderate
circumstances, who take shares of
stock and put in the money to
start with. The greater part OF
the banks money is, however, the
property of small depositors and
business men, hundreds and thous-
ands OF them for each bank, and
the average amount placed on de-
posit by each is small. Taken al
together, however, the whole
makes up very large sum which
the bank officer is expected to loan
out and invest safely, but must al
ways be ready to pay back to the
depositor in cash. The banker,
then, against whom we hear so
much abuse from ignorant quar-
tiers, is the paid servant who looks
after the interest of the entire in
stitution, the interests OF thous-
ands of people in each institution,
and, although he must have more
experience than the man who digs,
or the man who takes care of
horses, he is nevertheless "a hired
man.
"The bankers OF the United
States are mainly trustees of the
peoples money, employed on sal
airy, and expected TO so conduct
the affairs OF the bank that the
greatest benefit will come to their
stockholders, to their depositors,
to the whole business by means of
careful loaning.
Each bank, savings bank and
trust company is made up in about
the same way. Let us take them
altogether, and add the building
and loan associations, which come
under the same class, and ySu
have in round figures five billions,
three hundred and fifty millions
(S5, $50, 600, ooo) owned by ten
millions (Io, 1000, ooo) of thrifty
people-owing, many of them
only a few dollars apiece, and at
the average OF only about five hun
dred dollars $500 apiece. This is
the money power.
'These are they who carry the
dinner pail. The laborers, the
shop girls, the clerks, the vast
army OF the employed, millions
and millions of them. This is the
money power.
"They do not drive on the
boulevards. They do not live
lives of ease and luxury. They do
service wherever commerce needs
a willing hand, clear head, a
thrifty soul. This is the money
power. All there is OF thrift, in
dustry, virtue, the good old.fash-
ioned qualities that make nation
great-these are the qualities OF
this great army. The potentates
of the dinner pail. They own the
hundreds OF millions in our savings
banks. They hold the foremost
lien upon the asserts of our great
| life insurance companies, They
are the shareholders IN the loar
associations, and in the aggregate,
each owing a little, are heavy
stockholders in our great railway
and industrial corporations. "
"The country's wealth is dis
tributed among them they are
relatively rich, and there neye
was time, in any age or any land
when these wage earners receives
so much for their toll, and coulC
buy so much with what they re
ceived, as they could from 1879 t
to 1890, when the gold basis in tn
United States was sure thing ant
everybody thought so. They ar
the money power; they are the in
dustrious, thrifty, moncy-savin
people OF this country. They fur
nish the cash and the cash credits
which make the power, and that
why the money power is for gold
for an honest dollar, against rept
diatlon, against revolution"