The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-19
WHO ARE THE MoNEYED CLASS.


/ Mr.. Bryan makes frequent illusions in
his speeches to 1.-The moneyed class and
! THE money power and tries to create
| prejudice against them. He labors to Gre
j ate the impression that there is line of
| cleavage or demarcation among the Ameri-
:! can people dividing them into distinct
| classes, one of which has money, while the
| other has not; that these classes are
| naturally antagonistic and their interests
| irreconcilable; that now and for long
| time past the moneyed class has been OPP
| pressing the nonmoneyed class. and that
| it is time for the latter to combine and
throw off the yoke of their oppressors. He
does not put the quite bluntly as
this, but his sugar-coated phrases cover
exactly these ideas.
Mr.. Bryan has never explained what he
means by the moneyed class or the money
power. and, of course, he never will. His
business is to make wild assertions and use
vague phrases without proving or explain
ing them. The country knows by this
time that he is very shallow, very Him
formed, very Illogical and very reckless in
his statements, and that he does not
what false misleading or dangerous doc
trine he breaches if he thinks it will make
him votes. But as he uses these phrases
very often, it may be we'll to inquire what
they mean. Is there such a thing as a
moneyed class in this country and if so,
who constitute it? If there is such a class
it must embrace everybody who has any
money. 1t will not do to draw arbi-
trary line and say that the moneyed class
consists of all worth more than million
dollars, or more than half a million, a
hundred thousand any other sum. 1t
must embrace every person who is worth
even few hundred dollars. who has laid
up little for a rainy day, who has a
small deposit in a savings bank or build
ing and loan association, who carries a
little life insurance. and even every person
who has a months or a weeks wages
coming to him. AS there very few peo-
in one of these classes it follows that the
moneyed class embraces nearly everybody
except loafers. tramps. dead beats and
curbstone PoDulstic orators.
The Vevay Qnd) Reveile recently stated
that of twenty-six stockholders IN the First
National Bank of that town sixteen are
women and of eighty stockholders in the
savings banks twenty are women. They
belong to the moneyed class. There are
nearly 100000 depositors in the savings
banks of the United States, and their de-
posits amount to s., 900 000, 900. Certainly
the owners of this vast wealth have a
right to stand in the moneyed class. There
are nearly 5000 building and loan associa-
in ba writ 1
shareholders and assets exceeding $500, o0o,-
600 Mr. Bryan would hardly exclude these
from the moneyed class. Millions Of per-
sons carry life insurance policies, paid up
or payable to their families at death. They
belong to the moneyed class. A mortgage
loan firm of Chicago recently published a
list of the persons who during the present
summer bought $604,95O of Chicago gold
mortgages. The list, taken from the books
of the firm, included 10 widows. 10 clergy
men, merchants. clerks. army and
navy officers, doctors, IL estates, 8 rail-
road men, Z small investors savings, l
trust company. 10 women, l life insurance
company. educational institutions. / ste
nographer / lake captain, l coachman, 2
savings banks, benevolent society, man
ufacturers. l farmer, trust funds, au-
thors. These persons, alarmed by the free
silver agitation, invested their savings in
gold mortgage bonds OF course they are
gold bugs and belong to the moneyed
class. 1t does not take much reflection. on
this line to show that the wealth of this |
country is very widely distributed and that
Mr. Bryan's talk about a ''moneyed class
is senseless and mischievous.