The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-05-08
The r1Odern Banker.

| The MIDLAND, JOURNAL mas received
from the publishing house of Charles H.
Kerr & Co., Sc Fourth Ave, Chicago,
"The Modern Banker" by Jas E. Goode.
The book is a dandy, in common parlance.
The story personates the Jew banker in
the character of Andrew ]. Lyman & Co.,
and his American imitator Shylock as
Henry Hunt, Missouri farm boy, who
out-shylocks the Jew who is ashamed of
the meanness and greed of his American
partner.
This book describes the methods of
modern banking, its system of wholesale
robbery and enormous profits and the
DISCUSSES made use Of to conceal those
those profits from the public. The story
is little exaggerated for stage effect, but
the principle of modern banking fairly
limned.
Mr.. Goode sketches government bank
bill which he proposes to take the place
of the national banks, which in our opin-
ion would be poor apology for govern
ment bank Like most new inventions it
is numbered with wheels and springs and
attachments ad nauseum. The govern
ment is as great, powerful, wealthy,
strong as everybody 1t is omniscient,
omnipotent and omnipresent as far as
human agencies extend, then why
should government-the whole people
call few of its citizens to bear response
bilities which should be born by all the
people, or collect interest from the people
for the people. The government, or
whole people, is more able to sustain loss
than any portion of the people. 1t has
all power to punish the dishonest servant
it employees. Its eye is everywhere and
its hand reaches to every corner of the
nation. A government bank should be
as simple as post office and needs no
more machinery. Strange after our
author had analysed the modern bank,
laid bare its shams, DISCUSSES, and ex-
posed to view the very simple machinery
that is necessary and is used, he should
recommend a clumsy, complicated ar
rangement for the government, more
complex than the national bank contriv-
ance, and with only small reduction i'll
rates of interest. Why should the gov
ernment-the whole people-collect any
interest from itself?
The author of this bill had just shown
that interest and usury have been the
greatest curse that has ever blighted civ
ilized society. But such is the force of
habit. The astronomer falls into the
ditch while his eyes are fixed on the
| heavens.
The following extracts from the book
will serve to show the vigorous style of
the writer
"Did you ever borrow money from a
banker and find out just how much he
loves you? Did you? Did he offer to
pay you interest if you would agree to
carry his notes for him? All, no. He
demanded interest from you for the loan
of his own promises to pay you the money
on demand, now, didn't he? Yes, sir; he
wanted you to pay him interest on his
own debts, OH his own notes, before he
would let you have them. And then,
about the security; did you ever haye
banker stand up and tell you that yonr
own credit was not worth cent and that
you must give him gilt-edged security
before he would loan you some of his own
ebt-bank-notes The very proposition
| is an insult to our American manhood
and Government, which declares that all
men are equal, and yet here we have one
man stand up and proclaim his own
greatness and financial glory, while he is
humbling that of his neighbor in the
dust, by his demands for security. And
yet our Government is actually paying
this man four per cent interest to do this
1t has given him a monopoly of our
money and forces us to bow down our
heads and beg for favors. And all this
makes you love the banker, does it?"
eve must wipe these national banks
from off the face of the earth. They are
menace TO our very existence. They
have sall joined hands and now form the
greatest monopoly on earth. By con-
certed action, they have demonetized
silver, thus destroying one-half of our
money at one fell swoop, and doubling
the value of every dollar and debt that
was due to them. They have cornered
the gold and are now clamoring for the
withdrawal of the greenbacks, because
they cannot control and corner them, and
now, every few months, we see them
bleeding our Government for hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of bonds, under
the efficient management of Mr. Cleve-
land and his cohorts. No stage robber
ever held up stage and demanded the
money ofthe passengers more deliberately
than the Shylocks are holding up our
government and robbiug it during these
troublous times And still you love the
banker, do you? Surely not"
MOT WHAT WE SAY, but
n~ what Hoods Sarsaparilla Does,