The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-10-14
THE MONEY POWER.
Some Plain Truths Which Agitators Of
ten Ignore.

Some Plain Truths Which Agitators Of
ten Ignore.
William c. Cornwell, Buffalo, n. y.
addressed the School of Finance at Buffa-
10 on the money question and spoke IN
part as follows:
~ do not hesitate to say that the mon
ey power is for Mckinley and the gold
standard. But follow this up with the
inquiry, What is the money power in this
country? and with this reply: The money
power is the power that furnishes and
controls the cash and cash credits of the
United States. This power is concentrat-
ed in the hands of the banks, the loan as
sociations, the mortgage companies and
the insurance companies. There are
few individual banks, but they are in
small minority. A bank is one of the
machines OF business. The capital is
generally furnished by hundreds of peo-
pie, most of them in moderate circum-
stances, who, take shares of stock ard
put in the money TO start with. The
greater part of the banks money is, how
ever. the property OF small depOsitors
and business men, hundreds and thou
sands of them for each bank, and the av-
erage amount placed on deposit is small.
Taken altogether, however, the whole
makes up very large sum, which the
bank officer is expected to loan out and
invest safely, but must always Toe 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 interests of tie entire institution, the
interests of thousands 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. When Mr..
Bryan was in Buffalo he took special
pains to stigmatize bankers, but in his
| speech in New York, and in ali his
speeches, he has shown such great ignor-
ance on the subject of banking that am
| inclined to think that it is his age more
than anything else that is at fault Youth
is a magnificent quality, but it is better
pecially if such things are said, as have
to he concerning Mr.. Bryan, namely,
| for instance, that what he knows about
finance is not so, and that i'm all his nine
ty-seven speeches in the 'enemy's coun-
try not one of his arguments will stand
the test of calm, cool investigation, based
on facts and experience. The banks of
the United States are mainly trustees of
the peoples money, employed on salary,
| and expected so 20 conduct the affairs of
the bank that the greatest benefit will
come TO their stockholders, TO their de
| positors, to the whole business of the To-
cality by means of careful loaning Each
bank, savings bank, and trust company
is made up in about the same way. Let
US take them all together, and add the
building and loan associations, which
come under the same class, and you have
in round figures -, ,350. 200, owned by
100000 of thrifty people-owning, many
of them, only a few dollars apiece, and
at the average of only about $500 apiece.
This meney is power. Listen. II is ear
ly morning in the great city. Do you
hear that sound of footsteps on the cool
| stOnes-shuff, shuff-hundreds, thou
sands, stepping. stepping, regularly, in
creasing through the marts and highways
where commerce flows? 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, thrifty soul.
This is the money power. All there is of
thrift, industry, virtue, the good, old
fashioned qualities that make a 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 fore
most lien upon the assets of our great life
insurance companies. They are the
shareholders in the loan associations, and
in the aggregate, each owning little, are
heavy stockholders in our great railway
and industrial corporations. The coun-
| NAs HtoiAu i
they are relatively rich, and there never
was time in any age or any land when
these wage earners received so much for
their toll and conld buy SO much with
what they received as they could from
1875 to ls90, when the gold basis in the
United States was sure thing, and
everybody thought so. An attack has
been made upon the property of these
wage earners. An attempt is being made
to get them to consent TO cut in two the
savings of years-to take these dollars,
for each of which they have given 100
cents in the sweat of the brow, and legis-
late half of it away. Do you think they
will consent % this? The honesty and
thrift of the Green mountains has already
answered the question. Their answer is
5000 laundering noes"