The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-06-18
FOE A POSTAL A n
THE MAL-ADMINISTRATION OF
CREDIT.
While Monopolists and Bankers Have
Control of the Peoples Funds They
Have Control of the People-Gold
Standard Abuses.

Standard Abuses.
IT anyone were to ask what is con-
sidered the greatest evil affecting the
United States at the present tine, I
would say it is NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Of
credit by capitalists and bankers and
sold standard shouters.
Credit is not created by this class,
although they monoplize its use and
manipulate it to suit themselves. Every
individual toiler in the state, the pour-
est mill-hand and the half-starved
needlewoman, have a share in the cTea-
ton of that credit which capitalists and
bankers mal-administer
Money is only the symbol and token
of the credit created. 1t is so made
that the credit it represents can be
easily exchanged. The toiling masses
may meet and talk socialism as much
as they please, but so long as they leave
capitalists and bankers in possession
Of their funds the latter will only laugh
at them.
There are no less than two billions
OF deposits in the various savings
their hard earned wages. The whole
OF this enormous sum-, under the pre-
tense of keeping it safe, is invested in
bonds and securities which have been
manufactured and concocted by various
capitalists. Thus are the workers of
tho pn11nfrv r,rIo 70 hoJotor ,~ ~,
money power they so much detest and
SO keep themselves bound up in the
shackles and chains of capitaiistic
slavery.
Now these funds ought to be put out
SO as to yield the greatest possible ben
eft to the proprietors.
General Booth of the Salvation Army
once declared that if he had the control
OF one million of pounds sterling he
could abolish pauperism throughout
England.
AS there is now in the United States
such a large army of unsn ployed peo-
pie, the proper investment for this
money would be in the foundation of
industrial cooperative undertakings,
mutually inter-dependent, and thus re-
lieve the present workers from the
competition of the unemployed. Under
such circumstances the wages of the
present workers would naturally rise
and it would not be long before they
WOuld have some voice in determin-
ing their terms and conditions of en-
ployment.
Capitalists think it is a good thing to
have an industrial reserve army ready
at any moment to lake the places of
those in employment. DO the employees
consider this a good thing? Would not
their savings be better invested in pro-
ductive cooperative enterprises than in
a class of securities which encourage
and bolster up capitalism?
We will now turn to the ordinary
banker. The two billions of the say
ings is a bagatelle compared with tie
immense volume of credit passing
through the bankers hands. The de-
posits he receives represent the toll and
labor of a whole nation. The savings
bank deposits are deductions from the
wages Of work people, but the deposits
in these other banks include all the
surplus value created by millions of
workers.
How does the banker deal with them?
1t is popularity supposed he loans cut
on interest; really, he buys bills at a
discount from their face value, the dis
count being his profit. These bills run
from thirty days or higher, the limit
being ninety days. The bills are fab
ricated by brokers, factors, jobhers,
spectators and dealers who make t a
business to buy and sell products. Be-
tween the producer and consumer these
products go through a number of
hands. The producer may receive a
very low price and the consumer pays
a very high one. For example, corn
bought in Nebraska at ten cents per
bushel was delivered to customers on
the South Coast at fifty cents.
The ordinary banker may be A very
excellent man, but his method Of doing
business is not calculated to promote
the public welfare. He is only q bene-
fit to the mischievous class of brokers'
and jobbers. If a farmer or other pro-
Queer required a loan for 365 days the
banker is powerless to give it. no mat
ter what the collateral.
| There is nothing at all national about
the National bank but name. The Ma
tional banks do not concern themselves
with the administration of the nations