The Louisiana populist., 1897-12-17
"M0NEY OLIGARCHY. "
SILVER RECONCILIATION AND
GOVERNMENT BANKING,
The People Shonld Control the People's
Money-The Present System Is One
kof the Most Ingenious and Powerful
Monopolies Ever Devised.
BY E. e. Ewing

we nold these truths to be self
evident that the land was designed by
the Creator for the use of the people.
that money is created by government
Tor the use OF the people, and that the
nrst consideration of government is
the welfare of the people. We find,
however, that both land and money
nave been monopolized and withheld
from free use by the people and that
property has been given the first place
IN the concern of government. If
uenled access to the lanG man perishes
and must soon become extinct. With
out money civilization is impossible,
and the human race would remain in
q tribal and barbarous. condition. And
70 that degree which the population is
denied the use of the earth is the peo-
pie hindered In their pursuit of hap
plness and enjoyment of liberty.
To the same extent that the indus
trial, wealth-producing class is restrict
ed or hindered from the free use of
money they are hampered and him
dered in the pursuit of their industrial
vocation.
To the perversion,. of these three
fundamental principles of government
all the complaint and hardship which
cause the present public unrest, can be
traced.
The most active of these evils is the
monopoly of and abuse of money.
That abuse remedied would quickly
lead to the abolition of other abuses
which afflict the people.
The rent or interest which the mo-
nopolist Is able to exact from the users
is the object for which money Is mo-
nopolized. The whole system of
handling and distributing money has
been perfected into one of the most
lngenius and powerful monopolies ever
devised by the brain of man. The
banks are the grand factors in the sys-
tenn OF money monopoly. The individ-
ual money loaner is but a,crude, un-
skilled person in the art of usury. He
can only loan his own money, but the
bank not only loans everybody's money
and pockets the interest or rent for
the loans, but it loans in addition it's
credit, which is an intangible thing
based on the security of it's debtor
who has borrowed his neighbor's
money from the bank and pledged his
own and probably the same neighbor's
property to the bank as security for the
payment of the lean. BY this double
refined process of fleeing the wealth
producers, the money monopoly draws
from the producers annually hundreds
of millions of the wealth they create.
II the producing class and all those
who are closely allied to and associated
with that class, as middle men,"
manufacturers and distributors of the
raw and manufactured materials.
could lift their noses from the grind
stone long enough to consider this
they would brush 1t away without q
mighty, colossal scheme of robbery.
moments hesitation.
/ Consider for a moment what money
Is and what are its legitimate uses.
Government makes it, creates money
by act of law, and for the use of the
people. A person or corporation cannot
make or create money. That is a fuuc-
ti0n purely governmental. The object
OF government in creating money is to
enable the industrial classes TO ex-
change and distribute the wealth thew
create with ease and dispatch and di-
vide 1t into iufinitesimal Quantities
when desired. throughout the whole
community. For instance, farmer has
produced thousand bushels OF wheat
He wants but small portion Of the
grain for his own use, but he wants
hundred other things. It would be an
endless Job to go around and exchange
the grain in small quantities with pro-
ducers of other things which he must
have for his and his familys comfort
He hauls his grain to a warehouse or
mill, delivers 1t to the miller or shin
per, and the party receiving the grain
transfers the value of the grain to tho
farmer in the form of moneys which
has been created by government for
this purpose, the transfer Of values.
The farmer then in e few hours. If he
chooses, purchases hundred different
things for his personal use, from a
penny's worth to the highest sum with
In the capacity Of his money. This
money represents the valne of the
farmers wheat, and in effect he is ex-
changing his wheat for all these yari-
Gus articles he purchases. This trans-
ACTION embraces the entire use and
function OF money. Paying debts is
only deferred payment for some prop-
erty or service which has beef, enioyed
by the debtor in advance, or at least
presumed to have been so enjoyed or
received.
1 This being true, why should govern
ment permit such an outrage on society
As the monopoly Of this necessary arti-
scle, and by that monopoly rob the pro-
ducers in sums aggregating hundreds
hf millions Of dollars annually, out Of