Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-11-05
MONEY OLIGARCHY."
SILVER REMONETIZATION AND
GOVERNMENT BANKING.
The People Shonld Control the Peoples
Money-The Present System Il One
of the Most Ingenious and Powerful
Monopolies Ever Devised.
BY E, e, Ewing,

evident" that the land was designed by
the Creator for the use of the people,
that money is created by government
for the use of the people, and that the
first consideration of government is
the welfare of the people. We find,
however, that both land and money
have 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
denied access to the land man perishes
and must soon become extinct. With
out money civilization is impossible,
and the human race would remain in
tribal and barbarous condition. And
to that degree which the population is
denied the use of the earth is the peo-
pie hindered in their pursuit of hap
piness 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.
Thot ah,,ca rop, adiad would ouioLIv
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
ingenius 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 crude, I'M
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 its
credit, which is an intangible thing
based on the security of its debtor
who has borrowed his neighbours
money from the bank and pledged his
own and probably the same neighbours
property to the bank as security for the
payment of the loan. 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.
If 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 it away without a
colossal scheme Of robbery,
hesitation.
Consider for a moment what money
is and what are it's legitimate uses.
Government makes 1t, creates money
by act of law, and for the use of the
people. A person or corporation cannot
make or create money. That Is func-
ton purely governmental. The object
Of government in creating money is to
enable the industrial classes to ex-
change and distribute the wealth they
create with ease and dispatch and di-
vide it into infinitesimal quantities,
when desired, throughout the whole
For instance, farmer has
produced thousand bushels of wheat.
He wants but a small portion of the
grain for his own use, but he wants
hundred other things. 1t would be an
endless job to go around and exchange
The grain in small quantities with pro-
iucers of other things which he must |
have for his and his family's comfort. |
He hauls his grain to warehouse or |
mill, delivers it to the miller or ship |
per, and the party receiving the grain
transfers the value of the grain to the |
'armer in the form of moneys which
has been created by government for
his purpose, the transfer of values.
The farmer then in few hours, If he
chooses, purchases a hundred different
Kings for his personal use, from a
,enny's worth to the highest sum with
n the capacity of his money. This
money represents the value of the
armer's wheat, and in effect he is ex-
hanging his wheat for all these vari-
us articles he purchases. This trans
lction embraces the entire use and
JUNCTION of money. Paying debts is
'nly deferred payment for some prop
rty or service which has been enjoyed
" the debtor in advance, or at least
presumed to have been so enjoyed or
eceived.
This being true, why should govern
nent permit such an outrage on society
s the monopoly of this necessary arti-
lie, and by that monopoly rob the pro-
ucers in sums aggregating hundreds
4 millions of dollars annually, out of
he fruits of their labor? 1t is one of
he many abuses which have grown up
"a -.