The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-02-10
Il PROPER DISTINCTION.

Henry Carey Baird has written an
article in which he excerpts to the
practice of calling the bankers money
mongers. and the money-power. He
says:
No greater fallacy was ever formu-
lated, even in the fallacious realm OF
dogma, called political economy, than
to speak of these people as money
lenders" or Of the article in which
they deal as money" They are not
money lenders, and the thing they
lend is not money. They are Credit
Mongers, and that which they lend is
credit, expressed, to be sure, in money
grows out Of the existence Of money,
but is not itself any more money than
are the figures in a cash-book, a day
book, or a ledger.
England is the great mis-called
"money-iender" of the world, but does
she possess any large amount of mon
cy? No! The money Of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire
land consists Of less than $500, 900, 900
in gold, $l0O,00D,00O in silver, and an
unknown quantity Of copper, with less
paper money than was in circulation
in 1914.
The 800 600, 900 silver and the cop
per constitute almost the entire cur
rency of at least thirty millions of
the thirty-eight millions of the popu-
lation Of the Empire, for outside Of
Scotland and Ireland no notes are
permitted in circulation of less than
$25, and there are people in that realm
who have never seen bank note, to
know it as such, or as money.
Horp Wn "a vo for NATHAN IF n m .
900 souls paltry sum OF $1OU 900, OCO
silver as almost the exclusive cur
rency Of the great body Of the people,
and 4 banking sys tenn built on credit
and living on it, controlling the condi
tions upon which property, real and
personal, shall be acquired and held,
and on which the fruits of the labor
OF millions shall BE-. distributed.
Association and bination, the
cXhange Of services, commodities and
ideas, being the dominating needs Of
man, and money, with it's quality Of
universal accepta bility, or in its alb
sence, bank credit, being the neces-
sary instruments Of these functions Of
association and combination, it is the
supreme Of tyranny and oppression to
limit the volume Of the "current
money Of the REALM" in such man
ner that the people shall be handed
over to an oligarchy OF credit mong-
ers, wuo shall SO contro! association
and cmbination as to determine the
conditions onfwhich they shall take
place and the charges which shall be
over the power of association and com
bination among a people to the credit
mongers is to make these last the
masters Of the lives, the souls, the
bodies of these people; for the power
to labor is the most periSha BILE Of
all commodities, which ii not utilized
on the instant of its production is lost
and gone forever, beyond recall
When once it is understood and fully
appreciated that the banking cliques,
who now have this supposed govern
ment Of the people, by the people, and
for the people" by the throat, are not
dealers in money, but in credit, long
step forward will be made in the d.
rection of making them unlose their
grip; for is not the credit of the gov
ernment superior to that Of a banker,
or any combination OF bankers, Of
"Bank Wind?" II credit must be used,
let it be the National credit, the high
est, the greatest, the soundest credit
in the world.
This is all very true and very much
to the point. The bankers bank note
is simply a promise to pay SO many dol
lars. 1t is not legal tender, and you
cannot demand money for it. II you
present five dollar bill at the bank
and demand redemption in coin they
hand you olt five dollar green back,
and you cannot get that redeemed, in
coin. in sums Of less than $4,000 at
the sub-treasury in New York. And
now they are striving to fix things so
that there shall be nothing in circula
tion but their promises to pay; but in
stead Of paying interest on the debt
thus representa- ted by the note they col.
lect interest on it;;-and interest on your
debt giren in erchdnge for 1t. And you
are to have no money in circulation
except in that way. And Mckinley
has appointed one of these "credit-
mongers" Secretary Of the Treasury,
and he declares in advance that the
gree nbacks and treasury notes, the
peoples money.-must be retired, and
their place taken by five hundred mil
AlOAS VI Oduh plOiuloCS W pay villa
they never will pay, each note carry
Eing interest as long as it is in circula-
|;tion. ~
It is an s1kred bus and horrible
fraud upon q people.
|. But this isl le banquet the support
.ers of McKld are invited to. They
insisted thafs hey must have this dish
of crow; and they Re going to feed on
it until the featheF come out of the
corners of their eyed. Praise God they
will get enough Of it! =
When President Grant appointed
the millionaire dry goods merchant,
A. T. Stewart, Of New York, Secre-
tary OF the Tfasur, Charles Sumner,
dug up an old law the republic. that
no person eu9agedAn mercha ndisiug