Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-02-05
ABSOLUTE POWER.
VESTED IN SECRETARY OF THE
TREASURY.
Tho Power of Making Money Scarce or
Plenty, to Expand or Contract the
Currency, Rests All on His Caprice
Place for Wall Street Fool.

The worlds history furnishes no
parallel for the absolute power of one
man and the abject humiliation of the
whole people, as exhibited today in this
country. One man sitting in Washing
ton is endowed with larger powers
than was ever any other in any country
since the world began. He holds the
key to the industrial, commercial, ag-
ricultural, mechanical, banking, in
short all the interests Of the country
that have any relation with money Of
currency. On his breath hangs, with
greater or less degree, the welfare an
prosperity Of forty millions of people
The power Of making money scarce o.
plenty; to expand or contract the cur
rency of the country, rests all on his
caprice.
Speculation rides rampant on the
changes of his tickle will. Values rise
and fall. Men are rich today and poor
tomorrow, as he may dictate. The
country lies at his feet. Could the
people sit down for one single,
thoughtful moment in front of the
greSt shame of this situation and con-
slider the amazing possibilities of power
In the hands of this man, there would
surely be revolution. No such power
over all the monetary interests of so
many millions was ever in any age in
trusted to single individual. 1t is
not in the possibilities Of human wis
dom to administer such trust wisely.
No man ever lived who could admins
ter such trust honestly. There is not
virtue enough in human nature to
withstand all the innumerable subtle
ties of temptation that must assail the
holder of such enormous power.
The privilege of debasing coin, which
has sometimes been exercised by
sovereigns and parliaments, was al
ways guarded with the greatest jeal-
ousy, and the instances in which it has
been done are reckoned landmarks of
national folly and set up as the warn
ings of history. But here in the nine
teenth century, in the midst of what
we boast as the highest civilization, we
clothe one man, or rather allow one
man to clothe himself, with the power
Of debasing the currency or appreciat-
ing it at his own sweet will, and we
hardly put up so much as protest
against it, while trade and commerce,
and about everything, except the ac-
tual drawing of our breath, are at his
mercy. Talk about the tyrannies and
despotisms of the old world, of the
suppression of free thought and free
speech, of the absolute control ex-
ercised by despots over their subjects.
They are hardly to be compared to the
tremendous power Of the finance min
lister who holds between his thumb and
finger the business interests of the
whole continent. 1t was urged as such
an objection to the old United States
bank that it could make money cheap
or dear at it's will, and this, it is said,
gave it enormous political power that
was dangerous in the extreme. If this
power was dangerous then, when the
country was small, population scarce
anu ouoihCoo iiiuitCu, WHdJ oHdil Uc
said of the present condition, when
one man, instead of a corporation, con-
trolls more absolutely the vastly ex-
tended business interests of the coun-
try and commerce and trade depends
entirely upon the fiat of his will?
Compared with the present secre-
tary of the treasury and his power
the influence of the United States bank
was as that of pulling infant to full
grown Hercules.
Is any demonstration needed of the
terrible dangers to which we are mo-
mentarily exposed by this wild bestow-
al of authority? Witness the effect of
this mans action during the presi-
Dental canvass, when, with no author
ity except what he himself assumed,
and for that matter, may at any time
assume again, he diluted the currency
by expansion to the extent of millions
for political and partisan purposes, and
by that means contributed largely to
the perpetuation in power of the ad-
ministration of which he was a part.
Witness, too, the fluctuations in our
money markets for weeks past, the I'M
certainty of all legitimate trade and
commerce, and the subsequent damage
to the Industrial and the business in
terests of the country.-New York