Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1898-07-21


core. 1t is untitled for this age it
should be replaced by a better eys-
tenn,
Ia this article / have dealt with
savings banks alone. The great noun
tain of debt the people owe the ma
tional and commercial banks in Gal
lfornia is not included in this $102,-
100000 they owe the savings banks
The debts of the people to those in
stltutlons aggregate one hundred
millions more, which, added to the
debt due the savings banks, show what
a deplorable condition the people Of
California are in. Taking the whole
United States into the account, the
showing is still worse for the banks
as we'll as for the people. Leaving
all savage, state and individual or
private banks out of the calculation,
we find that the 1000 national banks
of the union on July of last year
owed their depositors one billion,
eight hundred and thirty millions, or
about five times more than all the
money they had on hand, or sum
larger than all the money in the
United Slater, It is estimated that
the other banks were indebted to their
depositors in an equal amount
II the present monetary system is
allowed TO go on and on, how many
years will it be till the banks will be
in position to take for interest every
dollar the farmer and other industrial
classes cae earn, and when SO inclined,
foreclose their mortgages, and come
into possession Of all the land worth
owning, and make future generations
to become tenants and serfs to land.
ed arI1tocracy, and accomplish it
without investing a dollar of their
own money? Nothing can prevent
such disastrous results unless it be
the frequent periodical bursting OF
the inflated bubble, which, like the
Cyclone, deals out ruin to the innocent
as well rs the guilty. Well may the
bankers say that our financial system
is built On confidence" for they
know they owe their deposltors from
five to ten times more than the whole
amount of money they ever have on
hand with which to pay them.
Bankers as individuals are no better
or no worse than the average citizen.
wage no war upon them. My purpose
in this article is to show that our
present banking system is a very cost
ly aud a very unsafe one for the
people, especially for the farmer and
industrial classes. II puts danger
GUS power into the hands of the few;
it confers upon private citizens pre-
negatives that should be exercised by
government alone. BY simple pro-
cess Of expansion Of the currency, and
by a concerted action Of banks, and
through a process Of compromising
interest the toilers of nation can be
deprived OF a part or all of the pro-
duct of their industry and labor, and
kept in perpetual state of financial
servitude. Moreover, it affords no
security whatever to the deposltor.
The system should be amended and
improved without delay, and if it is
found that it cannot be made better
by reason of the influence of bankers
exerted on law makers or from other
influences, then the people should, by
lawful methods, and put in its place
a state loan and savings bureau and
government savings banks. England,
though q monarchy, has established
postal savings banks in which six
millions of people are depositors, and
bank suspensions are nearly, il not
entirely, unknown in that country,
and no depositor ever loses dollar
on his deposits Congressman Sibley
and other reliable statisticians are
authority for the statement that even
now the Indebtedness of the people Of
the United States is so great that the
products of all the farms and the out
put OF all the mines in the United
States fail to pay the annual interest
that accruee. Usury is rapidly trans
ferring the wealth of this country
from the possession Of the men who
create it to the pockets CT those who
adroitly manipulate it.
The public and private indebted
ness of the people of the United States
IS nearly forty billions of dollars,
which ut an pvarar,a ,nkaroak ~ e ,oo.