Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-03-25
A LESSON FROM HISTORY.
ing Bus1ness and Run Its Own
Financial Affairs.

LET the government go out of the
Banking business" is the shibboleth OF
ethe monocrats. Leave the financial at
fairs of the nation to the control OF prac-
steal business men who are in touch
with the commercial interests and will
REGULATE the currency to suit the de-
snand. Let the men who understand the
uaws of finance fix the volume of money
and supply us with an 'elastic' cur
rency that can be expanded or con-
sra cited in response to the actual needs
OF the people.
These are the doctrines tndt are now
being promul gated by the advocates OF
@honest" money. They have been
sht;lrd before. 1t is the same old de-
eaand of the money lenders that the
sDeople shall be turned over 20 their ten
der protection; the howl Of the wolf
asserting his right to be let loose in the
sheep fold as the protector of the lambs.
We need not search far into the rec
-ords of history to learn what the result
OF such a policy would be. Abundant
sexa mples are to be found in our own
country, and in proof of this we again
offer the evidence of one whose state
anents will not be disputed.
history, as we'll as of the science Of
finance. He was also ready writer OF
strong, clear and forceful English; and
"a coiner of apt and expressive phrases.
One of the best of these was Mono
scrat," meaning an amalgamat;on of
f'monarchist" and "Moneyist." Then,
as now, the money party wanted
strong, centralized and brilliant gov.
aerpment, that would protect the rights
of property holders against the en-
~croachments of the ignorant and shift
Jess rabble." John Adams carried this
idea SO far that he had wot.lon throne
constructed and sat upon it during his
levees and public receptions. He was
the first of the monocratic presidents,
and there have been but few since his
day jefferson convinced him of his
error, and for years before his death
1e was almost as good democrat as the
great comnoner himself.
jefferson took the side of the people,
demanded a democracy pure and sim.
pie-und he was called an anarchist.
But the people were with him, and in
ahe end he won.
lie bitterly opposed the establishment
OF national bank, when it was first
proposed by Hamilton, on the ground
shat it would create privileged class
:and endanger the liberties of the peo-
zDle. But his warnings were not needed,
the bank was ablished, ran it's course
of evil, and came very near wrecking
the republic.
The opposition to the war of 1912,
particularly in the eastern states, put
new life into the almost defunct federal
party, and with it's regeneration came
the old demand for bank and the
supremacy Of the monocrats. Jefferson
sent forth his warnings from Month
cello, but he had grown old and new
generation, that knew him not, was
strutting it's brief period on the stage of
public affairs. Madison was president,
and he vetoed the first bank bill. But
a new one, modified in some of it's worst
features, was presented to him, and he
signed it on the Sd day of April, 1916.
Immediately it's evil effects began to
7oe felt. Jefferson's soul was stirred to
ats very depths. On the 21st of March.
1s19,'he dipped his virile pen in gall and
wrote as follows to his old friend, John
Adams. who, as stated, had become q
good democrat:
1.-The evils Of this deluge Of (bank) pa
per money are not to be removed, until our
citizens are generally and radically in
structed in their cause and consequences,
and silence by their authority the interested
clamors and sophistry Of specializing, shaw
ang and banking institutions. Till then we
must be content to return. quoad hoe, to the
savage state, to recur to barter in the ex-
change of our property, for want OF
stable, common measure of value, that now
in use being less fixed than the beads and
wampun of the Indian, and to deliver up
our citizens, their property and their labor
passive victims to the swindling tricks OF
bankers and mountebankers."
But the ''bankers and mountebank-
aers'' were in the saddle, and they cared
little for what jefferson and the people
thought of their piratical schemes. A
new twist was given to the thumb
screws; those who dared to cry out or
resist were put to the rack; men who
were rich to-day became paupers by the
rising of to-morrow's sun; enormous
wealth (for those days. rapidly concen-
trated il the hands of few, while the
masses CT the people were stricken win
dire poverty. The results are given in
this extract from a letter written by
Jefferson on the 2sth of November, 1919:
"Certainly no nation ever before aban-
doned to the avarice and jugglings of
private individuals to regulate. according
to their own interests, the quantum of cir
0ulating medium for the nation, to initiate
by deluges of paper, the nominal price OF
property. and then to buy up that prop
1rty at shillings in the pound, having first
withdrawn the floating medium which
might endanger competition Of purchase.
Yet this Is what has been done, and will be
done. unless stayed by the protecting hand
OF the legislature. The evil has been pros
duced by the error Of their sanction OF this
Guinous machinery of banks; and Justice.
wisdom, duty, all require that they should
1nterpose and arrest 1t before the schemes