The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1899-09-29
The Trust Movement.

of the hour. The Chief inspiring motive
for the present trust agitation was hope
that it might take the place Of the fnan-
cial question in the presidential campaign
and scatter political thought over the trust
war, Expansion" and Imperialism.
It is noticeable that in the recent trust
discussions that the greatest trust of all,
the international money trust, which is
the gold, money trust, has almost escaped
mention, while the remedy for CONNER
cial trusts has occupied the attention OF the
conferences. The money trust is the
greatest, the most powerful and dangerous
of all the trusts. The remedy proposed
for the commercial trusts, which all po
litical partisans and all shades of thought
seem to agree OH, is government
supervision.
For natural monopolies government
ownership is rapidly gaining in popu-
larty, as the only remedy for the extor-
ton which the public is subjected to by
these gigantic influences, which have in
their possession the motive power Of
steam and electricity combined with the
marvellous mechanical inventions of the
present age.
The greatest of all natural monopolies
is money Without money civilization
would rapidly recede to barbarism. To
the trustifying of money can be traced
every commercial evil complained of. The
class of men who have been granted
special privileges to take under their con-
troll the money of the country, have
become the virtual masters and control,
lers of all the other trusts. Through the
fundamentally of banks they bring all
business, great and small, under their
influence and direction. The money
trust has been given power to bind and
loose, to make and break any industry in
the country. Not satisfied with the im-
mense power they have, like all anibi-
tous conquerers they are striving for des-
potic control, and aiming to become a
power above the government.
In order to grasp this imperial power
the bankers have bill prepared to de-
stroy the government issues of paper
money and forever prevent it from issuing
anything but gold coin and selling bonds
which place mortgage for the benefit OF
the bankers on every dollars worth OF
property in the country, with government
machinery to collect tax for the bank
trust. In our present civilization SOW
ereign power only is invested with the
prerogative of creating money. The
money trust has worked diligently and
steadily to contract that power to the
utmost limit and have succeeded i'll mar.
rowing it down to gold coin alone, with
subsidiary substitutes which can be con.
trolled by the trust who manipulate gold
This makes the volume Of legal tender
money very small and readily controllable
by the bank trust, which issues in place
of money its credit This bank cedit is
now made The foundation on which all
business rests, and being a creature of the
money trust places the whole business o.
the country in the power of this greatest
of all trusts.
There is not dollar invested in bus
mess that does not pay into the treasury
of the money trust all annual interest o.
one hundred per cent. 1t bleeds every
business III existence of all surplus, after
the community is housed, clothed and
fed. The wealth industry creates is swept
into the Golfers of this giant money
trust whose machinery is our private
banking system, created by the blind folly
of placing the control of the nations
money in the hands of class of usures.
Money is created by government for
the use of the people by which the rapid
exchange and distribution of products
can he made. 1t belongs to nobody, but
is held in trust by all who are employed
in labor or business In itself it has no
value, but is circulating medium for the
use of ALL By securing franchises from
the government, the scheming usurers
have we'll nigh deprived the government
of its sovereign power over money, and
are now engaged il their supreme effort
to complete their conquest.
Money is clearly natural monopoly,
as much so as e-railroads, the telegraph
and similar public utilities. To prevent,
or destroy the crying abuse of these nat.
ural monopolies in the hands of private
corporations is cause of the recent out
break of denunciation against trusts, land
a demand that they all be placed under
government surveillance, and the natural
monopolies be taken possession of by the
government. Public opinion is fast crys
talizing in the belief that public owner
ship of public utilities is the only pre-
ventive of the abuse which is the crying
evil i'll public utilities that are iii the
hands Of private corporations, and that
government supervision, strict and rigid
the only cure for the robbery of the public
by private corporations that own public
utilities.
Now, the money trust being the greatest
OF all the natural monopoly trusts, appeals
most strongly of them all for complete
government ownership and control, and
there is no valid reason can be named
why the government should not take it
out of the hands of private corporations
and exercise the function of banking
itself, while there are abundant and over
wnel tnino reasnns mhu II chnnld