Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-08-17
MONEY TALKS.
Property of the Middle and Northwest
Shown by the Increase in De-
posits in Banks.
Past Four Years have Shown Tremen.
dous Increase in the Deposited
Wealth of the People
What the Figures Show in Controvert.
ing Bryan's Dismal Predictions
Four Years ago.

Washington, Aug 14.-During the
past four years there has been a net
increase in the amount of money de-
posted in the national banks of nine
states of the agricultural section of the
middle west amounting to more than
$1G3, 100000.
This is the answer that prosperity
makes to the calamity howls of the
Bryanites. Four years ago on every
stump the cry was heard from Mr..
Bryan and his supporters that the
election of Mr.. Mckinley would mean
scarcer and dearer money, greater pow
erty among the people and increasing
ruin to the nation.
So general has been the prosperity
among the people as result of repub-
lican policies that ..4e Bryan party is
now strenuously endeavoring to get
away from the issue of free silver and
trying to make a new issue of imper-
ialism to mask the silver issue until
the Bryanites can get into power.
In July, 1896, after the country had
recovered to same extent from the
panic of the three preceding years, the
national banks of the United States
returned to the treasury reports show
ing holdings of cash to the credit of
individual depositors amounting to
81 ,tGS,5O 900. On June % of this year
the high water mark of prosperity un-
der republican policies of administra-
ton brings to the department reports
of individual deposits held by the
banks aggregating S2,45S, ,G92,757. The
amount of cash holdings for the people
this year should be counted as really
larger than the quoted figures show
on account of the fact that an item
of individual deposits, so-called, and
which was formerly counted as indi-
vidual deposits, being the amounts in
the national banks to the credit of
savings banks and trust companies, is
now separated and reported as a dis
tinct item. The amount of this item
now returned by the banks is $22:322,
42S,oOO for this year. About one
fourth of the total increase in the casl,
holdings of the banks for the people
as represented by the individual de-
posits, was made in the agricultural
and manufacturing states of the Mis-
sissippi valley.
There is no doubt that the private
and state banks show corresponding
Increases in the volume of the indi.
vidual deposits held for the people by
them, so that the increase in the vol
ume of money held to their credit by
the people, the best test of real pros.
perity among the masses generally, has
tremendously increased during the
four-year period which Mr.. Bryan said
would be attended by depression and
increasing poverty among the people
scarcer and dearer money.
An analysis of the showing of indi.
vidual deposits in the several states OF
that great agricultural and industrial
region of the middle west shows some
interesting facts. The percentage OF
increase in holdings of cash by the
people, as indicated by these national
bank returns, is greatest in Kansas and
Nebraska. the gains being nearly
double in those states.
A further fact which should not be
lost in the examination of these inter-
esting and striking figures is the fact
that while the total of individual de-
posits returned by all the national
banks of the country this year showed
an increase over the returns for a cor
responding part of the year 1896
amounting to $79O,OOO,OOO, the total
increase for the nine states of the
middle west, amounting in the aggre-
gate to $163,OOO,OOO, is a splendid
showing for those states. Much in
formation comes to the political head.
quarters of the republican managers
about the increase in wages, the start
Ing of new industries and the payment
OF mortgages by the people on the
farms OF the country. All these facts
make part of the swelling note OF
universal prosperity. But the figures
as to the individual deposits made by
the people in the banks, and the total
held by the banks Of cash that is the
property of the people, is the best test
OF the question whether the people