Arizona silver belt., 1900-03-22
NATIONAL BANKS.
A Simple Analysis of the Business of Issuing
 Money.
BRYAN SHEDS SOME LIGHT.
''An Elastic Currency, with the Banks Holding Both Ends of the Elas- tic, ,"- Entertaining Facts
 Devoid of FancieS.

the maSterful speech delivered Dv Col. William Jennings Bryan at Baltimore January 20, touching upon the tinan- cial condition of the country in gen eral and the banks and banking sys- tenn in particular;
 But the gold standard part lof the republican fnancil bill is only one part. That bill not only provides for the gold standard, not only pro yides that we shall be chained t0 the financial system of the old world but it provides that we shall retire the greenbacks and turn over our paper money to the national banks. l chal- lenge you to ind word in your plat form of 1896 that promised to retire the greenbacks and substitute bank notes, challenge you to find in the letter of acceptance Of your president asingle word that indicated that he would try to retire the greenbacks and form paper money trust for the benefit of the national banks of the United States. Applause.
 If the republican party had placed in its platform an outline of the bill now before congress, or the president had placed that outline in his letter of acceptance. he could not have been president of the United States. [Ap- plause.l And yet today the republican party is seeking to change the entire financial policy of this nation, to drive the government out of the busi- ness of issuing money in order to turn that business over to the national banks of the United States.
 'Haye you considered the plan; do you realize the fayoritism that you bestow upon national banks: Let me state the proposition in its most fav- Orable terms. They say Let us au- thorize the president to issue bonds, tO buy gold, and redeem every green back presented for redemption, and when redeemed the greenback is not to be issued again, except as gold certificate.n and there Is no difference between retiring the greenback en- tirely and issuing gold certificates when the gold is deposited and put ting the greenback in the treasury and issuing il as certificate Of for gold. It is merely dishonest way of doing what might honestly be done by the retirement of the greenbacks.
 ''Then they will have all of the bonds funded with two percent bonds, and then the banks may issue money up to the par value of the bonds and the tax is reduced from one percent to half of one percent.
 When that bill becomes a law, then if an ordinary republican wants to buy government bond at per cent, he will rake together the money to pay for the bond and will put 1t away in place for safe keeping. He will be out the use of the money, and he will get ? percent on the bond.
 But if a national bank. with q cap ital of Sl0O.O wants to invest in the same bond the bank can buy the bonds for $100,000, deposit them with the treasury, get back $l00,000 in cur rency, which will take the the place of the money spent for the bonds. And then the bank will get percent on the sl0o, 0o0 and pay one half per cent back, and thus it draws II per cent on the Sl0O,0OO with nothing act ually invested at all. IApplausel
 That isa simple analysis of the mat ter The ordinary man, when he buys bond, is out the use of his money, and has to be satisfied with the inter- est on the bond, but the bank gets the money back and gets the interest on bond too.
 My mother used to tell me when was boy that l could either eat my cake or keep it, but the national bank can both eat its cake and keep it.. Laughter and applause Why: Be- cause the national banks have more influence with the republican party than all of the people who pay the taxes. Applause.
 But there is another feature of it. This is to be a permanent policy. The government is tO go cut of the busi- ness of issuing money and the national banks are to supply whatever paper money the people need. The bank is to have the right to expand the cur rency. We are to have an elastic cur rency-an elastic currency, with the banks holding both ends of the elas- tic. Laughter.
 "Yes, they can expand the currency and contract it, but they cannot eX- pand it beyond the amount of the bonds. Therefore, if the money must increase with population and business then the bonded debt of this nation must not only be permanent, but must be an increasing debt. Applause. The republican party seeks to fasten upon this country a perpetual and ever increasing debt, in order that the banks may control the volume of the peoples money. IApplaue.l