Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-03-22
The Currency Question.


equip piratical craft and shared in
| the division of spoils. But while they
furnished the money to equip they
always left the ugly work to profess
sional cutthroats. Like many trust
magnates of to-day they kept their
conscience at home as unimpaired
capital for use in benevolent and edu-
cational enterprises.
But let us examine briefly the out
line of the great central money trusts
which is just now in process of final
development in congress. 1t is at this
time Juggling at its tether, anxious to
spring upon its victims. 1t would be
doing violence to philology to call it
an octopus, as it has more than eight
tentacles or legs. Myriapod would
be better classification. The myria-
pod is described in zoology as a many
jointed. nocturnal, carnivorous, and
very active animal. with powerful bit
ing jaws and pair of feet for each
segment of the body. The similitude
seems perfect. l feel sure that both
philologist and zoologist will readily
agree that myriapod is the correct
grouping for this huge parent trust,
upon which its myriad of tentacles,
extending into every department of
trade, must depend for nourishment
and vitality. Myriapod seems right,
and myriapod it shall be.
The four controlling powers of gov
eminent under our constitution are:
1. The power to declare to war.
2. The power to lay and collect
| taxes.
3. The power to regulate commerce
| among the states and with foreign
nations.
4. The power to coin (issue) money
and regulate the value thereof and of
foreign coins.
Can we not see that the power
| which controls the money output of
| nation has in its hands the con-
trolling attribute of sovereignty, and
holds the whole body of the people
and all lines of business at its mercy?
| There is no more pitiable spectacle
in this world than a highly organized
state of society rising in torment for
want of an independent system of
| finance. Once you allow the banks
| to assume and exercise this sovereign
| luuCtlOA VI GhC AhOACy
| supply, you have assisted them to
| drive from the field their only pos
sible competitor-the government
and you have placed in their hands
| the very citadel of sovereign power.
| Fer we all know there can be no war
without the purse; no adequate col
lection of taxes without a nimble cir
| culation of money; no commerce
worthy the name without an adequate
circulating medium to facilitate 1t,
1t is the purpose of the legislation
now pending in congress to exalt the
money trust to a position of supreme
power, to displace constitutional au-
thority and enthrone self-appointed
money kings holding their positions
| for life and give them carte blanche
to do as they please. All these grants
| of power are express and exclusive.
They are all found in section 8, article
1, of the constitution. Congress has
as much right to farm out the war
making power to gunsmiths and pow
der manufacturers as it has to farm
| out to banks it's power over the cur
rency.
In the case of ordinary commercial
| trusts combinations strangle and
crush competition. But the money
trust cannot reach it's end in this way.
The government, with all its plenary
power over the whole question, stands
squarely across it's pathway. How to
get rid of this supreme and omnipo-
tent rival in Che money industry is
the great question which the assosia-
Tor 10, I'll I,x -, Co. -
with this class of men, it has been the
uppermost question in this nation for
more than 100 years-since Thomas
Jefferson crossed swords with Alex
ander Hamilton upon this very ques-
ton in the cabinet councils of Presi-
dent Washington. The contest has al
ways been the banks against the
mint, the corporations against the
people, from that day to this. The
bank won the first round and leaped
into the field nearly IL months ahead
of the mint. But it lost caste under
Presidents jefferson, Madison and
Jackson, and there has been a pro-
tracted struggle ever since. If they
can, as now proposed, strike down all
classes of money recognized in the
constitution except gold, which is al
ready within their control and will
there remain, held simply as a re-
demption fund. and largely in the
shape of gold bars, ready for export
to Europe, then they will have clear
field with all rivalry eliminated. This
will create a vast artificial vacuum,
law made vacuum, which the trusts
will be authorized to fill with its own
product-its watered dollars-when it
suits their imperial purpose. The
money trust is law made trust, and
it is the foster parent and life-giver
to the whole brood of vampires that
are now sucking the good, red blood
of legitimate trade.-Gen. J. B. Weav-
er, in National Waterman.