The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-10-12
ECKELS TO WORKMEN.
Cleveland's Comptroller Tells Them Why
Bryan Should be Defeated.

Bryan Should be Defeated.
In a speech at the Auditorium,
Chicago, on Friday evening last, which
| was addressed largely to working
men, James 81. Eckles, who was comp
troller of the currency under President
Cleveland, set forth the reasons why
Bryan should be defeated in his can
didacy. He said:
! l propose in this campaign, as
Democrat, to support William Nc
Kinley, the nominee of the Republi
can party for reelection to the presi-
Dental Office, and on that behalf I am
upon this platform. appreciate the
signal compliment which the Sound
Money Business Men league pays in
extending to me an invitation to ad-
dress, upon the questions now at issue,
so representative body of working
men of this city as are here gathered,
and thank them for it. I trust that
before am done, if any entertain the
logical deduction to be drawn from the
expressed views of Bryan, that
bankers in particular, and business
men in general, are joined in con-
spiracy to rob and degrade labor, that
| judgment will undergo revision, and
that, instead, they will believe the
interests of capital and labor lie along
the same lines, and that in the advance
of the one is wrought out the welltbe-
| ing of the other.
| The fact may we'll challenge the
thoughtful attention of every laboring
man that nowhere do the declaration
of principles of the Democratic party,
as today constituted, or the utterances
of the Democratic candidate, appeal
to any business interest, whether that
interest be small or great. In every
section of the country business men,
no matter what the calling, repudiate
them as violative of all sound rules of
business conduct. and destructive of
those underlying principles upon which
the common welfare of the successful
commercial world must rest.
On analysis the laboring man will
find that this almost universal rejec-
tlon of Organism by those who are
conducting the great affairs of finance,
of manufacturing, of trade, and COM
merce, and who, in the very order of
things, are giving the largest measure
of employment to labor, does not arise
from a selfish, a political, or class pre-
| Jlu1SCj dS 4hls LII WOulu nave UuSu1
believe, because neither enter into the
forming of that opinion.
Remember, you citizens who toll day
in and day out and thereby upbuild
the country, I beg of you to remember
cause of Mr.. Bryan and his party as
against the advice of the business
world, that by so doing you embrace
the tenets of party solely of politi-
clans, controlled wholly for the benefit
of politicians, and by politicians alone.
l do not believe as a business PROPOSE
ton, you can, from the standpoint
of your own good and the good of
those dependent upon you, afford to
take the risk to which you are invited.
1 am certain, dispute some individual
| injustice here and individual injustice
there, you are better off at present and
will be in the future, by acting with
those who employ labor and not max
| ing common cause with men who
neither themselves labor outside of the
realm of politics for their own ad-
vancement nor give employment to
others.
submit, without fear of successful
contradiction, that bank, whether
it be national, state, or private one,
properly conducted and honestly man
aged, instead of being a cause of de-
triment to any community or harmful
to any interest public or private, is a
source of strength and benefit. l
allege further that no one is more
benefited by such institutions than
labor. Oyer and beyond the distinc-
| tive feature of the good of savings de-
partments, providing safe and profit
able place for labor earnings rests the
greater good accomplished by the
bank, in gathering to itself the sur
plus money of the country which
would lie in idleness, and directing it
| into proper channels of trade and
commerce thus making it possible to
carry on the thousand undertakings
which furnishes the daily wage of
labor It is the bank which furnishes
the life blood of trade; the bank that
utilities for labor over and over again
the fruits of labor; the bank that
makes accumulated capital potential
force in world wide development that
each recurring year makes this country
! the wonderment of its own people and
F.. the establishment of sister nations
| The laborer ought not to lose sight
| of the fact that if it was not for the
assistance of banks in granting to the
manufacturers necessary credit during
| the process of manufacturing that
wages might be met before payment
| for the finished article is received
from the purchaser, in almost every
great institution, operation would
either be greatly reduced or cease al
together 1t bridges over that period
essential to the laborer between the
day of the raw material and the pay
ment for the finished, period when
the manufacturer must of needs have
borrowed capital Herein is the i'm
portance of the commercial bank and
the necessity of it to the business and
laboring world The country's faith
in it as mighty agency for good,
and the integrity of those who have
to do with it, could have no stronger
attestation than is shown in its total
of Is, 600, 900 depositors representing
81, 514, 600, 600.
And who make up the 5000, 600 de-
positors whose reserve capital gained
from toilsome labor is lodged in saw
ings banks. to the extent of So, 436, :
600. DOOR Who but the laboring mann
Within the past year the number of
such depositors has increased 41O, 600,
while to their deposits have been add
ed 1905, 900, 600. In Illinois alone
there are today 2O9, OOO as against
1874, 600 savings bank depositors year
since. In the light of such fact will
any laboring man believe the men he
trusts with all this hard earned wealth
will pursue course which will injure
him and destroy his savings2 Nay,
more; will he not go out against those
who preach monetary doctrine
which would diminish by half that he
has saved, and defeat them at the