The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-03-15
CONTROL OF THE VOLUrIE OF
MONEY.
Carries With 1t the Power to Put Up
or Put Down the Prices of
Commodities.

In carefully and ably written editor
ial in the Baltimore Sun of August I,
1894, under the title, ANDREW Jackson's
Fight With the Money Bags" the follow
ing paragraph, in reference to the old
United States Bank, occurs:
"It had its branches in all the great
cities of the Union. 1t controlled the
financial operations of the government
and the people. 1t put up or put down
the price of commodities at will"
The editorial was written to draw par
allel between the fight then going on
against the tariff barons, and the fight OF
Jackson against the bank, and the par
allel was allowable, for monopoly built
up by protective tariff and monopoly
of making money out of paper both rest
upon the same vicious principle ofspecial
favors to a few at the expense of the
many. The paragraph quoted states
fact, so amazing that many people cannot
be made to believe it possible. 1t says
that the bank in Jackson's day ''put up
or put down prices of commodities at
will" And that is tantamount to saying
that the bank had it in its power to ruin
the great body of the people, for if specu-
lators can, through money monopoly,
put up or put down prices at will, it is
only question of time when such specu-
lators will own all the wealth of coun-
try. AS it is, they are absorbing the
wealth that others produce by the mil
lions and billions, but give them the
absolute power to raise or lower prices at
will, and such absorption will increase at
an hundred fold rate
The bank had that power in Jackson's
day, and Jacksons successful fight against
the bank is all that saved the people from
ruin. The bank was destroyed, as it
should have been, and the country was
for the time saved.
How did the bank put up or put down
the prices at will? The Sun, bank adj
vocate, confesses that 1t did SO and that
should be sufficient proof OF the fact, but
how? Simply by controlling the amount
of money in the country and by making
it alternately large and small. 1t is fact
we'll known to every bank advocate, we'll
Known to every student of economy. and
ought to be as we'll known to every one
who will be taught by experience or
observation, that increasing the amount
of money in country increases the
prices of commodities and decreasing the
amount of money lowers the prices of
commodities.
The old United States bank ''put up or
put down prices of commodities at will
because it controlled the volume of cur
rency and could contract or expand it at
will. We had then an elastic currency,
and with it the bank put up or put down
prices of commodities at will" The
Lowering bill recently favorably reported
to Congress, proposes to give US again an
"elastic currency" by authorizing the
banks to issue paper money based on
assets. This is another step in the direc-
ton of giving the banks entire control OF
the volume of the currency, and when
they get it they will do again as they did
it Jackson's time-''put up or put down
the prices of commodities at will"
AS Senator Towne well illustrated in
his great speech, at the recent banquet OF
the Maryland Democratic Association,
| the banks are on one side of the counter
with money to sell, and the people on
the other, with commodities; if the banks
have power to fix the prices Of the COM
modities they will soon own all of them.
Nor does this accuse the banks of any
thing worse than ordinary human sell
ishness.