The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-07-14
He Shows Up the Financial
Methods of BiIIiOnaries.
Advises the People to Un-
load Stocks and Bonds.
Is the Only Plan BY Which The
Bunch Can Be Worsted.
Especial to The Free Press.1

Ottawa, Kans., July S.-Thomas w. |
Lawson of Boston, the man who is |
carrying on vigorous crusade against
what he terms, ''The System" that COM
bination of methods whereby great fin
anciers rob the people by skillful manip
ulation of stock and bonds, addressed
an immense audience here this after
noon. Mr.. Lawson, said, in part:
His Plan of Campaign.
Long before l had to do with Stand
ard Oil the system l was convinced
that the form of finance which wrought
such iniquities as 1 have designated must
certainly end in great disaster unless
checked, and 1 applied myself to study
ing it's operation to discover it's under
lying errors. Years ago l worked out
for myself the formula through which
the great fortunes of the few have been
created, and then devised what l call
my remedy for the correction of the
abuse. To convince the American peo
pie that the way in which they have
been accustomed to doing their business
all these years was wrong was a task
so formidable and so revolutionary that
shrank from attempting it without first
equipping myself to meet the bitter re-
sstance l knew 1 should encounter. So
1 started in and made few millions
to pay expenses while the fight was on.
Where do you suppose | would be now,
after one year of campaigning against
frenZied finance, if l had not previously
earned dollars enough to pay for ammu-
milton and defence? In the paupers
field by way of the morgue or rotting in
some unmarked grave. Intimate inter-
course furnished me thorough knowl-
edge of the cost and danger of defyinS
the thugs of high finance. l know that
the men l am attacking would not hest
tate at any crime they could commit
without periling their own safety, and
it is this last contingency that has pro-
tected me so far. You have all noticed
that during this long, hard year, though
they have abused and vilified me and
mine. there are two things they halted
at-hailing me into court or setting their
braves on to me- Crazy l may be, but
they have shown disposition to ex-
hibit the fact in open court where all
the world might judge, and they shrink
from attempting the assassination of one
audience.
THE surest, safest and most natural
process of restitution is the application
of the systems own methods to the
system If we find Rockefeller pos
sessed of 500 millions, we shall first in
vestigate how he obtained SO much mon
ey. and if he gained it legally he must
never be molested in it's ownership, for
it would be dastardly if the American
people took from any one of themselves
that which they had themselves given
him, for that is what obtaining property
legally really amounts to in America.
But the ownership of so large a sum
by one man is proof positive that it was
not obtained legally, therefore we should
discover exactly by what methods of
squeezing, filching and plundering it was
got together and then take him and his
| 500 millions back over the route of his
! raid. compelling him to drop the booty
| at each twist of the road. There would
| be righteous retribution in despoiling the
| robber by means of the very machine
| he devised for your undoing.
To-day the great corporations supply
ing the luXures and necessities of the
American people are owned by a few
| men. They must be restored to the di-
| rect ownership of the American people
1t is in your power to bring about this
| financial revolution when you realize ex-
| listing conditions. But you must be ed
| ucated to the necessities of the case
and you must act in concert. 1 promise
no miracle and pretend to no magic.
Nothing can be accomplished for the
L L
versal of financial practices until you
yourselves are convinced of the wisdom
of what 1 shall advise and take the
steps that must precede its successful
accomplishment.
Sell All Stocks and Bonds.
1.-THE first step is for the American
people to divorce themselves from the
| system and sell every share of stock
and every bond they hold back to the
frenzied financiers at present inflated
prices.
Take the money thus realized and
place it in banks and trust companies
or, better STILL in government, state and
| municipal bonds. In selecting banks and
trust companies steer clear to the best
| of your ability, of those institutions that
are linked up with the system When
you all have done this you have cut the
foundation from under the inflated price
structure the system is maintaining and
collapse is inevitable. When the value
of securities declines to a given point
the system must throw over the stocks
and bonds it is carrying. for, bear in
mind, frenzied financiers never own out
right the stocks and bonds that stand in
their names. A financier worth 500 000,-
900 will be found owning 100000, 900 of
stock, borrowing the $4,000 900 from the
funds of the people in the banks. When
the system sells, the public alone will
be able to buy. Then the system will
be no more. There is my simple plan
to load up the system with the stocks
and bonds distributed among the people
in addition to the stocks and bonds it
owns itself. Then deprive it of the
money of the people. Result-the artfic-
al price structure collapses, the stocks
and bonds of railways and manufactures
and gas companies all drop to the real
cost or values of the properties they
represent. Then the people, the money