Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-01-30
Wall Street Methods Exposed by Thomas
W. Lawson.
One of the Shearers Turns States Evidence
The Famous Bostonian Explains the
Magic of Finance Lambs
Return Annually to the
Shearing Pens.

out OF their savings like the veriest
"comeons." Humbly they take, in re.
turn for the gold earned with the sweat
OF their brows, piece of paper OF a given
value which they return later and eX.
change for half the amount the paper
had cost them originally. In the space
between purchase and sale fifty per cent.
of their investmet has disappeared-ha
Deen tilched away, but yet they have no
resentment. They envince none of the
| feelings OF the man whose pocket has
been picked or whose till has been rob.
bed. On the contrary, their sentiment
is of admiration for the banker, the
broker, the fnancier through whose
agency their money has been lost.
! 1t is the phenomenon OF the age that
millions of people throughout this great
country OF ours come Of their own free
will to the shearing pens OF the System"
each year, voluntarily chloroform them.
selves. so that the "System" may 90
through their pockets. and then depart
peacefully home to dig and delve for
more money that they may have the de.
basing operation repeated ON them twelve
months later.
You may ask if desire to convey the
idea that the great financial institutions
and trusts of this country, which have
their head center in Wall Street, are all
concerned in a conspiracy to rob the
people of their savings. You think,
doubtless, that so sweeping statement
goes beyond the truth. l desire to 90 on
record right here in declaring that all
such financial institutions which in any
way are enga ed in taking from the peo.
pie the money that is their surplus earn.
ings or their capital, for the ostensible
purpose of safeguarding it, or putting it
in use for them, or exchanging it for
stocks, bonds, policies, or other paper
evidences of worth, are part of the ma.
chinery for the plundering OF the people.
This is terrible charge, 1 am we'll
aware, but it is based upon thorough
knowledge of the subject and made with
full appreciation Of it's gravity. do
not mean to say that all the men who
handle and control the different institu.
tions l mentioned have guilty ,knowl-
edge of the bearing Of their actions.
Many of them are Of the purest minds
and most honest intentions, and are
quite incapable OF participating volun-
tarily in conspiracy to wrong any one.
They do not know, however, that the
relation between their own minor insti.
tuition and the general financial struc.
tu. e constitutes the former an agency for
the "System," which controls and has
organized the general financial structure
into an instrument for converting the
money OF the public to it's own purposes.
In fact, the System" has cunningly
possessed itself of the financial mechan
ism OF the country and is running it, not
for the object for which the machine was
devised, but for the benefit and personal
profit of it's votaries. and so the vast
correlated organization of banks, trust
companies, and insurance corporations
which were brought into being for the
safe handling OF the peoples savings has
become an agency for transferring these
savings to the control of unscrupuous
manipulators, who take liberal toll OF
every dollar that passes through their
hands.
The duty of the American people is to
unloosen the thraldom Of the System"
on our financial mechanism; to pluck
out of their high places the dishonest
usurpers who have degraded the pur-
poses OF our financial institutions and to
restore those institutions to their
legitimate functions. When the people
are fully awakened to the condition |
describe, surely they will arise in their
wrath and sweep the money.changers
from the temple.