The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-08

| issuance of the money which should
measure the worth of the peoples la
bcIs and these prescrif ed its kind, its
value and the conditions of its crea-
! ton. During all these years the source
and value of our currency has been
protected from the meddling rnachina-
tons of the system" so that during
the last 80 years the money of the peo-
pie has only increased from $1,500,-
600, 900 to $2,50O,000,00-
Banks and Trust Companies.
With the creation of money came
banks, safety places for safeguarding
and outstanding it. Subsequently trust
companies were added; insurance
companies came into existence, and
corporations were organized to facili-
tate the handling of the great bust
ness affairs of the people. These in
stitutions constitute the collection
banks and trust companies the peo-
pie put their savings, and into the
| insurance companies they paid ex-
orbitant premiums. Immense sums
prosperity of the nation-were piled
| into these several institutions, and
then the System" set about capturing
these funds for themselves. Railways,
gas, water, oil. mines, manufactures
and other corporations were organized
and stocks and bonds issued many
times beyond the value of the proper
ties they were founded upon, and then
the System" said to the people:
For your service, we have Great
ed these institutions, and you must
give US a legal right to charge you
prices for transportation, light and all
your other necessities and Iuxuries
that will enable US to pay interest
rates on the paper tokens of value it
has been necessary for US to put
FORTH
Privileges to Corporations.
he ofo
granted them the privileges they de-
manded and then the System" came
again to the people and said:
You have large sums of money in
the banks earning low interest rates.
Well, here are valuable stocks and
bonds which at the prices we have put
on them, will make you a much larg-
er return than 3 and per cent. We
advise you to exchange your savings
for these securities, and if you have
want, the banks will loan you what
you need
Thus tempted the people exchanged
their real money for these paper
in their strong boxes. AS the country
grew, business naturally increased so
that the stocks and bonds earned
easily the revenues necessary to pay
interest on them, but instead of charg-
ing lower rates, the System" capital
lied this rosperity-issued more
stocks and bonds, which they sold in
exchange for the money the people
had meantime been gathering in the
banks and trust companies, until dur
ing the last thirty years corporation
tokens of value have increased from
$4,000, 100000 to $60,00O,o 900, 900.
Whenever during this period objection
was made to the high charges that
were being exacted for transportation
and the luxurieS and necessities cover
ed by these corporation tokens, the
system met them with an argument
after this style: 1.-THE stock and bonds
in the properties you are threatening
are owned by the people. If you re-
duce the charges you will prevent us
from paying the people fair rates of
interest, and therefore you are an an
archist" So often have the people
heard such arguments that they have
got it into their heads that it is wrong
or dangerous to reduce corporation
charges.
Thus we have the system utilizing
its banks, trust and insurance COM
panies to gather in the savings of the
people, and then exchanging this real
money for the fictitious securities that
it had created. The profit here has
been the difference between the cost of
the properties and the total of the
stocks and bonds they have sold the
public But the people whose money
has been used to make these gains
have no share in them. This is the
trouble. The process have described
is but one of their devices for trans
feTring to themselves the real money
of the people. Here is a second. From
time to time it is the habit of the
system" to artifcially create a money
stringency and can in all the loans
they have made to enable the people
to buy all the stocks and bonds they
wanted, Whereupon the prices of these
securities have shrunk tremendously,
and the people, growing alarmed, have
thrown them overheard or back to the
system" at half what they had paid
for them Thus the system has had
returned to its possession all the stocks
and bonds representing the ownership
OF the great corporations of the coun-
try, and at the same time it has the
money the people paid for these prop
critics. You begin to see now something
of the process by which your share of
the prosperity of the country has been
diverted to the pockets of few men,
Ihe processes I have described have
been repeated at frequent intervals in
the last 80 years-hence Rockefe1ler's
500 millions and Carnegie's 400 mil
lions, and the Goulds' $50 millions.
Labor and Imitation.
The irresistibleness of this inhation-
of-securities process. is not confined
to its virtue as trap for the money
OF the people. When labor demands
an increase of wage because the
growth and prosperity of the country
have swelIed the revenues of the rail-
roads and the gas and oil and steel
factories and the same high prices are
being charged for the luxuries and
necessities of the people, the "sys-
TENS answer is:
You can have no part in this
prosperity because even with the in
creased earnings of our properties, we
have barely sufficient to meet the in
terest charges on our fictitious stock
and bonds, and Won must reSnoef fT7e
Inalienable rights of even fictitious
bonds and stocks to interest"
have spoken of the methods of
eapitalizing the prosperity of the ma
ton as one of the most fertile sources
of the fortunes of the few men who
have made themselves the money
kings of this country. In the case
of the great railway corporations es-