The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-03-02
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, THE PEOPLES COLUMN. .
A NOTE OF WARNING.

upon the deliberations of the Bank
ers' Convention which assembled in
Washington City Oct. 8, 1905, in
which said editorial charges:
First: That in said convention the
bankers demand a Ship subsidy.
Following this the editor asks the
following Ito my mind PERTINENT
question: How did it become the
bankers business to demand a Ship
subsidy? Is the tariff question con-
nected with banking? Are the trust
magnates who coin fortunes out of
protective system confederated with
the bankers?"
He follows with the assertion: THE
system, which created the Trusts, de-
stroyed the Merchants Marine, and
instead of levying the expense of its
restoration to life upon those who
killed it the cost must be borne by
the other victims.
2nd-The Bankers suggest that the
Greenbacks be retired.
SAG millions of paper money which
survived the fires of contraction, is
now to be retired.
The Editor continues: Why retire
this 346 millions of non-interest bear
ing notes? He answers, that their
places would be taken by SAG millions
interest bearing notes Of the Bankers,
the result of which would be, that
the common people will loose and the
Bankers gain. The twenty and odd
millions of interest which we do not
now have to pay for the use of that
sum of 346 millions.
3rd-The bankers demand that the
gold reserve be increased to $50 mil.
lions. But that is not all. The modest
Bankers demand that the law be so
changed that Uncle Sam shall keep
only fifty millions of his money in his
own cash box hereafter. What must
Uncle Sam do with all the balance,
hand it over to his favorite sons (the
Bankers? The Editor states, the
government revenue amounts to the
huge sum of 600 millions per year and
that the bankers already have the
free use of more than so millions of
this, but that is not enough. 1t is
demanded by the bankers that the
receipts from tariff duties and the in
ternal revenue be turned over to them
when the surplus exceeds fifty mil
lions.
The editor continues: 1.-THE pres
ent law allows the bankers to expand
or contract the currency at their pleas
ure, but limits the amount of con-
traction for any one month to three
millions. The bankers demand that
the limit be removed. They demand
the privilege of contracting six or ten
millions per month. But that was not
all; they want the privilege of issuing
paper money not secured by U. s.
bonds. But the most startling of the
editorial is that they want the exts-
tence of these unsecured notes to be
kept secret between the bankers
and the government and they want !
these unsecured notes to be engraved |
so that they shall be so nearly identi- |
cal with the secured notes, that the i
public will not be able to tell the one |
kind from the other. He states that |
the above is a fact, and that the |
scheme has been brewing for some |
time. The Hon. Leslie M. Shaw, Sec
rotary of the Treasury, was the first
to let the secret out.
The editor further states, that in
the course of a speech at Cleveland,
Ohio, Sept. %, 1905, Mr.. Shaw advo-
Gated the proposition that the nation
al banks should be allowed to expand
heir note circulation whenever the
arose and that this in
crease of bank money should not rest
Upon any security at all. The con-
roller of the currency and the bank
ssuing the currency would alone
know of it's existence. |,
Mr.. Editor, if the foregoing is true
s it not imperative that the danger
signal be given; is it not time that the
people were awakened to the danger
hat confronts them; is it not time
he press, posing as the advocate Of
rue democracy, were sounding the
ieynote of opposition to any further
financial legislation, giving to private |
Individuals more power or control
'ver the finances than they have? IL
Has not the revelations we have t
lad within the past year, of the cor t
upton of men in high social posi- |
ion, been evidence sufficient to estab-
lsh the fact that it will not do to trust
reat accumulations of money, belong
ng to the common people in the /
ands of private individuals? 1t
The issue and control of money is a.