The National tribune., 1908-09-03
GUAnANrsEING BANK DEPOSITS.

/. That it is subversive of the funda-
mental idea of popular Government.
g That it is Imperialism and central
ization in its most dangerous form.
8. That if it could be carried out ii
would inevitably lead to one-man-
power despotism.
4. That it is violently opposed to the
whole doctrine of States Rights.
AS to the first proposition: Our insti-
tutions are based upon the Jeffersonian
maxim that that Government is best
which governs least; that is, that after
taking all the steps that human ex-
perience suggests as necessary for the
protection of life, liberty and property
the Government should leave the people
free to do the best they can. Human
experience has taught as one of it's most
impregnable conclusions that if a man
is given reasonable security for his life
and liberty he will do far better for
himself than any Government can do
for him. This was the fundamental, the
|absoiutely essential idea of our fathers
in establishing our Government They
had seen ali he evils of over-regulation
in Europe, and wanted &c escape from
it by giving every mans mental activi-
ties and enterprise the most absolute
freedom consistent with private and
public safety. Mr.. Bryan's idea is long
stride backward toward Old World con-
ditions, where, as Carl Schurz pithfly
to put a man in uniform beside every
mud puddle to keep the people from
stepping into it, 1t means to reduce
the American people to a condition of
tutelage, where they will not have to
think or care for themselves, but have
all their thinking done for them by an
official in Washington.
This step cannot help leading by the
shortest road to imperialism and CEN
tralization. Not only the American peo-
pie. but their English, Scotch and Irish
forebears, for unnumbcred years, have
been determinedly devoted to local self
government. They have insisted from
the first that each little community must
take care of itself, regulating its own
affairs, maintaining order and admins
tering justice. The best illustration of
this is the trial by jury, where a man
must be tried in his own County by his
neighbors of that County.
For a thousand years our race has
struggled against having the central
authority interfere in their affairs be-
yond what was absolutely necessary for
the good of the country taken as a
whole. To have an official in Wash
ington debating to every little COM
munity where they shall put their
shall be lent and under what terms, is
in the most direct and effective way to
put the grasp of a man or a ring in
Washington on the throats of the people
of every little village and town in the
Nation. 1t is the thing of all others
that the fathers of the Republic have
dreaded and planned against. 1t was
the animus of Jackson's great fight
against the National bank, and it is
found in the writings of every man who
helped greatly to build up the fabric of
our Government. The objections to Mr.
Bryan's plan are thousand-fold strong
er than anything Jackson and his sup
porters were able to allege against the
proposed National bank. That bank
proposed simply to furnish a currency
which would be good in all parts of the
country, and went no further than this.
Not for an instant was there a sugges-
ton that it would put its tentacIes on
every little bank under the flag to con-
troll its loans and discounts, dictate its
policy and hold its depositors in thrall-
dom.
No matter with how many words Mr..
Bryan may attempt to confuse the
minds of his hearers on this subject, any
clear thinker will see that 1t puts in the
hands of a man in Washington a power
incomparably greater than all the ty-
ranny of Wall Street. which has been
so much denounced. At worst Wall
Street can only gamble in stocks and
produce. Its power is limited to that,
and its power is limited also and much
more strongly by the conditions of busi-
ness One ring of Wall Street specula-
tors may be on top for a short time,
but they are speedily overthrown by
another ring. On the other hand, this
would put all the money of the country
under the direct grasp of such success
full politicians as had attained to power,
and they would use this grasp with all
the weight and might of the law
The assault upon States Rights is
mose~fiagrant. No warrant whatever
can be found in the Constitution for
such a gross extension of the central
authority at Washington. 1t is an in
vasion of the reserved rights of the
States which should make Jackson, Cal
houn, Jefferson. Madison. and Monroe
turn over in their graves.
1t even goes far beyond Mr.. Bryan's
proposition for Government ownership
of railroads. In that scheme the Gov
ernment. it is true. would be absolutely
sovereign over great swaths of territory
running thru each State, which would
be absolutely destructive to the States
autonomy. But the proposal to put the
peoples money under the control of 8
ring in Washington and thrust its sitting
tentacles into the social and business
life of every little village and cross
roads is simply monstrous. No citizen,