The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-22
American Banks Greatest FL
nancial Force in Che World.
Declares Gov. johnson in Ad.
dressing Cotton Men.
HANDLING OF 1T BAD.
Holds the Government Resuon.
sible for the Panics.
Monetary System Should Be
for All the People.

richmond, Va, May 22.-Governor
Johnson, of Minnesota addressed the
neetlng of the National Cotton Manu-
tacturers' association last night. He
spoke In part as follows:
With all the conditions of fertile
SOIL, cheap raw materials, a vast
nome market and free institutions.
tnere are conditions which need radi-
cal Improvement. One of the needed
improvements is industrial education.
Anotner great need Is adequate and
cheap capital for the development of
our industries.
The bank deposits and bank capital
or the American people are in value
the greatest financial force in the
modern world. The danger is con-
centration in congested centers OF
speculation. instead Of proper dis
tribution of the circulating medium
| for the prosecution of legitimate in
| dustry and the handling of crops at
the local points of production. We
have the greatest stock of gold and
| circulating medium in the world. but
| It's congestion in a few reserve CEN
ters IS such that when the south and
| west desire to use part of their
surplus to move their crops, their
just demand produces panic in Wall
| street. For this unnatural and dam
gerous condition the government : is
responsible in two particulars:
First, in establishing a national
banking system which concentrates
the banking reserves of the country
In a few centers; the second, in de-
posting the government funds in
those congested centers, instead of at
the industrial points where the
money is needed for legitimate neces-
stiles of production and Transports
4 fioy, IL
power as it is the duty, of the gov
ernment to remedy and thereby pro-
vide banking system for the whole
people, instead of for the bulls and
bears of the stock exchange.
improved routes and strengthened
public control of the means of trans
portation, constitute the third great
necessity of your highest Industrial
!, development and your interest in this
regard Is that of the nation
You need the development of the in
ternational waterways Of America, now
for century almost neglected
!, The necessity for firm control Of
the private railway is now so thorough
ly entrenched in the America mind
that agitation is now less needed than
practical working plan for effectuat-
ing that control. States and nations
are alike aroused. The largest present
problem is to avoid conflict between
states and nation in defining bound
aries of control; and the greatest dan
ger now apparent Is the temptation
{ of the federal government to attempt
, a Capitalization of all railway control
in itself to the exclusion of the rights
and powers of the states. The right
solution of these problems and the
right establishment of these reforms
and they never will be settled until
they are settled right-are national
questions in which the north and south,
! the east and west, are alike interested
, and must engage shoulder to shoulder.
West and south, north and east, we
are bound together not only by indus
trial and commercial ties of interna-
tional development and by the patriot
:. ic ties of a common union but we are
united in the cause of making this
. nation one of the greatest powers for
peace and commerce and freedom on
the high seas. And the true spirit and
| policy of American conquest, as voiced
people in the fields and shops and
/ homes, regardless of political parties.
is not that of the battleship or the club
of might, not that of bristling tariffs
and hostile taxed penalties upon the
pursuits of peace and the rights OF
| trade, but that of steady and deter
mined progress in reducing, amelforat-
ing and eliminating these instruments
, and agencies of ancient custom and
| still more ancient barbarism and
thereby extending and expanding tho
guarantees of American freedom. the
influence of American world power
| and the products of American industry
as far and wide as the sails of the sea.
may bear the American flag.
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