The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-12-16
THE CENTRAL BANK.

The people have another fight
ahead. The tinanciers have decided
that they can coerce congress into
creating a central bank to manage
the governments money matters,
and they are going to make the eff
fort. Possibly the presidents adj
vocacy of it may explain the sudden
collapse of Wall streets opposition
to Mr.. Taft's nomination. At any
rate the Napoleons of finance are not
willing to risk delay-the next con-
gress may be democratic. And then
there will be changes in the senate
and these are likely to lessen Wall
streets control of that body. Now
is the time, they think, and the ac-
Guiescence of majority of the re-
publicans in the Aldrich plan leads
them to believe that the rank and
file of the republican party will toll
crate anything. But will they?
The Standard Oil trust lost it's
tariff on oil and the steel trust came
near losing its tariff on iron ore.
The new OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES mer-
ger is giving the people a shock,
and the demand for ship subsidy is
making them sit up and take notice.
This may not, after all, be an oppor-
4 tune time to launch a gigantic bank
monopoly.
Senator Aldrich has had his swing
around the circle and met the local
f1nanciers who hoped to represent
the bank in their respective COM
munities, but what about those who
will be left out in the cold?
The central bank does not fit into
our institutions; it is a foreign idea
No s,,%~
mony with our instincts and bust
ness methods. 1t would destroy all
independence in the banking world.
In Canada they have branch banks
but they have a number of them and
competition still exists, but even
there the business man suffers an
inconvenience in having to have his
paper passed upon by an outsider
and the depositor runs the risk of
having his money used to build up
some other community With a
great central bank all competition
would become timid lackeyes, afraid
to offend, to say or do anything that
would displease the officials of the
big bank. With great central bank
the money would be gathered up at
the extremities and poured into the
commercial centers. The depositors
would soon find the interest reduced |
on deposits and the banks would in
crease their profits from both de-
spositor and borrower, for there
would be no competitor who would
dare to pay more or charge less than
the central bank. Not only would
such central bank dominate but it
would control politics as well. Nick
Biddell told President Jackson that
it would elect or defeat presidential
candidates and the hero of New Or
leans replied with an oath that if it |
could it had more power than it |
ought to have and more than he was
willing for it to retain.
IT central bank is created it is |
only a question of time when it's
tyranny will become unbearable
But why invite such condition?
Now is the time to fight the CEN
trail bank idea; every newspaper
should warn it's readers; every voter
should write to his senators and
members Of congress protesting
against the whole scheme. The
smaller banks should array them
selves against it. The advocates of
the central bank are using the cor
poration papers to mislead the read
ing public; it is high time that the
patriotic forces We're aroused to the
danger. The plans of the bank mo-
opoly must be defeated The Com
nloner.