The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1910-02-14
SHAW OPPOSES
CENTRAL BANK.
Former Secretary Says Oil
Trust Would Control II.
CHARTER WORTH MILLIONS

sNS~NS'SuST "ISTSetSS to HooCIeoS
Could Afford to Pay the National
Debt for a Perpetual Right to Or
sanize the Proposed Institution.
\ Cites as Example the Immense Sum
Paid for Life Insurance Company.
Philadelphia, Feb 14.-T do not
think there can be any doubt in the
mind of any one who studies the ques-
ton in the light of admitted condi-
lions that If central bank is estab-
lished in this country it will be owned,
or at least controlled, by the Standard
Oil company" said former Secretary
of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw at a
meeting of the Pennsylvania Bankers
association in this city. His topic
was "The Central Bank"
There are two diseases prevalent
in this country, either of which is liza
BILE to prove fatal" he continued. Zone
Is Wall street mania and the other
Wall street fobia. l do not think that
have been badly inoculated with
either, but I am frank to say that it
seems to me quite un-American to
place with any group Of men the
power to contract or expand our cur
rency at will and to grant or withhold
credit to any bank, to any merchant
and to any corporation at pleasure.
1T was charged, and as vigorously
denied, that the affiliated banks of
New York during the panic Of 1907
simply withdrew credit from the group
of men who controlled the Tennessee
Coal and Iron, called their loans and
finally adjusted the matter by taking
over the property at fraction of it's
admitted value, upwards of 100000
900, and paid for it in United States
Steel securities without the exchange
of a dollar in money. Assuming the
charge to be libelous it still illustrates
what could be done were group of
men possessing the requisite DISPOSE
ton to be in control of the central
bank.
II thoroughly believe that the Stand.
ard Oil company and the United States
Steel corporations could afford to pay
the national debt for such charter
and say this independent of whether
such a bank would be independently
profitable or otherwise. The control
of it would be valuable beyond the
power of man to conceive to any group
of men who had Independent financial
interests large enough to Justify it and
the ability necessary for it's operation.
1--WE all remember that the control
of certain life insurance company
with a capital of only 100000 sold a
few years ago for 100000 when the
maximum dividend was fixed in the
charter at per cent, or $4,000. Ger
tainly that vast sum was not invested
expecting returns of only $4,000 per
annum when the same amount, in
government bonds even, would yield
$4,000. No; the company had assets
approximating $500,000,000 and the
control of such a volume of trust
funds, If honest and wise, is very
profitable It has recently changed
hands and presumably at yet higher
price.
Taking the price paid for the con-
troll of that life insurance company as
a measure of value 1 do not think
overstate the fact when say that the
two largest corporations in the world,
Interested as they are, directly; or
through their affiliations, in nearly
every line of business and owning or
controlling probably in excess of. 100
of our largest financial institutions,
with, suppose, $2,000,000,000 in assets
outside of their own capitalization, can
afford to pay the national debt for a
perpetual charter for central bank. "