Norwich bulletin., 1910-01-20
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Two Operating Forces.

MT. Editor: There appears to be
 two forces operating on our monetary
 system. or, in common parlance, the
 money question, or the question of
 gal and centripetal. The centripetal
 force appears to be a little stronger
 of the two, and is drawing the atten-
 ton of some of the influential men of
 the country. The centrifugal force is
 doing it's best to distract the attention
 of the people from the question of
 money as not having anything to do
 with present economic conditions. It
 Is being forced upon the minds of
 some of the prominent men of the na-
 tion that the primal cause, the base of
 about all our troubles, is our financial
 system. It is more the system, or
 method, than it is of the material on
 which the money stamp is placed. The
 fact is, it is the ignorance of the sys-
 tenn more than any other thing that
 causes the trouble. This ignorance is
 not confined to what is called the com
 mon people, but permeates the brains
 of supposed to be great men, as will
 be shown further on. Congressman
 George F. Burgess of Texas in a
 speech on Banking and Currency. in
 the house of representatives. February
 12, 1908 said, in part: ''The clearing
 of the different clearing houses in
 the cities of the United States,
 during the last fiscal year in round
 numbers were one hundred and fifty
 four billions of dollars. These figures
 stagger the human intellect And all
 of these great interests rest upon
 money system of about three billions
 of dollars, which, in fact and fin turn,
 rests upon gold aggregating about one
 billion and five hundred millions of
 dollars. Those who think about this
 question must recognize the danger of either contracting or initiating the cur
 rency of the country. and it is rather difficult to tell dependent upon condi-
 tions. which is the more dangerous.
 My own opinion is that imitation is more dangerous to the whole people in the long run than contraction" Now comes some very pertinent facts, bear ing on the question of ignorance.
 ''This situation is intensified py the fact that perhaps no great subject before the American people involves as much ignorance as banking and currency I undertake to confess my own ignorance of the subject and if any of my colleagues are not ready to plead guilty to the charge, be- lieve I will be able to prove their guilt in a cross examination of twenty-five minutes. The people at large do not know themselves what they want in the way of banking and currency leg islation. Nor does congress know what 1t wants, nor do the bankers them selves know what they want The average banker knows nothing of banking and currency as a system.
 He has only paid attention to ex- isting law sufficiently to acquire knowledge of how to operate the bus mess and keep out of the peniten- banking authorization. The prevalent idea that banking and currency as system Is generally and thoroughly understood by the bankers of the country has no foundation in fact, as they will frankly admit when you talk to them about the subject"
 There is something for you to think of. Ignorance. Just think of it. .The EI,1 Al U,of fo11 into the ditch" According to this congressman, congress makes a law about banking or rather the system, and knows nothing about it. What kind of a law do you think that would be? It does seem that question of such vast importance should be better understood It must be admitted by every intelligent person that money is an indispensable factor. We cannot get along without money, or a suibsti- tute for 1t, whether 1t be gold, silver, copper, or paper. It is the system, wherein all the trouble arises, and ac- cording to MT. Burgess; neither the people nor those whom the people sup posed knew, know anything about 1t. There is no wonder that such condi- lions exist. with so much of ignorance. It is not so much the material, as it is the system of money. And why all this ignorance? Is it excusable? Can it be condoned? Not at ali. Is there any possible reason why this system SnoulQ not Oe better unQer- stood2 Not the least reason in the world. There can be but one reason, and that a poor one. why every one should not understand, and that is -indifferentism.' MT. Burgess says, the reason why there is so much ig- norance is because we have had no widespread discussion of banking and as a system" But he says we have had great agitation in the press and on the stump about such things as coinage, silver, gold, the tariff, colonialism, and all that The press and the stump speakers, then, must have been and are now, as ig- norant as the congressman and bank CTS, of the system. It Is the system" that must be understood. There are some facts that should be known and and can be if reason and sense are used. For one thing | we have got to have money. The sec ond is, that congress has the bower l of creating money. A third is, that it i is the sworn duty of congress to fur nish the people with money. The trou- ble arises entirely from the system" of getting this from the congress to 1 the people, This is called the rbank- | ing and currency system" It is the | fha rr,a@bod that is xrronO