Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-12-24
THE MONEY TRUST.

The investigation of the so-called Money Trust
by the Pujo committee of Congress brings to light
certain facts and figures which show beyond ques-
ton that the country's economic life and, indeed,
the very springs of it's enterprise under the po
tental, if not the actual, control of small but
mighty group of financial institutions. Though NOM
inally independent of the other these corpora
tions are in reality bound together by system OF
nterlocking directories through which few dom
mate the policy and the conduct of them ALL That
such power can be used that it has been used more
than once, for monopoly of money or credit, and
hence for business oppression cannot be denied 1t
is the duty of Congress to protect the public in so
far is possible against this menace.
If it is important that steel trust a beef trust
or any other giant combination be shorn OF lts
power to crush competition and to dictate the price
of material products how much more important 1t
is to prevent monopoly of credit and money which
are the very life blood of commercial freedom! The
Sherman Antitrust forbids the merging of COM
peting railway systems, for the reason that if this
were permitted the people would be at the
mercy of an absolute tyranny in transportation.
Shippers would have to accept such rates and such
treatment their allpowerful master chose to &C
cord them and the consequent evils would be past
reckoning Yet there is no legal safeguard against
great financial institutions combining in such way
and to such an extent that they can control the
money and credit of the entire nation. This is the
most inclusive the most farreaching and dangerous
form of monopoly that could exist
1t has been said that the Money Trust is a
mere myth; that there never has been and never
could be anything like formal effective agree
ment among a few men to dominate the countrys
financial interests. Naturally, there would be no
explicit open agreement of this character, but
there is undoubtedly tacit alliance among the cen
ters of capital and credit brought about by the fact
that their stock is controlled and their boards of
directors determined by a small group of persons
whose wishes supreme
There may, TO, instance, be five or twenty con-
Germs which are ostensibly independent, but if a
single group of men stock in all of them and
through the personnel of their boards direct the pol
icy of them all, then certainly we have what, in
effect is trust, trust with almost unlimited power
to grant deny credit at its pleasure, to tighten or
loosen the money market it's own interests direct
to throttle individual enterprise and to hold the
country's industrial life at its beck and CALL
The evidence developed by the Pujo committee
shows that by means of interlocking directorates
eighteen financial houses in New York and few
other cities exert large influence in the control of
one hundred and thirty7fcur corporations with a
capital of more than twenty-five billion dollars.
1t shows furthermore that five such concerns in
New York are connected, or less potently, with
a circle of corporations capitalized at twenty
two million dollars; and this connection is main
tanned through a group of three hundred and forty
one "interlocking' directors.
These corporations comprise banks and trust
companies, railroads. insurance companies, public
service companies, and divers manufacturing con-
Germs.
Thus it happens that to one degree or another
great portion of the countrys industrial and
mercial life is under the control of small inner
court of fnancers, responsible to one but them
selves and their own interests.
BY whatever name may choose to call it,
whether Money Trust" sympathetic alliance or
a community of interests, that financial group has
the power to control money and credit and it has
been truly said that whoever is master of credit is
master of the commerce and industry of nation"
Power so vast as this may be turned at any time
the ruin of individual initiative and opportunity
to the death of competition and to the injury of
common business interests 1t is the most dangerous
of all monopolies 1t demands the full and prudent
consideration of Congress-
The spirit and purpose of the Sherman Anti
Trust act is to prevent monopoly of material prod
ucts and the oppression of the consumers. But the
law will never achieve its final purpose or furnish
adequate protection until it is extended so as to
prohibit monopoly of money and credit 1t is d
rected now against tangible and comparatively minor
evils; it should be directed also against the subter
locking directories, if its logical purpose is to be
realized.