The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1933-09-07

rediscounted and because Of their unliquid condi-
ton they failed or suspended operations. Had the
dedaton of farm values been brought about by a
gradual process instead of by the abrupt pur
sued the recovery would have been gradual and
tain just the recovery Of industry following
the defation of 1920.
It is fair to conclude therefore that the failure
of many state banks particularly in agricultural dis
tricts, did not result from mismanagement and lack
of adequate regulation but through the influence of
the money power upon the Federal Reserve System
and the desire of the money power to beat down the
price of farm commodities to be better able
to beat down the level of industrial wages and thus
put products manufactured in American plants,
troled by the money power, in competition in Europe
with products of European plants manufactured un-
der wage scales lower than those prevailing in the
United States.
While the concentration of wealth and the con-
centration of the control of money and credit
has been steadily accelerated misery and distress
of the farmer and the wage Garner who make up the
majority of our population has been steadily in
creasing. Taking those two undenable facts, is it
not logical to conclude that the concentration of
wealth and money power is the cause of the distress
of the common man and woman and is it not log
ical to conclude, do conclude, that the misery
and distress of the common man and woman cannot
be alleviated until tear down this structure of
concentrated control of wealth.
But would not make this address mere tabu-
lation of unpleasant figures and comments I have
in mind another picture which would like to pre-
sent to YOU If asks himself what the forces
which have made people great nation, stretch
ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and from
the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, the answer does not
lie in in marching armies, in the
Puritan and the Pilgrim fathers important as they
Three great forces take it have gone far to
make this Nation what it is. The first of these has
been immigration and cheap land which afford I'M
limited opportunity for selfemployment. The
ond has been the great westward movement, the
trail of the pioneers the Allegheny Mountains,
across the Mississippi Valley, the great plains,
to the Pacific Coast and the Golden Gate. The
third of these great influences factors has been
credit dispensed by local bankers who knew their
depostors and to the second and third
generation.
Take Gopher Prairie and Main Street and note
what the old-tme banker meant to thousands and
thousands of communities scattered through the
Middle and Far West In the first place this local
banker citizen of his community; he owned
property there, paid taxes sent his children to school
and contributed to the support of the community and
it's institutions.
When citizens got into financial stress they went
to this hometown banker and told HIM their troubles.
He knew them and he probably knew their fathers
and mothers and grandfathers. OF necessity he may
have asked them for security for loans but his chief
not with statement OF collateral, which
may mean something today and nothing tomorrow.
He was banking upon character; he knew his people
with him credit and character ndissoluble.
What is the situation today? Suppose farmer
or small merchant goes into one of our branch or
chain banks in Minnesota City,-say of 5000 peo-
ple,-what happens Such prospective borrower
does not see the real banker; he only agent
of the big bank located in Minneapolis, Chicago or
New York. Can the agent make loan? After
some hesitation he explains that he must send in
the list of securities and get o. K from the
trail bank. This agent is mere robot banker who
is in the community, but not of it. He is but the
agent of men who live thousands of miles away; he
has initiative and is not even advisory; he does
the bidding of his superiors.
And the list of securities which he asks of the
borrower is something with which to conjure. And
how these securities have been conjured with!-di-
vded like the loaves and fishes and frequently wat
cred! Yet these securities tickle and changeable,
high day and low the next worthy one week and
almost worthless the next appear to have become the
foundation of credit system. Foreign and do
ic hOndS Of rfain nv
large banking houses at tremendous profit rather
than securities of the local community the
basis of bank credit
AS result, the people in a financial crisis no
longer look to their bankers for help rather they
look to their state and federal governments for
credit at lower rates than that to be had from the
banks So great has been this pressure for aid and
paternalism from the Government that the admins
tration of President Hoover created the greatest
Government banking scheme known to our history
for the of saving private banking struc
ture from bankruptcy We now have $4,000, 900
Government Bank For real adventures in govern
ment aid, where can one match the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation Act? How does it square with
the doctrine of individualism which at the best
doctrine of the frontier, and which succeeded
by age of industrial monopoly and now by an age
of banking monopoly? And does any serious mind
ed citizen think that government aid stop with
the large banking and industrial enterprises? If we
are to recover from this depression it must be
tended to those who are the real producing groups
of this Nation.
It is interesting to note that between February
Corporation loaned banks and trust companies of the
United States the of $1240O0OOO0 and the list of
banks to whom the money was loaned makes very in
teresting reading.
I am incapable of adequately painting word
picture of what will happen to the American people
If this concentration of money is permitted to
continue. This banking ogarchy could actually die
tate where cities should be built; where railroads
should go; what industries should go certain parts
of the country; and far worse could initiate the stock
market as to be able to sell the banking instit-
ton itself in the form of non-votng stock
hated value, and yet retain control Of the banking
institutions within the oligarchy The existing
chain institutions have already carried prac
tice to a marked degree.
The only agency powerful enough to tear down
the structure and protect the credit system of the
United States is the federal government. In that
process of changing the credit system it must also
change the entire social and economic system Of the
United States If to have any security of ivei
hood and any decent standards of life and of living
for the mass of the people. forbear a discussion
OF how that may be accomplished because it would
not be relevant to the subject Of this address.
0fectf ho Amor 90 rl,,5