People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1895 — BANKER VS. RULER. [ARTICLE]

BANKER VS. RULER.

the banker governs and the SOVEREIGN CRAWLS. Mm Real Power That Contrail the Qorernments of the Earth la the Banker —The Banker Is King and Lord of the Earth. Memphis Commercial-Appeal (Dem.) We have several times had occasion to remark upon the refreshing candor and directness of a certain class of gold standard newspapers in the neighborhood of Wall street. Of this one of the most remarkable illustrations was the proposition of the New York Financial Chronicle to raise money in Wall street to buy elections in the Southern states. These papers are published for the delectation of an exclusive constituency which is not likely to be offended by such outrageous utterances and they are not in the habit of considering the possible effect upon the despised “Reubens” who compose the great body of that thing known as the people. Harper’s Weekly is another organ of goldbuggery that speaks right out and tells the thing that is in its mind. In a recent issue this paper proceeds to glorify in extravagant style the greatness and power of the bond syndicate that holds this great government by the scruff of the neck and to make this remarkable declaration: Today banker and sovereign have changed places. It is the banker who uses the art of surgery until the sovereign crawls and obeys. Of these great men, for whom time has turned up such complete revenge, the first in the New World is John Pierpout Morgan. His lines go out through the whole world. * * * There is but one name as great as his in finance, and that is the greatest of al’—Rothschild.

The word “sovereign” in this connection simply means the government. In whomsoever the power of government is lodged there is sovereignty. But according to this boastful organ of the Lombard and Wall street banker the real power that controls the governments of the earth is the banker. The mightiest sovereigns of the earth “crawl and obey” when Pierpont Morgan or Rothschild nod their imperial heads. These now are the sovereigns that rule the world. They hold the reins of government and dictate policies and-shape legislation to suit themselves. The jubilant boast of Harper’s Weekly as to the omnipotence of the class it represents is in line with the pathetic plaint of Mr. Cleveland as quoted by Gov. Oates of Alabama—“the money power has got us by the leg.” It was a vivid realization of the supreme power of the Rothschilds and the Pierpont Morgans that made the late Secretary Gresham cry out in a moment of fierce despair that this country must undergo a bloody revolution before this oligarchy of wealth surrenders. But there is no need for bloody revolutions. There is only need that the people shall assert and maintain their rights at the ballot box. The money power may seize the government “by the leg;” it may seize Cheap John politicians by the leg, but it has no invincible leg-hold upon the American people. The people are sovereign in this country, and if we know anything of their temper and spirit they are not the kind of sovereigns to “crawl and obey” even so mighty a man as Mr. Pierpont Morgan-, whose “lines go out over all the ■world,” nor Baron Rothschild, the greatest of all. This government “crawled and obeyed” when it allowed the Rothschild-Morgan syndicate to dictate the terms as its last bond sale. It prostrated itself before the money power when it placed the treasury ,of the United States under the kind but precarious protection of a British-American syndicate. A number of slavish politicians have hastened to bow themselves at the same altar, but the people are not ready to crawl in the dirt before this new czar,this allconquering ruler of the world who has kings for his lacqueys and governments for his slaves. Is it not time to soberly question ourselves concerning the merits ot a system under which individual capitalists have become mightier than the governments of the wo>\d?