People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1897 — MORGAN’S COLUMN. [ARTICLE]

MORGAN’S COLUMN.

CAUSTIC COMMENT ON EVILS OF OUR TIMES. A Chapter on the National Banker — Generally a Traitor to Hi. Country— All of the Worst Bunko Steererg Running at Large. In all this wide world there is no class of men who can come any ways near equalizing in gall the average national banker. Men who “hold up” railroad trains seldom rob the passengers, and the highwayman who demands your money usually fills up with “’booze” and tries to justify himself by thinking he needs the money worse than you do, but the banker, without any apology or saying “by your leave,” will lead you into the worst bunco game and at the same time swear by all the big gods and little gods that it is a square, honest deal. * « • Just now he is willing to swear that for the government to take 53 cents worth of silver, stamp it as money and call it a dollar is not only an impossibility, but, if possible, would be one of the greatest frauds of the age. At the same time he contends that the government can take less than a half cent’s worth of paper, print the name of a bank on it, make it receivable for customs, give it to the banker at one per cent and allow him to loan it to the people at ten per cent per annum, and it constitutes the “best money in the world.” * * s> But it is claimed that the banker stands ready to redeem his bank note money (?) in gold. The banker don’t do any such thing. The law requires each bank to keep a reserve of 25 per cent of its circulation as a redemption fund, but this may be kept in greenbacks. National bankers do not redeem each other’s notes, and consequently if a man had twenty bank bills they might be from as many banks scattered all over the country—some two thousand miles off. It is therefore practically impossible for him to demand redemption. But if it was possible for the holders of the notes to present them for redemption, 25 per cent of their face value would only pay that proportion of them. If there is any motive for 25 per cent of the holders to present notes for redemption, the same motive, fear, or loss of confidence, would prompt the others to do sc. * * 3

The whole thrag is based upon fraud, deception and favoritism. The only thing that can be relied upon is the government credit behind the notes. Take this away and it remains the old wildcat state bank system. If, then, it requires the to make the notes good, why sc this credit out to the banks to use to make a profit off of the people? No man has ever been able to give a sensible reason for doing so. It is said that the people are not capable of managing the financial affairs of this nation. This is as base a falsehood as the one that kings were of divine origin. No crew ever scuttled its own ship. They cannot, if they try, do any worse than the socalled financiers have done for the past twenty years. * * * The old battle that Jackson and Benton fought is on. “The bank is in the field.” Anyone who has watched closely and studied the movements of the bankers can see that the silver question with them is only a side issue. The real issue is bank control of money, and therefore the entire control of the currency and the business of the country. Silver is only the platform on which they work their diabolical machinery. The real question is, who shall create and issue the paper money of the country—the people or the bankers? Whether we shall have a currency to benefit the many or the few. Whether this government shall be administered for the benefit of the wealthy or for all. Whether .patriotism and manhood shall dominate in the administration of government and the laws, or whether money shall purchase legislation and court decisions at will. These are some of the questions that center around the greater issue of who shall make and issue our paper money.