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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union
THE MONEY TRUST.
When LaFollette was out on the Chautau
qua circuit nothing would raise his ire sooner
than to have some man in the audience ques
tion his statement that a money trust had been
formed in Wall street. He would instantly
dive for his satchel and draw out a pile of
documents to prove the statement true.
The other day a banker said to the Inves
tigator :
“I used to think that your statement that
there was a bankers’ trust was the wildest
folly. But it is true —just as true as the Bi
ble. There is no such thing as an independent
banker. I have found that out withili the
last few weeks. I thought I was an independ
ent banker, but I found out very suddenly that
I was not. lam simply a cog in the ‘sys
tem.’ I am under just as absolute control as
a slave ever was on a southern plantation.”
There are hundreds of bankers in the west
who tried to do a legitimate, honest banking
business. They had not engaged in promo
tion schemes, their banks had not been or
ganized for the purpose of furnishing their
officers loans to do business with. They were
prepared to cash all drafts drawn upon them,
but when Wall street said to them “suspend
payments,” though they rebelled at the order
for a day or two, a great majority of them
found that they had to obey or go out of
business.
A few banks here and there were able to
defy that order and continue cash payments,
but they will be attended to hereafter. Sever
al western cities have resumed cash payments,
but they dare not announce the fact. If they
did, checks drawn on them would immediately
go to a premium, for they would be equal to
cash and the premium on cash is running from
3 to 5 per cent. Wall Street banks that have
the deposits of western banks and refuse to
pay them, would immediately draw drafts on
them and sell them at a premium. Wall
Street bankers have actually done that thing
in some cases. Think of such a crime! A
Wall Street bank has actual money belonging
to a western banker and refuses to pay it
back. Then the Wall Street bank learns that
the western banker, notwithstanding the hand
icap put upon him, is making cash payments.
Then it sells a draft on the western banker at
a premium, puts the amount of the robbery in
the vaults and draws out what money the
western banker has. Under such conditions as
that the western banker soon learns that to
disobey an order from Wall street is a mighty
dangerous thing. Did any other trust, aside
from the money trust, ever have a power like
that?
The statement that the money trust is the
greatest of all trusts is true.
Os course such a power as that could not
be exercised if Wall Street did not control the
government. If the attorney general should
say, “I will enforce the laws against bankers
in the same way they are enforced against all
other citizens,” it would put a stop to it
THE JEFFERSONIAN.
instantly. The law, if enforced, w r ould send
every national banker to the penitentiary from
one to fifteen years who “pays out” anything
to be used as money except national bank
notes, greenbacks, gold and silver. It would
force any state banker to pay a 10 per cent
tax on all such paper. But as long as Wall
Street holds the government there can be no
such thing as an independent banker. They
must obey the Wall Street orders with the
servility of a slave. —Weekly Investigator.
THE OKLAHOMA IDEA—BANK DEPOS
ITS TO BE INSURED BY THE
STATE.
Oklahoma is losing no time in making her
self useful in charting the channels and reefs
of advanced legislation. There is no such
word as fear in her dictionary, and in the
tumbling rush of her experiments there can
hardly fail to be some discoveries of value.
Mr. Bryan suggested that the United States
Government should guarantee the deposits of
national banks, and it is understood that this
idea at first struck President Roosevelt rather
favorably. But with all its attractions the
plan had possibilities of danger, which, on
second thoughts, made it seem a thing to be
handled gingerly. It looked as if it might be
putting a premium on reckless banking. If
there were two banks in the same town, one
taking risks for large profits, and the other
doing a safe and conservative business, but
both equally guaranteed by the Government,
the reckless one would stand to win high
stakes if it had luck, and if it did not the
Government would make good its losses to its
depositors. Under such conditions it could
make a better bid for business than its cau
tious rival.
But such thoughts do not terrify Oklahoma.
Where Mr. Bryan merely speculates and sug
gests, she acts. By a law which is to go into
effect on the 15th of February, every State
bank will have to contribute to a depositors’
guaranty fund a sum equal to one per cent of
the average daily amount of its deposits. Na
tional banks may take part in the guaranty
arrangements at their option, provided they
secure the permission of the Federal author
ities, which they have not yet been able to do.
If a bank fails, its depositors are forthwith to
be paid off in full from the guaranty fund, and
the State is to take possession of the assets
and replenish the fund from their proceeds as
far as possible. If the fund at any time
should prove insufficient to meet the demands
upon it, additional assessments may be levied
upon the banks.
Os course, this makes an extremely attract
ive prospect for the depositors of the Okla
homa banks as long as the system works. If
the national banks are not allowed to get the
benefits of the guaranty, they will lose their
deposits to the State banks. Moreover, a
drain of deposits from the Kansas banks has
already begun, and it is predicted that Kan
sas will have to adopt a similar system to pro-
tect her own banking business. That will put
the matter up to Missouri, which will see her
deposits threatened by Kansas, and there is
no apparent stopping place for the movement
short of the two oceans. Oklahoma thinks she
has found the way to bring out the nation’s
hoarded cash, and experience will soon show
whether she is right.—Collier’s Weekly.
THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN.
Our battleship fleet is now on its way to the
straits of Magellan, through which it must
pass to enter the Pacific ocean. Except the
name little is known to laymen about these
straits, and as much has been said about them
lately, concerning the danger of their passage
and the plot of anarchists to attempt the de
struction of our fleet in this channel, it is a
point of interest upon which public attention
is now centered.
The straits of Magellan separate the main
land of South America from the large island
of Terra del Fuega. The chain of the Cor
dilleras mountains, which stretches all the
way down the South American continent near
its west coast, from Central America to its
Southern point, is here broken by a deep
chasm, which constitutes the straits. This re
markable waterway is some 300 miles long and
from five to thirty miles wide, of great depth
in most parts and with a rocky bottom. This
affords no anchorage for ships, and naturally
there are many places where the rocks are •
(Continued on Page Fifteen.)
ANNOUNCEMENT.
To the Voters of the Northern Judicial Cir
cuit:
I announce my candidacy for the office of
Solicitor-General of the Northern Judicial
Circuit, subject to the primary to be held for
that purpose. I assure you that I will appre
ciate your support.
L. D. M’GREGOR.
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