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PAGE TWO
“Public Opinion Throughout the Union
ASSET CURRENCY, HIGH FINANCE AND
SILVER.
The North American Review for February,
1908, published articles on banking and cur
rency by Lyman J. Gage, William B. Ridgely,
Charles A. Conant and Charles B. McDonald,
all eminent financiers along the line of what
the Wall Street manipulators want.
Gage urges the Central Bank System, pat
terned after that of Great Britain, France and
Germany, but it is a well known fact that
Gage and other financiers of the same stripe,
always urge some measure leaving out the
most important provisions those countries have
adopted to protect the government and its
people from the manipulators. For instance,
Gage would never consent to the enactment of
a law empowering this government to exercise
its own option as to what kind of money it
paid out; as the Bank of France does, for
that would spoil their juicy plum of raiding
our treasury of its gold.
Ridgely stated that individual deposits in
all reporting banks during the year’l9o7, ag
gregated over thirteen billion dollars. This is
over ten billion dollars more than we have in
the United States all told, and yet Ridgely
would sacrifice his soul rather than to see any
measure adopted that would increase the coin
age of good, hard legal tender silver dollars.
Banking statistics always show that banks
in the aggregate draw interest on much more
money than the individual deposits amount to.
Therefore the banks of this country are draw
ing interest on more than ten billion dollars
of fictitious or credit money, and figured at
the very low estimate of five per cent, it
shows that the people of this country are pay
ing yearly to the banks more than five hun
dred million dollars interest on fictitious or
credit money alone, without considering the
interest on more than six hundred million gov
ernment bonds which are represented by the
outstanding national bank notes. In fact, the
drainage on our pepopie from our present
vicious, unfair monetary system would impov
erish any other people on earth in less than
two years.
Conant among other things, says that the
the panic of 1893 was “precipitated by the
danger of departing from the gold standard.”
This is a malicious misrepresentation of the
facts, for it is 'well known by every one that
in 1893 the manipulators with the help of
Cleveland made their first open effort to fast
en the single gold standard on the people of
this country. Conant further says that the
11 demand for new capital throughout the world
for 1903, was nearly two billion dollars, for
1904, about two and a half billion; for 1905
and 1906, over three billion dollars each; and
for 1907, when the figures are compiled, will
show a much larger requirement,” and yet,
Conant would also sacrifice his soul rather
than endorse any measure that would increase
the coinage of good hard legal tender silver
dollars, a money that would be drawing no in
terest on its circulation and a mon
ey that the people themselves could help
THE JEFFERSONIAN
create by digging it out of the ground,
and if we utilized all the silver, we
could produce, as money, we would still be
far short of enough but we could cut out a lit
tle interest on some of the fictitious money we
are now using.
McDonald takes up a gfeat deal of space in
defending the single gold standard and urging
asset currency legislation that will put the
national banks absolutely in control of our cir
culating money, just as the manipulators want
it. But his line of argument is so absurd
and inconsistent that a school boy could eas
ily detect its contradictions.
McDonald says, “Probably President Roose
velt’s attitude hastened the recent panic, but
in his opinion, Roosevelt’s attacks simply drew
to the surface some of the most deeply root
ed evils which have lain at the base of every
great panic—that is, dishonesty in the admin
istration of great aggregations of capital. ’ ’
That is probably the most truthful and consist
ent statement in the whole ten pages of Mc-
Donald’s article; for in analyzing the cause
for the panic of 1893, he declares the “Fun
damental Cause of it was the large production
of silver but intensified by its demonetiza
tion,” evidently then according to his own
argument if silver had not been demonetized
the panic would not have been so intense.
Then in analyzing the cause for the recent
panic, he says: “The fundamental cause of
it was the enormous gold production for the
last ten years,” and yet in his closing para
graph, he declares that if “Congress will
pass any elastic currency bill and the great
production of gold continues, we will soon
again be riding a wave of prosperity”; and
thus he makes the great production of gold
both the cause and the remedy for our recent
panic, a sort of a Jumping Jack, you can twist
it anyway you want to.
This is only a sample of many of the ab
surd inconsistencies that manifest themselves
through the entire article, the whole trend of
which is that we have not money enough to
do business with on a safe basis, and that na
tional banks must be empowered to issue and
control a larger volume of money, and yet
Mr. McDonald would perhaps sacrifice his
soul also, rather than endorse any measure
that would increase the coinage of legal tender
silver dollars, and why not? Many a man
has heretofore sacrificed his soul for silver,
and why should not this quartet of tools and
manipulators sacrifice their souls against sil
ver? For the bitterness with which they at
tack silver, and the enthusiasm with which
they urge asset currency of any kind, proves
that they are not fools but knaves.
During the war President Lincoln and Gov
ernor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, were discuss
ing the unpatriotic manipulations of Wall
Street financiers. Curtin declared, “They are
a set of sharks,” and Lincoln, the kindly, tem
perate speaker on all occasions, had become
so irritated at the unpatriotic manipulations
of Wall Street financiers which greatly har
rassed our government in its hour of trial, de-
dared as follows: “For my part, I wish ev
ery one of them had his disloyal head shot
off,” and yet no one could accuse Lincoln
with sympathy for any kind of anarchy.
But even at that early day and troublesome
times for our country, the Wall Street manip
ulators, who were simply the counterpart of
Gage, his associates and masters, disregarded
every consideration for our country’s welfare
to manipulate the finance of our country for
their own selfish purposes, and the Wall
Street manipulators of today are doing the
same thing through their tools who write mis
leading articles for magazines and newspapers,
including the traitorous politicians who control
legislation for them. But when any one with
brains enough to see and analyze the designs
of the manipulators, and courage enough to
declare, not to have their “heads shot off,”
as Lincoln did, but merely that they should be
prosecuted and if found guilty for violating
statutory as well as moral laws, they should
be imprisoned. Then the vaccilating press of
our country and the sycophatnic tools and
followers of the manipulators immediately
raise the cry of anarchist. Would to God that
we had more anarchists in this country, not
of the dynamite and bomb-throwing kind but
of the Lincoln and Tom Watson kind, with
courage enough to denounce the wrong and up
hold the right no matter where it hits.
Deadwood, S. D. JAMES CONZETT.
Suppose you held a mortgage on 1,000 acres
of land worth SIO,OOO. Then suppose the fel
low should give you SIO,OOO in paper money
and you surrender the mortgage to him.
Wouldn’t he be a crazy idiot to keep on pay
ing your interest on the mortgage? That’s
how good Uncle Sam is to the National banks.
Then suppose this fellow has SIO,OOO which he
does not need, and he deposits it with you
just to keep for him. That’s how good Uncle
Sam is to the national banks. Then suppose
you go back to this fellow and say, “I would
like to have another mortgage on a thousand
acres of your land.” He says, “All right,
pay me SIO,OOO and 1 will give it.” The mort
gage is fixed up and you pay over the money.
He says, “Just keep this money, I don’t need
it, 1 will leave it on deposit with you, and
pay you interest on the mortgage.” You
would think he was mighty good to you but
you would have doubts as to his sanity. You
would go back soon and ask for another mort
gage, wouldn’t you?
That’s how good Uncle Sam is to the na
tional banks, except that he goes further and
after depositing the money with the bank, he
says, “Now you may issue as much in your
notes as you have in mortgages on my land,
and I will guarantee its circulation as money.”
We believe that every congressman who
ever voted for these laws that allow Uncle
Sam to do this ought to be hung without trial.
If you think this is not a true statement
of conditions, investigate and quit swallowing
everything you read in the corporation soaked
city papers.—Reporter-Index.