This year’s political issue in National affairs 
 
 SHALL WE LEGISLATE INTO EXISTENCE A 
 
 * solidated Bank-Credit and Money Trust- 
 
 \ 
 
 TRUST OF TRUSTS 
 
 An Exposure of the Scheme Concealed in the “McCleary Bill; 
 This Bill has been Agreed to by the Leaders in the House, 
 and All the Republican Nominees are Pledged to it. 
 
 Wall Street is Trying to Prevent its Discussion Before the People. 
 
 all the smaller bankers are against it, and so is 
 
 EVERY MANUFACTURER, TRADESMAN, FARMER - 
 AND WAGE-EARNER WHO EXAMINES % 
 
 THE PROPOSED LAW. ' V 
 
 : - — .% %% 
 
 George h. Shibley 'y 
 
 of the American Institute of Money and Prices; * / 
 
 author of “The Money Question.” 
 
 Y , 
 
 '.fl 
 
 HOWARD & WILSON PUBLISHING CO. 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 Farmer’s Reading Circle Library, No. 25. Quarterly, $2.00 per year. 
 
 October 15, 1898. 
 
 Entered at Chicago Postoffice as second-class mail matter. 
 
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 Of the Proposed Banking Law now reported in the House and 
 ready for passage in case a Republican Congress is elected, Ch airmail 
 Walker of the Committee on Banking and a Republican, says: 
 
 “ The Bill is very bad economics T It would result in “one great bar k 
 with 10,000 branches 
 
 “ No independent local bank, managed by its citizens , can be esta b- 
 lished in the town , and if one is there it must go out of business. 
 
 In times of political excitement , “the agent of the parent bank knows 
 the politics of his city employer T 
 
 “ 6,000,000 Republicans are more or less suspicious or opposed to 
 national banks T 
 
 Photographic reproductions of the above are given below, page j 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory. page 
 
 I. Fundamental Principles 5 
 
 II. The Existing System. 
 
 (a) The average of prices is controlled by those who 
 
 control the volume of bank credits , except as 
 the President of the United States uses his 
 discretionary power to counteract their will ... 6 
 
 (b) The machinery whereby the bankers control 
 
 the average of prices 6 
 
 III. The Remedy: The Discretionary Power of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States to be changed so that he will 
 work under Fixed Pules 7 
 
 IV. Result of President’s Discretionary Power: 
 
 (a) Fach campaign a fight for the control of aver- 
 
 age prices 8 
 
 (b) Defeat of Blame , Hancock , Hill and Bryan . . 8 
 
 v. What the Bankers have Accomplished 8 
 
 VI. How the Producing and Trading Classes can 
 
 Conquer 9 
 
 VII. The Existing System. (Continued.) 
 
 (c) Analysis of personal profits of speculators, 
 
 bankers and creditors 9 
 
 (d) Illustrations of how the controlling banks have 
 
 secured personal profits. 
 
 (1) In general 10 
 
 (2) National bankers' 1 panic of 1881 10 
 
 (3) National bankers' 1 panic of 1832-31}. ( His- 
 
 tory by Prof. Sumner of Yale; Jackson's 
 Prophecy ) 10 
 
 (4) Defeat of the restoration of silver, 1878 . . . 11 
 
 (5) Bankers' panic of February, 1881} 11 
 
 (6) Nationalbankers' panic of 1893 11 
 
 (7) The second act in the great conspiracy in 
 
 1893: The destruction of the greenbacks. 14 
 
 (8) International control of average prices ... 14 
 
 (9) Philadelphia manufacturers coerced in 
 
 1896 17 
 
 VIII. The Existing Bank Credit and Money Trust. 
 
 (a) The organization 17 
 
 (b) Motive and past history 17 
 
 (c) Comparative strength of bankers , 1878, 1895 
 
 and 1898 18 
 
 (d) Bankers act through an Executive Council .... 18 
 
 IX. The Proposed Law for Extending the Privi- 
 leges of the Banking Trust and Further 
 Consolidating it: 
 
 (a) Control of average prices: Voters to give paper 
 money to the Bank Trust to issue and with- 
 draw at pleasure 19 
 
 3 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (b) President commanded to issue gold bonds 20 
 
 (c) Tremendous discretionary power of comptrollers. 20 
 
 (d) Gold standard of falling prices continued 20 
 
 (e) Suspension of specie payments not improbable . . 20 
 
 (f) $34-6,000,000 of bonds or taxes 20 
 
 (g) $800,000,000 of paper money to be given to the 
 
 bankers 21 
 
 (h) Gold certificates withdrawn 21 
 
 (i) Usury laws to be evaded 21 
 
 (j) Taxes to be evaded 21 
 
 (k) United States bonds to be sold; bank depositors ’ 
 
 security lessened 21 
 
 (1) Consolidated Bank=Credit and Money Trust: 
 
 One Bank with 10,000 Branches. 
 
 (1) Effect of “Branch Bank” system 21 
 
 (2) Admissions 22 
 
 (3) The fallacy in bank trusts’ argument . ... 22 
 
 (4) A trust of trusts 22 
 
 (5) Effect of a Consolidated Bank Credit and 
 
 Money Trust 22 
 
 X Congressional Campaign is a “still Hunt:” 
 Conspiracy to Further Enslave the 
 People. 
 
 (a) Proof 23 
 
 (b) The power of the conspirators 23 
 
 (c) Conspirators are thoroughly organized and at 
 
 work with millions of money 23 
 
 (d) Wall Street is relying upon stealth to oxcomplish 
 
 that which cannot be secured if discussion is 
 had 23 
 
 (e) Non-partisan co-operation 24 
 
 (f) Old-time Bepublican sentiments 24 
 
 Appendix: 
 
 Photographic Reproduction of Extracts from 
 Minority and Majority Reports on Bill for 
 
 Bank Trust 25 
 
 Reprint of Leading Sections of Proposed 
 “Bank Trust” Law: 
 
 Consolidated bank-credit and money trust 27 
 
 Voters to create money and give it to the bank trust. . 27 
 
 Greenbacks to be retired — Bank trust to be given two 
 
 for one 28 
 
 A special privilege : 28 
 
 Bank trust to pay 6% annually for last 20 per cent of 
 
 possible issue 28 
 
 People to pay interest on the guaranty fund 28 
 
 Gold bonds without limit 28 
 
 Tremendous discretionary power of comptrollers 28 
 
 United States not liable for bank money 29 
 
 Bank trust to issue and withdraw at will the paper 
 money and bank credits. 
 
 Statement 29 
 
 Opinions of Blaine, Logan, Garfield, Jefferson . 
 
 Benton, Chase, Greeley, and Lincoln 30 
 
 Sentiment of Republican Press up to Feb., 1898. 30 
 
 To-day the Republican Press is Silenced 31 
 
 Political Outlook, Oct. 8th 32 
 
SHALL WE LEGISLATE INTO EXISTENCE 
 
 A TRUST OF TRUSTS? 
 
 In case an Anti-Greenback Congress is 
 elected there will be enacted into law 
 the bill on Banking which now stands 
 on the calendar in the House ready to 
 be voted upon. 
 
 If this law is passed it will result in a 
 Trust of Trusts, in other words, a Con- 
 solidated Banking and Money Trust. 
 
 Its powers will be more far-reaching 
 than the mind can readily grasp. To 
 make it clear, so far as is possible, I 
 shall, before attempting to describe it, 
 set forth the exist'ng system under which 
 the big speculators control the average 
 of prices and thereby “fleece” the small- 
 er speculators and disorganize all pro- 
 ductive and trading enterprises. 
 
 PART I. FUNDUMENTAL PRIN- 
 CIPLES. 
 
 The Price of anything is the amount 
 of money which it exchanges for. On 
 the one side is money, and on the other 
 is the commodity. 
 
 The Average of Prices in the United 
 States changes through the different pe- 
 riods of time. This “average of prices,” 
 that is to say, the relation between mon- 
 ey on one side and on the other “the 
 things against which it exchanges,” IS 
 UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE VOT- 
 ERS through their representatives in Con- 
 gress. It is this way: By increasing the 
 volume of money sufficiently, the aver- 
 age of prices is raised, and it can be 
 lowered by withdrawing a sufficiently 
 large quantity of money. The voters then 
 control the average of prices in the 
 United States. This is the great underly- 
 ing principle which we should recognize. 
 
 If it is claimed that “greenbacks” and 
 other forms of paper currency are not 
 “money,” then we have only to add to 
 the above formula the words “or paper 
 currency,” that is to say: By increasing 
 the volume of money or paper currency 
 sufficiently, the average of prices is rais- 
 ed; and vice versa. But in this article 
 I shall include in “money,” all that which 
 is a legal tender, either in whole or in 
 part, and therefore include “greenbacks” 
 and “bank-notes.” 
 
 The second principle to which I call 
 your attention is that fluctuations in the 
 average of prices are a serious evil to 
 society. 
 
 And thirdly, fluctuations in the “aver- 
 age of prices” are unnecessary, for the 
 voters through the laws which they cause 
 to be enacted, eontfql the average of 
 prices. All that is required is a law de- 
 claring that, "stability in the average 
 
 prices promotes the general welfare” and 
 which shall set up the machinery where- 
 by this stability shall be attained with- 
 out further legislation. This is practica- 
 ble as will be shown and it would re- 
 move the money question from politics. 
 
 Modern Invention for Measuring Aver- 
 age Prices. 
 
 It is practicable because of the mod- 
 ern invention for measuring the average 
 of prices. This is simple and yet it is 
 comparatively new. It is the system of 
 Index Numbers. It was not generally 
 known in the “greenback” days of 1865 
 to 1879, and many of the veterans in that 
 fight have not yet grasped its import- 
 ance. 
 
 Now that the invention for measuring 
 the average of prices is known, the estab- 
 lishment of a system which shall keep 
 this average practically stable, is as sure 
 to follow as was the discarding of the 
 stage coach for the improved methods of 
 travel. This fact is sensed by those who 
 oppose a stable average of prices and 
 they carefully refrain from referring to 
 index numbers except occasionally in 
 dealing with wages. 
 
 Let us turn to the monetary system 
 that is in force. It produces fluctuations 
 in the average of prices because of the 
 selfish interests of a powerful class. To 
 explain this system, the motives of its 
 beneficiaries, their methods, and their 
 present scheme for extending their pow- 
 er through a Consolidated Banking and 
 Money Trust, is the object of this arti- 
 cle. 
 
 PART II. THE EXISTING SYSTEM 
 
 It has been shown that the average of 
 prices is controlled by the volume of mon- 
 ey: Increasing the volume of money suffi- 
 ciently will raise the average of prices, 
 and this average will be lowered if a 
 sufficiently large quantity of money is 
 withdrawn from use. But the average of 
 prices is affected by factors other than 
 the volume of money, one of the most 
 important of which is Bank Credits. If 
 the volume of bank credits expands, it 
 will raise the average of prices; if the 
 volume of money and other conditions 
 remain the same, and on the other hand 
 if bank credits collapse or are wilfully 
 withdrawn, they lower the average of 
 prices unless these changes are counter- 
 balanced by changes in the volume of 
 money or other factors. Now in the 
 United States this condition exists; Our 
 Jaws are such that 
 
6 
 
 THE AVERAGE OF PRICES IS CON- 
 TROLLED BY THOSE WHO CONTROL 
 THE VOLUME OF BANK CREDITS, 
 EXCEPT AS THE PRESIDENT OF 
 THE UNITED STATES USES HIS DIS- 
 CRETIONARY POWER TO COUNTER- 
 ACT THEIR WILL. 
 
 In the words of Prof. Taylor of the 
 University of Michigan in a paper read 
 before the American Economic Associa- 
 tion, December, 1895, showing the need 
 of an elastic volume of money: “In both 
 England and the United States, the vic- 
 tory has remained with the advocates of 
 a ‘safe,’ rather than an elastic curren- 
 cy. In the recent revival of agitation 
 on this matter, expert opinion has almost 
 without exception declared for elasticity. 
 Yet in this case, as in the former contro- 
 versies, the idea has not been able to 
 gain for itself legislative approval. * * * 
 Bankers are private citizens in quest pri- 
 marily, of their own interests.” 
 
 If those who control the Bank Credits, 
 have controlled the average of prices, ex- 
 cept as the President has exercised a dis- 
 cretionary control of it, the question 
 arises in each person’s mind, What is the 
 Machinery whereby the Bankers have op- 
 erated, and what is their Motive? 
 
 THE MACHINERY WHEREBY THE 
 BANKERS CONTROL THE 
 AVERAGE OF PRICES. 
 
 Under our monetary and banking sys- 
 tem and those which have always been 
 used in this country, Bank Credits have, 
 over periods of time varying from two 
 days to several years, risen and fallen 
 without being offset by changes in the 
 volume of money except in rare in- 
 stances, and as a result THERE HAVE 
 BEEN CYCLES OF RISES AND FALLS 
 IN THE AVERAGE OF PRICES. The 
 exceptions have been when the President 
 of the United States has occasionally 
 stepped in and put money into circulation. 
 
 The Defect. 
 
 The particular point which I make is 
 that the law has prescribed a maximum 
 of bank credits but it does not declare 
 that when the bank credits collapse or 
 are wilfully withdrawn by the money 
 power there shall come forth another me- 
 dium of exchange — money— to take its 
 place. I will express it another way: 
 The history of bank clearings shows that 
 the maximum of bank credits which the 
 law permits has been attained only for 
 brief periods and at other times it has 
 fluctuated between the high point and 
 lower points WITHOUT BEING COUN- 
 TERBALANCED by changes in the vol- 
 ume of money. 
 
 Here is an example: In 1893 bank 
 
 credits were contracted so that the vol- 
 ume during the first week of December 
 was but % of what it was during the 
 first week in March while the volume of 
 money in circulation decreased very 
 greatly, there being a “plethora” of mon- 
 ey in the banks. In other words, the 
 bank loans shrunk 3714 per cent of 
 their volume while the volume of money 
 used in trade also decreased. The result 
 
 was that the average of prices was much 
 lower during the first week of Decem- 
 ber than it was during the first week of 
 March. But had the law been such that 
 the tendency to contraction of bank 
 credits would have been offset by the ex- 
 pansion of another medium of exchange, 
 namely the issuance of money in ex- 
 change for government bonds, the ten- 
 dency to a fall in the average of prices 
 would have been counterbalanced. 
 
 Cycles of Rising and Falling Prices. 
 
 Now why is it that we have had cy- 
 cles of rising and falling prices when 
 we could have had stable ones? Who has 
 profited by keeping the law so that the 
 changes in bank credits were not coun- 
 terbalanced? Prof. Taylor, of Michigan 
 State University, has answered it and I 
 have quoted to you his verdict. It is 
 that an elastic currency has failed to se- 
 cure legislative approval because “the 
 bankers are private citizens in quest pri- 
 marily of their own interests.” It is the 
 bankers who have fought all bills which 
 have proposed to put in the hands of the 
 government the control of the average of 
 prices under fixed rules. 
 
 Power of the Bankers. 
 
 Under our monetary and banking sys- 
 tem the changes from periods of expand- 
 ing bank credits to those of contracting 
 credits, and vice versa, are brought about 
 by the banks; and a few of the large 
 banks of New York “set the pace.” They 
 fix the bank rate in the United States 
 except as the President of the United 
 States interferes by putting money into 
 circulation or withdrawing it. These 
 controlling banks are largely owned in 
 Europe. 
 
 While the banks are not always able 
 to expand their credit when they de- 
 sire owing to other conditions being at 
 times capable of deterring business en- 
 terprises, they certainly have the 
 power to CONTRACT THEIR LINES OF 
 CREDIT WPIENEVER THEY CHOOSE 
 TO DO SO and history shows that FOR 
 THIS PURPOSE THEY COMBINE 
 WHENEVER IT PAYS THEM TO DO 
 SO. The combination may be only of the 
 great banks or it may be a widespread 
 combination, instances of which I shall 
 shortly give to you. Here however I 
 wish to set forth the usual method where- 
 by an undue expansion of bank credits 
 is checked. 
 
 Method of Checking Credit Expansion* 
 
 Under our monetary and banking sys- 
 tem when the bank credits of the gold- 
 price world are expanding, there is no 
 way whereby it is usual to counterbal- 
 ance this expansion by withdrawing 
 money, and as the expansion of bank 
 credits cannot go on indefinitely it fol- 
 lows that the bankers must stop it. This 
 is done by the “controlling banks.” 
 
 Undue Advantage of Bank Directors. 
 
 The directors of these banks, shaping 
 as they do the policies of their respective 
 institutions, KNOW OF THE CHANGES 
 IN CREDITS IN ADVANCE OF THE 
 BUSINESS WORLD. As the changes in 
 credits result in changes in prices, except 
 
7 
 
 as counterbalanced through the Presi- 
 dent of the United States putting money 
 into circulation or withdrawing it, it fol- 
 lows that the directors of these control- 
 ling banks have an advantage over those 
 who are not on “the inside.” 
 
 Result of Bankers’ Control of Average 
 Prices. 
 
 But this advantage over other specula- 
 tors is of no consequence as compared 
 with the direful effects upon production 
 and distribution which flow from the 
 fluctuations in average prices. “Falling 
 prices” espeeially are a most terrible en- 
 emy to all human beings who are not 
 speculators, creditors or have “fixed in- 
 comes.” “Rising prices” while much bet- 
 ter than falling prices, are not so good 
 for society as a stable average provided 
 the falls in prices have been restored 
 somewhat. 
 
 PART III. THE REMEDY. 
 
 The remedy for fluctuations in the av- 
 erage of prices is very simple: The vot- 
 ers have only to change the law so that 
 the bank directors shall no longer con- 
 trol the average of prices. To do this it 
 is only necessary that the discretion- 
 ary power of the President of the Unit- 
 ed States be changed so that he will 
 work under Fixed Rules. 
 
 But to this the great speculators and 
 big creditors object. 
 
 The Objections of the Big Speculators 
 and Great Creditors. 
 
 In the words of Prof. Laughlin in a 
 debate before the Sunset Club of Chica- 
 go, December 6th, 1894 (Page 90 of its pro- 
 ceedings), “THE GOVERNMENT 
 SHOULD NOT ISSUE NOTES (paper 
 money), because it puts it in the danger- 
 ous position of INFLUENCING AND 
 CONTROLLING PRICES AND THE 
 MONEY MARKETS.” 
 
 Here he “lets the cat out of the bag;” 
 I ask to whom is it dangerous that the 
 government should directly control the 
 average of prices? Especially when it is 
 proposed to keep the average of prices 
 stable through a system which is auto- 
 matic in so far as voters and congress 
 are concerned. Is it dangerous to the 
 producing and trading classes who are 
 injured by fluctuations in the average of 
 prices? Or is it dangerous to the unholy 
 profits secured by the controlling bank- 
 ers through their control of the average 
 of prices? The money question is simply 
 this: Which is the better way to issue 
 the paper money; shall the law be such 
 as to keep a practically stable average 
 of prices or shall the law be framed 
 with the object of delegating to one class 
 the control with the certainty that the 
 result will be cycles of rises and falls 
 in average prices with all the evils to 
 society which this implies? 
 
 It would be no innovation for the gov- 
 ernment to to keep the average of 
 prices stable 
 
 Direct Governmental Control of Average 
 Prices Is No Innovation. 
 
 Our government has repeatedly put 
 forth paper and metallic money to ease 
 the money market and thus keep the 
 average of prices from falling and it has 
 also kept money piled up in the treasury 
 when it could have put it into circula- 
 tion. By keeping money out of circulation 
 it has forced down the average of prices. 
 I will quote a few examples: 
 
 Only last month the government paid 
 interest on bonds, months in advance of 
 the time it is due in order to get money 
 out of the treasury and into circulation. 
 The government is also purchasing bonds 
 in order to put money into circulation, 
 and to the extent of twenty-five million 
 dollars. 
 
 In 1890 similar occurrences took place. 
 In the words of President Harrison in 
 his annual message to Congress “The ef- 
 forts of the Secretary to increase the vol- 
 ume of money in circulation, by keeping 
 down the Treasury surplus to the lowest 
 practicable limit, have been unremitting 
 and in a very high degree successful. 
 * * * The increase of money in circu- 
 lation during the 19 months has been 
 in the aggregate 93 million dollars or 
 about one dollar and a half per capita, 
 and of this increase only 7 million dol- 
 lars was due to the recent silver legisla- 
 tion.” 
 
 In 1881 the bankers by concerted action 
 withdrew credits and forced a panic and 
 the government fought them, to some ex- 
 tent, by putting money into circulation 
 through the purchase of bonds. In the 
 words of Appleton’s Annual for 1881, page 
 189, “The national bankers of New York 
 City acting in concert, brought Wall 
 Street to the extreme verge of a panic. 
 The tone of the money market was only 
 partially restored by an order of the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury for the redemp- 
 tion of 25 million dollars of bonds on 
 presentation.” 
 
 In 1893 the bankers attempted to force 
 a panic to secure legislation and they 
 were not foiled by the President — he 
 chose to help them. 
 
 President Should Work Under Fixed 
 Rules. 
 
 Now, why should this discretion be left 
 with the President of the United States'? 
 Why shouldn’t there be Fixed Rules for 
 the exercise of this tremendous power? 
 We ask that there be a rule command- 
 ing the President through his Secretary 
 of the Treasury to daily tabulate the 
 prices of specified commodities in speci- 
 fied markets and that the sum total of 
 these prices be kept practically stable. 
 When credits are being withdrawn, the 
 volume of money should be expanded by 
 purchasing bonds, and when the reverse 
 occurs in the volume of credits, the mon- 
 ey should be withdrawn by reselling some 
 of the bonds. In other words, we ask 
 that the DISCRETION of the President 
 to manipulate the average of prices shall 
 be done away with, and that he be COM- 
 MANDED to keep a stable average. 
 Senator John Sherman on the floor of 
 
the Senate in 1868 declared that “the con- 
 trol of the currency should not be left 
 to the discretion of any single officer.” 
 (Blaine’s Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 
 II., page 331.) 
 
 PART IV. RESULT OF PRESI- 
 DENT’S DISCRETIONARY 
 POWER, 
 
 Each Campaign a Fight for the Control 
 of Average Prices. 
 
 To leave to the President a discretion 
 in the matter, makes the nomination of 
 candidates for that office a fight for the 
 control of the average of prices, and 
 after the selection of candidates is made, 
 in case one of them is not favorable to 
 Wall Street, he is fought by them, tooth 
 and nail. Examples, both as to the fight 
 over the nomination and the election, are 
 as follows: 
 
 Defeat of Blaine, Hancock, Hill and 
 Bryan. 
 
 The nomination of Blaine was fought 
 by Wall Street in 1876, in 1880, and 1884. 
 They defeated his nomination twice and 
 after he was nominated in 1884 they de- 
 feated his election. The data to show 
 this I have put forth in a book. In 1880 
 the election of Hancock was defeated by 
 Wall Street. This is shown in a letter 
 from Garfield to Sherman written soon 
 after Hancock’s defeat occurred: “The 
 
 distrust of the Solid South and of ad- 
 verse financial legislation have been the 
 chief factors in the contest,” wrote Gar- 
 field. New York State’s electoral vote 
 was cast for Garfield, but in 1884 New 
 York was carried against Blaine through 
 the efforts of Wall Street. In 1896 the con- 
 test over the nomination of the Demo- 
 cratic candidate was terrific, and as the 
 nominee, Mr. Bryan, did not favor Wall 
 Street interests he was defeated. The 
 year before this occurred the president 
 of the New York State Bankers’ Asso- 
 ciation in a speech before the Bankers’ 
 Club of Chicago, gloated over the power 
 of the bankers in legislation and poli- 
 tics and concluded with this statement: 
 “The politician, high or low, who to-day 
 turns from the straight course of sound 
 money and the gold standard, stabs dead 
 once for all his every chance for politi- 
 cal success, ESPECIALLY IF HE 
 WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT.” 
 
 How long, oh my countrymen, will you 
 permit the selfish interests of the big 
 speculators and great creditors to control 
 the average of prices? How long will 
 you permit them to “fleece” you while 
 you have in your hand the ballot and are 
 permitted to cast it and have it count- 
 ed? 
 
 Mark well the query “while you are per- 
 
 mitted to cast it and have it counted.” 
 
 PART V. WHAT THE BANKERS 
 HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 Presidential Elections. 
 
 Blaine was elected in 1884, but the bal- 
 lots were not counted that way. Murat 
 Halsted, in a magazine article, testifies 
 that he went to New York in Blaine’s 
 interest and advised him that HE WAS 
 ELECTED BUT THE REBELLIOUS 
 POWER WAS SUCH THAT IT WOULD 
 BE USELESS TO OPPOSE IT. At the 
 next national election both of the nomi- 
 nees were satisfactory to Wall Street: 
 The 1888 platform of the Republican par- 
 ty specially invited back “the men who 
 abandoned the Republican party in 1884.” 
 Four years later the fight opened in New 
 York State over the nominations. On 
 this point we are fortunate in having 
 some “inside” history. 
 
 “Inside” History. 
 
 Banker Salomon of New York City, a 
 member of one of the leading Interna- 
 tional banking houses in New York City, 
 in an article in the July Forum, 1895, 
 admits what every voter should know. 
 He tells us that the nomination and elec- 
 tion of Governor David B. Hill would 
 have resulted in free silver, that is to 
 say, the restoration of the average of 
 prices and a fixed par of exchange in 
 international trade. To prevent the free 
 coinage of silver, says Banker Salomon, 
 “was what inspired vast numbers of men 
 to go into the party organization to con- 
 test the nomination of Mr. Hill.” They 
 furnished the “sinews of war!” as he 
 terms it, which defeated the nomination 
 of Gov. Hill and placed Grover Cleveland 
 at the head of the ticket. 
 
 Wall Street “Punch and Judy” Show. 
 
 Banker Salomon’s admissions further 
 show that the campaign as between 
 Cleveland and Harrison was a Wall 
 Street “Punch and Judy” show, for he 
 declares, and I quote his words, “It was 
 well understood that a Reform of uie 
 Tariff was to be the Nominal Issue of 
 the Campaign and that all the changes 
 were to be rung on that theme.” 
 
 There you have it: That is the way the 
 American voters are handled when Wall 
 Street can control both of the parties. 
 But when it cannot do so it fights. And 
 the way it fought in 1896 is present 
 in the mind of each of you. The $16,000,- 
 000 campaign fund furnished by the mem- 
 bers of the Bankers’ Trust with Mark 
 Hanna as chief dispenser, will never be 
 forgotten by men who believe in a free 
 ballot and a fair count. 
 
 Do not feel sure then that you can read- 
 ily wrest from Wall Street the control 
 of the average of prices. Remember the 
 history which I have related and which 
 demonstrates their tremendous power and 
 unscrupulous disregard for popular gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The Threats of 1896. 
 
 During the campaign of 1896 the threat 
 was made repeatedly, that in case there 
 should be elected and seated a president 
 
9 
 
 and a congress pledged to the overthrow 
 of the existing monetary system, that 
 nevertheless the overturning of this sys- 
 tem would not occur. Banker Clews bold- 
 ly proclaimed this in a written statement 
 which was intended for publication and 
 which was published tnroughout the 
 length and breadth of the land. The New 
 York Sun said the same thing but in a 
 more covert way. This was copied in 
 the Chicago Tribune, at least. Harper’s 
 Weekly also put forth a similar state- 
 ment in a more veiled manner than the 
 New York Sun had done. Mr. Lauter- 
 back, Chairman of the Republican Com- 
 mittee in New York City, boldly declar- 
 ed “We may not submit” and Theodore 
 Roosevelt is reported to have made a 
 statement nearly as bad. 
 
 Many people believe that the rule of 
 the Majority is a thing of the past. The 
 following is an illustration: 
 
 Professor Plelin’s Despair. 
 
 “We must remember that we are at- 
 tempting to maintain a democratic form 
 of government at a time when THE 
 CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO DE- 
 MOCRACY HAVE LONG GONE BY. 
 We can, therefore, only expect class rule 
 in every direction, through democratic 
 forms.” Thus spake Dr. Carl C. Plehn, 
 Assistant Professor of History and Po- 
 litical Science, University of California, 
 in a letter to the writer, October 19th, 
 1897, and in which he gave permission to 
 publish. And he further said: “I should 
 infinitely prefer to see our Professors 
 dominated by the trustees of our Amer- 
 ican colleges to having them pander in 
 any way to the ignorance and passion of 
 ‘ye multitude’ or of their chosen repre- 
 sentatives.” 
 
 PART VI. HOW THE PRODUCING 
 AND TRADING CLASSES 
 CAN CONQUER. 
 
 In my opinion it is not true that “The 
 conditions favorable to democracy have 
 long gone by.” Popular Government is 
 not so badly throttled as it was at the 
 close of the last century. 
 
 The Year 1 800 Compared. 
 
 “Just one hundred years ago, under the 
 presidency of John Adams, a Sedition 
 bill was passed by Congress, allowing 
 the arrest, fine and imprisonment of any 
 man who criticised the acts of the party 
 in power. Under this Act a dozen of the 
 ablest editors of the United States were 
 imprisoned; one Congressman, stumping 
 for re-election, was arrested for criticis- 
 ing the President, and held for four 
 months in a cold guard house, where his 
 'health was seriously damaged, besides 
 being compelled to pay a fine of $1,000. 
 It was the culmination of an era of strug- 
 gle, on the part of autocracy and aris- 
 tocracy, to get entire control of the new- 
 born republic. Free suffrage was held to 
 be well enough, provided all the votes 
 were cast for the select few, who by edu- 
 cation and wealth held themselves to be 
 “the Best.” Thomas Jefferson put an 
 end to all of this, by organizinig the 
 common people into a great party, which 
 
 in 1800 elected him president.” (E. P. 
 Powell in “The New Unity,” Sept. 29, 
 1898.) 
 
 And to-day we are at the culmination 
 of anoth.er era of autocracy. Now it is 
 the owners of aggregated wealth who op- 
 pose the equality of opportunity upon 
 which Progress is based. But the power 
 of wealth, tremendous as is its 
 control of the producing and trad- 
 ing classes, must and will bow 
 in acquiescence to their verdict WHEN- 
 EVER THEY GET TOGETHER IN A 
 COMPARATIVELY SOLID PHALANX. 
 And if they but agree that stability in 
 the average of prices is just, they can 
 put that principle into execution in spite 
 of the opposition of the big speculators 
 and great creditors who profit by a fluc- 
 tuating and sinking price level. If the 
 producing and trading classes will but 
 agree upon the principle, that stability 
 in the average of prices is just and there- 
 fore that to the president shall no longer 
 be left the discretion to regulate it as 
 he may see fit, the great clouds of im- 
 pending catastrophe which overhang the 
 land, will be dispersed, and civilization 
 will not be destroyed by aggregated 
 wealth. 
 
 I am an optimist and believe that the 
 people will catch glimpses of the truth 
 through the latticed fallacies with which 
 wealth is fighting the truths concerning 
 itself. We cannot at this time consider 
 these fallacies, but shall state the ex- 
 isting order of things. Its main features 
 are so broadly apparent that there is no 
 mistaking them. 
 
 PART. VII. THE EXISTING SYS- 
 TEM (CONTINUED). 
 
 Analysis of Personal Profits of Specula- 
 tors, Bankers and Creditors. 
 
 The criterion whereby business is con- 
 ducted is Personal Profit. And this is 
 the motive of those who control the banks 
 and through them have controlled the 
 average of prices. 
 
 These “Personal Profits” include: 
 
 The interest which is made from put- 
 ting forth the paper money which the 
 voters through their representatives fur- 
 nish to the banks for loaning out at in- 
 terest. 
 
 A second source of personal profit is 
 the higher rate • of interest which they 
 are able to secure .on all their loans ow- 
 ing to the destruction of capital through 
 the disorganization of industry which 
 follows upon the heels of falling prices. 
 One reason that Postal Savings Banks 
 are fought is that they would tend to 
 lower the interest rate through the ac- 
 cumulation of wealth. 
 
 A third source of personal profit is to 
 creditors. Since 1873 the net increase in 
 the purchasing power of money has been 
 nearly 100 per cent; in other words, the 
 average prices of products have been 
 made to fall 50 per cent. 
 
 The profits from speculation in stocks, 
 bonds, produce and other property is an- 
 other source of profit to those who con- 
 trol the average of prices. 
 
 A fifth source of profit is from the con- 
 trol of legislation. This includes the 
 
10 
 
 keeping of the special privileges already 
 secured and the obtaining of further spe- 
 cial privileges. 
 
 The foregoing is in addition to the prof- 
 its which flow from legitimate banking. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOW THE 
 CONTROLLING BANKS HAVE 
 SECURED PERSONAL 
 PROFITS. 
 
 There are many notable examples of 
 how, under the existing system the vol- 
 umes of bank credits have been controll- 
 ed by the great banks for the purposes 
 of speculation, high interest, and the 
 securing of legislation itself. I shall not 
 mention cases where it was simply a 
 master of speculation as they occur ev- 
 ery year, and in most cases are almost 
 unnoticed even by business men. The 
 Influencing of Legislation, however, is a 
 more grave indictment and I bring forth 
 some of the evidence: 
 
 NATIONAL BANKERS’ PANIC OF 
 1 8S1 . 
 
 Early in 1881 a bill detrimental to the 
 interests of national banks had passed 
 the House, was concurred in by the Sen- 
 ate with unimportant amendments and 
 sent back to the House. Then there oc- 
 curred a concerted withdrawal of cred- 
 its by the national banks. They not only 
 withdrew credits but withdrew $18,000,- 
 000 of money from circulation and depos- 
 ited it with the treasury. Commenting 
 upon this fact, Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury Windom in his annual report recom- 
 mended that the national banks be pro- 
 hibited from withdrawing their circula- 
 tion, except after giving timely notice. 
 President Arthur in his annual message 
 concurred in the recommendations saying: 
 “Such legislation would seem to be justi- 
 fied by the recent action of certain banks 
 on the occasion referred to in the Secre- 
 tary’s report.” 
 
 NATIONAL BANKERS’ PANIC OF 
 1832 - 34 . 
 
 Professor Sumner, of Yale, in his His- 
 tory of American Currency, says: “In 
 
 1832 the National Bank petitioned for a 
 renewal of its charter, which was to ex- 
 pire in 1836. * * * The bill passed both 
 Houses, and was vetoed by the President 
 on the 10th of July. It being now evi- 
 dent that the bank must expire unless 
 some influence could be brought to bear 
 to change the President or win two- 
 thirds of Congress, A VIOLENT WAR- 
 FARE WAS BEGUN BY THE BANK. 
 The power of its interest at the same 
 time is attested by any amount of evi- 
 dence. * * * It is certain that the banks 
 paid no more heed to the laws of the 
 State than they did to the laws of pru- 
 dence or of banking science, and that 
 they paid very little heed to either.” 
 
 During 1832 “the motion to sell out the 
 public shares wfis LOST, 102 to 91, 
 THROUGH THfj | NJFUTJUNCE OF THE 
 
 BANK, which, as they afterward dis- 
 covered, had a large number of debtors, 
 attorneys and stockholders in the 
 House. * * * 
 
 “After Congress adjourned, Septem- 
 ber 22, 1833, President Jackson ordered Mr. 
 Duane, the Secretary of the Treasury, to 
 remove the public deposits rrom the 
 United States Bank. He refused to do so, 
 and was displaced by Mr. Taney, who 
 did it. 
 
 “THE WAR WAS NOW IN FULL 
 BLAST. The bank had circulated docu- 
 ments during the canvass of the previous 
 year, showing its services and merits. 
 Against this proceeding I see no valid 
 objection. The documents were ‘polit- 
 cal’ because the question of the bank’s 
 existence had become political. It was 
 justified in defending itself. But in Au- 
 gust, 1833, it altered its policy. IT RAP- 
 IDLY CONTRACTED ITS LOANS, giv- 
 ing as a reason the necessity of provid- 
 ing for the transfer of the deposits, A 
 REASON WHICH THE FACTS DID 
 NOT WARRANT. 
 
 “On the assembling of Congress, De- 
 cember, 1833, the message announced the 
 step taken, giving as grounds the miscon- 
 duct of the bank IN ATTEMPTING TO 
 CONTROL THE ELECTION, and the 
 unsoundness of the institution. The 
 President also charged the bank with 
 now creating AN ARTIFICIAL STRIN- 
 GENCY IN ORDER TO MAKE ITSELF 
 APPEAR NECESSARY TO THE COM- 
 MUNITY. * * * 
 
 “The recharter of the bank being now 
 definitely refused (winter of 1833-34), a 
 number of small banks were organized 
 to take its place. But before they could 
 get into operation the contraction of 
 the bank had time to operate upon the 
 market. Many deputations came up to 
 Congress to complain of distress, and 
 many memorials were sent up. The ex- 
 citement was great throughout the coun- 
 ; try. It was asserted, however, on the 
 other side, that ALL THIS DISTRESS 
 WAS MANUFACTURED BY THE 
 BANK ITSELF, IN ORDER TO GAIN 
 A RECHARTER, AND THAT LOANS 
 WERE REFUSED TO SOME AND 
 GRANTED FREELY TO OTHERS, 
 WHO USED THEM TO CHARGE 
 USURIOUS RATES. Benton asserts that 
 two cases were discovered, one in which 
 a broker received $1,100,000 to use in this 
 way, for which he charged 2V 2 per cent 
 per month.” 
 
 The foregoing are the statements of 
 Prof. Sumner of Yale, one of the most 
 prominent advocates of bank money. 
 
 Jackson on National Banks. 
 
 Following the above occurrences, Pres- 
 ident Jackson in his annual message to 
 Congress said: “Circumstances make it 
 
 my duty to call the attention of Con- 
 gress to the Bank of the United States. 
 Created for the convenience of the Gov- 
 ernment, THAT INSTITUTION HAS 
 BECOME THE SCOURGE OF THE 
 PEOPLE. Its interference to POST- 
 PONE THE PAYMENT OF A PORTION 
 OF THE NATIONAL DEBT, that it 
 might retain the public money appropriat- 
 ed for that purpose to ptrengtheq it ip 
 
11 
 
 a political contest, the EXTRAORDI- 
 NARY EXTENSION AND CONTRAC- 
 TION OF ITS ACCOMMODATIONS to 
 the ®ommunity, its corrupt and partisan 
 loans, its exclusion to the public direc- 
 tors from a knowledge of its most im- 
 portant proceedings, the unlimited au- 
 thority conferred on the President TO 
 EXPEND ITS FUNDS IN HIRING 
 WRITERS and procuring the execution 
 of printing and the use made of that au- 
 thority, the retention of the pension 
 money and books after the selection of 
 new agents, have through various chan- 
 nels been laid before the Congress. THEY 
 WERE SUBSTANTIALLY A CONFES- 
 SION THAT ALL THE REAL DIS- 
 TRESSES WHICH INDIVIDUALS 
 AND THE COUNTRY HAD ENDURED 
 FOR THE PRECEDING SIX OR EIGHT 
 MONTHS HAVE BEEN NEEDLESSLY 
 PRODUCED BY IT WITH A VIEW OF 
 AFFECTING. THROUGH THE SUF- 
 FERINGS OF THE PEOPLE, THE 
 LEGISLATIVE ACTION OF CON- 
 GRESS.” 
 
 Again he declares in the same mes- 
 sage: 
 
 President Jackson’s Prophecy. 
 
 “Events have satisfied my mind, and 
 I think the minds of the American peo- 
 ple, that the mischief and dangers which 
 flow from a national bank far overbal- 
 ance all its advantages. The bold effort 
 the present bank has made to control the 
 Government, the distress it has wanton- 
 ly produced, the violence of which it has 
 been the occasion in one of our cities 
 famed for its observance of law and or- 
 der, ARE BUT PREMONITIONS OF 
 THE FATE THAT AWAITS THE AM- 
 ERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD THEY BE 
 DELUDED INTO A PERPETUATION 
 OF THIS INSTITUTION, OR OF THE 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF ANOTHER 
 LIKE IT. It is fervently hoped that thus 
 admonished, those who have heretofore 
 favored the establishment of a substitute 
 for the present bank will be induced to 
 abandon it, as it is evidently better to 
 incur any inconvenience that may be rea- 
 sonably expected than to CONCEN- 
 TRATE THE WHOLE MONEY POWER 
 OF THE REPUBLIC in any form what- 
 soever or under any restrictions.” 
 
 DEFEAT OF THE RESTORATION 
 OF SILVER, 1878. 
 
 Late in 1877 the House, by a two-thirds 
 vote, suspended the rules and passed a 
 free-coinage bill. Early in the follow- 
 ing year, while this proposed law was 
 before the Senate, the following boast 
 was made in the New York Tribune of 
 Jan. 11: 
 
 “The machinery is now furnished by 
 which in any emergency the financial 
 corporations of the East can act together 
 at a single day’s notice and with such 
 power that NO ACT OF CONGRESS 
 CAN OVERCOME OR RESIST THEIR 
 DECISION.” 
 
 The result of this bankers’ combination 
 was that in the Senate the question of 
 the free coinage of silver W a 9 pot even 
 
 voted upon, and the bill passed by it, 
 perpetuating the gold standard of fall- 
 ing prices, when it was sent over to the 
 House, was considered but one hour and 
 then passed. Thus was a return to the 
 bimetallic standard of prices defeated. 
 Jackson’s caution against giving over to 
 banks the control of average prices had 
 not been observed— the money power had 
 been concentrated in a system of na- 
 tional banks. 
 
 BANKERS’ PANIC OF FEBRUARY, 
 1884. 
 
 After the election in 1880 Secretary of 
 the Treasury Sherman, in a letter to Gen- 
 eral Garfield, said: “I could at any mo- 
 
 ment by issuing silver freely bring a 
 crisis.” Four years later, with the addi- 
 tional quantity of silver in use, it is evi- 
 dent that a much graver crisis could be 
 brought on. In February, 1884, the sub- 
 treasurer of the United States at New 
 York gave the opportunity for a crisis, 
 and the bankers did the rest. 
 
 The object was to influence legislation, 
 namely, to prevent the restoration of sil- 
 ver and to give added privileges to na- 
 tional banks. The result was that silver 
 legislation was headed off, but the banks 
 did not get an increase of privileges. The 
 panic of May, 1884, was in a measure the 
 result of the February panic. 
 
 NATIONAL BANKERS’ PANIC OF 
 1893. 
 
 “Inside History.” 
 
 William Salomon. “A member of the 
 firm of Speyer & Company, one of the 
 leading international banking houses of 
 New York City,” in an article in the 
 July Forum, 1895, shows how Governor 
 David B. Hill, a bimetallist at that time, 
 was defeated for the democratic nomina- 
 tion for president in 1893, and in his place 
 was put Grover Cleveland. Because of 
 the difference in their views on the mon- 
 ey question, says Banker Salomon, “A 
 LARGE NUMBER OF INFLUENTIAL 
 MEN IN NEW YORK CITY and the 
 State FELT OBLIGED TO EXERT ALL 
 THEIR ENERGIES FOR THE NOMI- 
 NATION OF MR. CLEVELAND and the 
 defeat of Mr. Hill.’ 6 J 
 
 After Mr. Cleveland’s nomination, 
 “WHAT PRODUCED ‘THE SINEWS OF 
 WAR’?” continued Banker Salomon, 
 “was the conviction that the triumphs 
 of the democratic party, WITH MR. 
 CLEVELAND AT ITS HEAD, WOULD 
 MEAN A REPEAL OF THE PURCHAS- 
 ING-CLAUSE OF THE SHERMAN 
 ACT. THE WORK OF THESE MEN, 
 HAPPILY, WAS WELL REWARDED, 
 first, in the National Convention in Chi- 
 cago, and subsequently in Congress BY 
 A REPEAL OF THE PURCHASING- 
 CLAUSE OF THE SHERMAN ACT.” 
 
 Immediately after the election of Mr. 
 Cleveland a cable from London announc- 
 ed that it was thought that his election 
 meant the repeal of the silver-purchase 
 law. That Mr. Cleveland had agreed with 
 the representatives of London and pther 
 
12 
 
 bankers is now a matter of history— see 
 Banker Salomon’s boastful admissions 
 above quoted, and there is other evidence, 
 some of which I shall quote. 
 
 Soon after the election the bankers be- 
 gan their work. I have elsewhere set 
 forth the different steps; here I can only 
 mention the more striking instances: 
 
 European Bankers’ Panic of December. 
 
 1893. 
 
 They started in to give an “object les- 
 son” to Congress and to the people. Dec. 
 15th, when the business world was not 
 expecting it, they suddenly withdrew 
 their loans, raided the gold reserve and 
 exported gold when the exchange rate 
 was above the shipping point. Wagers 
 were also offered that gold would go to 
 a premium over silver money during 1893. 
 
 The next day a New York Special in the 
 Chicago Tribune said: It is unfortunate 
 
 that yesterday’s calling in of loans was 
 done in exactly such manner as would 
 most seriously embarrass and agitate the 
 security market, because this has given 
 rise to charges of INTERNATIONAL 
 DISTURBANCE OF PRICES. 
 
 December 20th a New York market re- 
 port to the Chicago Inter-Ocean said: 
 
 “Call loans declined to 4 per cent. It is 
 now evident the flurry in the money mar- 
 ket yesterday WAS DUE LARGELY 
 TO MANIPULATION. * * * These 
 
 facts were made so clear that specula- 
 tive sentiment on the stock exchange 
 underwent a complete change. Prices ad- 
 vanced sharply and there were no reac- 
 tions worthy of the name at any hour 
 of the day.” 
 
 The Motive. 
 
 December 16th Bradstreet’s weekly 
 review spoke of “The steady reduction of 
 the treasury’s available balance of spe- 
 cie,” and the report continued: “Wall 
 
 Street is now forced to regard the pos- 
 sibility of a slight premium on gold or 
 the appearance of the treasury as a bor- 
 rower for the purpose of replenishing 
 its gold reserve and maintaining the sil- 
 ver certificates at a parity with gold. The 
 general opinion is that IN SUCH AN 
 EVENT THE REPEAL OR SUSPEN- 
 SION OF THE SHERMAN ACT WULL 
 BE FACILITATED, It is not strange, 
 therefore, that a flurry in the loan mar- 
 ket with a sharp drop in stock prices 
 has been the feature of the last two 
 weeks.” 
 
 And on the following day, Dec. 17th, a 
 New York Special in the market report 
 of the Chicago Tribune said: 
 
 “As for the money market, the best 
 that can be said is that the week’s ex- 
 periences are ‘BANK SCARES,’ aggra- 
 vated by several unlucky coincidences. 
 The existing incidents of this week have 
 certainly HASTENED THE REMEDY 
 (i e., unconditional repeal).” 
 
 Bankers’ Panic of February, 1893. 
 
 During the winter of 1892-93 two more 
 attempts were made to force the uncon- 
 ditional repeal of the silver purchase law, 
 and there were two more failures. Dur- 
 ing each attack the bankers gave “ob- 
 
 ject lessons,” and the big speculators, 
 knowing in advance when the “squeezes” 
 were coming, “milked” the stock and 
 produce markets. The way the smaller 
 speculators “got onto the curves” is thus 
 described in the Bankers’ Magazine of 
 New York, March, 1893: 
 
 “The tumble in the stock market during 
 February had for one of its causes, un- 
 loading of stocks as fast as anyone would 
 buy them, in anticipatiq*n that the gold 
 reserve would not be replenished and that 
 an extra session would be called early, 
 and an attempt made TO COERCE its 
 members into repealing the silver pur- 
 chasing act unconditionally.” 
 
 Big Panic Advised. 
 
 But no extended coercion was attempt- 
 ed, as President Harrison, whose re-elec- 
 tion was defeated by Wall street, would 
 not have co-operated with them. It was, 
 however, claimed by the editor of the 
 Commercial Bulletin and by others of 
 “the best financial writers of New York,” 
 says the Bankers’ Magazine, that “the 
 quickest, if not the only way to repeal 
 the silver purchase law is to precipitate 
 a panic upon the country, AS NOTHING 
 SHORT OF THIS will convince the sil- 
 ver men of their error and arouse public 
 opinion to a point which will COMPEL 
 THE NEXT CONGRESS TO REPEAL 
 THE SHERMAN LAW WHETHER IT 
 WANTS TO OR NOT.” 
 
 A further spur to the bankers to bring 
 on a panic, if it should be necessary in 
 order to secure a repeal of the silver pur- 
 chase law, was an article by Professor 
 Francis Walker, in the March issue of 
 the Journal of Political Economy. He 
 said: 
 
 “Fight Without Giving Quarter.” 
 
 The “free coinage of silver * * * * 
 is to be met by defiance and uncompro- 
 mising resistance. It is to be met, not as 
 it was in 1890, but as it was in 1891 and 
 1892. It should be FOUGHT FROM THE 
 START, ON THE LINE; FOUGHT 
 TOOTH AND NAIL; FOUGHT TO THE 
 DEATH. * * * The only good policy in 
 dealing with financial crazes is to FIGHT 
 THEM FROM THE WORD GO, WITH- 
 OUT ASKING OR GIVING QUARTER.” 
 
 Events Precediug the Panic. 
 
 President Cleveland was inaugurated 
 March 4th, 1893, and he named for the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, John G. Car- 
 lisle, and thereafter they worked togeth- 
 er for the unconditional repeal of the law 
 which was adding each year to the vol- 
 ume of money an amount equal to 54,- 
 000,000 dollars. 
 
 Space will not permit the presentation 
 of all the steps taken by President Cleve- 
 land and hi.s secretarj- to shake the con- 
 fidence of the people in such a way as 
 to force the unconditional repeal of the 
 silver purchase law T , and I proceed to 
 the culmination period: 
 
 Early in April President Cleveland ap- 
 pointed a new Sub-Treasurer at New 
 York City, his bonds were approved on 
 the 20th, and important events soon fol- 
 lowed in rapid succession. He held re- 
 peated interviews with the leading na- 
 
13 
 
 tional bankers of New York and flitted 
 back and forth to Washington— matters 
 were of such a character that communi- 
 cations in writing were dispensed with. 
 Mr. Shucker gives the details of these 
 movements in his “History of the Panic 
 of 1893.” 
 
 On the evening of April 23rd an import- 
 ant conference took place between the 
 Sub-Treasurer and certain national bank 
 presidents “at a private house up-town,” 
 a»d during the next day there came to 
 the Sub-Treasurer’s office for conference, 
 nearly all the presidents of the leading 
 New York banks, including the repre- 
 sentatives of Rothschild & Sons of Lon- 
 don, and other European banking 
 houses. 
 
 Three days later President Cleveland 
 and his party, including Secretary Car- 
 lisle, arrived in New York to assist in 
 the celebration of Columbus Day. 
 
 Carlisle’s Conference with Wall Street 
 Bankers. 
 
 On the day following the celebration, 
 Secretary Carlisle was, say's the New 
 York Times, driven to the private resi- 
 dence of one of the bank presidents, 
 where there were present nine presidents 
 of national banks and the Sub-Treasurer 
 for New York. The New York Times 
 further says that: 
 
 “The Secretary indicated his opposition 
 to at present building up a gold reserve 
 by a bond issue. * * * The principal ob- 
 jection was that IT WOULD TEND TO 
 DELAY A REPEAL OF THE SILVER 
 PURCHASE LAW. Beginning with the 
 repeal of that act, a thorough revision 
 of the currency laws will be a good 
 thing.” 
 
 Advice and Opinions as to a Bank 
 Panic. 
 
 On the morning of the day on which 
 the above conference took place, a Wash- 
 ington dispatch to the New York Herald 
 — presidential and Wall Street organ — 
 said: “If the silver law cannot be re- 
 
 pealed without a bitter fight, there are 
 many reasons why IT WILL BE AS 
 WELL TO ‘HAVE IT OUT NOW’ as 
 later on, and there is at least one reason 
 why it would be better. THIS IS WHAT 
 PUBLIC MEN SAY HERE.” 
 
 On the morning after the conference, 
 the New York Times in an editorial de- 
 clared that the repeal of the silver pur- 
 chase law can be secured, “IF it is de- 
 manded with SUFFICIENT ENERGY.” 
 
 Two days after the New York confer- 
 ence, a Special from New York, publish- 
 ed in The Chicago Evening Post, said: 
 “Secretary Carlisle made a very favor- 
 able impression on the New York bank- 
 ers at the conference held on Thursday 
 last. The clearness of his views as ex- 
 pressed at that time and the indications 
 of A DETERMINATION on the part of 
 the President and himself TO TrtEAT 
 THE MATTER OF THE CURRENCY 
 HEROICALLY went far and changed the 
 feelings of the financial community to- 
 ward him.” 
 
 During the same day a New York cor- 
 respondent in a Special to The Chicago 
 Tribune declares: 
 
 “Mr. Carlisle said the country might 
 as well understand now as at any time 
 that it is suffering from a vicious silver 
 law, and he believed the only way to 
 bring the silver-favoring community to 
 a realization of the evil that is contain- 
 ed in that law IS TO PERMIT THEM 
 TO HAVE AN EXPERIENCE WITH 
 THE BUSINESS DEPRESSION that it 
 is bound to cause. * * * And the bank- 
 ers seemed to think that MR. CARLISLE 
 DID NOT REGARD A LITTLE EXPE- 
 RIENCE OF HARD TIMES AS AN UN- 
 MITIGATED EVIL JUST NOW.” 
 
 On the day preceding this, i. e., Friday, 
 April 28th, Work, Strong & Co.’s market 
 letter from New York to a Chicago house 
 thus speaks of Secretary Carlisle’s con- 
 ference with the bankers: “It defines the 
 policy of the present Administration on 
 the financial questions now before the 
 Country. IF AS SUGGESTED, nothing 
 will be done to help the present condi- 
 tion, and CONGRESS HAS TO BE CO- 
 ERCED into a repeal of the silver bill, 
 we must look for a period of dull and 
 uncertain times. Still THE END MAY 
 JUSTIFY THE MEANS. To-day’s mar- 
 ket is a dull one.” 
 
 The next day, Dick Bros. & Lawrence’s 
 telegram from New York to Valentine & 
 McAvoy, Chicago, said: “It seems to be 
 believed that the Administration will 
 simply let matters drift, maintaining gold 
 payment but using the reserve, and BY 
 INCREASING THE SCARk. PUT THE 
 SCREWS ON MONEYED PEOPLE 
 THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, HOP- 
 ING TO INDUCE PROPER LEGISLA- 
 TION. Money is working closely but no 
 special squeeze is feared. 
 
 The same day Dominick & Dickerson 
 telegraphed to Chicago: “Conservative 
 
 men are preparing for bad times and 
 tight money.” 
 
 The Bankers' Direct Assault and the In- 
 action of the Chief Executive, 
 
 The conference between the Bankers in 
 New York— Bankers who besides acting 
 for American capital, represent the Eu- 
 ropean Banking Houses— and the Presi- 
 dent through his Secretary and Sub- 
 Secretary, ended Thursday night, April 
 27th. Friday and Saturday nothing es- 
 pecial happened, except that Wall Street 
 brokers as we have shown, were cogni- 
 zant that trouble was brewing and warn- 
 ed their customers, and from other 
 sources it appeared that banks were 
 “buying no commercial paper to speak 
 of and rates were very high,” whereas 
 for Wall Street purposes the stock mon- 
 ey ruled easy. It would not do for the 
 bankers to openly carry on a Financial 
 "War too soon after the conference, so 
 Friday, Saturday and Sunday were passed 
 over. 
 
 Monday morning, May 1st, the bankers 
 began a direct assault against the Com- 
 mercial interests of the country as dis- 
 tinguished from the stock market: in the 
 stock market for Monday, prices fell 
 somewhat and money on call was for a 
 time “up around eight per cent,” but this, 
 though, said the market report for the 
 day, “REFLECTS NOTHING OF THE 
 SITUATION IN THE FINANCIAL 
 
14 
 
 WORLD OUTSIDE OF THE STOCK 
 MARKET, and “even upon stock ex- 
 change collateral lenders are looking for 
 advance only when the securities placed 
 are thoroughly gilt-edge.” 
 
 The next morning E. A. Driver tele- 
 graphed Baldwin & Farnum, Chicago: 
 “The editorial writers in the New York 
 morning journals take a very gloomy view 
 of things. Money is close. The contin- 
 ued agitation • of the silver question has 
 scared the bulls off into the swamps and 
 woods, and the bears simply have to raid 
 a stock to knock it silly, THE ONLY 
 WAY IS TO KEEP OUT.” 
 
 The following day “The extreme de- 
 cline in stocks varied from 7 points in su- 
 gar stocks and 13 points in Chicago gas 
 to 6 V 2 points in Western Union, and 15 
 points in national cordage. The over- 
 whelming breaks bore unmistakable 
 signs of forced liquidation (i. e., exhaus- 
 tion of margin) and were at once for- 
 warded by rumors of Wall Street fail- 
 ures. While the excitement was at its 
 height commission houses unconnected 
 with the larger pools, threw over heavy 
 blocks of stock and hastened the de- 
 cline. * * * 
 
 The next day prices fell still lower. 
 Work, Strong & Co.’s Wall Street letter 
 to Schwartz, Dupee & McCormick of Chi- 
 cago, said : 
 
 “Prices in many cases are lower to- 
 day than they have been at time during 
 this state of depression, and IF THE 
 PRESENT ADMINISTRATION SEEKS 
 TO GIVE TO THE SILVER MEN AN 
 OBJECT LESSON using for such a pur- 
 pose the misery and misfortunes of the 
 money borrowing community, THEY 
 HAVE MET WITH GREAT SUCCESS.” 
 
 During the day (Wednesday) bulletins 
 were issued representing that President 
 Cleveland was about ready to order 
 bonds to build up the reserve. Mr. Alla- 
 way, the stock market reporter in Wall 
 Street, called on the Presidents of per- 
 haps a dozen prominent banks. They 
 said that AN ORDER TO ISSUE SUCH 
 BONDS “WOULD STOP THE PANIC 
 WHICH HAS JUST BEGUN.” 
 
 Up to Thursday night there had been 
 for six consecutive business days declines 
 in the stock market; for the last four 
 days very heavjr declines. The next morn- 
 ing the English market was higher, but 
 during the day a further onslaught was 
 made upon' stocks in New York, and 
 with the suspension of a heavy operator 
 the price of sugar certificates dropped 
 23 points; national cordage preferred, 22; 
 general electric, 22; Chicago gas, 11, and 
 others of the group in almost equally se- 
 rious proportions. The bidding up of 
 money rates to 40 per cent— though the 
 rate within an hour fell again to 6— 
 aggravated the situation. * * * As con- 
 fidence returned such of the traders as 
 were left unhurt joined in the buying on 
 the rise. Investment purchases in heavy 
 single blocks again supplied their part. 
 Tn the last hour as the belief in a reac- 
 tion spread, the movement grew into one 
 of those stamped always familiar after 
 a temporary panic, and in not a few of 
 the best known stocks prices rose far 
 above yesterday’s closing prices.” 
 
 Thus did those “on the inside” make 
 princely fortunes by “breaking” and 
 “bulling” the market. In the meantime 
 the life of business in the Commercial 
 World was being choked out until a 
 surrender should be secured in the form 
 of an unconditional repeal of the silver 
 purchase law. 
 
 The Bankers’ Combine: The Panic 
 
 Circular. 
 
 The following circular shows how the 
 widespread panic of early May and the 
 succeeding months was forced by the 
 bankers. They practically all belong to 
 the American Bankers’ Association, and 
 through the Executive Committee decide 
 as to policies and then act together. The 
 executive committee is said to have 
 mailed to each member of the Associa- 
 tion the following letter; that a letter 
 of this character was sent out, has been 
 admitted by many of the bankers who 
 received it; 
 
 “Dear Sir: THE INTERESTS OF NA- 
 TIONAL BANKERS REQUIRE IMME- 
 DIATE FINANCIAL LEGISLATION 
 BY CONGRESS. Silver, silver certifi- 
 cates and Treasury notes must be re- 
 tired, and the national bank notes, upon 
 a gold basis, made the only money. This 
 will require the authorization of from 
 $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 of new bonds as 
 a basis of circulation. YOU WILL AT 
 ONCE RETIRE ONE-THIRD OF YOUR 
 CIRCULATION AND CALL IN ONE- 
 HALF OF YOUR LOANS. Be careful to 
 make a money stringency felt among 
 your patrons, especially among influen- 
 tial business men. Advocate an extra 
 session of Congress for the repeal of the 
 purchase clause of the Sherman law, and 
 act with the other banks of your city 
 in securing a petition to Congress for its 
 unconditional repeal, per acompanying 
 form. Use personal influence with Con- 
 gressmen, and particularly let your 
 wishes be known to your Senators. The 
 future life of national banks as fixed and 
 safe investments depends upon immediate 
 action, as there is an increasing senti- 
 ment in favor of government legal-tender 
 and silver coinage.” 
 
 Comment upon the foregoing cannot 
 add to its hideousness. Read it again 
 and then peruse the following: 
 
 Ex-Governor David B. Hill in a speech 
 in the United States Senate, August 25, 
 1893, said: 
 
 Senator Hill Scores Wall Street. 
 
 “SOME PORTION OF THE PRESENT 
 PANIC MAY BE TRACED TO A CON- 
 CERTED EFFORT ON THE PART OF 
 NUMEROUS MONOMETALLISTS TO 
 PRODUCE IT IN ORDER FURTHER 
 TO DISCREDIT SILVER AS THE 
 STANDARD MONEY OF THE COUN- 
 TRY. With ghoulish glee they welcome 
 every bank failure, especially in the Sil- 
 ver States, little dreaming that such fail- 
 ures would soon occur at their own dodrs. 
 They encourage the hoarding of money; 
 they inaugurated the policy of REFUS- 
 ING LOANS TO THE PEOPLE EVEN 
 UPON THE BEST OF SECURITY; AND 
 ATTEMPTED IN EVERY WAY TO 
 
15 
 
 SPREAD DISASTER BROADCAST 
 THROUGHOUT THE LAND. These dis- 
 turbers— the promoters of the public per- 
 il— REPRESENT LARGELY THE 
 CREDITOR CLASS, THE MEN WHO 
 DESIRE TO APPRECIATE THE GOLD * 
 DOLLAR IN ORDER TO SUBSERVE 
 THEIR OWN SELFISH INTERESTS, 
 men who revel in hard times, men who 
 drive harsh bargains with their fellow- 
 men regardless of financial distress and 
 men wholly unfamiliar with the true 
 principles of monetary science.” 
 
 The Remedy, 
 
 The panic for money in 1893 could not 
 have occurred had the law been such as 
 to have changed the President’s discre- 
 tion into an imperative duty to maintain 
 a stable average of prices through the 
 volume of money. 
 
 The Bankers’ False Prophecies. 
 
 The great speculators and big creditors 
 secured through their banks the uncon- 
 ditional repeal of the silver purchase law. 
 
 It was consummated Nov. 1st, 1893. They 
 and their hired men and dupes promised 
 that with the repeal of this silver pur- 
 chase law there would be ‘‘good times” 
 to the producing and trading classes. 
 Those who opposed the creditors and 
 speculators, pointed out that to shut off 
 a volume of new money amounting to 
 54,000,000 dollars each year, would tend ' 
 to lower the average prices, and that with 
 falling prices production becomes disor- 
 ganized, profits fall or are more than 
 wiped out, the unemployed increase, and 
 wages fall. 
 
 Which prophecy proved true? History 
 shows that the prophecy of the bimetal- 
 lists was correct: By spring there were 
 
 armies of unemployed men and during 
 the summer there were strikes and dis- 
 turbances which amounted to Civil War. 
 The average of prices continued to fall 
 until the spring of 1895, at which time 
 they were forced up by the banks for po- 
 litical effect, as we shall show. 
 
 THESECOND ACT IN THE GREAT 
 CONSPIRACY OF 1893: THE 
 DESTRUCTION OF 
 GREENBACKS. 
 
 Inception of the Conspiracy. 
 
 At the Conference in New York be- 
 tween the great money loaners and Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury Carlisle, April 27th, 
 1893, they are reported to have agreed 
 that: ‘‘Beginning with the repeal of the 
 silver purchase act, a thorough revision 
 of the currency laws would be a good 
 thing.” 
 
 This from the bankers’ standpoint 
 meant that the greenbacks should be de- 
 stroyed and the bankers placed more 
 completely in control of the average of 
 prices, and production and trade. 
 
 The Assault on the Greenbacks. 
 
 A forward movement in this second 
 stage of the conspiracy was begun about 
 one year after the repeal of the silver 
 purchase law. Space will not here per- 
 mit the cunningly devised methods where- 
 
 by President Cleveland and Secretary 
 Carlisle assisted Wall Street in the fight. 
 Numerous ‘‘object lessons” were given 
 Congress and the people in an endeavor 
 to create a sentiment which would re- 
 sult in a law for the destruction of the 
 greenbacks. In another place I have 
 collected the facts and here must be 
 content to set forth only one or two lead- 
 ing ones: 
 
 Three Administration bills were pushed 
 forward in the House at three different 
 times, and Wall Street co-operated by 
 bombarding business through raids upon 
 the gold-reserve and the forcing down of 
 the average of prices. 
 
 The third time the advance was made 
 upon the Greenbacks by the bankers and 
 the President, the latter refused to build 
 up the gold reserve and sent a message 
 to Congress asking that it retire the 
 greenbacks. During the day that Con- 
 gress received the message, the action of 
 the bankers was such that ‘‘the Treasury 
 was confronted by the prospect of an ac- 
 tual crisis and the country by ANOTH- 
 ER AND WORSE PANIC THAN THAT 
 WHICH HAD JUST SUBSIDED (1893).” 
 
 The quoted words are those of. the edi- 
 tor of Bradstreet, in the July ‘‘Review 
 of Reviews,” 1895. 
 
 Policy of Retiring the Greenbacks. 
 
 The Wall Street bankers and President 
 Cleveland, their co-operator, failed to se- 
 cure the retirement of the Greenbacks. 
 The policy of retiring the greenbacks was 
 in 1896 one of the tenets of Gold Democ- 
 racy, of which President Cleveland was 
 the principal leader. The Republican 
 party did not advocate the retirement of 
 the greenbacks, and thereby championed 
 their retention. But to-day the Gold Dem- 
 ocracy have given up their party organ- 
 ization, for its members, including Wall 
 Street, have captured the Republican 
 party; every nominee for Congress on the 
 Republican ticket is pledged to the re- 
 tirement of the greenbacks and the ex- 
 tension of privileges to the great specula- 
 tive bankers. Cannot the old-time Re- 
 publicans see that their party machinery 
 has been captured? 
 
 INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF 
 AVERAGE PRICES. 
 
 The Cause of “Good Times” in 1895. 
 
 After the defeat of the efforts to retire 
 the greenbacks in January, 1895, the mon- 
 eyed interests changed their tactics and 
 endeavored through good times to 
 counteract the increased sentiment 
 against national banks and the gold 
 standard. 
 
 The bankers built up the gold reserve 
 under a private contract with President 
 Cleveland, in which it was agreed that 
 31,000,000 in gold should be imported, 
 and no gold exported before October, at 
 which time it would be held to move the 
 crops. 
 
 Furthermore, the Directors of the Bank 
 of Germany began issuing paper money, 
 reducing their coin reserves, and expand- 
 ing credits. This bank increased the mon- 
 ey in use $101,000,000 by October 1st. The 
 
13 
 
 order all along the line was to expand 
 credits, and of course the average of 
 prices rose. Commodities at wholesale 
 rose five per cent on the average, and 
 “good times” to the producing classes re- 
 turned to a considerable extent. 
 
 During this time President Cleveland 
 and the Wall Street bankers and their 
 employes were on “the money question,” 
 conducting a “campaign of education,” 
 as they termed it. With each increase in 
 prosperity, due to rising prices, they 
 shouted, “The Free Silver Craze is kill- 
 ed!” And it was allayed, so long as the 
 improvement continued, for what the 
 people asked for was being given, name- 
 ly, a cessation of falling prices and a 
 slight restoration of prices. 
 
 Russian Bear Interferes with Bankerse 
 Plans. 
 
 But Russia played havoc with the 
 bankers “pie.” It reached out and in a 
 single week swept $79,000,000 of gold into 
 its war chest.. This resulted in a ces- 
 sation of rising prices and a fall in prices 
 which nearly lost the bankers the elec- 
 tion in 1896. 
 
 International Manipulation of Average 
 Prices, 1879-80 and ’87. 
 
 Rising prices, similar to those institut- 
 ed in 1895, were put in operation by the 
 bankers during the latter part of 1879. 
 The data I have compiled and published 
 in “The Money Question.” The motive 
 of the manipulators was political and 
 commercial; through the rising prices and 
 good times to the producing and trading 
 classes they kept their tools in power 
 both in Europe and the United States, 
 and they also reaped great fortunes from 
 “speculations,” i. e., they knew the di- 
 rection of prices in advance of the aver- 
 age speculator and business man, and 
 so “fleeced” them. Loaded dice are no 
 worse. 
 
 Furthermore, they deceived the public 
 as to the cause of the “good times.” In 
 Germany and France, where protective 
 tariffs had recently been instituted, the 
 public were made to believe that these 
 tariffs had caused the good times, and 
 in the United States it was claimed that 
 the “resumption of specie payments” was 
 the cause. 
 
 In 1887 the same operation, practically, 
 as in 1879, was gone through with and 
 practically the same results were at- 
 tained. 
 
 Internationai Control of Average Prices, 
 December, 1895. 
 
 The Aggregated Wealth with which 
 President Cleveland contracted for bonds 
 in February, 1895, is thus described by 
 the editor of Bradstreet in “The Review 
 of Reviews,” July, 1895: 
 
 “It is probably the greatest financial 
 syndicate ever organized. It is practical- 
 ly a blind pool with several hundred 
 members in the United States and abroad 
 (besides the London and New York houses 
 of the Rothschilds and Morgan), WHOSE 
 TOTAL WEALTH IS PROBABLY NOT 
 LESS THAN $600,000,000. 
 
 An illustration of the way in which the 
 great moneyed interests operate to se- 
 cure legislation and at the same time 
 reap large profits from “speculation” is 
 the following instance: 
 
 President Cleveland delivered his “Vene- 
 zuela Message” at a time when the gold 
 reserve was down to about 70 millions of 
 dollars and when every effort was being 
 made to retire the greenbacks. As to 
 what followed the President’s threat of 
 war with England, is thus described in 
 the columns of the daily papers: 
 
 The second day after the message was 
 given to the public a cablegram stated 
 that there was a meeting in London of 
 the leading moneyed men, and the ques- 
 tion under discussion was, “Shall all 
 English houses withdraw their credits 
 from the United States?” 
 
 The Assauit. 
 
 On the morning following this confer- 
 ence the prices of American stocks in 
 London tumbled as if a military war had 
 been declared, and when the New York 
 stock market opened a panic was soon 
 “on.” During two days, first-class stocks 
 like the N. J. Central, fell 17% points; 
 Rock Island, 16%; Pullman, 15%; 
 St. Paul, 15%; Lake Shore, 14%; 
 Burlington, 14%; N. Y. Central, 
 101%; 111. Central, 10. The moneyed 
 
 interests forced down prices by selling 
 great quantities of stocks and bonds AND 
 SHUTTING OFF THE SUPPLY OF 
 MONEY AND CREDITS; the aggregate 
 European sales were $13,542,000, and in 
 New York “none of the moneyed institu- 
 tions would renew loans at less than 4 
 per cent, and many of them WOULD 
 MAKE NO RENEWALS AT ANY 
 ADVANCE. To carry stocks along, mon- 
 ey was frequently lent at as high a fig- 
 ure as 75 per cent before 2 o’clock Fri- 
 day.” 
 
 This action by the banks was taken 
 in the face of the fact that “the surplus 
 reserve amounted to $20,000,000.” All this 
 occurred when nothing new in the con- 
 troversy between the United States and 
 England had occurred since the preceding 
 Tuesday. The moneyed interests simply 
 TOOK THAT OPPORTUNITY TO 
 “WORK” THE STOCK MARKET. AND 
 what was, evidently of far more import- 
 ance to them, INFLUENCE LEGISLA- 
 TION FOR THE RETIREMENT OF 
 THE GREENBACKS. For at this time 
 the gold reserve was down to about 70 
 millions, and it was understood that 
 PRESIDENT CLEVELAND WOULD 
 NOT ISSUE MORE BONDS UNTIL 
 CONGRESS SHOULD REFUSE TO RE- 
 TIRE THE GREENBACKS. And during 
 the afternoon of Friday President Cleve- 
 land fulfilled his part of the program 
 by not advertising a bond issue but send- 
 ing instead a message to Congress, say- 
 ing: “I ask at the hands of Congress 
 
 such prompt aid as it alone has the pow- 
 er to give.” This was what he in effect 
 said. He also asked the retirement of 
 the greenbacks, and expressed “the earn- 
 est hope” that it would not take a recess 
 from its labor” before considering the 
 
17 
 
 recommendations submitted in the mes- 
 sage. 
 
 Result of the Assault. 
 
 In the House two bills were framed, 
 one providing- for additional revenue from 
 import duties and the second providing 
 for 3 per cent coin bonds to replenish the 
 reserve, and further providing that THE 
 GREENBACKS PRESENTED FOR RE- 
 DEMPTION SHOULD NOT BE REIS- 
 SUED. Thus did the leaders in a Re- 
 publican house show that they were 
 working in the interests of the moneyed 
 classes. Speaker Reed made this “bid” 
 for support by the moneyed interests, for 
 a presidential nomination was at hand. 
 The Republicans from the West and 
 South refused, of course, to vote for the 
 measure, and it was amended by striking 
 out the clause which forbade the reissue 
 of the redeemed greenbacks. The bill, 
 however, could not have passed the Sen- 
 ate, and because of this, no determined 
 attempt was made to force its passage in 
 the House. 
 
 In conclusion, as to the international 
 control of prices, I quote from one of 
 America’s greatest students of finance, 
 Henry C. Carey: 
 
 International Control of Average Prices, 
 1783 to 1853. 
 
 “At intervals of half a dozen years our 
 monetary bag has been inflated from 
 abroad, the balloon then rising TO BE 
 SUDDENLY COLLAPSED AT THE 
 •WILL OF FOREIGN BANKERS, with 
 ruin to all who have been led to go in 
 debt, leaving them and their families to 
 starting in the world anew, with the stain 
 of bankruptcy clinging to them in all 
 the future.” 
 
 PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTUR- 
 ERS COERCED. 
 
 The Result of Existing System. 
 
 Early in the year of 1896 a delegation 
 of Philadelphia manufacturers went over 
 to Washington to ask for the restora- 
 tion of bimetallism. The dispatches from 
 Washington printed at the time state 
 the claims which they made as to the 
 tieed for the remedy. 
 
 After the capture of the Republican 
 party by the gold standard and anti- 
 greenback people, and the bolt from it 
 by Senator Teller and others, many of the 
 Philadelphia manufacturers decided to 
 bolt, also, and to support the party advo- 
 cating the restoration of bimetallism. 
 The bankers “got wind” of it and inform- 
 ed them, it is said, that NOT ONE OF 
 THEM COULD CONTINUE IN BUSI- 
 NESS IF HIS LINE OF BANK CRED- 
 ITS WERE CUT OFF. This they had 
 to admit, and the bankers further de- 
 clared, it is claimed, and on high author- 
 it and from several sources, that IF 
 THEY SUPPORTED THE DEMOCRAT- 
 IC TICKET THEY (THE BANKERS) 
 WOULD RUIN EVERY ONE OF 
 THEM. The manufacturers “lay down.” 
 
 Let us turn from the illustrations of 
 -how the bankers control the average of 
 
 prices to secure Personal Profits, and 
 consider the Existing Bank and Money 
 Trust. 
 
 PART VIII. THE EXISTING BANK 
 AND MONEY TRUST. 
 
 The Organization. 
 
 In the early 70’s the American Bankers’ 
 Association was organized. The re- 
 sult of the combination was a 
 promotion of the bankers’ inter- 
 ests, and the organization grew: 
 “Since 1884,” said the President of this 
 association in his annual address in 1895, 
 “numerous state associations have been 
 formed, until now there are 30 of them, 
 with a total numerical strength of near- 
 ly 3,700 members.” There are also sub- 
 organizations termed Groups. The anar- 
 chists of Chicago were so minutely or- 
 ganized that they, too, had “groups,” and 
 in “Caesar’s Column” there are also 
 “groups.” 
 
 Motive and Past History. 
 
 The President of the Association in the 
 annual address above mentioned, said: 
 
 “Growing out of the agitation begun in 
 the conventions of the association, has 
 followed the abolition of days of grace in 
 many states, twelve having already 
 adopted the reform (?).” 
 
 “There can be no necessity for a revis- 
 ion of our declaration of principles, but 
 the growth and development of our com- 
 mon country and the concurrent 
 growth of the banking business have 
 created a necessity for smaller local or- 
 ganizations, and since 1884 numerous 
 state associations have been formed, un- 
 til now there are thirty of them, with a 
 total numerical strength of nearly 3,700 
 members. THESE ASSOCIATIONS ARE 
 CAPABLE OF AND DO EXERT A 
 POWERFUL INFLUENCE IN THE LO- 
 CALITIES IN WHICH THEY EX- 
 IST. * * * 
 
 “We cannot hope to change our politi- 
 cal system, but we can and should util- 
 ize all the agencies at our command TO 
 INCREASE OUR OWN WELFARE and 
 usefulness. * * * WE ARE ORGAN- 
 IZED FOR MUTUAL BENEFIT. * * * 
 This cannot be successfully accomplished 
 by a national organization, EXCEPT 
 THROUGH AUXILIARY BODIES 
 CLOSELY IN TOUCH WITH LOCAL 
 LEGISLATURES. It is probable that 
 measures ini'iated by this body which re- 
 quire changes in the laws of the various 
 states would be much more likely to 
 come to fruition if committed to the state 
 associations than if undertaken by the as- 
 sociation itself. Already these associa- 
 tions are doing splendid work and achiev- 
 ing excellent results, WHICH COULD 
 BE GREATLY EXTENDED by affiliat- 
 ing them more closely wfith this, organi- 
 zation. 
 
 “It was entirely through the efforts of 
 the Bankers’ Association of the State of 
 Illinois that two important reforms (?) 
 in the laws of that state were accom- 
 plished last winter, the effect of one of 
 which at least w r ill be appreciated by ev- 
 ery BANKER who has any business in 
 
IS 
 
 that state. And there is work enough to 
 do. It is conceded by every intelligent 
 man that usury laws on the statute 
 books of nearly every state are relics of 
 barbarism and that the community 
 would be greatly benefited (?) were they 
 abolished (?)*** The remedy for 
 these conditions is to be found through 
 proper legislation (by “proper legisla- 
 tion” as here used is meant that legis- 
 lation which benefits the banker) AND 
 PROPER LEGISLATION CAN BE 
 HAD if it is sought for with courage and 
 persistence.” 
 
 Here it is confessed that the bankers of 
 the United States are organized into 30 
 different bodies, besides the national and 
 city organizations, and that they are 
 “organized for mutual benefit,” i. e., “to 
 increase our own welfare and useful- 
 ness.” This, the President said, “cannot 
 be successfully accomplished except 
 through bodies closely in touch with lo- 
 cal legislatures,” and for the securing of 
 national laws, a close touch with the 
 national legislature. In twelve states 
 the days of grace on promissory notes 
 have been abolished through the efforts 
 of the bankers. What do our people 
 think of this? And the bankers here tell 
 us that they are working diligently for 
 the repeal of the usury laws. What do 
 our people say to this? But this is 
 “small game” to what is well along to- 
 ward completion and which I shall ex- 
 plain soon. Do you think there is any 
 truth in the statement made by Thomas 
 Jefferson that “the banking institutions 
 are more dangerous to our liberties than 
 standing armies”? 
 
 Comparative Strength of Bankers, ISIS 
 1895 and 1898. 
 
 A comparison of the strength of the 
 banking interest was set forth by the 
 President of the New York State Bank- 
 ers’ Association in an address to the 
 Bankers Club of Chicago, April 27th, 
 1895. The subject was “Bankers and Leg- 
 islation.” Mr. Cornwell said: “If in 
 
 1875-6-7 and 8, the bankers and the sound 
 money men had been organized, as they 
 are organized now, and had spoken out 
 as they are speaking out now; had start- 
 ed out on a campaign of education as 
 they are starting out now, THE GREEN- 
 BACK WOULD LONG AGO HAVE 
 BEEN WIPED OUT.” 
 
 Since the above was uttered, and since 
 the foregoing address by the President 
 of the American Bankers’ Association 
 was put forth, the work of the Associa- 
 tion has been greatly extended. The 
 Bankers’ Magazine in its August Num- 
 ber of this year in announcing the annual 
 meeting of the Bankers said: 
 
 “The work of the Association HAS 
 BEEN GREATLY EXTENDED during 
 the past three or four years, SINCE 
 THE ADOPTION OF A MORE AG- 
 GRESSIVE POLICY IN ADVANCING 
 THE INTERESTS OF THE BANKING 
 COMMUNITY. * * * Th®. day will not 
 be far distant when there will be very 
 few banking institutions in the United 
 States which will not recognize the im- 
 portance of belonging to the Association. 
 ITS POWER TO BENEFIT THE 
 
 BANKING COMMUNITY WILL IN- 
 CREASE with the positive and aggres- 
 sive policy it is now pursuing. Through 
 experience of the benefits of co-operation 
 THE BANKERS WILL LOSE THAT 
 FEAR OF EXCITING POLITICAL AT- 
 TENTION that for many years made 
 it a prevailing sentiment in the Conven- 
 tions to refrain from making the most 
 necessary DEMANDS ON CONGRESS.” 
 An Aggressive Policy. 
 
 This aggressive policy was advocated 
 by the President of the New York State 
 Bankers’ Association in a speech before 
 the Bankers’ Club of Chicago, April 27th, 
 1895. He said : 
 
 “What ought bankers to do about leg- 
 islation? 
 
 “This, it seems to me, is the most im- 
 portant thing for us to-night, or for any 
 body of bankers in this country to con- 
 sider at once. * * * 
 
 “It is time to tear off disguise. Inter- 
 national bimetallism is a traitor in the 
 camp. It is a false fraud. * * * The 
 fight is on; this is War for Education 
 and ALL DISGUISE SHOULD BE 
 THROWN OFF. * * * IT IS TIME 
 FOR AGGRESSIVE ACTION. 
 
 “The banker has a large influence. He 
 is a confidential adviser of thousands and 
 thousands of business men. The labor- 
 ing element comes closely in contact with 
 these business men.” Mr. Cornwell then 
 declares what would be the result, name- 
 ly, “a new sentiment would blaze from 
 one end of the land to the other, a senti- 
 ment which once established would mean 
 QUICK LEGISLATION in the right di- 
 rection and a satisfactory settlement of 
 the currency question in the United 
 States for all time.” And in conclusion 
 he declared: “The politician, high or low, 
 who today turns from the straight course 
 of sound money (bank money) and the 
 gold standard, STABS DEAD ONCE 
 FOR ALL HIS EVERY CHANCE FOR 
 POLITICAL SUCCESS, ESPECIALLY 
 IF HE WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT.” 
 
 I now turn and point out the Method 
 whereby the bankers “act as one man” 
 when they consider that their Personal 
 Interests require such action: 
 
 Bankers Act Through an Executive 
 Council. 
 
 The following is a copy of a circular 
 letter sent out by the American Bank- 
 ers’ Association, and it appears in the 
 Congressional Record of May 27th, 1896. 
 Senator Butler of North Carolina had 
 it read by the Clerk of the Senate and 
 thus preserved it in the national archives: 
 “The American Bankers’ Association, 
 
 2 Wall Street and 90-94 Broadway. 
 
 New York, March 23, 1896. 
 To the Bankers of the United States: 
 
 At a meeting of the Executive Council 
 of the American Bankers’ Association, 
 held in this city on March 11, 1896, the 
 following declaration was made by unani- 
 mous vote: 
 
 “The Executive Council of the Amer- 
 ican Bankers’ Association declare un- 
 equivocally in favor of the maintenance 
 of the existing gold standard of value 
 (prices) and recommend to all bankers 
 
10 
 
 and to the customers of all banks THE 
 EXERCISE OF ALL OF THEIR INFLU- 
 ENCE as citizens in their various states 
 TO SELECT DELEGATES TO THE PO- 
 LITICAL CONVENTIONS OF BOTH 
 THE GREAT PARTIES who will declare 
 unequivocally in favor of the main- 
 tenance of the existing gold standard of 
 value (prices). 
 
 “Your influence is earnestly requested 
 to give PRACTICAL EFFECT to this 
 action. 
 
 Eugene H. Pullen, President. 
 
 James R. Branch, Secretary. 
 
 Joseph C. Hendrix, 
 
 Chairman Executive Council.’' 
 This circular letter, in addition to show- 
 ing the method whereby the bankers’ 
 trust operates, proves also that the bank- 
 ers use their organization TO CONTROL 
 BOTH OF THE LEADING POLITICAL 
 PARTIES. In short, the combined mon- 
 eyed interests are organized for political 
 work. How long can this organization 
 be allowed to grow and the Republic 
 stand? The power of the banking and 
 moneyed class is greatly extended in a 
 bill which they have framed and which 
 has been recommended by the Banking 
 Committee of the House. Its essential 
 points are as follows: 
 
 PART IX. 
 
 THE PROPOSED LAW FOR EX- 
 TENDING THE PRIVILEGES OF 
 THE BANKING TRUST AND 
 FURTHER CONSOLIDATING IT. 
 
 The McCleary bill, which has been re- 
 ported favorably from the House Com- 
 mittee, and now stands on the Calen- 
 dar ready for passage, has in it the fol- 
 lowing provisions: 
 
 (l) CONTROL OF AVERAGE 
 PRICES. 
 
 The Greenbacks are to be destroyed 
 (section 13), and the Government is not 
 to issue any more paper money, direct. 
 But THE GOVERNMENT SHALL FUR- 
 NISH PAPER MONEY TO THE BANKS 
 TO ISSUE WHEN AND HOW THEY 
 MAY CHOOSE. All restriction as to the 
 withdrawal of the paper money issued 
 by the banks is to be repealed (section 
 44). 
 
 This enlargement of the bankers’ con- 
 trol of the volume of paper money makes 
 more complete the present control which 
 they exercise through the volume of bank 
 credits. 
 
 Bankers’ False Claim Exposed. 
 
 Mr. McCleary, in the Omaha debate, 
 was asked by Hon. George Fred Williams 
 of Massachusetts, “who, under the Mc- 
 Cleary bill, would control the volume of 
 money?” To this Mr. McCleary replied: 
 “Under our system the Government will 
 continue to control the volume of money.” 
 Mr. Williams — “In other words, is it 
 yoUr position that the government shall 
 
 continue to control the volume of metal- 
 lic money and that the issue of paper 
 money shall be on private account?” 
 
 Mr. McCleary— “The government shall 
 continue to allow free coinage of gold; 
 the coining of silver will be on govern- 
 ment account. The issue of paper is 
 purely a private transaction.” (Applause 
 by Bank Money advocates.) 
 
 There you have it. THE ISSUE OF 
 PAPER MONEY BY THE BANK “IS 
 PURELY A PRIVATE TRANSAC- 
 TION,” says the advocate of the bankers’ 
 plan. But let me state some of the pro- 
 visions of the proposed law: 
 
 The paper money is first authorized 
 by the voters— the government— then 
 printed by the government (section 15), 
 and “every national banking association 
 formed or existing under this Act SHALL 
 TAKE AND RECEIVE AT PAR, inA- 
 TIONAL BANK NOTES, OR NATION- 
 AL CURRENCY NOTES issued by any 
 lawfully organized national banking asso- 
 ciation.” This is “legal tender” and the 
 result is “money.” The volume of mon- 
 ey is prescribed by the law, i. e. given 
 quantities are authorized, and anyone 
 who, without authority, publishes or cir- 
 culates that wh.ch purports to be a bank- 
 note, is guilty of a felony and liable to 
 a heavy fine. And yet the bankers’ ad- 
 vocate says that “The issue of paper is 
 purely a private transaction”! 
 
 Mr. Williams presented to Mr. Mc- 
 Cleary in writing twenty-six questions, 
 and asked that he answer them after he 
 had considered them sufficiently. Mr. 
 McCleary took them but did not attempt 
 to answer them— he stood mute. To have 
 attempted to answer the questions would 
 have exposed the whole scheme, except as 
 to branch banks. The proposed law had 
 not been seen by Mr. Williams, nor uy 
 any of us who took part in the debate. 
 
 Some of the questions propounded are 
 as follows, and they are so framed that 
 either way they should be answered 
 would make the bankers’ plan appear un- 
 satisfactory to the business interests: 
 
 Those Troublesome Questions. 
 
 Question No. 6 — Will a sustained export 
 of gold be an indication of an overissue 
 of bank notes and the necessity of bank- 
 note contraction? 
 
 Question No. 7 — Will the issue or re- 
 tirement of bank notes affect prices? 
 
 Question No. 8— A. If they will not by 
 what methods will exports of goods be 
 stimulated to take the place of gold ex- 
 ports? 
 
 Question No. 8— B. If note issues will 
 affect prices will not the whole general 
 price range of commodities be regulated 
 by the banks? 
 
 The answer to these questions is that 
 the banks will control the average of 
 prices under their proposed law, and con- 
 trol them more thoroughly than at pres- 
 ent. ^Upon this point the following ad- 
 vice is timely: 
 
 Professor Foxwell’s Advice. 
 
 Prof. Foxwell of Cambridge University, 
 England, and a specialist in monetary 
 history, has written me the following and 
 
20 
 
 later gave permission that it be made 
 public: 
 
 “But I warn you in the United States, 
 whatever you do, not to give fresh power 
 of issue to the banks. I see they have 
 been asking for this on the false but spe- 
 cious plea that they want to prevent un- 
 due restriction of the currency. What 
 they want, and what all the gold bugs 
 want, all the world over, is so 
 to arrange the currency that they may be 
 able to PULL ALL THE WIRES, AND 
 MAKE IT SHRINK OR EXPAND, BUT 
 ESPECIALLY SHRINK, AS MAY SUIT 
 THEIR OPERATIONS AND INTER- 
 ESTS.” 
 
 ( 2 ) Discretionary Power of President. 
 
 In the pending bill the discretionary 
 power of the President as concerns the 
 maintenance of the gold standard of fall- 
 ing prices is changed into a Fixed Rule. 
 He, through the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, is COMMANDED TO ISSUE GOLD 
 BONDS as often and to the extent re- 
 quired to keep prices down to whe're gold 
 will circulate; (seotion 4). 
 
 The other of the President’s discretion- 
 ary powers over the average of prices is 
 left in operation, and to a Board of 
 Comptrollers of the Currency is given 
 tremendous discretionary powers: 
 
 (3) Discretionary Power of Comptrollers 
 
 This Board, which is to be confirmed by 
 the Senate, have a 12-year term of office, 
 and not removed except by the Senate 
 and upon written charges (section 1), is 
 given discretionary power to retire $346, - 
 000,000 of paper money, and discretionary 
 power also to re-issue a like amount in 
 exchange for gold (section 20). 
 
 ( 4 ) Gold Standard of Falling Prices. 
 
 The power given to the Board oi» Comp- 
 trollers to issue $346,000,000 of paper money 
 for gold, at their discretion, is one of the 
 means whereby prices are to be kept 
 down to where gold will circulate. But 
 the gold is to be piled up and let out just 
 as the Wall Street appointees may deter- 
 mine. Payment in gold may be suspend- 
 ed if the bankers choose to overstep the 
 law. 
 
 (5) SUSPENSION OF SPECIE 
 PAYMENTS. 
 
 Provisions of the Bill. 
 
 The banks are authorized to issue in 
 paper money 80 per cent of their capital 
 stock. The only thing to keep down the 
 volume of paper money to where gold will 
 circulate alongside it, is a limited amount 
 of bank capital and the provision in t*ne 
 law that 50 per cent of the bank reserves 
 shall be in gold, and that 5 per cent of 
 the paper money shall be represented' by 
 gold in the United States treasury^ 
 
 Bankers Have Broken the Law. 
 
 But so long as the bankers elect the of- 
 ficers in control of the government, the 
 bankers will experience no difficulty in 
 overstepping the law if they choose to 
 
 do so. In 1836-7 they suspended specie 
 payments and “NEARLY ALL THE 
 BANKS MADE MONEY OUT OF THE 
 SUSPENSION AND PAID LARGE DIV- 
 IDENDS DURING THE YEAR.” This 
 statement is taken from a “History of 
 American Currency,” written by one of 
 the banks’ most able champions— Profes- 
 sor Sumner of Yale University. 
 
 In December, 1862, the banks suspend- 
 ed specie payments, and made great 
 profits. 
 
 The Suspension in 1893. 
 
 In 1893, during the course of the panic, 
 and when the banks had suspended not 
 only specie payments, but the payment 
 of paper money as well, “a resolution 
 was introduced in the Senate of the Unit- 
 ed States calling upon the Secretary of 
 the Treasury to inform the Senate wheth- 
 er or not the banks of New York were 
 obeying the laws. Senator Hoar of Mas- 
 sachusetts arose in his seat and asked 
 the Senate to lay that resolution on the 
 table, stating that if it were passed by 
 :he Senate it would be construed by the 
 country to mean a command to the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury to see that the 
 New York banks were compelled to obey 
 the law, in which case the terrors of the 
 panic which was then raging would be 
 augmented and general ruin to the busi- 
 ness of the country would be inevitable. 
 The resolution was consequently laid on 
 the table.” (Editorial in Senator Stew- 
 art’s paper.) 
 
 “A Daw Unto Themselves.” 
 
 Furthermore, “there is great danger,” 
 says Professor C. S. Walker of Massa- 
 chusetts Agricultural College, “that 
 bankers, with a thousand millions of dol- 
 lars in their hands of the people’s money, 
 to expand or contract as they see fit, will 
 be a law unto themselves: that with this 
 great money power they would hire law- 
 yers to instruct the judges how to inter- 
 pret the law, and elect congressmen to 
 pass amendments to the law to suit 
 them. This great danger was seen in 
 Jackson’s time, and led to the overthrow 
 of the National Bank. The attitude of 
 the bankers toward the government in 
 Lincoln’s day was one factor which led 
 to our present national banking system. 
 The dictatorial power of the bankers of 
 Europe toward the control of peace and 
 war and national policy is notorious.” 
 (Bibliotheca Sacra, April, 1898.) 
 
 (6) 88346,000,000 of Bonds or Taxes. 
 
 According to the banker’s plan the $346,- 
 000,000 of greenbacks are to be burned af- 
 ter they have been exchanged for inter- 
 est-bearing bonds, or for capital wrung 
 from the people by taxation. Three hun- 
 dred million is now in the treasury from 
 bond sales and taxation and the war tax 
 is being kept up. 
 
 By an indirect process the greenbacks 
 are exchanged for bonds or the proceeds 
 of taxation. It is this way: The gov- 
 
 ernment is to make a new paper money 
 and pass it out to the banks $2 for each 
 dollar of greenbacks handed in, and th en 
 one-half of this new money is to be re- 
 tired by bonds or the proceeds of taxa- 
 tion. . 
 
21 
 
 (t) $800,000,000 of Paper Money to Be 
 
 Given to the Bankers. 
 
 In addition to the $346,000,000 of paper 
 money coined for the banks and given 
 them free of charge, practically, 
 there is to be a replacement of 
 the 200 and some odd million 
 
 dollars paper money which the 
 
 banks now have, and enough more to 
 make 80 per cent of the capital stock of 
 all the banking capital which may en- 
 gage in the business— say 1,000 millions 
 of dollars, except as redemption in gold 
 may keep the amount down so that 
 prices will be low enough for gold to cir- 
 culate, and keep within the country about 
 $300,000,000 in gold. 
 
 THIS $800,000,000 OF PAPER MONET, 
 or thereabouts, IS TO BE GIVEN TO 
 THE BANKS BY THE VOTERS, AND 
 THEN THE BANKS ARE TO TURN 
 ABOUT AND LOAN IT BACK TO THE 
 PEOPLE AT FROM 5 TO 15 PER CENT 
 PER ANNUM. This will amount to at 
 least $40,000,000 each year— enough for a 
 National University, and in each neigh- 
 borhood a Pubi c School of Economic Po- 
 litical and Social Science. 
 
 (8) Gold Certificates Withdrawn. 
 
 A clause in the proposed law repeals 
 the existing provision for the issuance of 
 gold and currency certificates. As gold is 
 too heavy for convenience, and people are 
 leaving it in the banks, as they prefer 
 paper money, the result of the repeal of 
 the provision for gold certificates would 
 be that all the gold would be left in the 
 banks and the people would use the bank 
 poper money. But the only money 
 which, by this bill, is to be legal tender 
 between individuals is gold, and it fol- 
 lows that THE PEOPLE WOULD BE 
 WITHOUT ANY LEGAL TENDER AS 
 BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS, AND THE 
 BANKS WOULD HOLD IT ALL, AND 
 WOULD ALSO HAVE THE POWER TO 
 CONTRACT, WITHOUT LIMIT, THE 
 VOLUME OF PAPER MONEY AS 
 WELL AS A LIKE POWER TO WITH- 
 DRAW BANK CREDITS. To those 
 who have read what the banks did in 
 1881, 1893, and at other times, the mere 
 statement of the condition which would 
 result from their proposed law needs no 
 further comment. 
 
 (9) Usury Laws to Be Evaded. 
 
 Section 43 of the Bankers’ Proposed 
 Law exempts them from the State laws 
 against usury. It will be remembered 
 that in the annual address by the Presi- 
 dent of the American Bankers’ Associa- 
 tion, he said: “It is conceded by every 
 
 intelligent man that usury laws on the 
 statute books of nearly every state, are 
 relics of barbarism, and that the com- 
 munity would be greatly benefited were 
 they abolished.” 
 
 In the proposed banking law the com- 
 munity is not informed of the great ben- 
 efit which is to be conferred upon it by 
 the bankers through repealing the clause 
 which protects the people from the bank- 
 ers. The proposed law simply states that 
 the banks, in addition to “discounting,” 
 
 shall have power to “BUY AND SELL 
 * * * promissory notes, drafts, bills of 
 exchange and other evidences of debt.” 
 
 (lO) Taxes to Be Evaded. 
 
 In the Bankers’ bill there is a provision 
 for a very slight tax, and as taxes can- 
 not be put upon the national banks by 
 the states without express permission 
 from Congress, it follows that the banks 
 will escape taxation. 
 
 This will not be an innovation. The 
 bankers have repeatedly secured laws 
 whereby they have escaped taxation; for 
 example, at the opening of the Civil War 
 when the law was passed levying a war 
 tax, the bankers were specially favored. 
 Manufacturers were taxed 3 per cent of 
 their gross sales and were compelled to 
 pay a license; and on promissory notes 
 individuals had to pay a stamp duty. But 
 THE LAW EXEMPTED THE BANK- 
 ERS; bankers were allowed to keep put- 
 ting more and more paper money into 
 circulation, thus depriving the govern- 
 ment of just that much revenue and this 
 without paying any tax, and they were 
 not required to obtain a license; and it 
 was only the net proceeds of the banks 
 which were taxed, thus exempting from 
 taxation whatever salaries the bankers 
 should charge up to themselves. 
 
 This is set forth in a speech in the 
 Senate by John Sherman, Jan. 8, 1863, and 
 is published in his collected speeches. 
 
 (11) United States Bonds to Be Sold: 
 
 Bank Depositors’ Security Lessened. 
 
 After four years the United States 
 bonds now held by the government as 
 security for the paper money issued to 
 the banks, are to be gradually given back 
 to the bankers, and they will throw them 
 on the market. To the extent that the 
 proceeds are poorly invested there will 
 be that much less security to the holders 
 of the paper money, but this is made up 
 to them by a first lien on the assets of 
 the bank. It diminishes, however, the se- 
 curity of the depositors. 
 
 (12) CONSOLIDATED BANKING 
 AND MONEY TRUST: ONE 
 
 BANK WITH 10,000 
 BRANCHES. 
 
 Effect of “Branch. Bank” System. 
 
 The crowning villainy in this proposed 
 banking law is the provision for Branch 
 Banks. It is an innocent-looking clause, 
 but when we consider that the way the 
 Meat Trust operates is to absorb what- 
 ever territory it desires through the es- 
 tablishment of branches which drive all 
 others out of the business through under- 
 selling for a time, it becomes clear what 
 this “branch bank” clause means. It 
 means that if this law is passed, the big 
 speculators, great creditors and monopo- 
 lists will get their final grip on the pro- 
 ducing and trading communities of the 
 United States and the Republic will be a 
 thing of the past. Every small banker 
 will be frozen out just as the small pro- 
 prietors have beep frozen out in meat 
 
22 
 
 markets, the petroleum business, in bak- 
 eries, tanneries, cordage, distilling, brew- 
 ing, the mining of hard coal and iron ore, 
 sugar refining, the manufacture of glu- 
 cose, railroad transportation, the tele- 
 graph business, the telephone, the de- 
 partment store and other industries too 
 numerous to mention. 
 
 Are the producing and trading classes 
 ready and willing to legislate into exist- 
 ence a trust which shall “back up” all 
 the other trusts which may secure a rep- 
 resentation in the Board of Directors in 
 Wall Street, and which shall quickly ex- 
 tend “trust methods” to all the fields 
 not yet occupied? 
 
 Admissions. 
 
 That there is in the proposed law a pro- 
 vision for the consolidated banking and 
 money trust, is the statement of the 
 Chairman of the committee which framed 
 the bill. Chairman Walker in a minority 
 report against the bill, states that the re- 
 sult of the authorization of the Branch 
 Banks will be “one great United States 
 Bank, with ten thousand branches.” 
 
 And the majority report in favor of the 
 bill, written by Mr. McCleary, admits 
 that Scotland with a branch bank system 
 has only 10 banks, with 900 branches. 
 And the “rolling up” of trusts in Great 
 Britain is only just beginning; in London 
 the morning paper of October 4 states 
 that two of her largest banks have con- 
 solidated. “Both of the constituent 
 banks,” says the cable, “had numerous 
 branches and sub-branches in London, 
 as well as in several of the important 
 towns and cities in Great Britain. Early 
 in 1897 the London and Midland bank ab- 
 sorbed the Channel Bank, Limited, and 
 later the Heddersfield Banking Company 
 was taken over.” 
 
 In Boston nine national banks have 
 decided recently to consolidate in a sin- 
 gle institution. The citizens don’t like it, 
 but that “cuts no ice.” 
 
 Furthermore, Mr. McCleary in his re- 
 port in favor of the proposed law, com- 
 pares the system which would result 
 from branch banks to “a connected sys- 
 tem of tanks with open pipes between. 
 This,” he says, “is the opposite of in- 
 dependent banks,” and there is no doubt 
 but that he is correct. 
 
 But these admissions were “slips.” The 
 argument advanced for the branch banks 
 is as follows: 
 
 The Fallacy in Bank Trusts’ Argument. 
 
 In advocating Branch Banks the advo- 
 cates of the system claim that the com- 
 petition which it will engender will lower 
 the rate of interest, give better accom- 
 modations. etc. 
 
 The fallacy is in the claim that it will 
 result in a continued competition. The 
 branches of the Meat Trust result in 
 competition for a time, but it is 
 an unfair competition in that it puts 
 prices so low that the resident dealer 
 gives up, or is ruined, and then the field 
 is in the hands of the Trust. An era of 
 trusts is upon us: in every possible direc- 
 tion is competition being shut off. In the 
 words of “The Economist” of Chicago in 
 
 an editorial last month: “The conclusion 
 is inevitable, from recent events, that 
 the idea of combination is a dominant 
 one among the best thinkers in the busi- 
 ness field. They believe that the trust 
 idea will be carried out in future years 
 to an extent compared with which its 
 present application will seem like child’s 
 play.” 
 
 A Trust of Trusts. 
 
 The only thing needed to finish the trust 
 process and thus destroy competition in 
 practically all lines of business, is a law 
 permitting the establishment of branch 
 banks. It would soon result in one bank 
 with 10,000 branches. The Board of Di- 
 rectors with their office in Wall Street, 
 would hold full sway in the business 
 world, and the result would be somewhat 
 as follows: 
 
 Effect of a Consolidated Banking and 
 Money Trust. 
 
 Every business of any magnitude is de- 
 pendent upon “bank accommodations.” 
 In 1896 the refusal of bank accommoda- 
 tions to the Philadelphia manufacturers 
 who wished to support the Bimetallic 
 ticket and Government Paper Money tick- 
 et, resulted in their “lying down.” It 
 would be much worse if there were but 
 one banking institution in the United 
 States. Then the trusts now in existence 
 and represented in the Directory would 
 experience no more trouble from com- 
 petitors, and the unoccupied fields would 
 soon be “trusted.” 
 
 Then everyone who is now an Inde- 
 pendent Voter would become a Serf, for 
 even if he should be permitted a vote, his 
 vote would not be counted unless it suit- 
 ed the will of the central power. As to 
 Employment, the blacklisting of railway 
 employes is but a precursor of what will 
 be the rule in a few years if the consoli- 
 dated banking trust is effected. The co- 
 ercion of railway and other employes in 
 1896 will be but a faint taste of the power 
 which will be applied to the erstwhile 
 sovereign will— the power will have been 
 transferred from the citizens to the 
 Board of Directors in Wall Street. 
 
 If the control of bank credits and the 
 volume of money is placed in the hands 
 of the rulers of the existing trusts, the 
 outcome must surely be in the direction 
 pointed out, unless a successful revolu- 
 tion shall occur. But this would not be 
 probable, for with its amassed wealth and 
 the control of the government, there 
 could be hired plenty of men to fight the 
 battles, while the wealthy churches and 
 most of their followers w r ould be on the 
 side of the rich party in power. At any 
 rate, it is best to prevent consolidation 
 of the banking interests and not give 
 them the additional power which when 
 once in their grasp may never be taken 
 back. 
 
 The formation of this mammoth trust 
 is dependent upon legislation. Will the 
 voters choose to elect Representatives 
 and Senators who shall delegate the 
 power asked for, or will the voters bestir 
 themselves and elect men who are 
 pledger! to retain the greenbacks? 
 
23 
 
 PART X. CONGRESSIONAL CAM- 
 PAIGN IS A “STILL HUNT:” 
 
 CONSPIRACY TO FURTHER 
 ENSLAVE THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Proof. 
 
 In most of the platforms of the party- 
 pledged to the Bankers’ Scheme, NO 
 PLANKS GIVE A HINT OF THE 
 PLAN, and it is hoped that it will be kept 
 out of the campaign— that the people will 
 sleep on their right to thwart it at the 
 ballot box. In' the words of the Bankers’ 
 Magazine, September, 1898: 
 
 ‘‘The excitement of the war has drawn 
 the minds . of politicians to issues more 
 full of interest than the financial ques- 
 tion. With a period before the meeting 
 of the next Congress for reflection, it is 
 pot beyond hope that when the banking 
 bill comes before Congress IT WILL GO 
 THROUGH WITHOUT BEING MADE 
 A POLITICAL ISSUE.” 
 
 To divert attention, the platforms de- 
 clare for Gold, and it is hoped that the 
 reform parties will accept the challenge 
 and argue about metallic money and 
 overlook the scheme to retire the green- 
 backs and organize a Trust of Trusts. 
 A ‘‘still hunt” is necessary, for “6,000,000 
 REPUBLICAN VOTERS,” says the Re- 
 publican Chairman of the Banking Com- 
 mittee, “ARE MORE OR LESS OP- 
 POSED TO NATIONAL BANKS,” and 
 for the greenback the people have “a pe- 
 culiar patriotic instinct; a greenback is 
 associated in their minds with the preser- 
 vation of the Union.” And every think- 
 ing man adds, It has much to do with 
 the preservation of the liberties of to- 
 day: with the bank credit in the control 
 of an all-powerful class, the situation is 
 very bad, but when there is added to this 
 the control of all the paper money and 
 BY A SINGLE BOARD OF DIRECT- 
 ORS, one’s soul shrinks in horror at the 
 mere contemplation of the possibility of 
 such an outcome. 
 
 TIi© Power of the Conspirators. 
 
 The Existing Banking Trust, i. e., the 
 American Bankers’ Association with its 
 auxiliaries, has been and is working for 
 the retirement of the greenbacks. But it 
 is certain that as rapidly as the individu- 
 al members find out about the branch 
 banks, and what it means to themselves, 
 they, with the exception of a few big 
 bankers, will turn in and fight Wail 
 Street. 
 
 The extent to which the Executive 
 Committee of the existing bank trust and 
 its auxiliaries is organized and is at work, 
 is set forth in the following notices: 
 
 Conspirators Are Thoroughly Organized 
 and at Work with Millions of 
 Money. 
 
 The Times-Herald of Chicago, noted for 
 the “inside” knowledge which it has of 
 the bankers’ plans and the administra- 
 tion doings, in an editorial in September, 
 said: 
 
 “CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS In 
 many close districts are being made and 
 Will continue to be made WITH SOLE 
 
 REFERENCE TO THE CANDIDATE’S 
 POSITION ON CURRENCY REFORM. 
 
 “These contributions will be supple- 
 mented by a great amount of HARD 
 WORK AMONG the business men and 
 REPRESENTATIVES OF SOUND 
 MONEY INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 “The sound money campaigners are 
 THOROUGHLY ORGANIZED and do- 
 ing EFFECTIVE WORK INDEPEND- 
 ENT ENTIRELY OF THE EFFORTS 
 OF THE COMMITTEES OF THE RE- 
 PUBLICAN ORGANIZATION. Currency 
 reform legislation is ‘on the carpet.’ IT 
 IS NEARER THAN MOST PEOPLE 
 IMAGINE.” 
 
 Here it appears that Wall Street cannot 
 trust the men who compose the present 
 “republican machine,” especially so since 
 the Gold Democracy has captured it and 
 given up their old organization. As a 
 consequence, Wall Street has its own 
 Election Bureau through which it is pour- 
 ing its millions of money. 
 
 Corroborative proof of the statements 
 in the editorial of the Times-Herald is the 
 following: 
 
 “En route to Omaha for the purpose 
 of crossing swords with representatives 
 of the so-called Indianapolis Monetary 
 Commission in a joint debate, Ex-Gover- 
 nor Stone, George Fred Williams and 
 Leon C. Bailey of Indiana met in Chi- 
 cago. 
 
 “In discussing this Indianapolis “Mone- 
 tary Commission,” it developed that IT 
 HAS AN IMMENSE ARMY OF 
 CLERKS, AND OCCUPIES A WHOLE 
 FLOOR IN ONE OF THE FINEST OF- 
 FICE BUILDINGS IN INDIANAPO- 
 LIS.” 
 
 In addition to the above organization 
 there is the National Sound Money 
 League, with a committeeman for every 
 state, the Sound Currency Committee of 
 the Reform Club of New York, and sim- 
 ilar organizations in Philadelphia, Bos- 
 ton and other cities, and besides these the 
 Father of All— the American Bankers’ 
 Association, with its thirty or more state 
 organizations, with sub-organizations 
 termed Groups. 
 
 Can the citizens overcome these or- 
 ganized forces? 
 
 Yes, if discussion is challenged and the 
 question put before the voters in other 
 ways. For 
 
 Wall Street Is Relying Upon Stealth to 
 Accomplish That Which Cannot 
 Be Secured if Discussion Is 
 Had. 
 
 Proof of this is the omission from the 
 political platforms of all direct mention 
 of the retirement of the greenbacks and 
 the bankers’ proposed law. And there is 
 also the attempt to divert attention by 
 bringing in the question of gold and sil- 
 ver when it cannot be acted upon untl 
 1900. 
 
 Further proofs that stealth is being re- 
 lied upon is the action of Congressman 
 MeCleary when questioned about the bill 
 which bears his name, and also these 
 further facts: 
 
 The “sound currency” publications are 
 not saying a word about the currency 
 question being an issue in the campaign. 
 
24 
 
 And yet it is the question which is at is- 
 sue. Not a word about it in the October 
 number of “Sound Money,” the “Monthly 
 Bulletin of the National Sound Money 
 League,” nor is there in any of the week- 
 ly sound money papers which I have 
 looked over, a word about the election 
 and . the currency question, except in the 
 “Economist” a four liner, stating that “the 
 friends of sound money have shown con- 
 siderable anxiety in the past week or two 
 respecting the results of the approaching 
 elections.” 
 
 Furthermore, and what is tremendously 
 more important, is the fact that ALL THE 
 REPUBLICAN DAILIES which have been 
 exposing the shams of Wall Street have 
 been silenced— aggregated wealth HAS SE- 
 CURED THEIR SILENCE. These Repub- 
 lican papers are not stultifying themselves 
 by advocating the establishment of Wall 
 Street’s scheme, but they are stultifying 
 themselves by keeping silent. 
 
 And there is this further proof of 
 stealth: The Republican nominees are se- 
 cretly pledged to vote for the bankers’ bill 
 — they are not claiming that the greenbacks 
 are an evil and the bankers’ bill a bless- 
 ing. They may vaguely speak of “sound 
 currency,” but they don’t dare to define 
 what they mean. This is not honest and 
 is not in keeping with American tradi- 
 tions. Think of Lincoln or Washington 
 doing such a thing! Every stump speak- 
 er who uses the term “sound currency” 
 should be asked to define it. 
 
 I repeat it: This still hunt of Wall and 
 Lombard Streets can be overcome by our 
 citizens if discussion is challenged and 
 the question is put before the voters in 
 other ways. To do this THERE 
 SHOULD BE NON-PARTISAN CO-OP- 
 ERATION BY EVERY GOOD CITIZEN. 
 
 Non-Partisan Co-operation. 
 
 There are not ten men in the United 
 States, outside of a few great specula- 
 tors and creditors, who will have the 
 hardihood to uphold the plan for placing 
 IN THE HANDS OF A SINGLE BOARD 
 OF DIRECTORS COMPOSED OF PRI- 
 VATE INDIVIDUALS, THE CONTROL 
 OF ALL THE BANKING AND MONEY 
 INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE OF 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Work then in a non-partisan way for 
 the overthrow of those candidates who 
 are pledged to the proposed law which 
 is to result in a single bank with ten 
 thousand branches I say “non-parti- 
 san,” for you can remain in the Republi- 
 can party and mark off from your ticket 
 all undesirable candidates . You can join 
 with that old-time Republican, Chairman 
 Walker, in scourging from the party all 
 those who would sell their country and 
 
 their countrymen. 
 
 EVERY DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE 
 FOR CONGRESS IS PLEDGED TO THE 
 CHICAGO PLATFORM. WHICH DE- 
 CLARES THAT THE PAPER MONEY 
 SHOULD BE ISSUED BY THE GOV- 
 ERNMENT DIRECT AND NOT 
 THROUGH THE BANKS. 
 
 VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC CAN- 
 DIDATE FOR CONGRESS ON ELEC- 
 TION DAY AND SAVE THE COUNTRY 
 FROM THE RULE OF THE BANK 
 TRUST. 
 
 And in conclusion, weigh these senti- 
 ments expressed by the greatest of Old 
 Time Republicans: 
 
 Old Time Republican Sentiments. 
 
 The Money Question “should be ap- 
 proached in no spirit of partisan bitter- 
 ness. * * * Firmly attached to one po- 
 litical party myself, firmly believing that 
 parties in a free government are as 
 healthful as they are inevitable, I still 
 think there are questions about which 
 parties should agree never to disagree; 
 and of these are the essential nature 
 and value of the circulating medium.” 
 
 This was uttered by James G. Blaine, 
 February 10, 1876, in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, in a speech in which he de- 
 fended the greenback, and brought down 
 upon himself the anger of the bankers 
 and his own defeat for the presidency. 
 
 Washington in his farewell address 
 gave these parting words to his country- 
 men: 
 
 “Let me warn you in the most solemn 
 manner against the baneful effects of the 
 Spirit of Party. 
 
 “This spirit, unfortunately, is insepar- 
 able from our nature, having its root in 
 the strongest passions of the human 
 mind. It exists under different shapes in 
 all governments, more or less stifled, con- 
 trolled or repressed; but in those of the 
 Popular form it is seen in its greatest 
 rankness, and is truly their worst 
 enemy. * * * The common and 
 
 continual mischiefs of the spirit of 
 party are sufficient to make it the inter- 
 est and duty of a wise people to discour- 
 age and restrain it. * * * 
 
 “It opens the door to foreign 
 influence and corruption, which 
 find a facilitated access to the gov- 
 ernment itself, through the channels of 
 public passions. THUS POLICY AND 
 THE WILL OF ONE COUNTRY ARE 
 SUBJECTED TO THE POLICY AND 
 WILL OF ANOTHER. * * * 
 
 “There being constant danger of ex- 
 cess, the effort ought to be by force of 
 public opinion, to mitigate and assuage 
 it.” 
 
 Abraham Lincoln uttered this undying 
 sentiment: 
 
 “It is for us, the living, to be dedicated 
 to the unfinished work, that government 
 of the people, by the people and for the 
 people shall not perish from the earth.” 
 
 “God give us Men. A time like this de- 
 mands 
 
 Men who have honor— men who will not 
 lie; 
 
 Men who can stand before a demagogue 
 And damn his treacherous flatteriugs 
 without winking.” 
 
 d 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr. Walker, of Massachusetts, from the Committee on Banking and 
 Currency, submitted the following 
 
 VIEWS OF THE MINORITY. 
 
 [To accompany H. R. 10289.1 
 
 The undersigned respectfully dissents from the views of the signers 
 of the favorable report on bill H. ft. 10289, 7* X >C X 
 
 I can see no conceivable relief from the present financial and banking 
 conditions of the country, but on the other hand the certainty that it 
 would be made worse by enacting any general bill referred to the com- 
 mittee, excepting the Walker bill H. R. 10333, and the bills before the 
 committee ,h &ge s teadily grown worse, culminating in theJElill-Fowler 
 
 to the Committee on Banking and 
 
 ^ 7 recognizes — muchTess_fearlessIy u and 
 
 closely follows — any known lYincipie^o F^conomics or any recognized 
 
 BRANCH BANKS. 
 
 The Hill-Fowler bill authorization of branch banks is very bad 
 economics as compared with encouraging the local independent bank, 
 and still worse statesmanship. 
 
 It finds no justification in the policy of our free banking system or 
 in any amendment of it proposed in this bill. 
 
 It is unwise to permit powerful city banks to establish branches in 
 places of 4,000 inhabitants or less. The putting its local agent in a 
 place with no interest in it other than the money he can make out of it 
 for his nonresident employer, means that no independent local bank, 
 
 managed Jby its__citizens^can be established in the town, and if one is 
 kStgereiT m,gS£^o^5ES£^lsiness. ~ ^ 
 
 In nine cases out of ten local banks in towns , are formed by public 
 spirited citizens to get a fair return on the capital they put in the bank, 
 but still more to build up the town, by assisting other citizens to 1 
 capital with which to do their business. 
 
 The agent of the city bank may for a time loan money, in “ good 
 times,” at rates to drive out the country bank, and in times of strin- 
 gency the funds with this country agent will be sure to be immediately 
 returned to .support the citvjaank, The customers of the country 
 agency will be sacrificed to the necessiti es of the paren^ bank . 
 
26 
 
 Generally there are two stores in a town, in times of excitement 
 each is the headquarters of one political party. The agent of the nawm? 
 bank knows the nollt ins jif his City employer, and agmnjbe bestowal of 
 Ips favo ^ l^i^iltj e tp be infl uenced by hilCow n poTiEcsr ^''^ 
 ‘■‘TJoTourc^^ one gre^t “ Ui 
 
 support each, and thus all together make each secure 
 stringency or in threatened or actual panic, as in the Walker bill. 
 
 Mr. McCleary, from the Committee on Banking and Currency, sub- 
 mitted the following 
 
 * x x x x * xxxx^x 
 
 Branch 
 
 banking may be compared, in the fluidity which it gives to capital, to 
 a connected series of tanks with onen nines between , while the possible 
 borrowings of independent banks are more like a series of tanks whose 
 pipes require to be opene<TwlIen any c han ge is sought in the level of 
 the fluid. ^ yc s 
 
 The 10 chartered banks of Scotland have 
 
 more than 900 branches, 
 
 The Hill-Fowler bill takes no cognizance of the political situation, 
 and needlessly offends the g re^t iqass of -the voters. 
 
 Bryan's vote, 0,500,000 ; McKinley, 7,000.000. 
 
 Bryan 2,000,000 crazy for silver. 
 
 2,000,000 frenzied by the present banking and currency situ- 
 ation and care nothing for free coinage of silver. 
 2,500,000 care nothing as to what principles the Democratic 
 platform preaches or for silver. They are for 
 the “ machine.” 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 1.000. 000 Republicans are earnestly for the unlimited coin- 
 
 age of silver, but are more for what the Ehpub- 
 ^liHh^arJyrepresents in other things than for 
 silver. 
 
 6.000. 000 voters, are more or less suspicious or opposed to 
 
 of^e\seot U nited States bonds by banks io 
 get currency notes on. 
 
 15. The margin of 3J per cent of sound-money voters is dangerously 
 small. We must win from those among the people who want a better 
 currency system enough votes to make sound money safe, and must also 
 keep the 1,000,000 Silver Republican voters for maintaining parity. 
 
27 
 
 16. How can we do it? 
 
 Not by telling the people that we have changed the paper money they 
 will hereafter carry in their pockets into bills not warantg& L MJhe 
 ermnent as t he Will-Fowler bilLdoes^ Not by giving the people anything 
 a^yless “Secure Than theynow have. But that in changing the paper 
 money and leaving out the bonds we have kept the Government guarantee* 
 
 17. Neither can we tell the people when we meet them face to face in 
 their primary meetings that we have given them two kinds of paper 
 money-one they can never lose a dollar on, however poor the bank 
 issuing it may be, for the Government is behind it; and another that 
 
 they must look to the bank only to pay in case of insolvency. As a 
 party measure, such a statement would be worse tha/n to do nothing . 
 
 PROPOSED “BANK TRUST” LAW. 
 
 (House Bill 
 
 CONSOLIDATED BANK-CREDIT 
 AND MONEY TRUST. 
 
 Branch. Banks. 
 
 “Sec. 35. That it shall be lawful for any 
 national banking association to establish 
 branches under such rules and regulations 
 as may be prescribed by the Comptrollers 
 of the Currency.” 
 
 Result of “Branch” System. 
 
 In late years wherever a large corpor- 
 ation can place a Branch the result is the 
 underselling of the smaller institutions un- 
 til such time as they are forced to go out 
 of business. The proof of this is the 'Op- 
 eration of the meat and all other trusts. 
 
 In addition to this and the opinions al- 
 ready quoted is the following: 
 
 W. C. Cornwell, ex-President of the New 
 York State Bankers’ Association, says: 
 “The effect of the adoption of Branch 
 Banks would be the centralizing of bank- 
 ing operations in a very much smaller 
 number of head institutions.” 
 
 “This,” says the Chicago Tribune, 
 “would lead to a reduction of the number 
 of employes and possibly AROUSE SOME 
 PREJUDICE WHICH NOW EXISTS 
 AGAINST TRUSTS.” 
 
 All the Plans Are Laid. 
 
 The method whereby the consolidation is 
 to take place is as follows: 
 
 “For months past there have been fur- 
 tive allusions in the New York press to the 
 alleged fact that the arrangements are al- 
 ready complete to organize a National 
 Bank with 200 million dollars of capital, 
 with J. Pierreponi Morgan (who already con- 
 trols more than 50,000 miles of American 
 railways) as its head.” (Ex-Congressman 
 W. H. Claggett, in “Money, Banks, Panics 
 and Prosperity.”) 
 
 A special charter for a. mammotij bank 
 
 No. 10289.) 
 
 is before Congress, and is made a Special 
 Order for the tenth day after the opening 
 of the December session. 
 
 All the “rails” are laid. 
 
 VOTERS TO CREATE MONEY AND 
 GIVE IT TO THE BANK TRUST. 
 
 A Legal Tender. 
 
 “Sec. 16. That national reserve notes is- 
 sued to any national banking association, 
 as defined in this Act, shall be A FULL 
 LEGAL TENDER at their face value for 
 all debts, public and private, except duties 
 on imports and interest on the public debt, 
 and shall be available for use in the re- 
 serves of any national banking association. 
 
 “Every national banking association 
 formed or existing under this Act SHALL 
 TAKE AND RECEIVE AT PAR national 
 bank notes or national currency notes is- 
 sued by any lawfully organized national 
 banking association.” 
 
 “Sec. 36. That so much of section fifty- 
 one hundred and eighty-two of the Re- 
 vised Statutes of the United States as pro- 
 vides that the circulating notes of national 
 banking associations SHALL BE RE- 
 CEIVED AT PAR ‘for all salaries and 
 other debts and demands owing by the 
 United States to individuals, corporations, 
 and associations within the United States, 
 except interest on the public debt and in 
 redemption of the national currency,’ be, 
 and the same is HEREBY, REPEALED.” 
 Manufacture of the Money — Coinage. 
 “Sec. 15. That in order to furnish suitable 
 notes for circulation THE COMPTROL- 
 LERS OF THE CURRENCY SHALL 
 CAUSE PLATES AND DIES TO BE EN- 
 GRAVED, in the best manner to guard 
 against counterfeiting and fraudulent alter- 
 ations, and shall have printed therefr.om 
 and numbered su^h quantity of circulating 
 
28 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 notes in blank of the denominations of ten 
 dollars, twenty dollars, fifty dollars, one 
 hundred dollars, five hundred dollars, one 
 thousand dollars and ten thousand dollars 
 as may be required TO SUPPLY THE AS- 
 SOCIATIONS entitled to receive the same.” 
 
 Retirement of Greenbacks— Bank Trust 
 to be Given Two for One. 
 
 “Sec. 13. * * * That any national bank- 
 
 ing association MAY DEPOSIT with tht- 
 Treasurer of the United States, under such 
 regulations as the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury may approve, UNITED STATES 
 NOTES to an amount not exceeding its 
 paid-up and unimpaired capital, AND 
 SHALL THEN BE ENTITLED TO RE- 
 CEIVE IN EXCHANGE therefor from the 
 Comptrollers of the Currency AN EQUAL 
 AMOUNT OF NATIONAL RESERVE 
 NOTES, of the kind and denominations de- 
 scribed in sections twelve and fifteen of 
 this Act.” 
 
 And the bankers are also given an equal 
 amount of “currency notes.” The clause is 
 as follows: 
 
 “Subdivision C (Sec. 13). That any na- 
 tional banking association, having deposited 
 with the Treasurer of the United States 
 United States notes and received in ex- 
 change therefor national reserve notes, 
 shall be entitled 1o receive and issue, IN 
 ADDITION THERETO, AN AMOUNT of 
 national currency notes EQUAL TO THE 
 AMOUNT OF NATIONAL RESERVE 
 NOTES RECEIVED AS AFORESAID: 
 Provided, however, That the amount of na- 
 tional currency notes thus issued shall not 
 exceed the amount of its national bank 
 n.otes outstanding: And provided further. 
 
 That the notes thus issued shali not exceed 
 forty per centum of the paid-up and unim- 
 paired capital of the bank, but an addi- 
 tional amount of national currency notes 
 may be issued subject to the tax on cir- 
 culation provided in section twenty-nine of 
 this Act, without any increase of the cir- 
 culation secured by United States bonds 
 and without taking out any additional re- 
 serve notes.” 
 
 A Special Privilege. 
 
 In addition to providing a penalty for 
 Counterfeiting, the Revised Statutes of the 
 United States (1876) declare (Sec. 5188): “It 
 
 shall not be lawful to design, engrave, print, 
 or in any manner make or execute, or to 
 utter, issue, distribute, circulate, or use, 
 any business or professional card, notice, 
 placard, circular, handbill, or advertise- 
 ment, IN THE LIKENESS OR SIMILI- 
 TUDE of any circulating note or other ob- 
 ligation or security of any banking asso- 
 ciation organised or acting under the laws 
 of the United Stales, which has beeu or 
 may be issued under this Title or any act 
 of Congress, ? * * JSyery person ^yhq 
 
 violates this section shall be liable to A 
 PENALTY OF ONE HUNDRED DOL- 
 LARS, recoverable one-half to the use of 
 the informer.” 
 
 And yet Congressman McCleary, in de- 
 fending the Bankers’ Bill, claimed that the 
 issue of paper morfey by the banks “IS 
 PURELY A PRIVATE TRANSACTION.” 
 
 Last Twenty Per Cent of Capital Can be 
 Represented by Paper Money Upon 
 Paying to the People Six Per 
 Cent Interest. 
 
 “Sec. 30. That when the amount of the 
 national currency notes of any national 
 banking association issued under this Act 
 shall, together with its national bank notes 
 outstanding, EXCEED EIGHTY PER 
 CENTUM of its capital, every such national 
 banking association shall pay, on or be- 
 fore the last day of every month, to the 
 division of issue and redemption a tax im- 
 posed at the rate of ONE-HALF OF ONE 
 PER CENTUM PER MONTH upon the 
 average daily amount of said national cur- 
 rency notes in circulation in excess of 
 eighty per centum of its capital stock, and 
 which shall not have been returned to the 
 Comptrollers for cancellation or covered by 
 an equal amount of gold coin deposited with 
 the First Comptroller for the retirement 
 of such notes.” 
 
 People to Pay Interest on tlie Guaranty 
 Fund. 
 
 “Sec. 25. That the Comptrollers of the 
 Currency be, and they are hereby, author- 
 ized, in their discretion, to cause to be IN- 
 VESTED IN ANY INTEREST-BEARING 
 OBLIGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 at a price not greater than a premium of 
 six per centum, any portion of the guar- 
 anty fund hereinbefore provided for; and 
 such securities shall be held and disposed 
 of for the benefit of such fund.” 
 
 “Sec. 26. That all interest accruing from 
 the investment of any portion of the afore- 
 said guaranty fund, and all funds received 
 in payment of the taxes on circulation pro- 
 vided for in this Act, shall be held in the 
 division of issue and redemption in gold 
 coin or in some interest-bearing obligation 
 of the United States, and SHALL BE SUP- 
 PLEMENTARY TO THE GUARANTY 
 FUND, each banking association BEING 
 CREDITED with its proper share thereof.” 
 
 GOLD BONDS WITHOUT LIMIT. 
 
 “Sec. 4. That it shall be the duty of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury to MAINTAIN 
 THE GOLD RESERVE in the division of 
 issue and redemption aforesaid at such 
 sum as shall secure the certain and immedi- 
 ate redemption of all notes and exchange 
 of all silver dollars presented, as herein- 
 after provided for; and for this purpose 
 he njjijfj fropi time to time, TRANSFER TO 
 
29 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE DIVISION OF ISSUE AND RE- 
 DEMPTION any funds in the Treasury, not 
 otherwise appropriated, in excess of an ac- 
 tual cash balance of fifty million dollars; 
 and in addition thereto he is hereby au- 
 thorized to ISSUE AND SELL, FOR GOLD, 
 whenever it is IN HIS JUDGMENT NEC- 
 ESSARY to the ends aforesaid, and for no 
 other purpose, certificates of indebtedness 
 of the United States, bearing interest at a 
 rate not exceeding- three per centum per 
 annum, payable in gold coin at the end of 
 five years, but redeemable in gold coin at 
 the option of the United States after one 
 year; and the proceeds of all such sales 
 shall be paid into the division of issue and 
 redemption for the purpose aforesaid.” 
 
 TREMENDOUS DISCRETIONARY 
 POWER OF COMPTROLLERS. 
 
 ‘‘Sec. 20. That the Comptrollers of the 
 Currency may from time to time, under 
 regulations to be prescribed by them, 
 WITHDRAW FROM CIRCULATION na- 
 tional reserve notes (amounting to about 
 $346,000,000— Editor) ; but such withdrawals 
 shall be first from those banks having such 
 reserve notes in excess of forty per centum 
 of their capital. Thereafter such with- 
 drawals shall be so made as to equitably 
 adjust the respective holdings of national 
 reserve notes of the several banks. The 
 national reserve notes so withdrawn shall 
 be canceled and destroyed; but the Comp- 
 trollers of the Currency are hereby AU- 
 THORIZED TO ISSUE, IN EXCHANGE 
 FOR GOLD COIN, to national banking as- 
 sociations, now existing or hereafter or- 
 ganized, national reserve notes TO AN 
 AMOUNT NOT EXCEEDING IN THE 
 AGGREGATE THE AMOUNT OF NA- 
 TIONAL RESERVE NOTES SO CAN- 
 CELED AND DESTROYED (about $346,- 
 000, 000— Ed i tor).” 
 
 UNITED STATES NOT LIABLE. 
 
 Provisions of the Law. 
 
 Under the proposed law the bank money 
 is not to be secured by United States bonds 
 after eight years. The security is as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 “Sec. 14. That the national currency 
 notes shall constitute A PARAMOUNT 
 LIEN UPON ALL THE ASSETS of the as- 
 sociation issuing such notes, after sufficient 
 proceeds thereof shall have been applied 
 to redeem in full the outstanding national 
 bank notes.” 
 
 “NOTHING IN THIS ACT contained 
 SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO IMPOSE 
 UPON THE UNITED STATES ANY 
 LIABILITY for the redemption of the notes 
 of any national banking association, beyond 
 the proper application of the proceeds of 
 the bonds and of the redemption and guar- 
 anty funds deposited with the division of 
 issue and redemption and the enforcement 
 
 of the remedies by this Act provided.” 
 (Sec. 28.) 
 
 Old Time Republicanism. 
 
 Compare this to the following statement 
 by an old-time Republican: “I much prefer 
 the credit of the United States, based as 
 it is upon ALL THE PRODUCTIONS AND 
 PROPERTY OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 to the issues of any corporation, however 
 well guaranteed and managed.” This was 
 said by John Sherman on the floor of the 
 Senate, February 13, 1862. And Chairman 
 Walker of the House Committee, a Repub- 
 lican, also says: 
 
 “When we meet the people face to face 
 in their primary meetings, we cannot tell 
 them we have given them two kinds of 
 paper money — one they can never lose a 
 dollar on, however poor the bank issuing 
 it may be, for the Government is behind 
 it; and another that they must look to the 
 bank only to pay in case of insolvency. 
 As a party measure, such a statement 
 WOULD BE WORSE THAN TO DO 
 NOTHING.” 
 
 TO ISSUE AND WITHDRAW AT WILL 
 THE PAPER MONEY AND 
 BANK CREDITS. 
 
 Repeal of all Restrictions. 
 
 Section 44 of the law proposed by Wall 
 Street repeals the present restrictions as tq 
 the withdrawal of bank money. 
 
 This leaves the bank trust to WITH- 
 DRAW AT WILL, AS WELL AS ISSUE 
 AT WILL, THE PAPER MONEY AND 
 ALSO THE BANK CREDITS. 
 
 Republican and. Other Opinions. 
 
 John C. Calhoun— “The money power in 
 the hands of the few- corporate banks may 
 RAISE OR SINK PRICES AT PLEASURE, 
 and so COMMAND THE WHOLE PROP- 
 ERTY OR INDUSTRY OF THE COUN- 
 TRY.” 
 
 Thomas Jefferson— “Banking institutions 
 are more dangerous to our liberties than 
 a standing army. The issuing of money 
 should be taken from them and RESTORED 
 TO THE GOVERNMENT and the people, 
 w r here it belongs.” 
 
 John A. Logan— “I see the producers of 
 the Western States reduced to the condi- 
 tion of serfs WHEN THE BANKS GET 
 CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE VOLUME 
 OF MONEY.” 
 
 James A. Garfield— “Whoever controls the 
 volume of money of any country is ABSO- 
 LUTE MASTER OF ALL ITS INDUSTRY 
 AND COMMERCE.” 
 
 Senator James Benton, who labored with 
 President Jackson to overthrow the Na- 
 tional Bank, declared in 1841: “We have 
 
 driven the tigress to the jungles, but I 
 fear that some day she will return, bring- 
 ing her whelps with her.” 
 
30 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 She did return in 1863, and the result was 
 a law for A MULTITUDE OF BANKS OF 
 ISSUE. 
 
 Of these Banks of Issue — “National 
 Banks’’— Salmon P. Chase said: “My 
 
 agency in procuring the passage of the 
 National Bank Act was the greatest finan- 
 cial mistake of my life, and it should be 
 repealed.” 
 
 James G. Blaine— “The money lost to the 
 people under the old system of State banks 
 
 Sentiment of 
 
 CHICAGO TRIBUNE. 
 
 Issuance of Money Sliould Not be by 
 Private Corporation. 
 
 “The ISSUANCE OF MONEY, whether 
 coined or printed, IS A FUNCTION OF 
 GOVERNMENT. It should not be intrusted 
 to private corporations.”— (Editorial Nov. 
 5, ’97.) 
 
 “It was not the intention of the framers 
 of the Constitution that banks should be 
 allowed to COIN PAPER MONEY FOR 
 THE PEOPLE.”— (Editorial Nov. 18, ’97.) 
 
 Banks Are Too Weak. 
 
 “To intrust the supplying of the cur- 
 rency by the banks IS DOUBLY DANGER- 
 OUS: they are hampered at a time when 
 their customers need all of the aid that 
 can be given, and when there is an unex- 
 pected demand for tens of millions of gold 
 they will be unable to meet it. They will 
 not be able to sell gold bonds as the gov- 
 ernment can.”— (Editorial Nov. 9, 1897.) 
 
 “For their own good and that of the 
 country, banks should keep out of the note- 
 issuing business. They have 2,000 millions 
 of deposits to take care of. That ought 
 to give them abundant employment. Why 
 do they wish to assume a greater responsi- 
 bility?”— (Editorial Nov. 28, ’97.) 
 
 Central and Western Republicans Against 
 Wall Street’s Control of Average 
 Prices and Business. 
 
 “There is a sentiment in favor of the 
 withdrawal of the greenbacks among East- 
 ern Republicans, but THOSE OF THE 
 WEST ARE ALMOST SOLIDLY AGAINST 
 IT. That is unquestionably the case. 
 * * * Currency ‘reformers’ whose plans 
 contemplate the cancellation of the green- 
 backs will find that they are preparing to 
 run up against a stone wall.”— (Editorial 
 Nov. 28, ’97.) 
 
 “The REPUBLICANS OF MICHIGAN, 
 ILLINOIS AND IOWA ARE ALMOST 
 UNANIMOUSLY against the withdrawal 
 from circulation of the government paper 
 money. * * * The amateur currency re- 
 
 is a mere bagatelle compared with the sys- 
 tem of National banks for robbing the peo- 
 ple.” 
 
 Horace Greely— “The time has come when 
 the people must have a better money sys- 
 tem than that of national banks.” 
 
 Abraham Lincoln — “Fluctuations in the 
 value of currency are always injurious, and 
 to reduce these fluctuations to the lowest 
 possible point will always be a leading pur- 
 pose in wise legislation.” 
 
 up to Feb., 1898. 
 
 formers * * * will find out before long 
 that their policy is not and will not be the 
 policy of Congress. The latter will never 
 favor the retirement of the Greenbacks.”— 
 (Editorial Dec. 11, 1897.) 
 
 “The Secretary, Mr. Gage, is PREACH- 
 ING TO DEAF EARS WHEN HE 
 PREACHES AGAINST THE GREEN- 
 BACKS. The people do not believe they 
 are a source of danger. They do not wish 
 to see them funded, and be taxed to pay 
 interest on bonds which will have to be 
 sold to retire those notes.”— (Feb. 14, 1898.) 
 
 Cost of Greenbacks. 
 
 Jan. 12, 1898, there is an editorial in the 
 Tribune headed: “Redeeming Greenbacks 
 
 in Gold COSTS THE GOVERNMENT 
 NOTHING.” This it proves by showing 
 that the funds received from the bonds 
 sold to replenish the gold reserve were used 
 as follows: “One hundred and eighty-six 
 
 millions in stopping the deficit gap in the 
 revenues— the current income being that 
 much less than the necessary expenditures 
 of the government, and the balance was 
 on hand at the end of Cleveland’s term.” 
 
 THE NEW YORK SUN. 
 
 In an editorial, November 27 of last year, 
 the Chicago Tribune said: 
 
 “The New York Sun, THE STRONGEST 
 AND MOST INFLUENTIAL REPUB- 
 LICAN PAPER in Greater New York, de- 
 fines its position on the currency question 
 with great clearness, and in a fashion which 
 will SUIT THE REPUBLICANS OF THE 
 WEST. It begins by stating that ‘the 
 fundamental issue’ is: 
 
 “ ‘Shall the paper money of the nation be 
 issued exclusively by the banks, or shall it 
 be issued exclusively by the government? 
 At present both agencies are in operation, 
 and each one is struggling for supremacy 
 over the other.’ 
 
 “One of the rivals must surrender to the 
 other, and leave in its exclusive possession 
 the function of supplying what paper money 
 the people need. To whose hands can that 
 
 Republican Press 
 
31 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 function be most safely intrusted? After 
 quoting Secretary Gage’s remark about 
 the national Treasury awkwardly per- 
 forming an office entirely foreign to its 
 proper function,’ tbe Sun observes: 
 
 “ ‘In the same spirit, the mugwump New 
 York Times, Friday morning, editorially 
 denounced the issuing of currency by the 
 government exclusively as a scheme of in- 
 flation destined to bankrupt the nation, be- 
 cause under it the currency WOULD BE 
 CONTROLLED BY CONGRESS, and not 
 put in charge of the banks. The Times, 
 however, omits to> mention that FOUR 
 TIMES WITHIN TWELVE YEARS- 
 
 namely: in 1884, 1890, 1893 and 1895— THE 
 BANKS of this city DEFAULTED ON 
 THEIR OBLIGATIONS TO THEIR DE- 
 POSITORS, and that these depositors, in 
 order to get currency with which to carry 
 on their business, HAD TO SELL THEIR 
 CHECKS TO WALL STREET BROKERS 
 AT A CONSIDERABLE DISCOUNT. To 
 vest in SUCH WEAK INSTITUTIONS, 
 and in less responsible banks of the rural 
 districts, THE EXCLUSIVE FUNCTION 
 OF ISSUING PAPER MONEY IS AN 
 ACT OF FOLLY WHICH OUR PEOPLE 
 WILL NEVER COMMIT.’ ” 
 
 To-day the Republican Press is Silenced. 
 
 The foregoing utterances were put forth be- 
 fore the opening of the war with Spain. 
 Since then the scheme was hatched to cap- 
 ture a Congress which would retire the 
 greenbacks and give full sway to the great 
 bankers. IT WAS NECESSARY that the 
 Great Dailies of the Republican party at 
 least SHOULD CEASE TO FIGHT THE 
 SCHEME. And the promoters HAVE 
 SUCCEEDED: NOT ONE REPUBLICAN 
 
 PAPER CAN I FIND THAT IS FIGHT- 
 
 ING THE PROMOTERS OF THE TRUST 
 OF TRUSTS. 
 
 This staggers one. We are tempted to 
 suspect that aggregated wealth is going to 
 prove too strong for civilization to with- 
 stand, or else that it is hastening its own 
 overthrow by its rapid enslavement of tbe 
 producing and trading classes. Will it suc- 
 ceed in its present campaign of steal b? 
 Will it secure enough votes to legislate into 
 existence the Consolidated Bank Credit and 
 Money Trust— the Trusts of Trusts? 
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE PARTIES 
 
 Republican Congressmen Whipped 
 Into Line. 
 
 Last December a canvass of the members 
 of the House was made as to the proposal 
 to retire the greenbacks and it was found, 
 says the Chicago Tribune, that the Re- 
 publicans from the Central and Western 
 States were still opposed to the policy. 
 
 But later the war occupied the public 
 mind, and the Republican Congressmen 
 were whipped into line through the multi- 
 tudious forces which surround them. A 
 canvass of the House last July, by the 
 Washington Post, showed that THE RE- 
 PUBLICAN MEMBERS WERE PRACTI- 
 CALLY UNANIMOUS FOR THIS LAW 
 which shall yield a “trust of trusts,” in ad- 
 dition to its other evil features. 
 
 Let us turn to the opposition: 
 
 Democratic Congressmen Stand for the 
 People. 
 
 In the daily papers of Dec. 15, 1897, the 
 following appears: The Democratic mem- 
 
 bers of the United States House of Repre- 
 sentatives held a caucus and resolved that 
 “It is the sense of this caucus that the 
 Democrats of this House OUGHT TO RE- 
 SIST ALL EFFORTS, DIRECT OR INDI- 
 RECT, TO RETIRE THE GREENBACKS 
 AND THE TREASURY NOTES. 
 
 “That we are opposed to and WILL RE- 
 SIST ALL ATTEMPTS TO EXTEND THE 
 PRIVILEGES OF NATIONAL BANKS, 
 OR TO REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF 
 THE TAXES THEY NOW PAY.” 
 
 And the platform of the Regenerated 
 Democracy is equally progressive: 
 
 Platform of the Purified. Democracy. 
 
 “Congress alone has power to coin and 
 issue money, and President Jackson de- 
 clared that this power cOq'd not be delegated 
 to corporations or individuals. We there- 
 fore denounce the issuance of notes, in- 
 tended to circulate as money by National 
 Banks as in derogation of the Constitution, 
 and we demand that all paper which is 
 
SJf 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 made a legal tender for public and private 
 debts, or which is receivable for duties to 
 the United States, SHALL BE ISSUED BY 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED 
 
 > SHALL BE REDEEM 
 
 STATES, AND 
 ABLE IN COIN. 
 
 Furthermore, in nearly all the States the 
 Democratic party stands for the extensio 
 of the Referendum to Statutorv Law. 
 
 Political Outlook October 8th. 
 
 Dangerous for Producing and Trading 
 Classes. 
 
 “The excitement of the war has drawn 
 the minds of politicians to issues more 
 full of interest than the financial ques- 
 tion. With a period before the meeting of 
 the next Congress for reflection, it is not 
 beyond hope that when the banking bill 
 comes before Congress IT WILL GO 
 THROUGH WITHOUT BEING MADE A 
 POLITICAL ISSUE. ’’-The Bankers’ Maga- 
 zine, September, 1898. 
 
 The “Economist” of Chicago for Octo- 
 ber 8th, says: 
 
 “A week or two ago considerable anxiety 
 was felt respecting the outcome of the fall 
 elections and the consequent prospects re- 
 specting the currency. The grounds for this 
 anxiety have never been clear to people 
 outside of practical politics, and THERE 
 IS NOW LESS EVIDENCE THAN EVER 
 OF ANY DANGER. IT APPEARS CER- 
 TAIN THAT THE ELECTION WELL RE- 
 SULT IN A TRIUMPH FOR THE SOUND 
 MONEY PARTY, and that the senatorial 
 elections will give that party a gain in, 
 the Upper House, so that there will, be a 
 CLEAR WORKING MAJORITY IN BOTH 
 HOUSES.” 
 
 Special to the Times-Herald. 
 
 “New York, October 8.— Republican lend- 
 ers of national prominence held a conference 
 fraught with great import here to-day. The 
 object was to ascertain, as nearly as possi- 
 ble by close figuring, how the next Con- 
 gress will stand in both branches. The 
 conclusions reached were that these results 
 will ensue from the balloting next month: 
 
 The next United States Senate will be 
 REPUBLICAN BY FROM SIX TO TEN 
 VOTES. 
 
 “The next House of Representatives 
 WTLL HAVE A WORKING REPUBLICAN 
 MAJORITY, but not so large a one as tho 
 present majority of fifty-one votes. 
 
 “As a sequel, the Fifty-sixth Congress will 
 stand for CURRENCY -REFORM LEGIS 
 LATION. 
 
 Figures on the Senate. 
 
 “There are thirty-four hold-over Repub- 
 lican Senators,” said Chairman Babcock. 
 McComas has already been elected in Mary- 
 land, and a Republican Legislature to-day 
 elected a Republican Senator in Oregon. 
 In order to control the Senate the Repub- 
 
 licans must elect ten of the twenty-six Sen 
 a tors remaining to be elected. 
 
 “Mr. Babcock then show'ed the followin' 
 table of probabilities, showing who are tin 
 Senators whose terms expire next year r th 
 states placed as surely Republican, th' 
 states surely Democratic, and those consid 
 ered doubtful: 
 
 Allen, Nebraska . . . 
 
 Bate, Tennessee . . 
 Burrows, Michigan 
 Cannon, Utah .... 
 Clark, Wyoming . . 
 Cockrell, Missouri 
 Davis, Minnesota . 
 Faulkner, West Virginia 
 
 Gray, Delaware 
 
 Hale, Maine 
 
 Hawley, Connecticut 
 Lodge, Massachusetts 
 Mantle, Montana .... 
 
 Mills, Texas 
 
 Mitchell, Wisconsin 
 Murphy, New 'York 
 Pasco, Florida .#. . . . 
 Proctor, Vermont .... 
 Quay, . Pennsylvania 
 Rodch, North Dakota 
 Smith, New Jersey 
 Stewart, Nevada .... 
 Sullivan, Mississippi 
 Turpie, Indiana .... 
 Wilson, Washington . 
 White, California . . . 
 
 Total 
 
 Rep. Dem. Doubt 
 
 V 
 
 ■ 
 
 Situation October 13th. 
 
 OCTOBER 13th the Indianapolis Sentin 
 said: Not a single republican paper in In 
 diana (or in the United States) is arguin; 
 in favor of the retirement of the greer 
 backs. Not a single republican orator i 
 advocating that proposition on the stunr 
 And yet the republican party is commltte; 
 to that measure by the declarations of th 
 President and the Secretary of the Treas 
 ury and by the terms of the Bill reporter 
 to the House by the Committee on Ban" 
 ing and Currency, to which, according t 
 Mr. H. H. Hanna,, whose truthfulness n 
 one who knows him will question, 150 repu’ 
 lican members of Congress stand fully com 
 mitted. Why don't the republican candi 
 dates and speakers who are now before th 
 people discuss this very important question 
 
Lithomount 
 Pamphlet 
 Binders 
 Gaylord Bros. Inc. 
 
 Makers 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y.