National Finance Run Mad.
The Washington Post is authority for the statement that the President will, in his next Message, again urge upon Congress the necessity for Currency Reform.
The MONEY QUESTION, as you will remember IS SETTLED; it is only THE CURRENCY that needs REFORM.
Bryan says THE MONEY QUESTION IS SETTLED; ditto Roosevelt; ditto Secretary Shaw; ditto the big bugs of BOTH the dear old political parties.
Yet, with equal unanimity and fervor, they all say that THE NEED OF CURRENCY REFORM is something fierce.
Peculiar, isn’t it?
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When the people want financial legislation that will restore the system of The Fathers, it is THE MONEY QUESTION, and it’s SETTLED. The old party leaders, one and all, agree upon THAT.
Politically, therefore, THAT question is Res Adjudicata, and must not be spoken of any more.
But when the corporations want financial legislation which will tend still further to make our National Treasury a huge Reservoir from which the National Banks and their allies can draw strength, support and profit—why, THEN, it is a matter of CURRENCY REFORM, and if Congress doesn’t give the Money Power everything it demands, the Country will go to the “demnition bow-wows.”
That’s how it is, my son.
The moguls of high finance declare that what our currency system needs is greater “elasticity.” The India rubber quality is wanting, it seems. The present system doesn’t stretch readily enough. The Moguls declare that the “rigidity” of the currency system threatens us with calamitous conditions at the prospect of which the imagination becomes exhausted and quits business.
Those two words, “elasticity” and “rigidity” are being featured in all the Mogul talk, all the Mogul papers—and are being dutifully repeated by all the Mogul Senators and Representatives.
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Yet, there isn’t a particle of sound common sense in all this cant about elasticity and rigidity.
When the currency system of the body-politic is healthy and normal, there can be no question of elasticity and rigidity. Like the circulation of the blood in the human body, the circulation of money will take care of itself.
Once get the system right, and nature will do the rest.
If the Physician tells you that YOUR CIRCULATION IS BAD—you KNOW what that means.
Your system is out of order. The blood goes about its business, without any help from YOU, PROVIDED YOUR SYSTEM IS KEPT IN ORDER.
You don’t have to pump blood away from center to the extremities; THE BLOOD WILL GO THERE, OF ITSELF, IF YOUR BODILY SYSTEM IS IN THE PROPER, NORMAL, SOUND CONDITION.
It is just so with, the circulation of money in the body politic; if the system is RIGHT, THE MONEY CIRCULATION WILL REGULATE ITSELF BY NATURAL LAWS.
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Elasticity—Rigidity—two words that are cunningly employed to disguise the purpose of the Moguls of National finance. Those conspirators mean to drive the Government still further away from the Constitutional system of the Fathers. They mean to push still further the usurped power of the National Banks to create and control the supply and distribution of the Currency.
“Currency Reform” means nothing more nor less than that.
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Government loans to the common people, at four per cent, or even at two per cent, would seem to be more statesmanlike, in all respects, than this eternal lending of government money to Wall Street without any interest at all.
Why should Uncle Sam furnish gamblers money to speculate with? Can any good reason be given for it? Does it seem to be fair to legitimate business men? Is it just to the taxpayers? Can it be RIGHT?
Yet the Wall Street gamblers got nearly ($30,000,000) thirty million dollars from the U. S. Treasury in one lump. Upon this huge sum of public money, the speculators will pay no interest at all.
Is it right?
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According to the official statement for Nov. 12th, 1906, THE GOVERNMENT has now increased its loans to the National Banks to the stupendous TOTAL of $147,000,000.
Never before has the gratuitous loan been so large. Who can defend such a policy? Who would not BE ASHAMED to appear before an audience of intelligent voters to advocate the wisdom and the propriety of such GOVERNMENTAL FAVORITISM as this?
You laughed at the Farmers’ Alliance when it favored government loans to the people, on the best of security, at two per cent interest. Yet you say nothing against government loans to a few pet National Banks FREE OF INTEREST, and upon DOUBTFUL SECURITY.
Part of that LOAN OF ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN MILLIONS is secured by Chicago Municipal Bonds, called, I believe, the Sanitary Bonds. Would you not prefer to lend YOUR Money upon a good farm, or upon warehouse certificates for cotton?
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The farmers would be only too glad to pay the Government FOUR PER CENT for that money which THE PET BANKS GET FOR NOTHING. Four per cent interest upon one hundred and forty-seven million dollars is a tidy sum. Figure it out and you will see, that it is about SIX MILLION DOLLARS. That’s a neat sum to be GIVEN AWAY EVERY YEAR, isn’t it?
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Consider this also: You, the Common People, are the taxpayers who put that money into the U. S. Treasury. The pet National Banks pay, practically, none of it.
Yet THEY have the use of YOUR money FREE. If YOU get the use of a dollar of it, YOU MUST GO TO THEM FOR TERMS.
Tough, isn’t it?
No wonder the money supply is congested. So long as the Government TAXES IT OUT OF THE POCKETS OF THE MANY, and delivers it over TO THE FEW, there is bound to be congestion.
Yet, the Pet National Banks are moving heaven and earth, RIGHT NOW, to have CONGRESS LEGISLATE IN FAVOR OF GREATER CONGESTION. The power of the Few over the Many must be increased by additional legislation. Otherwise, the bottom will drop out and Perdition will have us by the nape of the neck. When eminently respectable cabinet officers, congressmen, editors, etc., tell you that THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF RUNNING THE FINANCES IN FAVOR OF WALL STREET SPECULATORS AND PET BANKS is safe and sane, and that all we need is to make it a little more so, BELIEVE EVERY WORD OF IT AND VOTE ACCORDINGLY.
On the contrary, when some discredited crank tells you that it is an infernal shame to use the law-making machinery in that manner, howl him down, at once.
Don’t lend to the taxpayer his own money at four per cent. That’s paternalism—and it STINKS.
Take the taxpayers’ money and LEND IT TO THE PET BANKS without any interest.
That’s statesmanship—and it SMELLS LIKE ATTAR OF ROSES.