Cleveland, during the whole time he was in office, was hostile to the Greenbacks and recommended that they be destroyed. Nobody was surprised at this. In fact, Cleveland had exhausted the capacity of honest men to be surprised.
But the country hoped for better things from Mr. Roosevelt. He was thought to be too strong a man to be the blind tool of the National Bankers.
The Greenback is hurting nobody, is doing great good; its only enemy is the National Banker, whose motive is sordidly selfish. LET THE GREENBACK ALONE!
If the President will take the trouble to study for himself the financial statements issued by his own subordinates, he will discover a state of things which would otherwise be incredible.
He will find that the bankers are drawing compound interest on more money than there is in existence!
He will find that they reap usurious revenues from three times as much money as there is in actual circulation!
He will find that they have drawn interest upon seven times as much money as THEY ACTUALLY HAVE!
Under the law of its birth, the Greenback is real money. Like gold and silver, it comes direct from the Government to the people. If you burn it, and do not supply its place, you contract the currency at a time when such contraction means national disaster. If you burn the Greenback, and allow the National Banker to supply its place with his own notes, then you rob the people of thirty million dollars annually and give the spoils to the banker!
He already earns about $50,000,000 per year on his special privilege of issuing currency.
Isn’t that enough?