It is the natural result of three things.
(1) Land monopoly.
(2) A diabolical financial system.
(3) The host of non-producers who use the government as a means of getting their support and their wealth by oppressing the producers.
The Government could easily establish a Bureau of Loans, and could adopt a business-like system of lending money direct to the people.
This principle has been put in successful operation in Great Britain, Norway, Greece and other foreign countries.
Not long ago, the firm of N. A. Harris & Co., of Chicago, New York and Boston, put out a Circular offering for sale “Sanitary District of Chicago” bonds to the amount of $500,000. As a recommendation of these bonds, Harris & Co., declared in the Circular that the United States Government had accepted the bonds as security for Government deposits.
In other words, the National Banks have been borrowing the people’s money out of the Treasury on the faith of these bonds. Of course, the banks paid no interest.
Now does it not occur to you that the Government could as well lend some of that money to you at four or six percent interest upon security equally good, as to lend it to a favored few without interest?
I do not believe that Mr. Cleveland profited personally by the sale of the bonds. He acted stupidly and he acted in violation of law. The whole transaction had an ugly look because Morgan had recently been his client and Stetson (who drew the contract) had recently been his partner. But I do not think he acted corruptly.