“The three big bank wrecks which are still fresh in the public mind on account of their size and recent date are: the Enterprise National Bank of Allegheny, Penn.; The First National Bank of Topeka, Kans.; the First National Bank of Milwaukee, Wis.!”
Then in a tabulated statement, the “special” gave sums which were classified as “losses.”
In this separate list of “losses” occasioned by “the bank wrecks,” the First National Bank of Milwaukee, heads the table with $1,450,000.
Therefore, instead of my statement in the Magazine being reckless and false, it was carefully based upon a “special” sent out from Chicago in December, which at the time my paragraphs were written had gone unchallenged for more than a month.
Even when corrected by Mr. Sturtevant, how much good is done to the National Banking system whose claim to be “the best on earth” I was ridiculing? My point was that the lootings of this boasted “best system on earth” were so frequent and so colossal that it was absurd to claim that the system was “the best on earth.” How does the Waupaca Champion of looted banks improve matters by explaining that the president of the bank merely stole a million and a half from the stockholders?
How does he weaken my attack by saying that the bank was able to stand the huge robbery?
Is bank rottenness saved from denunciation because the looted bank happened to be rich enough to survive the blow?
Is bank gutting made respectable because the stockholders alone were gutted?
Suppose the stockholders had not been rich enough to make good the loss; suppose the bank had not possessed “a surplus” of that immense size—wouldn’t “the loss” have fallen upon “the people,” and wouldn’t the bank have “burst”?
Ah, Mr. Sturtevant! When you say that a National Bank has gained such tremendous profits out of the privilege of creating money and lending it to the people at high rates of interest that a robbery which runs up into the millions does not stagger it in the least, you simply convince the intelligent reader that National Banks reap far greater gains out of Special Privilege than their champions are in the habit of admitting.