NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED). FINANCE.- -BANKING SYSTEM. O power of Greed clothed in Deception's garb! Assumes the Law's majestic form, And on the toils of others lives." THE limited supply of gold and silver requires the currency to be supplemented by credit. To secure the benefits of credit to the money-dealers, banks of issue are instituted. Banks are chartered in order to furnish the people with a public representative of value. If this were their real purpose, such representative of value should be issued and controlled by the General Government, and in such volume as to dispense with the necessity of credit. But credit is a source of wealth to the money-dealers, and banks are the machinery by which that credit is utilized. Money is said to bear such and such a rate of interest; it is the obligation given for the use of money that bears the interest; the debtor pays interest on his debt, that is, he is compelled to pay a penalty for being a debtor, which goes to the creditor, who receives a premium for the priv ilege of taking from the debtor that which does not belong to him. The secret of success of banking consists in the debtor receiving interest on his debts. The following, from the "American Sentry," presents the matter clearly, thus: 6 "The Sentry' briefly states the facts hereinafter mentioned, in order to bring them pointedly before the minds of its readers, and earnestly asks that each will carefully weigh their import in their bearing upon the cause of equal justice to all, the welfare of our people, and the perpetuity of our republic. "Bank notes when issued simply prove that the corporation issuing them owes the holder thereof, and is indebted to the amount represented by such notes "When a bank loans its notes and collects interest therefor, it charges and receives 'interest on what it owes. "Laws that either directly or indirectly compel the people to receive and use as money the evidences of corporate indebtedness, for the benefit of corporations, as in the case of national-bank-note issues, are grossly despotic, oppressive, and wicked, and are of necessity the deadly foes of the people's rights. "By authorizing banks to issue their notes for use as money, and destroying the people's moneygreenbacks and other Treasury notes-to such an extent that there was not enough of them left to carry forward the business of the country, Congress compels the people to have recourse to and use bank notes as money, and by that circumlocution to pay interest to banks on what banks owe. "In order to more effectually force the masses to take and use as money the bits of paper that simply represent the debts of bank corporations, and thus become the slaves of and pay tribute to them, Congress, by a law printed upon the back of all national bank notes, compels their acceptance for all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the United States to individuals, corporations, and associations within the United States, except intereste on public debt.' So, when government pays interest to banks on the bonds they own, it cannot compel them to receive their own notes in payment of such interest, although the banks' notes are good enough money for the payments by government of all but the bondholders' claims. "Monstrous and degrading as the fact is, the American people are tamely submitting to the compulsory use by them as money of bits of paper that are nothing but proofs of corporations' debts, and for that privilege, if it can be called such, are cheerfully paying to national banks interest on what the banks owe, as well as on the bonds they own. Do the people realize that to enable corporations to filch from them interest on their own debts, Congress has prostituted its trust, and by law has made corporations' notes a legal tender for the payment of debts and dues by the government, in order to force the use of such notes as money? corporations reextort interest the best bankWhat despot willing, abject No wonder that these despotic gard a system that enables them to on their debts from the people as ing system the world ever saw.' could ask for more or desire more slaves than the American people are to national banks?" But this is not all. Causes," says Kellogg, "are felt to be in operation which the people cannot comprehend-the changes in market value of property and in the prices of labor are accounted for by the abundance or scarcity of money; but why money is scarce at one time and abundant at another is to the great body of the people utterly unknown." The business of the country is chiefly dependent on comparatively a few individuals, vested with power to issue bank notes. It is supposed that banks are instituted for public use, and that a large capital is required to operate them; but in the case of national banks, the capital invested is capital already invested whose stocks are at a high premium in the market; so these bankers receive profits on their credits as well as on their debts. 32o0or of Reisz, ameg 8 Deteers D But they are allowed to issue more than their capital invested. A privilege is granted by the government to a corporation to issue bank notes bearing no interest, and exchange them for indorsed notes of the people bearing interest; and in this way operate largely on a fictitious capital. A bank with a capital of $50,000 issues $150,000 in bank notes, for which interest is charged. At 7 per cent, an annuai income of 7,000 would be realized upon a purely fictitious capital. Currency This method of supplying the people with money is claimed to be both just and safe! It is not necessary to discuss the justice of such a method. A that the government is in duty bound to supply to the full requirements of business and trade is scantily supplied by the banks, which by the necessity of a medium of exchange is made to take the place of money, and a rate of interest charged above the net profits of labor. It is not necessary to show by this operation who are enriched and who are im poverished. a vildog ret Lote Before the national banking system was estab lished, banks were established by the authority of State charters throughout all the States, in some of which the wildest speculations were carried on. In 1849 the Legislature of Connecticut created a commission to report upon the banks of that State. An extract of that report is here presented. elving. A "By the foregoing table it will be seen that the average amount of specie held by the banks in the State of Connecticut for twelve years was $478,719, while the average amount of their loans to the public during the same period was $11,669.457, more than twenty-four and one-third times as much money as the banks had specie. The annual inter est on $11,669,457 was $700,197. If they could have loaned only their specie, the interest would have amounted to but $28,723. The banks gained |