5ii35iUi'>IWFks5Mi'CiMi«KtwiKi'!«4s«"J 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 
 
 3 1822 02682 0407
 
 INIVERSITY OF 
 
 fiALU ■'
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 
 
 3 1822 02682 0407 
 
 Social Sciences & Humanities Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
 Please Note: This item is subject to recall. 
 
 Date Due 
 
 SEP 4 2002 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CI 39 (5/97) UCSD Lib.
 
 COIN 
 
 ON 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, and IMPERIALISM 
 
 BY 
 
 W. H. HARVEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 Coin's Financial School, 1894, 
 
 Coin's Financial School Up-to-Date, 189S, 
 
 AND A Tale of Two Nations 
 
 Publishers 
 
 COIN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 Office, 5 Studio Building 
 
 Corner State and Ohio Streets 
 
 CHICAGO, ILLS.
 
 ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OP CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1899 
 
 BY COIN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, O. C. 
 
 It 
 
 PRINTED AND BOUND BY 
 
 THOMAS KNAPP PRINTINQ <S BINDING CO. 
 CaiOARO.
 
 AX 
 
 I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, 
 because thou hast hid these things from the wise and 
 prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. — Matthew, 
 Chapter 9, Verse 25. 
 
 At the time the Bible was written, terms and expres- 
 sions were used that had a meaning in that day, as ex- 
 pressions we use have in this day. According to the con- 
 cordance to the Bible, the words "wise and prudent" 
 meant the selfish people, and "babes" meant the pure of 
 mind and unselfish.
 
 (?OIlM 
 
 ON 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, and IMPERIALISM 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 On Thursday morning, November 9th, two days fol- 
 lowing the fall elections of 1899, COIN, the young finan- 
 cier and statesman, arrived in Chicago. 
 
 That city was the scene of his 
 triumphs in May, 1894, where 
 for six successive days he had 
 delivered lectures in the Art In- 
 stitute, which lectures had since 
 gone by the name of "Coin's Fi- 
 nancial School." He had made 
 a second appearance in Chicago 
 in March, 1895, faced his critics, 
 who had been emboldened by his 
 absence, and had confused and 
 routed them in his "School, Up 
 to Date." 
 
 He had at the latter date sud- 
 denly disappeared and now as 
 suddenly reappeared in the city 
 of his former achievements. 
 Five years and six months had 
 elapsed since the holding of his 
 "Financial School" and four 
 
 years and eight months since his "Financial School Up 
 to Date." In appearance he had changed. From the boy 
 
 COIN AS HE APPEARED ON 
 THE PLATFORM..
 
 6 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 of ten or eleven in knee pants, he now looked the boy of 
 sixteen and wore long trousers. Otherwise he was the 
 same little statesman who had set in motion a political 
 revolution, the echoes of which were still heard in the 
 land. 
 
 The afternoon papers contained an account of his ar- 
 rival, and the morning papers of the lOth announced the 
 intention of the little statesman to give another "School" 
 in the Art Institute, the place at which the six lectures of 
 "Coin's Financial School" were delivered — to begin on 
 the following Monday, November 12th. The demand for 
 tickets of admission far exceeded anything like the capac- 
 ity of the hall. COIN directed that preference should be 
 given to boys between the ages of ten and twenty, but 
 that a sprinkle of all political factions, of all ages, should 
 be admitted. Also, that those recognized by their fol- 
 lowers as specially learned in advocating the gold stand- 
 ard, national bank money, Trusts and Expansion, be given 
 front seats : — that he wished to look directly in their eyes, 
 to talk to them, and to give them a hearing. 
 
 The First Day. 
 
 The School opened as announced on Monday, Nov. 
 I2th, 1899. 
 
 The hall was packed with people, and many tried to 
 gain admission who were refused. More than fifty ladies 
 were present. 
 
 COIN, as he came on the platform, was greeted with 
 applause by about one-half the audience, while the other 
 half sat silently in their seats. 
 
 On the platform, back of COIN, was a large frame, 
 such as might contain the life-size picture of a person, 
 and therein, in large type, these words :
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 Man serves himself best by pro- 
 moting the common good. 
 
 The true purpose of human gov- 
 ernment is the promotion and de- 
 velopment of the human race. 
 
 A smile begets a smile, and kind- 
 ness begets kindness. On the other 
 hand, abuse begets abuse, and ci'uelty 
 begets cruelty. 
 
 A statesman is one who wants to 
 do something for his country. A 
 politician is one who wants his 
 country to do something for him. 
 
 Wherever people come together to 
 consider the common good, and 
 vanity, the desire to promote self, 
 predominates, it neutralizes all efforts 
 to get good results. 
 
 The rise and decline of civilization 
 may be marked by the increase or 
 decrease in home-ownership. No 
 nation can be truly great where a 
 majority of the families are tenants, 
 and not the owners of homes. 
 
 Individual selfishness crystallized 
 into the laws of nations is the cause 
 of the overthrow of republics, and is 
 the mother of monarchies. When- 
 ever the people by education and 
 training become worshipers of Mam- 
 mon, laws, as a rule, are made and 
 construed in the interest of property, 
 and humanity is neglected. 
 
 m 
 
 Jii 
 
 m
 
 8 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 COIN began by pointing with a rod in his hand to, 
 and repeating slowly the words in the picture frame, paus- 
 ing between each paragraph, and at times making more 
 plain their meaning. 
 
 As he read the one that said "A statesman is one who 
 wants to do something for his country, — a politician is 
 one who wants his country to do something for hhn" 
 there was applause. He then added : "A statesman looks 
 upon a public office as an opportunity to do good," and, 
 saying this, was about to proceed, when some one in the 
 audience said : "And a politician is a man with the 'office 
 itch.' " This remark created applause mingled with 
 laughter. 
 
 Having impressed each of the elementary truths, COIN 
 proceeded : 
 
 "I would next have you learn an elementary principle 
 on which democratic governments are based. It is this : 
 
 "When the people permit a class of citizens to do their 
 thinking for them on a question of national policy, it re- 
 sults in that class influencing legislation in its selfish in- 
 terests, and against the interest of the masses — and in the 
 end, if not checked, results in revolution or Monarchy." 
 
 The little teacher then said that he wanted the boys 
 present to commit to memory the principle just stated and 
 that he would assist them in doing so. He drew from a 
 portfolio a cardboard with it thereon in large t3^pe and 
 put it on an easel placed on the platform by an attendant. 
 
 Continuing he said: "Experience has proven two 
 things, One, that people, as a rule, are selfish, and the 
 Other, that the laws of a 'government can be used with 
 which to enrich one set of people at the expense of an 
 other set. Those who are building up fortunes out of 
 laws become very energetic in securing and maintaining 
 laws that thus benefit them and are very ingenious in
 
 MONEY, TkUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 9 
 
 giving reasons why such laws are generally beneficial ; 
 while the other people, busy at their various natural voca- 
 tions, are prone to accept as sound the thinking of the 
 class thus enriched by legislation, and the people realize 
 usually too late that they have been placed in a position 
 that dooms them to hopeless slavery. 
 
 "Two classes of people," he continued, "seem to have 
 ever existed. One that is humane, that delights in the 
 
 When the people permit a class of citizens 
 to do their thinking for them on a question 
 of national policy, it results in that class 
 influencing legislation in its selfish interest 
 and against the interests of the masses— and 
 in the end, if not checked, results in revolu- 
 tion or Monarchy. 
 
 
 /"^v 
 
 upbuilding of mankind, and yet aims to provide comfort- 
 ably for self; the Other, that seeks self-promotion and 
 aggrandizement and incidentally, only, thinks of the com- 
 mon good. A member of the latter class is not satisfied 
 with sufficient for comfort through life, but seemingly is 
 possessed with the fever of greed. These two classes, 
 from a religious standpoint, have been supposed to be
 
 10 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM, 
 
 prompted, One by the spirit of Good, and the Other by 
 the spirit of Evil ; and upon the death of the body of one 
 belonging to the first class, the life or spirit of such per- 
 son, it is supposed, goes at once to an other and better 
 world, where there is no death and no sorrow, as quickly 
 as the voice may be transmitted to a great distance over 
 an electric wire ; and upon the death of one belonging to 
 the second class, the life or spirit is supposed to pass as 
 quickly to a world or planet possessed by like spirits, 
 where they are the perpetual victims of each other's darts 
 and stings.* 
 
 "These two classes or spirits come in conflict in civil 
 government. One seeking to perfect civilization in the 
 interest of all, and the Other seeking to prey on those who 
 toil and produce. The evil in government that has never 
 been controlled is class legislation. It means laws 
 whereby one class of people preys upon other people ; and 
 the extent of it and the injury of it has never been wholly 
 understood. Monarchy embodies all the evils of class 
 laws and is instituted for the protection of those who 
 thus make their fortunes. Republics and democracies are 
 instituted for the purpose of holding this evil in check 
 and of finally abolishing it. 
 
 "Having learned the principle that you must not permit 
 the classes, that profit by laws, to do your thinking for 
 you, we come to the next important elementary principle 
 in free government. It is this : 
 
 "All the people should educate themselves on questions 
 of national policy, and, then, through the ballot box, by 
 a majority expression of opinion, they will most nearly 
 
 ♦Telegraph messages and the voice can now be transmitted 
 without wire. The message can be sent, passing through great 
 iron vaults and buildings. It is but a slight indication of how 
 the soul may pass from the body to another world.
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 11 
 
 arrive at an unselfish judgment — and thereby negative 
 the influence of selfish classes. 
 
 "I want the boys to also memorize this second principle, 
 and I will put it up where they can read it." COIN took 
 from his portfolio another card containing this latter prin- 
 ciple and put it on an easel brought to him for that pur- 
 pose. There was now in the center of the platform the 
 
 All the people should educate themselves 
 on questions of national policy, and, then, 
 through the ballot box, by a majority expres- 
 sion of opinion, they will most nearly arrive 
 at an unselfish judgment,— and thereby neg- 
 ative the influence of selfish classes. 
 
 Elementary Truths ; and with one on each side of it were 
 the two Elementary Principles. 
 
 He continued: "By encouraging the education of all 
 the people upon questions of national policy, they learn 
 to think for themselves — see the dangers that threaten 
 civilization — and in time grasp the philosophy of free 
 government. The boys may thus learn while they are yet 
 young, and on coming of age will be ready to exert their 
 influence at elections for the good of mankind.
 
 IS MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "An Empire or Monarchy is founded on the theory 
 that those who have grown rich, those who have first ob- 
 tained their riches through class legislation, know best 
 what laws should be made and what the policy of the 
 nation should be. They educate the people to this belief 
 and accustom the latter to the position of lackeys, depend- 
 ants and tenants. Sometimes a mild form of popular gov- 
 ernment is given to the people to amuse them, and deceive 
 them, with the idea that they are directing public thought. 
 Many Republics assume this form, for a time, prior to 
 being changed into an actual Empire or Monarchy. Em- 
 pire and Monarchy mean practically the same thing. And 
 Republic and Democracy mean substantially the same." 
 
 Here a young man about twenty years of age, by the 
 name of Robert Crow, interrupted COIN to know if there 
 was not a slight difference between Empire and Mon- 
 archy, and again between a Republic and a Democracy ? 
 
 "Yes," replied COIN, "an Empire is a Monarchy reach- 
 ing out to place other people under its dominion or rule. 
 A Monarchy seeks to subjugate its own people only ; it is 
 known as an Empire w-hen it seeks to rule other people. 
 A Democracy differs from a Republic in that it seeks ever 
 to get nearer to the people and to make them feel and 
 have the responsibility of deciding all questions — a Re- 
 public leans more toward the people selecting representa- 
 tives to settle questions of government for them." Hav- 
 ing answered the question the little lecturer proceeded: 
 
 "So, that the distinctive difference between a Mon- 
 archy and a Democracy is that a Monarchy is conducted 
 in the interest of those who use laws to enrich themselves ; 
 a Democracy is intended to abolish class legislation and 
 establish a government with 'Equal rights to all and spe- 
 cial privileges to none.' Wc will see as we proceed how 
 class legislation may eat out the heart of a Republic or a
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. io 
 
 Democracy, and turn it into a cold, pulseless Monarchy. 
 The Good Spirit, God, is now contending with the Evil 
 Spirit, the Devil, here in the United States, and, at the 
 present time, education upon the subject of civil govern- 
 ment is more important than upon any other subject. 
 "No people, as a whole, have ever understood the effect 
 
 THE RELIGION OP POLITICS. 
 
 of laws on civilization. They have drifted along not un- 
 derstanding the effect of laws on their welfare, and it has 
 been to the interest of the benefited classes, to so direct 
 education that the people might not be enlightened. 
 
 "Where greed and vanity is cultivated in a Republic, 
 the people lose sight of the Elementary Truths on which 
 they started out, and then the Republic drifts more rapidly 
 toward class laws and a Monarchy.
 
 14 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "For you to understand how Republics once begun 
 may be destroyed, you must understand what effect laws 
 may have that are intended to benefit a class. To make 
 this clear I will use as an illustration a law in England. 
 It is a law that permits the owner of land to settle it on the 
 oldest son, to descend indefinitely from oldest son to old- 
 est son. It is known as the law of entail. Once entailed 
 the land could not be divided and sold to others, but 
 would be held by the oldest living son to pass at his death 
 to the next oldest son or other person named in the deed 
 entailing the land. The effect of this law was that in 
 time, 99 per cent of all the lands in England, Scotland and 
 Ireland, passed into the ownership of less than one per 
 cent of the people ; thus reducing 99 per cent of the people 
 to tenantry. It created a class that liyed vain lives of 
 idleness and luxury, while depriving others of land that 
 would have served them for homes. Our forefathers un- 
 derstood the effect of this law, on civilization, that reduced 
 a people to tenantry and provided against it in the consti- 
 tutional laws of this country. It is a law, where it exists, 
 that makes impossible a general system of home owner- 
 ship, and reduces nearly all the families to the position of 
 tenants. 
 
 "When people become hopelessly tenants and can see no 
 better future for themselves, they lose pride of home and 
 hope of the future. They can, after that, see no reason 
 for studying public questions, seek only to provide for 
 themselves as best they can in their position of depend- 
 ants; and seek to curry favors with those upon whom 
 they are dependent by voting with them, if they have 
 votes, or otherwise being slavish toward those who are in 
 the position of masters to them. No Republic can exist 
 long where a majority of its people are tenants, and, de-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, lAIPERIALISM. 
 
 15 
 
 pendent upon others for the opportunity of making a 
 hving. 
 
 "You can thus understand why any law that increases 
 tenantry and places the opportunities of a living in the 
 hands of a few, is destructive of good government and 
 human happiness. Instead of the law of entail, it would 
 have been a better law to have provided that no one should 
 own more land than was necessary for the comfort of 
 himself and familv durinsf their natural lives. 
 
 ■ til'-" 
 
 ONE OF THE OLDEST SONS. 
 
 "While the evil effect of such a law was plain to our 
 forefathers, and is plain to us, you will ask yourselves the 
 question, why the people of England have permitted it ? 
 It is because the dependent people, in currying favor with 
 those who possess the wealth and control employment, 
 give willing submission to conditions as they are; and
 
 16 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 know, as a rule, that agitation and resentment at condi- 
 tions may deprive them of temporary food and shelter. 
 
 "It is also true," continued the little philosopher, "that 
 people may become accustomed to a system of laws, and, 
 never having known anything else, many adjust them- 
 selves to it as right — they find that public opinion accepts 
 it as right— a public opinion moulded by the dominant 
 classes — and thus surrounded on all hands by fixed con- 
 ditions and customs, the young man or young woman 
 coming of age, accepts the situation as it exists — and does 
 not seek to change it. This is mainly true in England and 
 among the other Monarchies and effete nations. I do not 
 mean that all of the people in these countries have been 
 broken in courage and have surrendered hope, but the de- 
 pendency of their position, makes it possible for the law 
 of entail, or any other class law, to remain undisturbed in 
 those nations. In time people become accustomed to an 
 erroneous system and regard it as right. They patch it 
 up and blunder along, enduring the ills they have, and 
 never think of overturning it and rebuilding the founda- 
 tion. 
 
 "We, too, have laws," continued the boy schoolmaster, 
 "that are as effectually reducing our people to tenantry 
 and dependency as the land law of England has assisted 
 in thus placing the people there. And the trouble with us, 
 as it has been with all people similarly situated, is to have 
 them understand that it is the effect of lazi's that is thus 
 working their ruin — and to have those who become de- 
 pendants to not lose courage, and to assist in their own 
 emancipation." 
 
 At this point, Mr. Edward Jarvis of Benton Harbor, 
 Michigan, rose in the audience and said : "You have 
 made very plain the effect of the law of entail of Eng- 
 land; so plain that I think any one not living under its
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 17 
 
 influence can understand it, and I suppose and hope that 
 you are going to make equally as plain the dangerous 
 class laws that we have with us. But, here is my ques- 
 tion: Wherein will our people differ in subserviences, 
 and in respect to that influence that operates on depend- 
 ants, from the people of England? We come mainly of 
 the Anglo-Saxon stock, the same as England ; and if the 
 people of England will. submit to class laws that reduce 
 
 The rise and decline of . ^ 
 civili7ation may be naarl<^ // 
 by the Increase or decrease 
 in home-ownership. Mo nation 
 can be truly great where 
 /' a majority op the f-amilies 
 t^^^and not owners 
 ?nes. 
 
 them to tenantry and a Monarchy, wherein will our peo- 
 ple act differently ?" 
 
 "In the case of every Republic," replied COIN, "that 
 has gone down to its ruin, there is a dead line, which 
 when crossed hope becomes extinct. With us, we have 
 not yet crossed the dead line. When one is a tenant, or 
 dependant, and his father and grandfather before him 
 were such, hope, as a rule, dies out, and he no longer takes 
 an interest in public questions, except for temporary per- 
 sonal gain. But with us. most of those who are now de-
 
 18 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 pendants remember their fathers as home owners and in- 
 dependent of any one for means of employment ; and they 
 have not lost hope of their emancipation. The remedy is 
 education and organization. The people must be moulded 
 into a thunderbolt for their deliverance, — and it must be 
 through education and organization. 
 
 "It is true," continued COIN, "that the ruling classes 
 will try to exert their influence on those dependent on 
 them, and on those, both men and women, who naturally 
 toady to a vain aristocracy, and in many instances will 
 succeed; but with able executive leaders, who know the 
 value of time, we can, through education and organiza- 
 tion, hold intact the masses of the people, overthrow class 
 rulers, and advance rapidly the cause of mankind. Poli- 
 ticians who know the influence class rulers have had on 
 dependants will naturally gravitate to the political party 
 that champions the cause of the classes; but statesmen 
 will arise to take their places, and assist those we now 
 have, in leading the producers — farmers and other labor- 
 ers — in a successful peaceful revolution." 
 
 This opinion of the little statesman was received with 
 applause, and Herman Buscher, a boy about seventeen 
 years of age, rose and asked COIN if he would not make 
 plainer whom he meant by "dependants." 
 
 "One who is able," replied COIN, "to initiate employ- 
 ment for himself, or who is able to live without employ- 
 ment, is independent of others for the necessities of life, — 
 he is an independent citizen. A dependant is one who 
 must depend on some one else for employment, and who is 
 not possessed of means sufficient to live without employ- 
 ment. Those who are dependent," concluded COIN, "are 
 interested in opening up opportunities by which they may 
 become independent, — work at which they may be their 
 own masters. A farmer with an unmortgaged farm is
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 19 
 
 independent, can initiate his own employment ; a wage 
 earner is dependent on some one else for employment. 
 
 "The nearer a Republic," he con- 
 tinued, "becomes a nation of home 
 owners and a people with independent 
 employment, the nearer it approaches 
 to a true Democracy, — which means 
 the promotion and development of the 
 human race. And the nearer a Re- 
 public approaches a nation of tenants 
 and dependants, the nearer it comes 
 to a Monarchy or Empire, — which 
 means the slavery and crucifixion of 
 the human race. When a nation, 
 filled with dependants, becomes a 
 Monarchy, these dependants or their 
 offspring, eventually become serfs — 
 without ambition or aspiration, de- 
 graded creatures, without hope of the 
 future." 
 
 And with this COIN closed, saying that as it was the 
 first day he wished the boys present to think about what 
 had been said before proceeding further. All present 
 seemed to be pleased with what he had said, and by their 
 expressions seemed to think the little fellow was thus far 
 unassailable. There were men present, however, who it 
 was known intended to attack him at what they would 
 regard the first opportunity. 
 
 A COMPOSITE PICTURE 
 
 OF FIVE SERFS IN THAT 
 
 MANY MONARCHlEa 
 
 END OP FIRST LESSON.
 
 CHAPTER It. 
 
 The Second Day, 
 
 The news columns of the morning papers of Tuesday 
 contained a very fair account of the first day of the 
 School. There was none of the usual abuse that it had 
 been the practice of some of these papers to emit against 
 those who would change existing conditions. Editorially, 
 the Chicago papers were silent. If it was the intention 
 to assail the little fellow, in the judgment of their editors, 
 the time to do so had not yet arrived. Editorially they 
 said nothing. 
 
 It proved, however, to be the calm before the storm 
 that in the days to follow broke with all its fury upon the 
 head of the little champion of popular liberty. 
 
 Those who had attended the first day received tickets 
 that would admit them to all the days of the School, and 
 they were again in their seats on the second day, with the 
 hall filled to its full capacity, when COIN came on the 
 platform. 
 
 "Yesterday," he began, "we considered the truths on 
 which human government should be founded; and the 
 principles that must be observed to aid the people in per- 
 fecting such a government as is desired. Also, we 
 learned the difiference between a Monarchy and a Democ- 
 racy ; that the former stands for the protection of class 
 rulers; and that it is through the latter that the people 
 may hope for the perfection of civil government. 
 
 "We are now to consider wherein class laws are affect- 
 ing us in this nation. We cannot hope to make the same 
 progress in being quickly understood, when dissecting 
 our own class legislation as when speaking of a class 
 
 20
 
 MONEY. TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 21 
 
 law of another nation ; a law that does not exist with us. 
 When we assail a class law that exists here, those bene- 
 fited by it, as a rule, are perfectly blind as to the injustice 
 such a law inflicts upon others. It is good for them, and 
 their unconscious selfishness finds ample reason to Justify 
 the law. Their influence, as a rule, dominates those 
 whose business is connected with theirs, or benefited 
 thereby. Also those who hold the chief salaried positions 
 in business founded on class laws. All these will more 
 or less bitterly oppose us. Another class of people that 
 we can hope to do but little with are those who toady 
 to the vain and rich. 
 
 "But, nevertheless," the little statesman continued, "if 
 we manage well, a majority of the people in the United 
 States will come under the in- 
 fluence of the truth and unite 
 for their protection. Those from 
 whom tribute is being exacted by 
 the classes are the more nu- 
 merous, and, their efl:"orts well 
 directed, will save this nation 
 before it crosses the dead line. 
 Class legislation to many of the 
 people is a sealed book. They do 
 not understand the effect of laws 
 in reducing them to tenantry and 
 dependency — that the evil effect 
 of some laws may be to de- 
 stroy manhood and womanhood — and a people and a 
 nation. Environed as we are," raising both his hands 
 and looking about him, "by these class influences around 
 and about us — that will embarrass our efforts — yet let us 
 have courage to proceed. All is at stake ! No one, should 
 envy the doom of a people, destroyed through their igno- 
 
 ENVIRONED A3 WE ARE," RAIS- 
 ING HIS HANDS AND LOOK- 
 ING ABOUT HIM.
 
 23 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 ranee. Our course is the only one and it leads to a bet- 
 ter world ! 
 
 "As we proceed, do not understand me to be arraying 
 you against the rich, as such. There is nothing to be 
 made by railing at the rich, simply because they are rich. 
 The poor, as a rule, would act just as the rich act, if the 
 situation was reversed. Covetousness, that disregards 
 the natural rights of others, exists with many people in 
 all grades of life — the poor, as well as the rich. All such 
 need an education that enlarges the soul, broadens the 
 niind and loosens the ligaments of covetousness from 
 around the heart. 
 
 "Chief among the class laws," he continued, "that are 
 destroying us, that are silently transferring the property 
 of the many to the few, that are reducing the nation to 
 tenantry, and the people to dependants, are our financial 
 laws. As efifectually and more so, is it doing this, than 
 the law of entail in time reduced the people of England 
 and Scotland and Ireland to tenantry. 
 
 "Money is a necessity in civilization. You cannot be 
 a part of civilization without it. Civilization cannot exist 
 without it. To be a part of society, money is as necessary 
 to you as air and water. Imagine yourself without it, 
 continuously without it, and then imagine what would be 
 your condition. Say you live four miles from this hall; 
 you would have to walk home ; not being a producer of 
 things to eat, you would probably need money with 
 which to buy food, and later something to wear. The 
 producer uses it to buy those things which he does not 
 produce. Without it you would live longer than you 
 v/ould without air or water, but you would not be a part 
 of civilization. 
 
 "Money is a medium of exchange, making possible di- 
 versified business and employment, by which people may
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 23 
 
 separate themselves from the soil that produces ; and en- 
 gage in numerous other occupations, in the arts and 
 sciences, in trade and commerce, in education and the 
 mechanics, and other useful things. All this is possible 
 with a medium of exchange. Without it this partial civil- 
 ization that we have reared would sink back into semi- 
 savagery. The total absence of money would drive people 
 from business. We would then deal by barter and 
 trade as the half-naked and uncivilized people do. 
 
 BEING WITHOUT MONEY THEY EXCHANGE ARTICLES. 
 
 "When you place such a necessity for our happiness 
 and existence in the hands of a class of men, to decide 
 for us how much of it society needs, to issue it and to 
 receive from the people a toll for its use, you may form 
 an impression as to the effect that might be expected in 
 clogging a civilization that might be grander and greater
 
 24 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 and more beautiful than this which we now have. You 
 cannot trust the air that surrounds us or the water of the 
 earth to a class of men to deal in for a profit. Nor can 
 you with safety leave it to a class of men, who deal in 
 money for profit, to say how much money shall be put in 
 circulation, what it shall exist of, when issued and ho\\ 
 regulated? Money is as necessary to civilization as air 
 and water is to animal life. The most dangerous of all 
 our class legislation is that which applies to money. 
 
 "And when you trust such a necessity to a class of 
 men who are fortune hunters, engaged in private busi- 
 ness, to issue, and expand, and contract, the quantity at 
 their pleasure, this class of men will take advantage of 
 such a law for their enrichment. As it may be used 
 for great benefit, so it may be used for great injury 
 when controlled by selfish men. 
 
 "Money is the blood of commerce, and, without it, com- 
 merce would stop ! When the men of commerce per- 
 mit a class of men who deal in money, for profit, to tell 
 them and fix for them what is necessary as to money, it 
 may be expected to end in the money dealers owning all 
 that the men of commerce possess. And those who study 
 civilization from a love of offspring and mankind, should 
 not allow the life-giving fiuid of civilization to be regu- 
 lated by a class of men who deal in it "for gain. 
 
 "By a system of false education the people have been 
 accustomed to think that the men who deal in money 
 know best what laws should be enacted concerning it. 
 The money dealers have encouraged this idea. And this 
 belief has given the money dealers the opportunity they 
 desired, in influencing legislation in the interest of their 
 class. They have also used the opportunity to fill all the 
 government positions through which money is handled 
 and regulated, with men of their class. A money dealer
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 25 
 
 LYMAN J. GAGE, A BANKER 
 
 AND SECRETARY OF 
 
 THE TREASURY. 
 
 is Secretary of the nation's Treasury ; another is Comp- 
 troller of the Currency ; they fill the positions of superin- 
 tendents in the mints and sub-treasuries, and their ad- 
 vice is taken as to all laws and 
 measures respecting this great ne- 
 cessity in which they deal. 
 
 "The laws, these men who deal 
 in money have had passed to benefit 
 their class, are numerous, and each 
 new one has added to their wealth 
 until, as we will see later, the bulk 
 of all net earnings of the whole 
 people is being annually paid over 
 to them. 
 
 "Their principal business is to 
 loan money for interest. That is, 
 they charge for the use of money, 
 which is called 'interest.' Up to about fifty years ago it was 
 called 'usury,' but since then it is called 'interest.' The 
 word 2tsitry as used in the Bible means interest — one per 
 cent was usury. There have been 
 many laws made fixing a rate of 
 interest beyond which it was unlawful 
 to charge, and the word 'usury' is 
 now used to mean 'interest' in excess 
 of the legal rate, instead of meaning 
 interest for any sum, as before. As 
 the principal business of money deal- 
 ers is to loan money for interest, they ^"e^r^and comptroller*^' 
 are as often called 'money lenders.' °^ "^"^ currency. 
 They are called 'money dealers' because they deal in 
 money; and 'money lenders' because they lend money. 
 "What I have said, as to the necessity of money im- 
 presses itself upon us at every turn in life. So great is
 
 26 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 its necessity that by example it is impressed on the little 
 child at three and four years of age, who knows what it 
 is and its use. You can do without bread and be healthy 
 and happy. You can do without meat and be healthy 
 and happy. And yet these two things are known as 
 necessities. You cannot do without money and be a part 
 of civilization. It is a necessity. 
 
 "There is as much reason for a normal supply of money 
 — a greater necessity — as there is for a normal supply 
 of wheat. The first great injury the money lenders do 
 is in holding down the supply of money. The money 
 lenders aim to hold down the supply of money so as to 
 ply their trade of loaning what money they have, and 
 which they use for that purpose. 
 
 "A normal supply of money for the United States is 
 the quantity necessary for use in the exchange of all 
 products, for conducting all business, and travel, and 
 education, and the expenses of running the government. 
 
 "The quantity of money necessary to carry on, easily 
 and without friction, all these exchanges of services and 
 property and products, is what would be called a normal 
 supply 
 
 "We ascertain what this is, at the present time, by 
 inquiring into how much money it takes to do all this. 
 We first find that all the money in existence in the United 
 States at the present time, outside of the national Treas- 
 ury, is about $2,000,000,000. The money necessary to 
 pay the running expense of the national government at 
 the present time is about $600,000,000 annually, or about 
 one-third of the amount in existence, to say nothing of the 
 expense of running the state and county and city govern- 
 ments, and the exchange of products and services between 
 the people. 
 
 "We next find that our producers and business men
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 27 
 
 are borrowing, in order to make the exchanges, to secure 
 sufficient money to do so. One class of the money lend- 
 ers own banks, where money is loaned on short time, 
 usually from 30 to 90 days with a charge for the use 
 of it. Here we find, by the report of the Comptroller of 
 the Currency, just issued, that our business men, in order 
 to get sufficient money to perform the exchanges, have 
 borrowed $5,751,467,610, or about three times as much 
 money as there is in existence — have borrowed it from 
 the bankers. From one end of the year to the other, the 
 
 IT KNOWS WHAT MONEY IS. 
 
 average of money thus obtained with which to make the 
 exchanges is about three times the actual money in 
 existence. There are about 12,804 of these banks, and 
 from their reports to the Comptroller of the Currency, 
 we get these facts. There are many other money lend- 
 ers who are not bankers and who mainly loan on longer 
 time, but the banks loan mainly to business men. What 
 little they loan to other than business men is more than
 
 28 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 offset by money the business men borrow from other than 
 bankers. 
 
 "So that we find, in addition to the $2,000,000,000 in 
 existence, that has been issued from the Treasury, of 
 money of all kinds, gold, silver, nickel, copper and paper, 
 it takes as much as $5,750,000,000 more to answer the 
 purpose of the business men in making the exchanges 
 of services and products. And, in order to get the addi- 
 tional $5,750,000,000, the business men who are not 
 bankers are paying to the bankers annually, in interest, 
 the sum of three hundred and forty-five million dollars. 
 It is this much, at the average rate of six per cent. Some 
 are paying more than this rate and some less. It will 
 average six per cent. 
 
 "You will naturally ask yourself the question, 'How 
 can the banks loan $5,751,467,610, when there are only 
 $2,000,000,000 in existence?' When I have answered 
 that question you will understand why the money lenders 
 want to hold down the supply of money. 
 
 "A bank loans, say, $10,000 to the Revell Furniture 
 Company. It takes the Furniture Company's note for 
 that amount, deducts $600 for interest at 6 per cent, 
 which they call discount, and pays Mr. Revell $9,400. 
 The $600, remains in the bank, the money of the bank, 
 and Mr. Revell deposits the $9,400 to his credit, on which 
 he draws checks. So that none of the money has thus 
 far passed out of the bank. A few minutes thereafter 
 the manager, we will say, of the McClure Book Com- 
 pany, walks into the bank and asks for a loan of $10,000. 
 The bank complies with the request, takes the note of the 
 McClure Book Company for $10,000, takes $600 out of 
 the loan and hands the manager of the book company a 
 slip to the paying teller for $9,400. The book manager 
 has the $9,400 placed to the credit of the McClure Book
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 29 
 
 Company, sees that it is entered on his pass-book and 
 walks out. Again the bank h&s retained $600 and the 
 $9,400 is left in the bank to be checked on. 
 
 "Thus far not a cent has left the bank and the bank 
 has made $1,200. As the manager of the book company 
 is leaving the bank, in walks, say, Mr. Kohlsaat, the pub- 
 lisher of a Chicago newspaper, and he, too, asks for a 
 loan of $10,000. The bank 'accommodates' him. He, 
 too, signs a note for $10,000 and gets a check on the 
 paying teller for $9,400, which he has credited to him- 
 self on his pass-book and walks out. The bank has now 
 loaned $10,000 three times, has received $1,800 in inter- 
 est, and not a dollar of the money has as yet left the 
 bank. 
 
 "Usually business men borrow from the bank at which 
 they keep their accounts. But whether this always hap- 
 pens or not, about 80 per cent of all money in existence 
 stays in the banks. You may give a check on your account 
 to some one who deposits it in another bank, but on the 
 average the bank you use will have as much deposited 
 during the day in money, and checks on other banks, as 
 is drawn from it. Probably not to exceed an average of 
 FIVE dollars per capita is carried by the people in their 
 pockets; which for seventy millions of people means 
 three hundred and fifty million dollars that is outside 
 the banks. This leaves about $1,650,000,000 that remains 
 as an average in the banks. A little is filtering in and a 
 little is filtering out, answering for pocket money, or 
 temporarily for cash transactions requiring the money 
 itself, but the bulk of the money, or as much as 80 per 
 cent of it, remains in the banks. And in this way it 
 is made possible for the bank to loan to the Revell Furni- 
 ture Company, the AlcClure Book Company and Mr.
 
 30 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 Kohlsaat each $10,000, be $1,800 ahead in the joint trans- 
 action and still have the $10,000 on hand. 
 
 "It cannot repeat the process any further, as experience 
 in banking shows that from 25 to 35 per cent of as much 
 money should be kept on hand as there is on deposit ; and 
 the bankers have permitted Congress to say that 25 per 
 cent of a reserve shall be kept on hand. If the original 
 $10,000, loaned, belonged to a depositor, say, by the name 
 of John Smith, after the bank has loaned it three times, 
 its books will show as follows : 
 
 To the credit of John Smith $10,000 
 
 To the credit of Revell Furniture Co. 9,400 
 
 To the credit of McClure Book Co.. 9,400 
 
 To the credit of Mr. Kohlsaat 9,400 
 
 Total amount subject to check. . . $38,200 
 
 > 
 
 The bank will have John Smith's $10,000 on hand, a 
 little more than 25 per cent of the amount subject to 
 check. If the original $10,000 loaned, the three times, 
 belonged to the bank, it will have in money about 35 per 
 cent of a reserve. The bankers estimate that the money 
 coming in and going out of their banks will about ofifset 
 each other, but that in any event 25 per cent of cash on 
 hand is sufficient leeway to be enabled at all times to 
 cash the current checks of the day with actual money; 
 except in time of panics causing runs on the bank. This 
 they take chances on, but of late are devising a clearing 
 house certificate plan so as not to be much disturbed by 
 such a contingency. 
 
 "So we understand how it is that the bank takes 
 $10,000 and stretches it out three times and get 6 per 
 cent on each transaction or 18 per cent in all on the 
 actual amount of money used. And by deducting the
 
 MUNEY, Ti'lUSTS, lAli'iiRlALISxM. ol 
 
 interest in advance, gets about 20 per cent, or about six 
 and two-thirds per cent on each transaction. 
 
 "And," continued the httle financier, "in this way the 
 banks take the $2,000,000,000 in existence in the United 
 States, or rather the $1,650,000,000, about, in the banks, 
 and stretch it out Hke a piece of rubber, till it is $5,751,- 
 467,610; and receive in discounts, about, three hundred 
 and forty-five million dollars annually for performing the 
 stretching process. One end of the rubber they are 
 stretching is against the faces of the people and the 
 bankers hold the other end — and, periodically, the bank- 
 ers let loose of their end. The depositors think they 
 have $5,751,467,610 of money on deposit, but they have 
 not. It is not money. The banks have loaned the same 
 money three times. 
 
 "What all this means is that experience shows that it 
 takes as much as $5,750,000,000, added to the three hun- 
 dred and fifty million, the probable amount in the pockets 
 of the people, or in all about six billion dollars, to perform 
 the exchanges of the people in the United States, and to 
 get that much — a normal supply of money — the people 
 are paying to the bankers, in interest, as much as three 
 hundred and forty-five million dollars annually. 
 
 "You will thus understand why it is that the bankers 
 are interested in holding down the quantity of money, 
 of closing the mints to silver, or of otherwise limiting the 
 supply of money. It is in order that they may supply 
 the deficiency by loaning the same money over and over 
 again and again. And this is only one of the ways in 
 which the bankers are profiting by laws that work a 
 benefit to their class." 
 
 Thus far COIN had proceeded without any interrup- 
 tion. Mr. John D. Laws, a bank president, here rose and 
 vigorously propounded several questions. He said:
 
 o2 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "Is it not a fact that by having banks in which to deposit 
 money and the use of checks, in place of handhng money, 
 that the use of money is enlarged and business facili- 
 tated?" 
 
 "Yes," replied COIN, "but postal savings banks would 
 answer the same purpose. And such a system would not 
 cost the people any more than what the banks now collect 
 
 PERIODICALLY THEY LET LOOSE OF THEIR END. 
 
 in the way of exchange on drafts." Many of the people 
 present lustily applauded this answer. And then COIN 
 added: "We could have a normal supply of money, a 
 place to deposit it in postal savings banks for safe keep- 
 ing, draw checks on it, the same as now, and do away 
 with a privileged class, that is imposing unnecessarily on 
 our business men a charge of as much as $345,000,000 
 annually; who are responsible for the demonetization 
 of silver and otherwise meddling, interfering and clog-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 33 
 
 ging a natural money supply." This also was applauded. 
 But Mr. Laws remained standing. 
 
 "It makes no difference how large the volume of 
 money may be," said Mr. Laws, "there would be men 
 without it, or without sufficient at times, and they would 
 have to borrow money to tide them over. And without 
 banks to loan money there would be no elasticity to our 
 currency? The banking system that we have is not an 
 evil, as you make it, but a necessity and a benefit." He 
 made this statement and paused, still standing. 
 
 'Tf we had a normal supply of money," replied COIN, 
 '■'there would be no general necessity for borrowing 
 money. And those who might require loans to tide them 
 over should be allowed to borrow from the postal sav- 
 ings banks at one per cent per annum, the same rate at 
 which the banks now borrow from the government." The 
 quick retort of the little fellow flashed before the audi- 
 ence and then went home. There were many present 
 who knew what he meant, as did the banker, and later 
 on in the School this privilege of the bankers to borrow 
 money from the government at one per cent a year, was 
 explained. COIN had not finished with his answer, and 
 proceeded : 
 
 "If there was a normal supply of money in existence 
 there would not be that enforced borrowing that now 
 exists, with such a tribute imposed on the people as is 
 $345,000,000, or more, annually. And if the postal 
 banks loaned money, on approved collateral, such as the 
 banks would loan money on, and loaned it at one or two 
 per cent, it would be a better system than the one we now 
 have. It would drive out of business the money lenders 
 who could not compete with the postal banks at one per 
 cent or two per cent, and would practically put an end to 
 the class known as money lenders, except those who
 
 34 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 deposit in savings banks for a rainy day. It would end 
 the existence of a class of men who are imposing an 
 assessment of as much as $345,000,000, annually, on the 
 business industry of the nation. You say," he continued, 
 looking directly at Mr. Laws, "that your class is a 'bene- 
 fit'? Your class encourages the borrowing of money at 
 a rate, that as a rule, the net profits of useful business 
 will not repay, and 'once in debt, always in debt,' with the 
 debt increasing, is the rule. If a better system can be 
 substituted for it, your class will not be missed. You 
 are a nice people and an honorable set of gentlemen and 
 we must continue to do business with you, more or less, 
 until another system is adopted. It is not you, but the 
 system, that is wrong. A system that has encouraged you 
 to secure and defend the laws that profit your class. Your 
 class does not make anything to eat or wear, and never 
 made a blade of grass grow. You claim to be a necessary 
 part of civilization in that you accommodate business men 
 by receiving their money, cashing their checks, and loan- 
 ing them money. But if another system can be substi- 
 tuted for yours that does all that your system does with- 
 out the evil that your system is charged with, what 
 objection could there be to it?" 
 
 "The postal banks," Mr. Laws replied, "would not be 
 safely conducted as are banks of private ownership, and 
 bad loans would be made, resulting in great loss to the 
 government." 
 
 "You are wrong, for this reason," replied COIN : "Ex- 
 perience shows that the government bank examiners are 
 a check on banks and that bad loans are quickly detected, 
 as postal examiners quickly detect fraud in that service. 
 And again, the temptation to reduce the reserve, that more 
 profits might be made, would not exist in the postal 
 banks, as is the case now with present banks. And again,
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 35 
 
 with a normal suppl}' of money, there would be very httle 
 borrowing; and a higher order of integrity generally. 
 
 "We in America," he continued, "ought to all agree 
 that it would be good for England to pass a law that 
 would break up the entailed estates and make it possible 
 for more people to own homes. Do away with a landed 
 aristocracy. And we ought to agree if there is good 
 reason for it, that there should be a normal supply of 
 money, and a class of men abolished who have it in their 
 power to assess our people as much as $345,000,000, annu- 
 ally. Thus making it possible for our people to get more 
 money, the greatest agency there is, made by man, in 
 civilization." 
 
 "I would like to ask," said Edward G. Renesch, a 
 young man about 20 years of age, "if one per cent a 
 year would pay the expense of the government connected 
 with loaning money through the postal banks?" 
 
 "Yes," replied COIN. "The government now loans 
 to national banks money at the rate of one per cent per 
 annum, and the one per cent more than pays all the ex- 
 penses and risk connected therewith. It costs about two- 
 fifths, and the banks are now asking Congress to reduce 
 the rate from one per cent per annum to two-fifths of one 
 per cent. And some of the banks want it reduced to one- 
 tenth of one per cent. The one per cent per annum is 
 ample to cover all expenses and risk incurred, when put 
 on a business basis. 
 
 "The remedy," h^e continued, "is postal savings banks, 
 that will receive the savings of the people and pay interest 
 at the rate of two or three per cent on savings of those 
 who deposit their money, on long time, as is now done 
 in savings banks. Reloan such money on long time at the 
 same rate with one per cent added. And receive money 
 deposited, subject to check, paying no interest thereon.
 
 36 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 as is now the case in the present banks, and loaning such 
 money to business men on short paper, 30 to 90 days, at 
 one and not to exceed two per cent. The working people 
 who would put their savings in the postal banks would be 
 protected and not be subjected to risk and loss as they 
 are now in the present banks. Our business men would 
 get all the money their paper w'ould warrant, at not to 
 exceed two per cent, and probably at one per cent. And 
 with a normal amount of money being in circulation 
 there would be less borrowing." 
 
 Mn Henry C. Simms of Huntington, West Va., now 
 rose and said: 
 
 "The true principle of Democracy is to have as few 
 laws as possible. Inhibitions and prohibitions, and a 
 law-ruled people is the opposite of Democracy. The gov- 
 ernment should have a hand in as few things as possible 
 and let the people run themselves. And for this reason 
 I object to the government going into the banking busi- 
 ness." And saying this he sat down. 
 
 "In the main you are right," replied COIN. "There 
 are certain things, however, that the government must do. 
 It is best that it should do so, and, where to do so en- 
 courages individual effort. Democracy consists in pro' 
 tecting the individual in enjoying life, liberty and happi- 
 ness. It is in doing this that the government provides for 
 money. The issuing of money is a government function. 
 It guarantees a common medium of exchange through- 
 out the nation. And, it is as important to protect the 
 money as it is to make it. We are now a law-ruled 
 people placed at the mercy of the banks. When you take 
 away the laws from under the banks, they disappear. 
 When you do so, we should be ready with a substitute, 
 that everything may go off smoothly on putting in the 
 new machinery. In the case of money, legal machinery
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 37 
 
 of some kind is necessary, and it is best to get better and 
 more improved machinery than that which we now have. 
 A democracy cannot get along without laws entirely. It 
 must have a constitution and a few other laws; and the 
 most important of all, is the law that provides for issuing 
 and protecting its money. Either the government must 
 run the banks or the banks will run the government." 
 
 A boy by the name of George Baldwin, sitting in one 
 of the front seats, wanted to know if the postal bank- 
 ing system had not been established in England. 
 
 "What is called a postal banking system," replied 
 COIN, "has been established in England, and the same 
 system is being encouraged by the bankers in this coun- 
 try. It is this : Postal banks to receive savings and pay 
 interest at the rate of 2 per cent ; but the function of 
 the postal banks to stop at that; to loan no money and 
 take no money subject to 
 every day checks. The na- 
 tional banks are interested in 
 getting all the money deposi- 
 ted with them that they can, 
 to reloan on the 'i8 per cent 
 plan,' and they find that many 
 people save money at home 
 and will not trust it with the 
 present banks. And, in time 
 of panics draw their money 
 out of the present banks. The 
 bankers' plan of a savings 
 bank — the same as that in 
 England — is to get the people 
 who are afraid of the present banks to deposit it in the 
 government's postal savings banks, thus having the gov- 
 ernment responsible to the depositors, insuring confi- 
 
 BY GOSH, I WASN'T ON TO 'EM 
 BEFORE!
 
 38 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 dence ; and then having this same money redeposited by 
 the government in the national banks. This is the way 
 it is in England and the way the bankers want it in this 
 country." 
 
 As COIN closed the last sentence, an old gentleman 
 with long pointed chin whiskers who sat immediately in 
 front of him was audibly moved and heard all over the 
 hall as he pulled at the end of his beard and said: *'By 
 gosh, I wasn't on to 'em before !" 
 
 "The bankers," continued the little financier, "do not 
 object to the postal banking system so long as it assists 
 their system, but do object to it if it is to compete with 
 them." 
 
 Here COIN was again interrupted, this time by Mr. 
 Hamilton Myers, who said he was from Texas, with this 
 question : "I do not understand clearly how it is that the 
 banks loan the same money three times, and wish you 
 would explain it again." 
 
 COIN again explained it, very much the same as be- 
 fore, but went further, as evidently from his preparation 
 he intended to do when interrupted. Additional to what 
 he had said is the following: 
 
 "According to the Treasury report just issued, the total 
 stock of money in the United States, outside of the na- 
 tional Treasury, is $1,^6^,^16,148. I heretofore said it 
 was about $2,000,000,000, which was stating the sum in 
 round numbers, and taking Mr. Gage's statement as true, 
 for its full significance. 
 
 "Mr. Chas. G. Dawes, the Comptroller of the Cur- 
 rency, has recently issued his report and from it I read 
 you the following paragraphs from pages 21 and 22: 
 
 "Number of banks, 12,804; total loans and discounts, 
 $5,751,467,610.
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 39 
 
 "Number of banks, 12,804; total individual deposits, 
 
 $7.5i3>954>36i." 
 
 The little schoolmaster then took from his portfolio a 
 card containing the three statements of national Treasury 
 officials, and put the card on an easel. Continuing he 
 said : 
 
 "I now ask any banker present how it is possible to 
 take $1,963,716,148 and make deposits with it to the 
 
 [I TWO STATEMENTS. 
 
 ' The total stock of money in tlie 
 United States outside the 
 
 treasury, Nov. 1, 1899, is $1,963,716,148 
 
 L. J. GAGE, 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 Total loans and discounts of 
 12, oM banks in the United 
 
 States are $5,751,467,610 
 
 The total individual deposits of 
 
 the 12,804 banks are 7,513,954,301 
 
 CHARLES G. DAWES, 
 Comptroller of the Currency. i!i 
 Sept. 7. 1899. g 
 
 \ 
 
 amount of $7,513,954,361 in any other way than that 
 which I have explained? And I put the same question 
 to the daily newspapers that will appear to-morrow morn- 
 ing in this city." 
 
 No one answered the little fellow, though all were 
 listening intently at what he was saying, and he had 
 paused for a reply. He continued : 
 
 "If you will take the deposits, $7,513,954,361, and de-
 
 •iO MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 duct the loans and discounts, $5,751,467,610, you will get 
 the actual amount of money in the hands of the banks. 
 I will show you the result,"' he said, and drew another 
 card from the portfolio and put in on the easel. 
 
 Deposits $7,513,954,361 
 
 Loans and discounts 5,751,467,610 
 
 Money in the banks $1,762,486,751. 
 
 A FIXAXCIAL STATEMENT. 
 
 Deposits $7,513,954,361 
 
 Loans and discounts 5,751,467,610 
 
 Money in the banks $1,762,486,751 
 
 OR THIS WAY: 
 
 Money in the banks |1,7C2,4?6,751 
 
 Loans and discounts 5,751,467,610 
 
 Total deposits $7,513,954,361 
 
 
 "The $1,762,486,751 represents the quantity of money 
 the bankers have stretched out by their process to repre- 
 sent $7,513,954,361 on deposit with them; and in like 
 manner are enabled to collect interest and discounts on 
 $5,751,467,610. Or another way to state it is this: The 
 loans of $5,751,467,610 placed to the credit of the bor-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 41 
 
 rowers, added to the real quantity used, makes the total 
 deposits $7,513,954,361." 
 
 "Then, as I understand you, ' said Judge Dunne of 
 Chicago, "it is really not money they loan, but credit?" 
 
 "Wind ! !'' yelled ^Ir. J. P. Vandusen, who sat in the 
 rear of the audience. 
 
 "What they do," said COIN, "is to substitute credit for 
 the money necessary to run the commerce and business 
 of the nation, at an annual expense to the people, at pres- 
 ent, of about 345 million dollars. A normal amount of 
 money would take the place of the credit with no special 
 privilege to this class of men, or such ruinous expense to 
 the people. 
 
 "I will now take the case of an individual bank," he 
 continued, "and show you how a bank can loan money at 
 six per cent and declare dividends for more than six per 
 cent." 
 
 "That's the stuft!" said John P. Hennessey, an ex- 
 retail merchant in Chicago, who was sold out for debt 
 after renewing his loans for many years with the banks. 
 
 "]\Ir. Lyman J. Gage," continued COIN, "is the present 
 Secretary of the Treasury. We will take his bank, the 
 First National Bank of this city. I will first put on the 
 easel the statement of that bank just issued." He paused, 
 and taking another one of the large cards, with letters 
 and figures on it so large that all could see them from 
 their seats, placed it on the easel. 
 
 "The statement, as you will observe," continued the lit- 
 tle statesman, "does not give the dividends. I will now 
 read you from a book issued by the Chicago Directory 
 Company, entitled, 'Chicago Securities.' It says under the 
 head of 'The First National Bank,' 'quarterly dividends 
 of J per cent are paid/ which amounts to 12 per cent
 
 43 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 per annum. I will also state that tzvelve per cent is the 
 usual, regular annual dividends of that bank. 
 
 "We further see from the statement, on the easel, that 
 it has a surplus fund of $2,000,000. A surplus fund, in 
 a bank statement, means undivided profits. We also see 
 that in addition to the $2,000,000 undivided profits, it 
 has 'other undivided profits' of $505,855.67; or a total of 
 undivided profits of $2,505,855.67; or the equivalent of 
 
 STATEMENT OF FIRST NATIONAL BANK 
 
 ASSETS. 
 
 Leans and discounts...^ J21,824.263.7S 
 
 United States bonds (par value) 573,500.00 
 
 Otter bonds and Blocks (market vjlae) , 3,76(.202.7} 
 
 Premium on United States bonds 64.218 . 76 
 
 Due from banks (eastern excta.) .(9^93,442.39 
 
 Checks tor clearing-bouse 1,881,047.87 
 
 Cash cm hand 8,604.749.74 
 
 Dae from United States Ucasurer. 38.500.00 tl9.917,T40.00 
 «4».135,926.21 
 LIABILITIES. 
 
 Capita! stock paid In '. f J.OOO.OOO.OO 
 
 Surplus (und 2,000.000.00 
 
 Other uDdi>lded proflts 505,855.67 
 
 Circulating notes ( 110.000. 0» 
 
 Leas amount on hand 110.000.00 
 
 DeposiU , 43,630.069-54 
 
 .149,135,925.21 
 
 ,uiut.;tj-,^Jihin'iM\\i'Jiiy/)'i!x'x'jV- 
 
 a special dividend of eighty-three per cent on its capital 
 stock of $3,000,000, with which it is carrying on its money 
 lending business. 
 
 "The present First National Bank of Chicago was or- 
 ganized in May, 1882, and its shares of $100 each are now 
 worth $330 each. You cannot buy it for less. So, we 
 see by taking an individual case, how men of this class 
 can make twelve per cent a year on their money invested
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 43 
 
 in this business, pay $25,000 salary to their president, pay 
 all other expenses, lay aside 83 per cent in undivided 
 profits, and at the end of seventeen years be able to market 
 their stock for three and three-tenths times its face value. 
 There is no other business in the United States outside 
 of the privileged classes that can make this remarkable 
 showing. It is a business founded wholly on class laws 
 for the benefit of bankers. Under such a law it is only 
 a question of time when one per cent of the people will 
 own all the property and 99 per cent of the people will be 
 tenants." 
 
 Referring again to the First National Bank statement, 
 COIN said: "From the $8,604,749.74 cash on hand de- 
 duct the capital and undivided profits of $5,505,855.67 
 and you have the amount of actual money on deposit addi- 
 tional to what belongs to the bank. You will observe that 
 the 'loans and discounts' are just about three times the 
 cash — showing that each dollar is loaned three separate 
 times. Mr. Gage is now Secretary of the Treasury at 
 Washington, and is doing all he can, with the influence 
 the position gives him, to protect and further advance 
 the laws that benefit his class, and enables them to manip- 
 ulate the blood of civilization to their profit. 
 
 ONE PER CENT MONEY. 
 
 "Another special privilege this class of men has is to 
 borrow money from the government at one per cent per 
 anmim. They have long had a law to that effect. Under 
 the law they do it in this way : They take government 
 bonds to the Treasury at Washington and borrow up to 
 90 per cent of their face value, money on which they pay 
 ONE per cent per annum, continue to draw interest on 
 the bonds and are exempt from taxation. 
 
 "Under this law a banker can take $100,000 in govern-
 
 44 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 
 
 ment bonds to Washington, on which he is drawing and 
 will continue to draw, 4 per cent, with principal and in- 
 terest exempt from taxation, will receive from the national 
 Treasurer $90,000 in money, and will pay one per cent 
 per annum for the loan, or $900 per year. He will bring 
 this same money home and loan it three times over at from 
 6 to 8 per cent on each of the three transactions. And, 
 after paying running expenses, will, if his bank is as 
 fortunate as the First National Bank of Chicago, make 
 twelve per cent, or $10,800, each year on the $90,000, 
 with an additional profit covered into the 'surplus and 
 undivided profit fund,' from which every few years it 
 may declare a special dividend. Nor is this all. He 
 will also be receiving in the meantime the four per cent 
 Of $4,000 interest on the bonds deposited at Washington." 
 
 COIN was interrupted by a Mr. Racey, who had been 
 sitting almost directly in front of the platform, but who 
 was now standing, red in the face. Mr. Racey is a 
 smooth, polished man and president of a bank as pros- 
 perous as is the First National Bank of Chicago, but 
 was now excited and not in his usual pleasant mood. He 
 said: 
 
 "Your statement is unfair, and there is no such profit 
 on the money the banks get from the government as you 
 state." 
 
 COIN interrupted Mr. Racey by saying: "Mr. Racey, 
 I want you to answer me a few questions, and then I will 
 answer all of yours. Is it not true that you do get money 
 from the government in the manner I have described for 
 one per cent per annum?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Mr. Racey. 
 
 "And is it not true that the Comptroller of the Currency 
 has recommended to Congress to reduce the rate from
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. ^^ 
 
 ONE per cent per annum to tzvo-Hfths of one per cent 
 
 per annum ?" 
 
 "Yes, something like that," was the reply. 
 "Now I will answer your questions," said COIN. 
 "In the first place," said Mr. Racey, "you have not 
 stated that $100,000 of these 4 per cent bonds costs to 
 buy them $113,125 ; that they are due in 1907, and when 
 due will be paid by the government at their face value, 
 $100,000. Hence to get the bonds now and have the 
 use of them for seven years, a premium of $13,125 must 
 be paid, which will be a clear loss at the end of seven 
 years. There is also an expense of $62.50 in connection 
 with the transfer of the money." 
 
 "Let us dispose of the first proposition," said COIN, 
 "before complicating it with the $62.50. It is true that 
 the $100,000 in bonds will cost you $1 13,125. And if you 
 lost the whole of the $13,125 premium it would be a 
 charge of $1,875 per year for each of the seven years, 
 a-ainst the $10,800 and $4,000, or a balance of $11,925 
 annual profit on an investment of $113,125, to say noth- 
 ing of special dividends from surplus profits. But is it 
 true that you lose the $13,125? Were that the case I 
 would have embraced it in my first statement. This is 
 the way you avoid paying it. When the bonds used by 
 the banks for this purpose approach within seven, eight 
 or ten years of maturity, the national Treasurer has each 
 time recommended to Congress that he be granted per- 
 mission to go into the market and buy the bonds at the 
 . market price; and this has been done. And it has relieved 
 you of any loss. Mr. Gage is now recommending to 
 Congress that he be permitted to do this with the 1907 
 bonds, the ones now mainly in use for the bank-borrow- 
 ing purpose. He assigns the same reason for doing so 
 as his predecessors have used before him. He says to
 
 46 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 Congress that he can refund these bonds at 3 per cent 
 interest, which will be a saving of one per cent per annum. 
 On being granted permission he will buy the 4 per cent 
 bonds at the market price, which usually stiffens at such 
 a time; and then the bankers, in that way, unload their 
 4 per cent bonds for as much or more than the 13I cents 
 premium, losing nothing and substituting other bonds. 
 Mr. Gage has not waited for the law he recommrnded; 
 he is now in the market buying 1907 bonds. He has 
 bought twenty-five million dollars' worth of them recently 
 to relieve, as he claims, the money market, paying for 
 them the market premium." 
 
 "But if the government saves one per cent by the trans- 
 action, is it not profitable for it to do so?" asked Mr. 
 Racey. 
 
 "We were investigating your case, not the govern- 
 ment's, to see whether it was true that the $13,125, or 
 $1,875 P^r year, fell against you as a loss. It does not. 
 The Secretary of the Treasury has each time saved it to 
 you at the expense of the government — the people. We 
 find him one year buying bonds and the next year issu- 
 ing bonds. The new bonds issued are to take the place in 
 your business of the old bonds bought at the premium. 
 The statement that the government makes a saving of one 
 per cent per annum for the seven years is also fiction. 
 One per cent per annum for seven years on $100,000 is 
 $7,000, but the government pays $13,125 premium, which 
 it would not have to pay if it waited till 1907, when the 
 bonds are due. It could then redeem them at their face 
 value ; the $13,125 would not have to be paid. While sav- 
 ing $7,000, the government has lost $13,125, or a net 
 lossof $6,125. Nor is this the only loss. The new bonds 
 are to run twenty, thirty, or forty years. At twenty years, 
 with 3 per cent per annum, it is $60,000, as against 4
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 47 
 
 per cent for seven years, or $28,000. At thirty years 
 the new interest obhgation is $90,000, and at forty years 
 it is $120,000. The government has no way of reloaning 
 its money at a profit at present, and such a transaction 
 as Mr. Gage proposes is a damage and loss. The gov- 
 ernment should issue money and pay off the bonds when 
 due in 1907 and incur no further obligation," 
 
 "In showing the profits to the bank," said Mr. Racey, 
 "you, in your first statement, computed interest at 12 
 per cent on the $90,000 the bank receives from the gov- 
 ernment. Six per cent and not 12 per cent is all the banks 
 can now get for money and there is only a net profit to 
 the bank on the transaction of $779.88." 
 
 "I use 12 per cent per annum," replied COIN, "because 
 the banks can make that much as in the case of the First 
 National Bank. When you say 6 per cent is all you get, 
 you do not take the people wholly into your confidence — 
 how you loan and reloan the same money." 
 
 Mr. Racey was seemingly a mixture of excitement and 
 confusion, and whether he had failed or not to meet the 
 replies of the little teacher, there are thousands of other 
 bankers who will take up the cudgel, but will each tim.e 
 find themselves up against the proposition that they bor- 
 row money at i per cent and use it in a business where 
 they loan it three times. The bank president, however, 
 had one more question to put, and he stated it with much 
 confidence. It was this : 
 
 "The banks are only using the privilege of borrowing 
 from the government at i per cent, at the present time, 
 up to 207 million dollars, while they have the privilege of 
 using it for a larger sum. If there is such a profit in 
 it as you say there is, why don't they borrow more than 
 207 million dollars?"
 
 48 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 ''The answer to that," repHed COIN, "is, that there are 
 two other sums of money at the disposal of the banks 
 that do not cost them as much as i per cent ; that do not 
 cost them anything. One is their own money, which they 
 seek to loan first, and the other is their depositors' money, 
 on which they pay no interest. After using these two, 
 loaning them three times, if there be further demand for 
 loans they next use the government i per cent money. 
 The money that stands them nothing may take all the 
 desirable loans offered ; or, in addition thereto, they may 
 use to advantage 60 or 80 per cent of what they can 
 borrow from the government, at i per cent, and no more. 
 There is a limit to the desirable loans offered, and the 
 fact that all the i per cent money privilege is not 
 exhausted, is no reason to justify the privilege. You 
 could offer to loan me money at one per cent and my not 
 taking it would not mean that it was not a low rate of 
 interest. If the government offered one per cent money 
 to farmers, it would not be just unless they offered it to 
 all alike who could give ample security. You can only 
 establish a true government with equal rights to all and 
 special privileges to none. National banks to whom 
 this privilege is granted are by law not allowed to loan 
 money on real estate, and are limited to collaterals and 
 personal notes of not to exceed ninety days, which may 
 be renewed, and there is a limit to the demand for busi- 
 ness loans ; and when that limit is reached, the i per cent 
 money is shut off." 
 
 Mr. Racey now asked this question: 
 
 "If there is such a profit in banking, why do banks 
 sometimes fail?" 
 
 "When a bank fails," replied COIN, "it is because of 
 bad or reckless judgment in making loans or the use of 
 the bank's money in speculation in stocks or on the board
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 49 
 
 of trade or other forms of gambHng-. Very few of them, 
 however, fail compared with faikires of other vocations ; 
 and in the aggregate go on amassing wealth." 
 
 The bank president had taken his seat and COIN con- 
 tinued : 
 
 "The statements I have made are unanswerable. The 
 advocates of the political party that sustains our pres- 
 ent financial laws will not meet the advocates of our cause 
 
 HE GETS IT AT 1 
 PER CENT. 
 
 HE LOANS IT AT FROM 
 6 TO 8 PER CENT. 
 
 in debate. You may challenge them and they will not 
 accept. They know that their cause will not bear investi- 
 gation. They have heretofore succeeded by answering 
 the advocates of human liberty and industrial emancipa- 
 tion with abuse, ostracism, dealing in mystery concern- 
 ing the financial question, and aided by a consciousness on 
 the part of the business men that they will not be able to
 
 50 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 obtain loans if they antagonize the bankers? This last 
 is the most powerful influence of all, as money is so 
 necessary to a business man's existence, that in the 
 absence of a normal quantity of it in circulation he is at 
 the mercy of those who have hoarded the money for the 
 purpose of loaning it. To such an extent is this true 
 that every man is, more or less, a moral coward in the 
 presence of his banker. It is because money is a necessity 
 to civilization. When a class of men control it, the mem- 
 bers of that class have a powerful influence in controlling 
 public sentiment, a power they will lose when our business 
 men understand the money question. 
 
 "Let me warn you, however, toward allowing any feel- 
 ing of bitterness or resentment on your part toward these 
 men. Their responsibility for the many evils that have 
 come upon the land is great, but let that responsibility 
 be to God alone ! It is the system that we must deal with 
 and not the men engaged in it ! The people are the vic- 
 tims of a system and the men engaged in the working of 
 that system are not responsible for it. It was here when 
 they were born. Had you been raised and educated in 
 business as they have been you would probably be as 
 they are. Faith, hope and charity are necessary for our 
 success in this struggle — Faith in the rectitude of man- 
 kind, Hope that we may be encouraged, and Charity for 
 the faults of others!" 
 
 This ended the school for the day. Class legislation 
 in the United States had been attacked. The audience 
 that rose from the seats was divided in sentiment and 
 emotions. 
 
 END OF SECOND LESSON.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Third Day. 
 
 On Wednesday morning, the morning of the third day, 
 the daily Chicago papers, representing the privileged 
 classes, broke forth in all their fury. So long as it was 
 a foreign class law that was being discussed, as on the 
 first day, they were unconcerned. But now it was differ- 
 ent. All the venom and spite of conscious wrong was 
 to be hurled at the champion of the common good. The 
 mailed hand of the money power was ungloved. 
 
 The Inter Ocean, owned by Mr. Yerkes, whose fortune 
 is based upon special privileges to the street car com- 
 panies of Chicago, showed passion and spleen. The Tri- 
 bune, that has long been the special organ of the priv- 
 ileged classes, was bitter and abusive. The Times-Her- 
 ald, that claims to be the personal organ of Mr. Mark 
 Hanna, the iron trust magnate, seemingly could not find 
 words sufficiently strong to express its disapproval of the 
 little statesman. It is true that neither of these papers 
 represented the money power, theirs was other class inter- 
 ests, but in the assault the little fellow had made on 
 special privileges to one class, the money power, it was 
 foreseen that they were all to be exposed. And they 
 snarled because one of their kind was being disturbed. 
 
 The Record was more mild. The Record and its 
 evening edition, the News, is owned by a Mr. Lawson, 
 a stockholder in one of the largest national banks in Chi- 
 cago. His idea of controlling the masses is to give them 
 nezvs, and to have no editorial opinion on politics till a 
 few days before the election. His instructions to his edi- 
 
 51
 
 63 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 tors are to write judicial and conservative editorials ; and, 
 about two weeks before an election, the news columns 
 are shaped to assist the political party that favors the 
 banks. This is followed, a few days before the election, 
 by vigorous editorials on the same line. This is Mr. 
 Lawson's policy for controlling the people whose backs 
 are bent with burdens laid upon them by the privileged 
 classes. So, as might have been expected, the Record's 
 editorials were conservative. None of the papers accepted 
 COIN'S challenge to explain how it was, if he were not 
 right, that $7,513,954,361 deposits could be made in the 
 banks with $1,963,716,148 of money in existence. 
 
 Among the people, however, in Chicago, the sentiment 
 was divided. Throughout the city groups of citizens 
 might be found discussing, inquiring and demonstrating 
 how it was that a banker could collect interest three or 
 four times on the same dollar. 
 
 Probably not to exceed one-tenth of the people in Chi- 
 cago, prior to that day, knew that the national banks were 
 borrowing money from the government at one per cent 
 .per annum. A greater proportion of the country people 
 knew of it, as with them it is more of a custom to study 
 questions of state. And, as in the case of the eighteen 
 per cent collected by the banks, on the one hand, which 
 amazed the Chicago citizens, they were no less amazed on 
 the other hand at the ONE per cent paid by the banks for 
 money secured from the government. 
 
 The same audience as on the first and second day was 
 in the seats at the beginning of the third day's lecture, 
 and more than a thousand people were in front of the 
 building anxious to gain admittance. Had it not been 
 generally known that those attending the first day had 
 been given seats for the succeeding days it is probable as
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 53 
 
 many as ten thousand people would have been clamoring 
 for admission. 
 
 COIN promptly appeared on the platform at the regu- 
 lar hour for opening the School. He seemed in no wise 
 disturbed by the newspaper abuse of which tie was the 
 subject. He said : 
 
 "We have seen what a factor in civilization money is, 
 that it is so necessary that there can be no civilization 
 
 THEY SNARLED BECAUSE ONE OP THEIR KIND WAS 
 BEING DISTURBED. 
 
 without it. As blood carries nourishment to and builds-, 
 up the physical structure, so does money ever passing 
 through the hands of the people distribute the products of 
 the earth, building our homes and towns and cities — that 
 it is well named 'the blood of civilization.' And that when 
 this great agency is disturbed and impeded in its progress, 
 or circulation, that civilization may be checked and 
 dwarfed ; and were it largely or wholly diverted from its
 
 54 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 mission, confusion and disorder might naturally be ex- 
 pected. 
 
 "We have further seen how a class of men are trading 
 in this blood of civilization for profit. And how, in order 
 to make more profitable their business, they have sought 
 to hold down a natural supply. And, again, how they 
 have succeeded in inducing the government to let them 
 have the special privilege of borrowing money at one per 
 cent per annum while imposing upon the people from 6 
 to 10 per cent for its use. We are now to go further with 
 the study of this subject. 
 
 "You, all, know what debts are. If you owe some one a 
 debt, and cannot pay it, he may sue you and get judgment 
 and the sheriflf can come and take your home, if you have 
 one, or other property, and sell it and deprive you of it. 
 Or it may be a mortgage or trust deed that you have given 
 on your property to secure the debt, and if you cannot pay 
 the debt, the sheriff or trustee can sell the property and 
 take it from you. And if the property does not bring suf- 
 ficient at the public sale to pay the debt your creditor can 
 take a deficiency judgment and follow you as long as you 
 live and have the sheriff take other property from you 
 should you get it. 
 
 "It is to the interest of all that when a debt is made 
 that it should be paid. If A cannot pay B, B is less able 
 to pay C, and C, counting on the money from B with 
 which to pay D, and not getting it, is also injured. If 
 from any fault, not their own, many citizens are unable to 
 pay their debts and are thus deprived of their homes, 
 much unhappiness may result. And should they grow 
 despondent, it may result in their becoming undesirable 
 citizens. Insanity may thus result. And should it so 
 happen that in communities scattered all over this nation 
 numerous people, zvitJiout any fault of their own, be put in
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 55 
 
 this condition, it would be a great injury to the nation. 
 As sores are on the body of a man, so might we say that 
 these poverty-made communities are sores on the body 
 politic. For it would bring discouragement to such people 
 and discouragement breeds crime. To some it would 
 bring despondency and that might mean suicide or in- 
 sanity. 
 
 "I am now about to show you how a people may be re- 
 duced to tenantry and poverty through financial laws, 
 while in ignorance of the effect of such laws. 
 
 "If the people generally happen to be in debt and the 
 price of the property on the sale of which they are depend- 
 ing with which to pay the debts, remains steady or ad- 
 vances in price, they may be easily able to pay the debts, — • 
 also their taxes, and feel happy and encouraged. But if, 
 on the other hand, the price of their products on the sale 
 of which they depend to pay what they owe should decline 
 in price, they may be unable to free themselves of their 
 debts ; the sheriff may come and take their property and 
 they become discouraged and rendered homeless. 
 
 "A general decline in the price of property, or services, 
 resulting in loss of homes and tenantry, may be brought 
 about in either of two ways through financial laws. One 
 is, laws that encourage the hoarding of money, diverting 
 it from the purpose for which money is intended — a 
 medium of exchange. The other by laws demonetizing 
 or discrediting any portion of the money, without a suffi- 
 cient substitute therefor, which results in confusion and 
 contraction of the supply." 
 
 COIN here paused, and taking from his portfolio a 
 card containing these two propositions, placed it upon an 
 easel, putting a tack in each of the four corners of the 
 card. 
 
 "We price all property in money," he continued.
 
 56 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "When you sell your wheat you get so much per bushel ; 
 if you try to sell your house you find that you can get so 
 much money for it. What regulates the price is this : It 
 is the quantity of property in the market in search of 
 money; and the quantity of money in the market in search 
 of property." 
 
 The little schoolmaster paused again and said that he 
 
 HOW HOMES MAY BE LOST. 
 
 A general decline in the price of property, 
 or services, resulting in loss of homes and 
 tenantry, may be brought about in either of 
 two ways through financial laws: 
 
 1. By laws that encourage the hoarding of 
 money, diverting it from the purpose for 
 which money is intended — a medium o£ 
 exchange. 
 
 2. By laws demonetizing or discrediting 
 any portion of the money, without a suffi- 
 cient substitute therefor, which results in 
 confusion and contraction of the supply. 
 
 7// 
 
 \VN 
 
 wanted them to remember what he had Just said, and for 
 that purpose he would distribute a souvenir among them ; 
 and handing to several boys who attended him packages 
 of these souvenirs, they were distributed in the audience. 
 A picture of it Is here reproduced. 
 
 "You will observe," he said, "that in the first instance 
 numerous people are taking their property into the market 
 seeking money, and evidently little money is in the market 
 to buy their property. In this instance the people are
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 B1 
 
 PRICE 15 HADE BY THE RELATIVE. 
 gUAMTITY OF PROPERTY IMTHE rlAR- 
 KET Ifi &EARCH OFMOiiEY,ANO,OF nONE Y 
 IN THE riARKET IN 5EARCH OF PROPERTY.
 
 58 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 competing with each other and offering their property at 
 a low price to induce the man who has the money to buy 
 from the one in preference to buying from the others. 
 The money the man has for investment will not buy all 
 their property. Each of them knowing this and wishing 
 to be the one who sells, oft'ers more and more property 
 for the money. When this is the case, the price of prop- 
 erty is low and money buys much more than at other 
 times. 
 
 "In the lower half of the picture we see where, for in- 
 stance, there is only one farm in a county for sale and 
 there are numerous people who have money wishing to 
 buy a farm. In this instance the people who have the 
 money and wishing a farm are competing with each other 
 as to which one shall get the farm; and this makes the 
 farm bring a higher price than it otherwise would. 
 
 "So, that we see that it is the relative quantity of prop- 
 erty in the market wishing to exchange for money, and 
 the quantity of money in the market wishing to exchange 
 for property that influences prices. And any law that 
 encourages the hoarding of money for use other than that 
 of a medium of exchange, the purpose for which money is 
 intended, lessens the quantity of money in the market in 
 search of property and results in a fall of prices for prop- 
 erty. 
 
 "The business of bankers is to loan money, and not to 
 invest it. Money to loan is not money in the market in 
 search of property. The owners of property, wishing to 
 sell, may go to a banker who has much money of his own 
 stored in his bank vaults, and may offer their property 
 very low, but the banker does not want it. His money is 
 money to loan, and it is not money for investment until a 
 borrower gets it from him. Any law that encourages the 
 loaning of money, except as a saving for the day it is
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 59 
 
 needed, for one's comfort, is a law that encourages money 
 to be diverted from the purpose of a medium of exchange 
 — the purpose for which money is intended. It will cause 
 a fall in the prices of property and suits for debts and 
 foreclosures of mortgages, and bankruptcy in business, 
 and loss of homes. 
 
 "All of the money belonging to banks and to men who 
 make a business of loaning money is money out of the in- 
 
 HE DOES NOT WANT THEIK PEOPERTY. 
 
 vestment market — it is not money in the market in search 
 of property. It becomes investment money only when in 
 the hands of a borrower, returning a tribute to the money 
 lender. In estimating the quantity of money in existence 
 the owners of which are likely to buy your property, you 
 should deduct all of the money belonging to money lend- 
 ers who make the lending of money their business. 
 "Their business is based on laws enacted for their bene-
 
 60 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 fit, and hedged in and protected by laws. If all such laws 
 were repealed, except such as would enable them to close 
 up their business, all the money they have would be for 
 investment, — would be in the market in search of prop- 
 erty. It would be that much of the blood of civilization 
 again in the arteries and veins of trade and commerce. 
 It would be at work laying bricks and mortar, distrib- 
 uting production and building homes, and there would be 
 no tax of 6 or i8 per cent on its use." 
 
 Here Mr. John L. Garber asked this question : 
 
 "You seem to draw a difference between money lending 
 for savings and money lending as a business ? Do I un- 
 derstand you correctly?" 
 
 "Yes. The difference is this," replied COIN. "The 
 man who puts his money in a savings bank is usually one 
 who intends to use the money for a rainy day, or, until his 
 accumulation will buy him a home or other personal com- 
 fort. And when the quantity desired has been saved, such 
 person brings the money into the market to buy the de- 
 sired home or other useful thing, and such saving is 
 proper and to be commended. But when the saving of 
 money is for the purpose of regularly prosecuting the 
 business of money lending it leads to a harmful purpose — 
 the diverting of money from its purpose in civilization; 
 and the high tribute or charges received by the money 
 lenders ultimately brings to his class all the money in 
 existence — till there is none in circulation, except bor- 
 rowed money. 
 
 "A class of property," continued the little teacher, "may 
 fall and rise in price by reason of a large supply or an 
 under supply, while the volume of money is steady and 
 undisturbed. For example, an overproduction of wheat 
 for one year will cause more wheat to be on the market 
 than is desired, and this will cause the price to fall. And
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. t)i 
 
 likewise a short supply of wheat will cause its price to 
 rise. But the cause in this case applies to the changing 
 quantity of wheat and not to the changing quantity of 
 money. If the money supply was normal and undisturbed 
 by laws that diverted it from its object, what we would 
 see would be this : 
 
 "One kind of property, say wheat, for one year, may be 
 going up from a short supply ; another, say cotton, may be 
 going down from an oversupply ; another, corn, going up 
 slightly from a small shortage in the supply, and so on 
 through the whole list of products, iron, coal, lead, zinc 
 and other things, some going up and some down, and some 
 steady. But the average would be about the same. If the 
 farmers raised too much wheat one year and it was down 
 in price, experience shows that they do not raise so much 
 the next year, and this equalizes the price. So, if we have 
 a normal supply of money, unobstructed in its use, aver- 
 age prices through a long period of years would remain 
 the same, and when one contracted a debt he could count 
 with reasonable certainty on about the price he was going 
 to receive for his property and with which he would be 
 able to pay the debt. 
 
 "But not so when the quantity of money in use for the 
 purpose for which it is intended is varying. Under the 
 banking and money lending system, which is supposed to 
 have brought on the Dark Ages, and, been recently re- 
 vived, more and more money is hoarded for that purpose, 
 and less and less money, as a rule, is used for its intended 
 purpose. When such is the case, all classes of property, 
 excepting something for which there may be an unusual 
 demand, will decline in price ; and taxes and debts become, 
 first, a burthen to property owners, and, later, takes their 
 homes and other property from them. And in this way 
 99 per cent of the people in a nation may be reduced to
 
 62 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 tenantry, with the other one per cent of the people, wlio 
 have loaned the money, owning the property. You will 
 then have a nation full of tenants and dependants. 
 
 "The other way in which financial laws may bring about 
 a similar condition is laws demonetizing or discrediting 
 any portion of the currency v/ithout a substitute therefor, 
 causing confusion and contraction of the supply. 
 
 "It has been a custom to have different forms of money. 
 For centuries money was made from two metals — silver 
 and gold — and the supply of money depended on the pro- 
 duction of these two metals. It was only recently that it 
 was discovered that money could be made by a govern- 
 ment using paper. This is done by printing a promise of 
 the government on the paper used, agreeing to receive it 
 again in the payment for taxes or anything due the gov- 
 ernment. This makes a demand for it. Two billion dol- 
 lars can be thus used in this country annually. We could 
 maintain that much paper money at par with gold at the 
 present time. Before paper money was brought into use 
 the two precious metals were exclusively used in making 
 money, on the supposition that something would have to 
 be used that has an exchangeable value, independent of its 
 use as money. That is true now as between citizens of 
 different nations. As between such, by common consent, 
 one or both of these metals are used as money and ac- 
 cepted by weight. But as between citizens of the same 
 nation paper money is found to answer the same purpose 
 as metallic money. The reason for this is that the paper 
 money may be made to answer in paying all forms of 
 taxes and also private debts, and the demand for its use 
 for these purposes gives general satisfaction to the people 
 in the nation where it is thus used. It therefore makes as 
 good a medium of exchange as metallic money. And the 
 quantity may be much more easily kept at a normal sup-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 63 
 
 ply than to depend on the micertam production o£ pre- 
 
 ''""xhTfaet'that the government is wilHng to receive the 
 paper money for all taxes, including the states and cit.es, 
 makes a demand for about two billions annually to say 
 nothing of the government standing ready to redeem .t 
 Jr money in postage stamps. Th.s gives it a value and 
 Lakes it answer the same purpose as "- other two form 
 of money. Up to this amount, two billion of dollars ot 
 pap" money, there should be rro dispute or disagreement 
 Xould n^t be, were it not for the money dealers con- 
 
 '"^^IlSolms of money are now used in the United 
 States, gold, silver and paper money-the latter two as 
 rep esentatiCe money, and in quantity about 400 and 600 
 i Hon dollars, respectively. Prior ,0 ^873 the mm s 
 were open to coin into money all the silver and gold that 
 Tame to it, and the supply of the two meta s no makmg 
 sufficient money, paper money was also used. But in tha 
 ;ear a law was passed to close the mints to silver xcep 
 in limited quantities for use as token money. The law 
 tha Tear fixed the only legal unit or dollar to be made of 
 irl.o grains of gold and by a construction since placed 
 on that law all forms of money other than gold is to be re- 
 dLmfd in gold when demanded. It is construed to be the 
 law at the present time. The law spoken of thus demone 
 tLd silver, and much confusion has ever since resulted 
 
 *''°This law, as construed, classified money into two 
 kinds-gold is redemption money, and all other forms 
 t^^ny, which includes paper money, -'^er nickel and 
 Tppe' all coined in limited quantities, m a cto 'tsd 
 called representative or credit money_ However t^^ 
 only difference in the law since 1873 and pnor thereto
 
 64 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 that before 1873 gold and silver both were redemption 
 money; except for several years, as the result of a war 
 paper money only was used, and which redeemed itself. 
 There has never been enough gold and silver produced in 
 the world to make a normal "supply of money. 
 
 "The stock of gold available for money in the United 
 States at the beginning of the present year, as estimated 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury, is $945,798,788. This 
 quantity makes little less than a billion dollars, whereas 
 something like six billion dollars is necessary for a normal 
 supply of money. Under the gold redemption system only 
 about one billion of other forms of money can be kept in 
 circulation on the present amount of gold. This means a 
 total of about two billion dollars at the present time of 
 money of all kinds that can be maintained in circulation 
 under the gold standard — under the present system ; 
 whereas as much as six billion dollars is necessary, and 
 the two billion must be kept constantly loaned three times 
 over to meet the demands of business for the use of 
 money. 
 
 "So long as we insist on two kinds of money, redemp- 
 tion money and representative money, the latter repre- 
 senting the first, the quantity of the former will control 
 the amount that can be issued of the latter. This is a 
 great hindrance to getting a normal quantity of money ; 
 and must make general confusion at times, as it has sev- 
 eral times, by causing a run on the government for the re- 
 demption money, gold, — resulting in a contraction of the 
 supply of representative money and a panic. 
 
 "With gold and silver both as redemption money, twice 
 as much representative money could be made as with gold 
 only as a basis. Provided we had to discredit any of our 
 money by calling it representative money. 
 
 "It so happened that only a few knew when the law
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 65 
 
 passed, demonetizing silver ; and when it became known 
 a great cry went up from the people, that has lasted ever 
 
 since." 
 
 The little statesman was giving recent history of money 
 legislation, and all, especially the boys, were interested in 
 hearing him. A little fellow by the name of Walter 
 Darby, about twelve years of age, here asked COIN what 
 
 CHLOROFORMING EDITORS. 
 
 the free coinage of the two metals meant. The reply 
 was: 
 
 "It is the mints open to mould into coins all of either of 
 the two metals that comes, and handing the coins back to 
 ■the person bringing the metal, with 371^ grains of pure 
 silver in a silver dollar, and 23 2-10 grains of pure gold in 
 a gold dollar, or about 16 times as much silver in a silver 
 dollar as of gold in a gold dollar. This is what 16 to I
 
 66 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 means. The government coins the money because of the 
 necessity of money to society, and to insure its quahty." 
 
 Little Samuel Darby, the brother of Walter Darby, then 
 asked the boy lecturer to tell about how the money dealers 
 demonetized silver, and COIN continued : 
 
 "In 1873, the bankers, as now, were supposed to be the 
 only men who knew what financial laws we should have. 
 The Congressmen felt that way about it, and knowing 
 little or nothing about financial laws themselves, were in- 
 clined to let the bankers say what was best. The early 
 principles of the Republic had been forgotten, partly be- 
 cause of a great war that had arisen between the states 
 and engrossed the minds of the people. 
 
 "The bankers, some of the leading ones, of London, 
 England and New York City, had determined to get silver 
 demonetized if they could by taking not to exceed two or 
 three Congressmen into their confidence. They called it a 
 Mint bill, and so worded it that a slight change of a few 
 words at the last minute made it demonetize silver with- 
 out the knowledge, at the time, of any but the conspira- 
 tors, as they have since been called." (See publishers' 
 note below.) 
 
 A full history of the demonetization of silver and a popular 
 treatise on gold and silver as money may be found in "Coin's 
 Financial School," and "A Tale of Two Nations," by the same 
 author. Both books are fascinating reading and hold the atten- 
 tion of the reader with wonderful interest. "A Tale of Two 
 Nations" is so intensely interesting that ladies have been known 
 to commence reading it after supper and to continue reading it 
 all night, finishing it about breakfast time. 
 
 After the appearance of these two books, Mr. Harvey, the 
 author, was challenged by a committee of bankers and business 
 men of the opposite opinion to meet Hon. Roswell G. Horr, 
 a former member of Congress, a debater of national reputation, 
 and at the time financial editor of the New York Tribune, in 
 debate, as to the truths and facts stated in Coin's Financial 
 School. The debate came ofif in the summer of 1895, in the 
 audience room of the Illinois Club in Chicago, and lasted nine 
 days, of three hours' session each day. The debate was taken
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 67 
 
 "They were afraid of allowing their plans to become 
 known, as silver coins had been the favorite money of the 
 people. The people's savings had been mainly in silver 
 coins, and it was no uncommon thing to find stockings full 
 of it, or in some other receptacle, stored away and hidden 
 in the homes of the plain people. The people, as a rule, 
 did not like gold coins for use as money, and gold coins 
 became known as the money of the rich. There were 
 several reasons for this. The smallest size gold piece we 
 have is a five dollar coin, while most of the purchases of 
 the people are for smaller sums than that amount, making 
 the silver coins more convenient. A five dollar gold piece 
 is about the size of a nickel s-cent piece, and many people 
 have, by mistake, spent a five dollar gold coin for a nickel ; 
 and this also served to prejudice them against gold money. 
 They found, also, that gold coins were softer than silver, 
 and, by wear, lost in weight ; and often when spending it 
 it was weighed on them and a deduction made for the 
 loss, something that rarely happens with silver coins. 
 
 "So when the people discovered that their favorite 
 money had been demonetized, — the mints closed to it ex- 
 cept in limited quantities, and its power as real or redemp- 
 tion money taken away — they were very indignant, and 
 
 down by shorthand reporters and an official report of the same 
 is published in book form. These books may all be had through 
 book stores or by ordering them of us. 
 
 In this debate, Mr. Harvey drove Mr. Horr from every posi- 
 tion he assumed; and, on the third day, on the subject of 
 Vv'hether silver had been secretly and surreptitiously demone- 
 tized, Mr. Horr was forced to silence and to abandon the sub- 
 ject, to the great chagrin and regret of the friends of his cause. 
 That the gold standard is indefensible was clearly shown by the 
 admitted rout of its chosen advocate and ablest debater in the 
 United States. The gold standard is, nevertheless, still defended 
 and being further hedged and protected by national legislation, 
 though indefensible in open discussion, which indicates the secret 
 and immoral power of the privileged classes to establish and 
 maintain unjust class legislation. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS.
 
 68 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 politics have been convulsed, more or less, ever since, over 
 its restoration on equal rights with gold. The people, 
 however, have not succeeded in its restoration, and the 
 influence of the money lenders who brought about the 
 change is as strong with the President and Congress as it 
 ever was. We will see later how the money dealers exert 
 what seems to the people a mysterious influence with 
 Congress and the President. 
 
 "With gold and silver both used as redemption money," 
 he continued, "and the mints open to coin all the silver 
 that comes, as they are now open to coin all the gold that 
 comes, we could have about two billion dollars of coin 
 money ; and this quantity would support in circulation an 
 equal quantity of representative money made from paper 
 — making four billion dollars in all. We would still, 
 however, be short of a normal supply of money, to say 
 nothing of how much of this money would be hoarded by 
 the money lenders and diverted from its true purpose. 
 
 "Prior to 1861, periodical panics came about from two 
 reasons. One reason is that already given — the hoarding 
 of money by money lenders solely for that purpose, which 
 at times reduced the amount in the market for investment 
 more than at other times, and brought falling prices and 
 what is known as panics. The other reason was that prior 
 to 1 86 1, among the different kinds of representative 
 money, was state bank issues of paper money, redeemable 
 in gold or silver. It was not under the general regulation 
 of the national government, as now, and state laws were 
 very loose as to how much paper money their banks could 
 issue ; and it resulted in large overissues of paper money, 
 redeemable in metallic money, till the people would, at 
 times, lose confidence in the state banks to redeem it in 
 gold or silver ; and at such times there would begin a run 
 on these state banks to have the paper money cashed with
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 69 
 
 'hard' money, ending in frightening people as to all banks 
 that had issued paper money, to a run on them all,— and a 
 general panic— just as our representative money may now 
 be used for a run on the national Treasury. 
 
 HOW PAPER MONEY WAS USED. 
 
 "In 1861 the war between the North and the South be- 
 gan and there not being enough gold and silver, with the 
 issue of an equal quantity of paper money, to carry on the 
 war, gold and silver and the redemption money idea were 
 abandoned, and paper money only was issued by the na- 
 tional government, in no wise redeemable m metallic 
 money, but accepted by the government in payment of 
 taxes and made good in payment of private debts. It was 
 found that that kind of redemption was all that the people 
 wanted. In this way more money was issued than could 
 have been issued on the other plan. Enough was thus 
 obtained to carry on the war and general prosperity also 
 came to the people. The money was all of one kind and 
 no confusion resulted in the way of runs on the govern- 
 ment or banks to redeem one kind with the other. This 
 exclusively paper money, for several years circulated 
 solely in the Northern and Western states, as the other 
 states had claimed to have gone out of the Union, and 
 was at war with the national government. It gave, while 
 this was the case, about $50 per capita for the states, the 
 people of which were using the new money. 
 
 -While this new money, paper money, was exclusively 
 in circulation in the United, States, it gave more gold and 
 silver for use in exchange between nations; and during 
 that period we did a larger business, in proportion to 
 population, than we ever did before or have done since we 
 went back, as we did, later, to the old system. _ The money 
 changers did not molest the new system of usmg all paper
 
 70 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 money while the war lasted, except to get a law passed 
 that they, the money lenders, on their loans of paper 
 money to the government, were to be paid their interest in 
 coin money, and their loans when due also in coin. But 
 as soon as the war was over the bankers began organizing 
 to get back the old system v^^here they could the more 
 readily control the currency ; and they not only succeeded, 
 but went further and got silver demonetized. 
 
 "During the four years that the paper money was un- 
 disturbed, 1861 to 1865, general prosperity came to the 
 people, and home owners multiplied rapidly. The money 
 was being paid out to the soldiers and sent home and to 
 those supplying the army. It was all money in the market 
 in search of the comforts of life. A very small propor- 
 tion of it had as yet gotten into the hands of the money 
 lenders ; it was in circulation and answering the needs for 
 which money was intended. You will find some one now 
 living in each community who will tell you of the prosper- 
 ous times that then existed. Failures in business became 
 almost unknown, and vvath some improvement that might 
 have been added, failures might have almost totally dis- 
 appeared. I am now going to distribute among you a 
 printed table showing the business failures for 42 years, 
 that you may study it in connection with this subject. 
 You will observe how few the failures were when some- 
 thing like a normal supply of money went into circulation 
 so rapidly that the money lending system had not time to 
 absorb it. 
 
 "This table of failures is taken from reports of Dun's 
 Mercantile Agency, as it appears in January numbers of 
 Dun's Review ; as also appears in Statistical Abstract for 
 1896, page 348, and continued in the Statistical Abstract 
 for 1898, page 371." 
 
 COIN was here interrupted by Richard Lynthacum, the
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 71 
 
 managing editor of the Evening Chicago Journal, who 
 said : "I can see the force of what you say as to certain 
 
 causes diverting money from 
 
 FAILURES circulation, and falling mar- 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES FOR kets when money is hoarded, 
 
 FORTY-TWO YEARS. ^. ,. . , , 
 
 at times of runs on banks 
 
 Fail- Amount of i i • • •. , , , 
 
 Year. urea. Liabilities. and Cluring OaniCS : DUt sllOUld 
 
 l.sr.T 4,932 $291,750,000 ^, i r . , . 
 
 1.S5S 4,225 95,749,000 the Dcople oi neccssitv be in 
 
 1S59 3,913 64,394,000 , i^-, r • , . 
 
 I860 3,675 79,807,000 debt .'^ is it HOt their own 
 
 1S61 6,993* 207,210,000 r i^ ,, , ,, . , , ^ 
 
 1862 1,652* 23,049,000 lault that they are in debt? 
 
 1863 495* 7,899,900 tx • , • 
 
 1864 520* 8,579,000 it rcquires two thmofs to de- 
 
 3865 530* 17,625,000 . ^. . , . 
 
 1866 1,505 53,783,000 privc tlicm OI busiucss and 
 
 1867 2,780 96,666,000 , . . ,,. 
 
 1868 2,608 63,694,000 liomcs — One IS falling prices, 
 
 1869 2,799 75,054,054 , ^, ^, , . 
 
 1870 3,546 88,242,000 and the other the owing- of 
 
 1871 2,915 85,252,000 i i, ^ , • ? . 
 
 1872 4,069 121,056,000 dcbts at such a time. Is it 
 
 1873 5,183 228,499,900 ^ ^i • r i -r • , , -^ 
 
 1874 5,830 155,239,000 not their fault if in debt? 
 
 1875 7,740 201,060,333 « j u .i •, , 
 
 1876 9,092 191,117,786 And could they not avoid be- 
 
 1877 8,872 190,669,936 . • i i ^ -,„ 
 
 1878 10,478 234,383,132 Ulg lU debt .'^ 
 
 1879 6,658 98,149,053 <trp, . , . „ 
 
 1880 4,735 65,752,000 i tie auswcr IS tliis, rc- 
 
 1881 5,582 81,155,932 ,. , ^^^at a^ 
 
 1882 6,738 101,547,564 phcd LUiN. faxcs are an 
 
 1883 9,184 172,874.172 . ,. , , . 
 
 1884 10,968 226,343,427 CVCr CXlStlUg debt. As WC 
 
 1885 10,637 124,220,321 , . , 
 
 1S8S 9.834 114,644,119 liavc secu, in ordcr to have a 
 
 1887 9,634 167,560,944 , , ^ 
 
 1888 10,679 123,829,973 normal supply of money, our 
 
 1889 10,882 148,784,337 , • • , 
 
 1890 10,907 189,856,964 Dusincss mcii Cither have to 
 
 1891 12.273 189,868,638 , r .111 
 
 1S92 10,344 114,044,167 Dorrow irom the banks a sum 
 
 1803 15,242 346,779,889 ^. , , . 
 
 1894 13.885 172,992,856 amountiiig to nearly six 
 
 1895 13,197 173,196,060 , mi- 1 11 
 
 1890 15,088 226,096,834 Dillion dollars, constantlv, or 
 
 1897 13,351* 154,332,071 i. 1 ^i 1 1 '• 
 
 1898 12,186* 130,662,899 Hot do the normal business 
 
 *War period, when more r 1 • 1 ,1 • 1 1 
 
 money was put in circulation. lor wliicn there IS a demand. 
 
 This much of a debt exists 
 in addition to taxes that could not reasonably be 
 avoided. But additional debts to these are forced, 
 involuntarily, in many ways on the people during a long 
 period of continuously falling prices.
 
 72 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "A merchant finds business unprofitable when he must 
 mark down his selling prices to meet those of his com- 
 petitors who purchased yesterday. Such a condition re- 
 sults in breaking up factories and throwing numerous 
 people out of employment, who must borrow on their 
 homes, or as best they can, till they can again find profit- 
 able employment. ]\Ioney is a necessity and to the one 
 who has it not, and has property on which to borrow it, 
 he goes involuntarily and secures the loan, even as the 
 mother will pawn her shawl and wedding ring to secure 
 money with which to buy bread. During a period of 
 falling prices people are forced into debt, by not getting 
 as much money in return for their products as they would 
 otherwise have received. The making of debts, at such a 
 time, extends beyond business men to all classes of peo- 
 ple." 
 
 "I guess you are right," said Mr. Lynthacum, from his 
 seat, and the little teacher proceeded : 
 
 "We have seen thus far, how laws affecting the quantity 
 of money in circulation may bring distress and tenantry 
 to an industrious and what would otherwise be prosperous 
 people. The effect is, also, to force people out of an inde- 
 pendent business into the ranks of the wage earners, in- 
 creasing the supply of labor, necessitating labor unions 
 and resulting in strikes and riots. When people are 
 broken up in business they then seek employment from 
 others, resulting in the labor market being overcrowded. 
 The same is true as to clerkships and all classes of em- 
 ployment. 
 
 "What we learn from it is this : First, there should be 
 a normal supply of money. Second, there should be no 
 laws fostering any business that hoards and diverts money 
 from its true purpose. Third, there should be no such 
 thing as redemption money and representative money as
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 73 
 
 distinguished from each other. Each dollar should be as 
 good as every other dollar, and all stand equally in favor 
 with the national government. It should be unlawful, as 
 against public policy, to make a debt payable in any one of 
 the forms of money, so no special demand would apply 
 to either, but to all alike. Use gold and silver as money, 
 but let them be simply as money and not as redemption 
 money; and paper money accepted by the government, 
 national, state and local, for all taxes and other dues the 
 same as gold and silver is accepted. 
 
 "Under the first, a normal supply of money, civiliza- 
 tion would spring forward with amazing strides. Under 
 the second, no laws to divert money from its civilizing 
 function, a continued existence of general prosperity 
 would exist. With the third change suggested there 
 would be no necessity for a reserve fund of $100,000,000 
 in gold in the national Treasury, which is now money 
 hoarded for an unnecessary purpose that should be in the 
 channels of trade, answering a useful purpose. Nor 
 would there be any panics, as by the present system, by 
 sudden contraction of the supply incident to representa- 
 tive money going into the banks, or national Treasury, de- 
 manding in return gold. 
 
 "As before stated, by not studying money from the 
 standpoint of civilization, but by allowing men who deal 
 in it for profit, to study it for us, we have the present sys- 
 tem. What is its effect ? that of the present system on the 
 development of the human race? And what are we to 
 expect from its continuation in the future ? 
 
 "Under the financial system in use from 1861 to 1865 
 the people of the United States were practically out of 
 debt. The national debt, arising out of the war, was about 
 $2,700,000,000, but private debts were very small in the 
 aggregate, and the total of national, state, municipal, cor-
 
 'J'4 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 porate and private debts were about FIVE billion dol- 
 lars. With the people unhampered, the national debt 
 would have soon been paid and private debts would have 
 continued to decrease. The population of the United 
 States was then about 35 million. We have now about 
 70 million of people, and in the same proportion, under 
 the same conditions, our debts would be not to exceed 
 10 billion dollars. 
 
 "As a result of the class legislation obtained by the 
 money dealers, since the close of the war in 1865, and 
 mainly since January, 1873, we have had periodical panics 
 and a long period of constantly falling average of prices 
 to the first of the present year, till average prices of all 
 products have fallen 50 per cent — some more, some less, 
 but on the whole, 50 per cent. 
 
 "This fall of prices forced the people to go to the money 
 lenders and contract debts, till now the total of our na- 
 tional, state, municipal, corporate and private debts in the 
 United States is fully FORTY billion dollars." COIN 
 here distributed in the audience a printed statement of the 
 national, state, municipal, corporate and private indebted- 
 ness of the people of the United States. 
 
 "The debts due to the banks of $5,751,467,610 are short 
 time debts due from business men, and while representing 
 in the main the necessary supply of money for carrying on 
 the business of the nation, it is only about one-eighth of 
 the total debts of the nation and its people at the present 
 time. The life insurance com.panies are among our larg- 
 est money lenders. Individual stockholders and directors 
 in banks make loans of their personal money on long 
 time, secured, usually, by mortgages on real estate; and 
 thousands of other individuals are in the money lending 
 business. Additional to these, agents of foreign money 
 lenders, mainly those of England, have been quartered
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 75
 
 76 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 among us, and signs of 'money to lend' may be seen every- 
 where. 
 
 "Fifty years ago money lending as a business was 
 scarcely known. It had not long been revived and was 
 then in its infancy. But now it is everywhere. Corpora- 
 tion bonds amount up into billions of dollars. The farm 
 mortgages amount to an enormous sum. In almost every 
 conceivable way, now, property is pledged in some way for 
 borrowed money; and the annual interest of the people 
 amounts to about two billion of dollars ; more than the 
 value of six of the annual leading crops of the United 
 States. Railways are seeking privileged legislation, by 
 which fares are maintained to enable them to make divi- 
 dends on their stock after paying interest on their bonds, 
 thus throwing the burden on the people. Other corpora- 
 tions by combinations and trusts are obtaining the same 
 end ; and express, railway and telegraph companies are 
 forcibly throwing on the people the stamp tax, intended 
 for them to pay. Thus no matter who issues the bonds, so 
 long as the people are able to pay them, the principal and 
 interest will be exacted of them. Annual interest in the 
 United States is now two billion of dollars. 
 
 "The total indebtedness of the people of the United 
 States is now as much as FORTY billion of dollars. You 
 will understand better what FORTY billion of dollars of 
 debts mean to this nation, when I tell you that by the 
 census of 1890 the total assessed value of all the real and 
 personal property in the United States was Twenty Four 
 billion, six hundred million dollars, with the average state 
 assessments since that period less than it was in 1890. The 
 fair cash value of all the real and personal property in the 
 United States is now estimated at SEVENTY billions of 
 dollars. So that we are now indebted FIFTEEN billion 
 dollars more than the total assessment; and more than
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. t1 
 
 DEBTS. 
 
 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 November, 1899. 
 
 National debt, interest bearing — see National 
 Treasurer's Report, page C, for 1899 $1,046,048,750 
 
 Annual current expense debt, less postal appro- 
 priation, being collected by taxes — see page 
 12, Treasurer's Report 575,000,000 
 
 State, county municipal, school and other taxes, 1,500,000,000 
 
 Debts due to banks — see Report of the Comp- 
 troller of the Currency of Dec. 4, 1899, page 23, 5,751,467,610 
 
 U.S. railway debts, 1897 — see Poore's Manual (no 
 data since then but supposed to have since 
 increased) 11,631,711,740 
 
 Real estate mortgages, 1890, U. S. Census Rep't . . 6,000,000,000 
 
 Bonded debt of states, territories, counties and 
 municipalities of over 4,000 population — see 
 Census Report, 1890 1,135,794,064 
 
 Towns under 4,000 population (estimated) 50,000,000 
 
 Bonded indebtedness of street railways, manu- 
 factories, industrial trusts, and other business 
 enterprises, not including railways (estimated 
 from U. S. Census Report and Bond Market 
 Reports up to date) 10,000,000,000 
 
 Overdue debts to wholesale and retail merchants 
 
 (estimated) 1,000,000,000 
 
 Chattel mortgages and debts due to pawnbrokers 
 (estimated) 1,000,000,000 
 
 Private debts due from individuals to individuals 
 that do not come under any class, and of which 
 there is no record (estimated) 500,000,000 
 
 Marine debts (estimated) 1,000,000,000 
 
 Overdrafts, judgments and delinquent taxes, for 
 which property is being sold, or has been 
 sold and time of redemption has not expired.. 3,000,000,000 
 
 Total $44, 190,022;, 164 
 
 It is claimed in the past two years that farm and real estate 
 mortgages are being reduced in consequence of increased cir- 
 culation from war money and sale of products to famine stricken 
 countries, but examination shows otherwise. In Nebraska, 
 where chattel as well as real estate mortgages are required to be 
 recorded, to be of any validity, reports from all the recorders' 
 offices in the state, giving new mortgages and cancellation of 
 old mortgages, shows for the past two years and also for the 
 past year, an increase rather than a decrease of indebtedness. 
 Nebraska has a rich soil, ranging from 3 to 20 feet deep, and is 
 above the average of prosperous states. If debts are not being 
 reduced in Nebraska they can hardly be said to have been re- 
 duced in other states.
 
 78 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 half as much as the fair cash value of all the real and per- 
 sonal property in the United States. 
 
 "What it means is that at low prices of property — 
 wheat at 60 cents and cotton at 6 cents — the debts are 
 taking from the people their property. It is due to finan- 
 cial laws that are as effectually reducing the people of the 
 United States to tenantry as the law of entail reduced to 
 tenantry the people of England, Scotland and Ireland. It 
 is increasing the number of wage earners and dependants. 
 It is bringing the people to want, misery, crime, suicide 
 and insanity. 
 
 "Here in this city, mortgage companies and life insur- 
 ance companies own thousands of residences taken in un- 
 der loans made at 40 and 50 per cent of what was once re- 
 garded as their fair cash value. Where, thirty years ago, 
 as you walked along the residence streets of this city, 
 nearly every one owned his home, but now, as you walk 
 along the same streets, you will not find more than five 
 families in fifty living in their own homes ; and many of 
 those who still own their own homes, at present prices, are 
 hopelessly mortgaged. 
 
 "Over TEN BILLION dollars of our indebtedness of 
 FORTY BILLION is due to English money lenders, who 
 introduced among us the gold standard. Under the low 
 prices of property that has resulted, these same English- 
 men have been, through mortgage sales and cash pur- 
 chases, and are now, rapidly coming into the possession 
 of the property of our once prosperous citizens. English- 
 men now own a majority of the stock of our railroads. 
 They own fifty million acres of land along the Northern 
 Pacific railroad, taken in under a mortgage. 
 
 "They own large tracts of land in nearly every state in 
 the Union. Lord Scully of England owns 40,000 acres of 
 land in Logan county in this state and 40,000 acres in
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 'i'9 
 
 NATIONAL DEBTS. Sangamon county adjoining. 
 
 DOES NOT INCLUDE PRIVATE He owns 50,000 acres in 
 
 OR OTHER DEBTS. Southern Nebraska and 
 
 U. S. Census Report, 1890. -m ^i t^ t- i- i 
 
 1848 $7,627,692,215 Northern Kansas. English- 
 
 1860 10,399,341,688 men own a beautiful island in 
 
 1880 ; ; ; ; ; ; : *. 27;42l',037;643 ^-^^^ superior, in the state of 
 
 1890 27!524,'976!915 Michigan, containing 80,000 
 
 Quantity of gold in the acres of rich land. They were 
 world available for money, , 
 
 $4,400,000,000. This esti- recently asked what they were 
 
 mate is one admitted by going to do with it, and they 
 both sides of this contro- i- , , 
 
 versy. replied that they were going 
 
 If other than national to stock it with English pheas- 
 debts, m other nations, are , 1 o iT 1 
 
 as large in proportion to ants. Lord Scully has put 
 
 national debts as ours are, newly imported Russians on 
 
 the total indebtedness m , • , , : tm- 
 
 the world, of all kinds, is his lands m Illinois and intro- 
 
 a b o u t $1000,000,000,000 duced among them the Irish 
 (one trillion) and the an- ° 
 nual interest at 6 per cent rack rent landlord system, 
 is over fifty billion dollars, Thus our lands, the natural 
 or more than ten times the ' 
 total stock of gold in the homes of the people, are pass- 
 world available for money j^g into the hands of the En- 
 Indicating that debts must f 
 
 be contracted in payment ghsh and American money 
 
 of interest accounts. In lenders. A land of liberty is 
 
 the United States, how- , . , 
 
 ever, there is richer pick- being desecrated, and by laws 
 
 ing, and private debts have that have evaded the intelli- 
 assumed, relatively, a 
 
 larger proportion than in gence of our people. The 
 
 other nations. awakening cannot come too 
 soon ! Those who would evade and condone the situation 
 are criminally negligent ! 
 
 "We are also being deprived of our balance of trade. 
 We have to pay England about 400 million dollars an- 
 nually in interest on the TEN BILLION of dollars or 
 more that our people owe to her money lenders. So that 
 our balance of trade must be as much as 400 million dol- 
 lars annually before any money can come to us."
 
 80 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 COIN here had boys go through the audience distrib- 
 uting a card that is here reproduced. He then continued : 
 "You will observe by studying the figures on the card, 
 
 our exports and imports, 
 that while we have ex- 
 ported since 1873 $3,721,- 
 142,159 of products more 
 than we have imported, we 
 have nevertheless received 
 nothing for it. The column 
 showing exports and im- 
 ports of gold and silver 
 shows that we have not 
 been paid for our balance 
 of trade." 
 
 He stopped long enough 
 for them all to examine the 
 figures of exports and im- 
 ports of merchandise and 
 precious metals, and then 
 continued : 
 
 "We should have received 
 an importation of $3,721,- 
 142,159 in precious metals, whereas we have received 
 nothing. These figures are taken from the Treasurer's 
 report at Washington. What the figures mean is that we 
 have sold of our cotton, wheat and other products more 
 than we have purchased of the balance of the world by 
 $3,721,142,159 in the past twenty-six years. Yet we have 
 not received anything in exchange for that balance of 
 trade. Instead of an import of precious metals to pay us 
 the more than three and a half billion of dollars, we have 
 for the same period exported a net balance of $409,291,- 
 125 of precious metals — and are exporting at the present 
 
 FALL OF THE HOUSE OF HARPER 
 BROTHERS.
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM.
 
 82 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM: 
 
 time about a half million dollars per day. What it means 
 is that our fields and factories are being stripped to pay 
 interest to the money lenders of England. It means that 
 the backs of our masses are bent with the task that has 
 broken and humbled the Egyptians and that has desolated 
 India ! England is waging an economic war on us. In 
 Egypt and India she has placed her soldiers to protect her 
 bondholders, who are taking in usury, all that the people 
 produce ; with the latter rising, periodically, in mute pro- 
 test, to be shot down by their cruel task masters! The 
 money lenders of America, who are advocating our pres- 
 ent financial laws, are the soldiers of England on the soil 
 of the United States !" 
 
 COIN was here interrupted by a Mr. Northcotte, an 
 Englishman, living temporarily in Chicago, who collects 
 rents from American tenants for many Englishmen who 
 are owners of real estate situated in that city. Mr. North- 
 cotte was red in the face and seemingly very indignant. 
 He asked: 
 
 "How would you have built your railroads in the United 
 States if it had not been for borrowing the ten billion of 
 dollars from English money lenders ?" 
 
 Mr. Northcotte's accent and appearance apprised the 
 little patriot and the audience that the questioner was an 
 Englishman, and COIN answered, addressing him : 
 
 "If it had not been for the fall in prices in the past 25 
 years of cotton from 18 cents to 6 cents, and wheat from 
 $1.25 to 60 cents, and all our products on the whole 50 
 per cent, we would have built our railroads with our own 
 money received from the sale of our products, and would 
 to-day not be indebted to your people for anything. Your 
 plain people are as much the victims of this system that 
 you have introduced into the United States as ours are ; 
 and it is your money lenders and other privileged classes,
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 83 
 
 and vain aristocracy, that we have reference to when we 
 charge your nation with crimes against God and Alan ! 
 We would emancipate your plain people as we would 
 emancipate our own !" 
 
 COIN'S reply to Mr. Northcotte brought down the 
 house with long continued applause. As many as fifty 
 boys were standing on their seats and amidst the con- 
 fusion shouts from the boys, "What's the matter with the 
 Boers?" could be heard. Evidently they felt that the 
 Dutch in Africa had a friend in the little statesman. 
 When the noise had subsided, COIN continued : 
 
 "England has struck at the South African republics! 
 Tenacious of their rights, they refused to let England 
 by peaceful strategy accomplish a Avicked purpose ! Foiled 
 in an effort at peaceful conquest, England raised her hand 
 and struck ! that she might accomplish by force where she 
 had failed by strategy ! Now her army recoils, bleeding 
 and wounded, before the successful onset of men fighting 
 for liberty ! Let us emulate the courage of the Repub- 
 licans of South Africa by breaking the weapons used by 
 England to subjugate America ! A vote for the gold 
 standard is a vote for England ! A vote against it is a 
 vote for America ! — for your homes and firesides ! Eng' 
 land's God is Greed ! By peaceful conquest when she 
 can, and by force when she must — she seeks to enslave 
 mankind !" 
 
 COIN. had closed amidst tumultuous applause. He had 
 traced to its fountain source the cause of America's ills, 
 and had touched the heart strings of all who heard him, 
 except those who were allied in interest with the evil 
 forces that are seeking the subjugation and enslavement 
 of the human race. 
 
 END OF THIRD LESSON.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Fourth Day. 
 
 On the fourth day the morning daily papers in Chicago, 
 with one exception, the Chronicle, again assailed the little 
 fellow and all that he stood for. They charged that his ut- 
 terances were anarchistic and destructive of the alleged 
 high state of civilization in which we live. 
 
 They did not answer his arguments or facts, but under- 
 neath their abuse and perversion of facts there was evi- 
 dent groping to find a hole in the armor of his logic. If 
 one could be found they were horsed and booted in the 
 interest of the privileged classes, and would insert their 
 spears in the opening, figuratively dangle his body in the 
 air and rejoice as much as ever feudal tyrant had rejoiced 
 when displaying the physical head of a reformer at the 
 end of his lance. 
 
 The Tribune alleged that the $7,513,954,361 of deposits, 
 referred to by COIN on the second day, were largely 
 made up by deposits of one bank with other banks, which 
 would mean a duplication of deposits. It also alleged that 
 the debts due the banks added to the cash in the bank did 
 not equal the amount of the deposits, as had been claimed 
 by the teacher ; and cited as evidence the statement of the 
 First National Bank used by COIN on his blackboard 
 or easel. 
 
 COIN opened on the fourth day of the School by read- 
 ing the statement referred to in the Tribune. He then 
 took up the report of Comptroller Dawes, and showed that 
 in his report the amount estimated by him as on deposit in 
 the banks of the United States did not include the de- 
 
 84
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 85 
 
 posits of banks with each other; that his estimate of 
 $7,513,954,361 was individual deposits. That the de- 
 posits of banks with each other came under separate heads 
 of "due to other national banks," and "due to state banks 
 and bankers," and that these sums were not inchided in 
 the $7,513,954,361. COIN here again placed on the easel 
 a card giving the language of the Comptroller of the 
 Currency, italicizing the words individual deposits. He 
 
 -fi M il l 
 
 WHAT THE COMPTROLLER 
 SAYS: 
 
 (See page 22 of his report.) 
 The total individual deposits of 
 the 12,804 banks are $7,513,954,361. 
 CHAS. G. DAWES, 
 Comptroller of the Currency. 
 Sept. 7, 1899. 
 
 then said that the First National Bank statement had put, 
 in its case, the bank and individual deposits together. 
 That if the First National Bank would deduct its deposits 
 from other banks from the total deposits of $43,630,069.54 
 the result would show the individual deposits ; and that 
 the latter would equal the "cash on hand, $8,604,749.74," 
 plus "loans and discounts, $24,824,263.73." He said the 
 First National Bank had failed to separate the deposits of
 
 86 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 banks from individual deposits as the Comptroller had 
 done. 
 
 The Tribune had failed to find a hole in the armor of 
 facts of the little champion of popular liberty. It had 
 poised its lance at what it thought was an opening. 
 
 Immediately on the completion of COIN'S answer to 
 the Tribune, Hon. Joseph C. Sibley of Pennsylvania rose 
 and put a question. He said : 
 
 *Tt is conceded that times are more prosperous now 
 than they were in 1896 or 1897, and if our present system 
 of laws, continued, are to work out the industrial slavery 
 of the people that you have indicated, how do you account 
 for the better times that at present exist?" 
 
 Mr. Sibley is a Congressman, a prominent Pennsyl- 
 vania Democrat, and an alleged statement of his had been 
 published in the papers to the effect that on account of 
 better times, reversing the prophesy of the Democrats in 
 1896, the Democratic party w^ould have to abandon its 
 position on the silver question ; and his question, to those 
 present, had unusual importance. COIN'S reply was the 
 most educational of any one thing that had thus far oc- 
 curred in the School. 
 
 "During the period that a nation," the reply began, "is 
 being reduced to tenantry, and, by the operation of laws, 
 its property transferred to the few, there may at a time be 
 more prosperity, temporarily, infused among the people by 
 causes that may be plainly understood. Our system of 
 financial laws are such as to give over to the money lend- 
 ers as much as two billion dollars annually in payment of 
 discounts and interest, and, practically, all of our money 
 now belongs to them. With nothing unusual happening 
 out of the ordinary, to put money in circulation, the money 
 diverted from the investment market and hoarded to loan 
 would, together with demonetization, cause a constant
 
 MONEY. TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 87 
 
 gradual lowering of prices and industrial depression 
 known as 'hard times.' That was the situation in 1896 
 and 1897. It began about 1873 and has come upon the 
 people gradually. A succession of causes has operated in 
 the past two years to increase the quantity of money in the 
 market in search of property. These causes do not arise 
 out of a correction of the system that, continued, is deadly 
 to civilization, but are temporary in affording relief. 
 "Anything," he continued, "that will temporarily put 
 
 TRIBUNE EDITOR READS A REPORT OF THE SCHOOL. 
 
 more money in the market in search of property will re- 
 lieve the situation, as occurred during Mr. Cleveland's 
 first term, to be followed later by more serious conse- 
 quences than before. What has happened to put more 
 money in circulation, temporarily, among the people is as 
 follows : 
 
 "First, an increased production of gold. This is tern-
 
 88 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 porary, as shown by the world's production in past years. 
 By examining the table of the world's production of gold 
 which I distribute among you, you will see that between 
 1850 and i860, with less population and less demand for 
 money than at the later period, the world's production of 
 gold was greater than for the same period between 1880 
 and 1890. The world's production of the two metals 
 varies; the two combined make a more regular supply 
 than either separately. The supply of gold cannot be re- 
 lied on, and any relief from that quarter must be tem- 
 porary. Nor of itself is the quantity from this source 
 sufficient to stem the increasing demand for interest 
 money ; to say nothing of the hoarding of gold in the war 
 chests of nations. 
 
 "Second, a famine in about one-half the world for the 
 food cereals, since June 30, 1896, gave us, for a time, an 
 exceptional market at a high price for our crops and a 
 balance of trade in three years of 1,400 million dollars; 
 from which we received 204 million dollars in money. 
 This added to our money stock increased the quantity in 
 circulation among the people — money in the market in 
 search of property. This relief is, in the nature of things, 
 also temporary. 
 
 "Third, a war with Spain began In April, 1898, that has 
 since continued against the people that Spain was prev- 
 iously at war with, and is still in progress. It has added 
 to the money previously in circulation about 300 million 
 dollars, and is increasing the amount daily by about 500 
 thousand dollars. This is all money being paid out to sol- 
 diers, transportation companies, factories and farmers in 
 order to maintain the army in the field. It is mainly 
 money borrowed by the government and coming from the 
 money lenders' hoards, and going immediately into the 
 market in search of property. It gives employment to tens
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 89 
 GOLD AND SILVER. 
 
 PRODUCTION OF GOLD AND SILVER IN THE WORLD. 1792-1898. 
 V. S. MINT REPORT OF 1893, PAGE 179. 
 
 Silver (Coining 
 
 /-i„i^ vniupt U S. Total. 
 
 Calender Years. «i 0^07 000 $328 860,000 ?435,267,000 
 
 1792-1800 ^}?Q'TR9'nno 371677000 489.829,000 
 
 1801-1810 • "4'n«'?m 224 786 000 300,849,000 
 
 1811-1820 Itimim 191444 000 285,923,000 
 
 1821-1830 .It'sn'm 247,930 055 382,771,000 
 
 1831-1840 int'?Mnnn 259 520 000 550,664,000 
 
 1841-1848 ^SVOOO'OOO 39;000;000 76,000,000 
 
 1849 aI'SKo 39 000 000 83,450.000 
 
 1850 fiT'eoo'ooo 40 000 000 107-600.000 
 
 1851 1^5^000 40600 000 173,350,000 
 
 1852 HM^^'Xn^ ■ AOfiOOOOO 196,050,000 
 
 1?7450005 40,600,000 "'^'"^^■""^ 
 
 1854 ii'OTSOOO 40 600 000 175,675,000 
 
 1855 UT'eOOOOO 40 650,000 
 
 1S56 1^3 275 000 40,650,000 ^'">'^^X'X^X 
 
 1857 io7c^nnna 40 650 010 165,300,000 
 
 1858 i'l'g'oOO 40:750,000 165,600,000 
 
 1859 m 950 000 40;800,000 160,050,000 
 
 1855 147'fiOOOOO 40;650;000 188.250,000 
 
 1856 ,l:Ji'S5^'^nA 40;650,000 173,925,000 
 
 40,650,010 
 40,750,000 
 
 ■lo^J liq'^r.onOO 40,800,000 xuu,u^v,vu^ 
 
 1860 in 800 000 44 700 000 158,500,000 
 
 1861 107 750 000 45 200,000 152,950,000 
 
 1862 ■••• ^XH^ooOO 49200 000 156.150,000 
 
 1863 11? 000 000 51700 000 164,700,000 
 
 1864 120 200 000 51950 000 172,150,000 
 
 1865 in 100 000 50750,000 171.850,000 
 
 1866 JnHrZ R4 225 000 158,250,000 
 
 J-ODo in4n2fi000 54,225,000 xoo,-iuu,uw 
 
 1867 109 725 000 50 225,000 159,950,000 
 
 1863 IOfi'225 000 47 500,000 153,725,000 
 
 1869 S 850 000 51575 000 158,425,000 
 
 47,500,000 
 
 1870 i"orO00'00O 6l:050;r0 168;050;000 
 
 1871 99 600 000 65 250,000 164,850,000 
 
 1872 % 200 000 81800,000 178,000,000 
 
 1873 qo'750 000 71500 000 162.250.000 
 
 1874 97 500 000 80 500.000 178.000,000 
 
 1875 103 700 000 87 600,000 191,300,000 
 
 1876 n4 000 000 81000,000 195,000,000 
 
 1877 Tig 000 000 95,000,000 214,000,000 
 
 1878 im 000000 96 000,000 205,000,000 
 
 1879 EoOOOO 96700000 203,200,000 
 
 1880 103 000000 102,000,000 205,000,000 
 
 1881 lo^'oOOOOO 111800000 213,800,000 
 
 1S82 95400000 115 300,000 210,700,000 
 
 1883 101700 000 105,500.000 207,200,000 
 
 1884 108 400 000 118 500 000 226.900,000 
 
 1885 ioeOOOOOO 120,600.000 226.600,000 
 
 1886 105 775 000 124,281,000 230,056,000 
 
 1887 m 197 000 140,706.000 250,903,000 
 
 1888 123 4S9 000 162,159,000 285,648,000 
 
 1889 118 849 000 172,235.000 291,084,000 
 
 1890 126 184 000 186,447,000 . 312,631,000 
 
 1891 ns 861 000 196,459,000 335,320,000 
 
 1892 $157494800 $213,944,400 $371,439,200 
 
 T893 191175600 212,829,600 394,005.200 
 
 1894 198763600 216,566,900 415,330,500 
 
 1895 202 251600 203,069,200 405,320,800 
 
 1896 238812000 212,134,800 450.946,800 
 
 1897 ;:;:::::::: Is^Seoo 213.715.400 501,144.000 
 
 1898 •••••
 
 DO MONEY. TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 of thousands of workmen in factories, on ships, railways 
 and elsewhere, and shows what a little money can do when 
 it is in its proper channel. It has drawn from the over- 
 supply of laborers by putting about 75,000 men in the 
 army, additionally to the 25,000 that it previously con- 
 tained. Add 75,000 more men who have been given em- 
 ployment to transport and supply the army, and you have 
 an idea of its effect, for the better, on the labor situation 
 that is yet restless and disturbed. But this cause is also 
 temporary. And unlike the first and second causes, must 
 in the end aggravate the general evil. The new money, in 
 this instance, thus put in circulation, increases our debts, 
 and will increase our interest payments. It puts us, in the 
 end, still more securely in the hands of the men who make 
 a business of loaning money, and will eventually engulf us 
 in ruin even though the war continues indefinitely. Our 
 prosperity at present may be likened to a farmer who, in 
 debt and despondent, secures an additional loan and in- 
 vests the borrowed money in bananas in the Philippine 
 Islands. While spending the money there would be for 
 him temporary prosperity. 
 
 "Mr. Dingley and Mr. Bland recently were lying upon 
 their death beds, and at times there came to us reports 
 that they were better, holding out hope of permanent re- 
 covery, but the seat of the disease not being removed, the 
 improvement proved to be temporary, and in the end they 
 died ; and so it will be with the Republic if we do not re- 
 move the seat of the disease. 
 
 "We should be sufficiently intelligent," continued the 
 little statesman, "to know the cause of the present pros- 
 perity to some of our people, and to foresee the great 
 danger that will return as soon as the temporary causes 
 that exist remove themselves. While more of our 
 people are employed at the present time for the three
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 91 
 
 reasons I have stated, there are other causes, 
 which we will deal with to-morrow, that make 
 true the statement that to many of our people 
 their situation is not so favorable as it was in 1896. 
 The slight prosperity the farmers are enjoying is on ac- 
 count of the high prices of their products, because of 
 famine in Europe and Asia a year ago. But at the present 
 time the farmer cannot buy as much with the price of his 
 crops as in 1896. With the money for which he ex- 
 changes his products he cannot buy as much sugar, medi- 
 cines or clothes or building material as he did in 1896. 
 Nor can he with the average price of his crops, at the 
 present time, pay any more taxes or debts than he could 
 under the prices of 1896. 
 
 "But, nevertheless, we can see the benefits that have 
 come from 300 or 400 millions of additional dollars put 
 into circulation. And the lesson we should learn from it 
 is, not to rely on either of the three causes that have given 
 us the present prosperity, but to adopt permanent and 
 better methods for adding to the money supply. The 
 opening of the mints to silver would give us 200 million 
 more dollars in a single year. The spending of 300 mil- 
 lion dollars on public improvements would have the same 
 effect as when spent in maintaining an army of soldiers in 
 the field, and the permanent effect would be infinitely bet- 
 ter. Statesmanship will give us permanently what famine 
 and war is giving us temporarily. No one who religiously 
 understands the financial question," concluded the little 
 patriot, "will ever lower his flag or trail it in the dust." 
 
 In the audience was a Mr. Adam Zeisler, an attorney in 
 Chicago, and one of the shrewdest men of his race. He is 
 a gold standard men and had come for the purpose of con- 
 fusing the little financier by putting what he regarded as 
 questions that would accomplish his purpose. He knew
 
 92 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 that others had failed, but there are always men who think 
 they can succeed where others do not. 
 
 Mr. Zeisler, with a paper in his hand, evidently contain- 
 ing memoranda of his questions, began : 
 
 "The objection," he said, "is made to the opening of the 
 mints to silver on the same terms with gold, as they were 
 formerly open, for the reason that the cheaper metal has 
 always driven the dearer metal out of the country, and left 
 us only with the quantity of money made from our supply 
 of the remaining metal. It is known as the Gresham law, 
 meaning that a man of that name first called attention to 
 it, as one would speak of the law of gravitation. Is it not 
 a fact that such is the case ?" 
 
 "The Gresham law," replied the boy, "like the saying 
 that 'the king can do no wrong,' is a product of the in- 
 genuity of the special classes. When the two metals were 
 in free competition to supply the demand for money, the 
 metal in the two dollars never varied more than 3 per cent 
 from par on the French ratio and about 5 per cent on our 
 ratio from an equal commercial value. And when one of 
 the metals was worth 3 per cent more than the other, as 
 was silver for many years before 1873, we coined our gold 
 and shipped our silver to Europe. If not in debt to for- 
 eigners at the time of shipping it, we exchanged our silver 
 for gold, brought the gold here and coined it into money, 
 and had as much metallic money as we had befote the ex- 
 change was made and 3 per cent more. If in debt at such 
 a time, to people of foreign nations, we paid them with 
 silver and with each dollar shipped we paid 3 per cent 
 more debt than to have paid them with the other metal. 
 The dearer metal leaving us does not lessen the supply of 
 metallic money. It either brings back in exchange more 
 of the other that is coined into money ; or saves the other 
 from going, by having paid our debts. As it is now, we
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 93 
 
 pay less debts with our silver than before ; and the low 
 price of our products, that have fallen with silver, makes 
 it that much harder for us to pay our debts. Our exports 
 do not bring us by one-half as much money as they did 
 when the two metals were in free competition. Under 
 free coinage the bullion answers for money in the settle- 
 ment of large balances the same as coins." 
 
 Wherever a gold standard man has met the proposition 
 COIN has made he has found it unanswerable; and Mr. 
 Zeisler was nonplused. He referred to his memoranda 
 and came back with this question : 
 
 "Have we not coined by far more silver since 1873 than 
 we did for a like period prior to that year?" 
 
 "Yes," was the reply, "but we have coined it as repre- 
 sentative money, or discredited money resting on gold as 
 a redeemer, creating confusion in our monetary system 
 and emphasizing the demand for gold. For the same 
 period prior to 1873, we mainly used our silver in bars, 
 for money, in exchanging it for 
 gold or in paying foreign debts." 
 
 Mr. Zeisler paused a moment, 
 looking toward the ceiling. His 
 theory was that a question could be 
 put that the boy could not answer 
 satisfactorily, and that it would re- 
 sult in the confusion of the little 
 financier and his friends. One's 
 theory must indeed be sound if he 
 can stand before an audience of ex- 
 perts, who oppose him, and his an- 
 swers to all questions be consistent. 
 A public speaker by retort, and the 
 use of wit, may confuse a ques- 
 tioner, but not so if his position be unsound and his an- 
 swers are respectful. When the advocates of a political 
 
 MR. ZEISLER LOOKS TO- 
 WARD THE CEILING.
 
 94 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 party are not willing to throw their public meetings 
 open to questions it is a sign of the unsoundness of their 
 position, and that they are afraid of the common sense of 
 the people. COIN had always been willing to throw his 
 meetings open to questions and make respectful replies. 
 Mr. Zeisler was now about to search again for a vulner- 
 able point. 
 
 "If it be true that products are cheaper than they were 
 in 1873, is it not also true that money is cheaper now than 
 it was then and that it can be borrowed for a less rate of 
 interest than ever before? Is it not true that the banks 
 are full of money, and that there is as much money as 
 there ever was?" 
 
 "I will first answer you," replied COIN, "by relating a 
 story. A man once had all of his crops destroyed by a 
 drouth ; it had not rained for several months, and he was 
 standing by the roadside lamenting his loss to a stranger, 
 when the stranger replied to the farmer that he was 
 wrong, saying that 'there is as much water on the earth as 
 there ever was.' 'But,' replied the farmer, 'it is not where 
 it ought to be.' " This retort of the little fellow was fol- 
 lowed by applause and general laughter. 
 
 "There may be," the little teacher continued, "as much 
 money, per capita, as there ever was, and it is possible to 
 have a normal supply of money and yet have it diverted 
 from the channels of trade till all business suflfers for the 
 want of it. Suppose a reliable stream of water along 
 which manufactories have been erected that have for years 
 relied on this water for povv^er, as do the paper mills of 
 Fox River, and suppose a class of men by law get the 
 privilege of dealing in water, by which they pump the 
 water out of that river, storing it in reservoirs, and charg- 
 ing the mill owners for the use of the water, the principal
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 95 
 
 and interest to be returned in water from the stream to the 
 reservoirs through pumps. It is only a question of time 
 when, under such an arrangement, the water dealers 
 would pump the stream dry, or there would be only such 
 water in it as could be purchased from the water dealers 
 by placing bonds and mortgages upon the factories. The 
 factories could not run without the water and would be at 
 the mercy of the water dealers — if the law allowed water 
 to be thus dealt in. The water will be in existence but it 
 
 '■ — -^— -It" d 
 
 THE FARMER AND THE STRANGER. 
 
 will not be turning the wheels of the factories. We have 
 our money dealers, the banks are their pumps, and their 
 steel vaults are their reservoirs. The stream of money 
 in the channels of trade may thus, at times, be very small 
 and more bonds issued and mortgages put on factories to 
 replenish it. 
 
 "Answering the other part of your question," continued
 
 96 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 the little statesman, "it is true that money is loaned now at 
 a less rate of interest than before. The reason for this is 
 that the 'interest and discount system' has been bringing 
 to the money lender an ever increasing quantity of money, 
 and the competition between them to loan it is increasing 
 accordingly, thus bringing down the rate of interest. 
 First having crippled or destroyed business, and received 
 under mortgaged sales the homes of the people, there 
 comes a time when there is naturally less demand for bor- 
 rowed mone}^, and then the money loaners compete more 
 fiercely for the loans that are to be made. The first effect 
 is to bring down the rate of interest and the second effect 
 is to cause a consolidation of the banks. In a country 
 town where there are now two banks, in time the owners 
 will come together and say, 'On account of the low rate of 
 interest we must reduce expenses to maintain our usual 
 profits, and we must act together to hold up the rate ;' and 
 then the two banks will consolidate for that purpose, let- 
 ting one cashier and set of clerks go. The latter, the dis- 
 charged cashier and clerks, can then have leisure to go out 
 in the country and sit down on the grass and study the 
 financial question. 
 
 "Having drank up the blood of civilization," continued 
 the little teacher, "thereby paralyzing industry, the banks 
 and mortgage companies will consolidate in all the cities 
 and towns. They will own the factories and former 
 homes of the people, and signs 'for rent' will multiply. 
 They will contend against the decline of their business by 
 encouraging new loans wherever they can — to the govern- 
 ment, to municipalities ; they will compete with the pawn- 
 brokers, as they are doing here in Chicago, in a search 
 for new avenues for loaning money. They will try to 
 break the present debt constitutional limit the states have 
 placed on towns and cities, in order to loan to them more
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 97 
 
 money than they are now allowed to borrow. They will 
 encourage wars for conquest and raid the national Treas- 
 ury for gold in order to loan the government more money. 
 And when big loans thus made put suddenly more money 
 in circulation and temporarily better times, they will point 
 to the better times in an effort to refute their critics. 
 
 "But to have a low rate of interest," he continued, "does 
 not mean cheap money. The price of money is governed 
 by what it takes to buy it. If the people's property buys 
 
 EX-BANK CLERKS STUDYING 
 T^'l--^. THE FINANCIAL 
 
 QUESTION. 
 
 little money, then money is dear and not cheap. You 
 should not confuse the interest rate on money with its 
 buying power. You can have a low rate of interest and 
 dear money." 
 
 "What I want to know is," said H. C. Cox of New 
 London, Mo., interrupting Mr. Zeisler, who was about to 
 put another question, "why cannot the people unite and 
 get what they want? I mean the reformers. They quar- 
 rel among themselves and make, seemingly, no headway."
 
 98 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "The remedy," replied COIN, "is through laws and the 
 repeal of laws ; and to secure this the people must organ- 
 ize, and their organization becomes known as a political 
 party. Imperfect education results in confusion as to. 
 what the remedies are. Again, many men are more de- 
 sirous of holding the offices than they are of working out 
 a reformation. Such men are politicians and not students 
 of civilization. They announce their own candidacy and 
 push themselves for office, often, prompted by vain motives 
 or a desire for the salaries. Again, many reformers are 
 without charity, and believe no one is pure but themselves. 
 The remedy is education, not with a view to promoting 
 oneself, but toward working out a perfect government by 
 the people who do not want political office, organizing and 
 selecting those who in their judgment are best fitted to 
 fill the offices. The time should come when men who push 
 themselves for office should be suspected of vain or selfish 
 motives, and the people should be equally as insistent on 
 steps toward selecting the proper men. However, in the 
 meantime it should not be to the discredit of any one that 
 he announces his candidacy for an office or tries to secure 
 it, as under the present practice the man who wants an 
 office for the purpose of using it for the common good, 
 finds that unless he does push himself forward, others who 
 are doing likewise, with questionable motives, will suc- 
 ceed. A reformer finds the people negligent and often 
 tries to succeed, with the common good in view, to get 
 himself nominated and elected. When the people are gen- 
 erally educated, and learn that they 'serve their own in- 
 terest best by promoting the common good,' they will 
 unite, without quarreling or confusion, and will hunt out 
 the right men, nominate and elect them to office, — who, 
 in a practical way, will advance the cause of civilization."
 
 MONEY. TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 
 
 99 
 
 Mr. Zeisler had not finislied his memoranda of questions 
 and was now up again, putting this question : 
 
 "Is not the free coinage of silver in the interest of the 
 silver bullion owners ?" 
 
 "No more," the little fellow replied, "than the free coin- 
 age of gold is in the interest of the gold bullion owners. 
 Neither is in the interest of the bullion owners, but in the 
 interest of civilization. As long as there is international 
 commerce, one or both of the precious metals will be used 
 as a medium of exchange in settling international bal- 
 ances. The United States is a great producer of silver 
 and should immediately remonetize it and encourage its 
 use by all nations." 
 
 "Will not its free coinage;" said Mr. Zeisler, "lessen the 
 purchasing power of the money of the savings bank de- 
 positors ?" 
 
 "Just as more money in circulation from any cause will 
 lessen the purchasing power of 
 money," replied COIN, and then con- 
 tinued : "The savings bank depositor 
 is more interested in his employment 
 or business where he makes his money 
 than he is in what he has saved. If 
 civilization pinches and shrivels till his 
 occupation is gone, he may find too 
 late that from a selfish desire to en- 
 hance the purchasing power of his 
 savings he has cut off the supply from 
 whence the savings were coming." 
 
 Mr. Zeisler was now mopping his 
 brow with his handkerchief. He had 
 told some friends that he was going to put the questions 
 and what the questions were, and he was impelled to 
 carry out his program. 
 
 MR. ZEISLER MOPS 
 HIS BROW.
 
 lUU iUUiNiiY, iKUb'ib, IMPERIALISAI. 
 
 "Will not our wage-earners," he asked, "numbering 
 hundreds of thousands, if we have free coinage of silver, 
 find that they can buy less with their wages then than 
 now ?" 
 
 "The first effect," the little statesman replied, "from 
 increasing the money in circulation is to give employment 
 to more people. When the supply of unemployed labor is 
 exhausted then labor is like any product and advances in 
 price as the demand exceeds the supply. The more money 
 in circulation the more business expands and develop- 
 ment proceeds, and a point is reached where the idle labor 
 is employed and after that the demand for all kinds of 
 labor exceeds the supply and then all kinds of labor ad- 
 vances proportionately with the advance in the price of 
 property. The advantage is four-fold. 
 
 "First, all would have employment. 
 
 "Second, there would be no strikes or killing of each 
 other on account of strikes, or loss of time through strikes 
 and lockouts. 
 
 "Third, tens of thousands of wage-earners could find 
 employment in the silver mines of the West, thus serving 
 to draw off from the labor supply of this section that 
 many men. 
 
 "Fourth, the wage-earner would not be doomed, as he 
 is now, to be without hope of the future, of ever being 
 anything but a wage-earner and a dependant on some 
 one else for employment. As other occupations would 
 be profitable, including farming, he would look forward 
 to and see the day when he would put his money in a 
 farm or other profitable business for himself — and have 
 and enjoy a home. Whereas now, as civilization must 
 inevitably shrink and shrivel under the present system, 
 the farmer's boys with farming made unprofitable, or v/ho 
 are losing their farms, are becoming dependants; will
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 101 
 
 be forced into the ranks of the wage-earners, increasing 
 the supply of the latter, necessitating strikes, causing 
 bloodshed and the enslavement of splendid men and wo- 
 men. They may buy more with the money they get now 
 ^when they get it— but under the present system their 
 fate is deplorable." 
 
 As the little teacher closed this answer, a wage-earner 
 by the name of Pat O'Connor, who was sitting just to the 
 right of the platform, rose, walked up and shook hands 
 with COIN, saying: 'T want to thank you for that 
 
 answer. It will give hope and 
 courage to tens of thousands of 
 our people. It will show them 
 the remedy." 
 
 At the conclusion of this pleas- 
 
 
 A WAGE EARNER SHAKES HANDS WITH COIN. 
 
 ant scene it was found that Air. Zeisler had taken his seat 
 without finishing his list of questions. 
 
 "There are men who will not work if you give it to 
 them to do," said O. W. Crawford of Chicago. "The 
 associated charities offer men their board for working on 
 the woodpiles and they refuse," concluded Mr. Crawford. 
 
 "No doubt but what you say is true," replied COIN,
 
 102 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 ''there are many men under present conditions who be- 
 come so discouraged they no longer have the incentive to 
 energy and industry. Open up opportunities and renew 
 hope and slowly that incentive will return as warmth 
 may slowly return to the frozen limb. It is not board or 
 alms the people want. By accepting alms one may de- 
 grade his character — and thereby admit that he is a slave." 
 
 "I want to know," said Mr. John McBoyle of Chicago, 
 "if the wage-earners of England did not petition that gov- 
 ernment to open the mints to silver as they were open to 
 gold?" 
 
 "Yes," replied COIN, "and their petition was refused. 
 In England the financial laws are shaped, as they are in 
 this country, by the money lenders, and there the people 
 are without a popular form of government and are with- 
 out hope of getting what they may petition for, if it is 
 against the wishes of the money power. The people of 
 all monarchies have crossed the dead line, and cannot be 
 saved except by the force of example, by the United States 
 rearing here a new and splendid civilization." 
 
 "What force is there in the proposition," said Wm. A. 
 Field of Texas, "that as other nations have adopted the 
 gold standard, it makes more necessary that we should do 
 so?" 
 
 "There is no force in it," replied the little statesman. 
 "Just the reverse is true. The more other nations increase 
 the demand for gold the greater the reason why we should 
 not solely depend on it for the basis of our money sys- 
 temo And the more other nations close their mints to 
 silver, the greater the opportunity for us to look to that 
 metal for a source of supply. There are good reasons 
 why we should make ourselves independent of a metal 
 that the rest of the world is relying on for its money. 
 Every few years we find Europe taking our gold away
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 103 
 
 from us, and its shipment in large quantities from New 
 York to Europe has at times caused us to have panics. 
 Cover Europe and the United States with the same finan- 
 cial blanket, and all that Europe has to do is to turn over, 
 to pull the blanket off of us. 
 
 International and Domestic Money. 
 
 "There are two kinds of money," he continued, "inter- 
 national money and domestic money. Strictly speaking. 
 
 ENGLISH LABORERS PETITION THE QDEEN 
 FOR BIMETALLISM. 
 
 there is no such thing as international money, but the 
 precious metals, one or both, have by common custom 
 been used to settle international balances, and are ac- 
 cepted usually in bars, by weight; but whether in coins 
 or in bars, it is always accepted by weight. There is no 
 law between nations that has fixed what money is, and 
 by trade custom, the precious metals have been used as 
 such. Within a nation, however, it is different. There,
 
 104 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 what is used as money for settling balances is fixed by 
 law. There the law fixes what is to be used as a medium 
 of exchange, and you can have as domestic money some- 
 thing that is not used as between nations — a form of. 
 money that does not and will not leave the nation, as its 
 use is purely domestic. And such a money is the kind 
 to be most relied on for maintaining a regular normal 
 supply. 
 
 "The things of which I speak appeal to your common 
 sense ! Let no set of men do your thinking for you on 
 a question of public policy ! The man who is afraid of 
 public discussion has an evil intention ! Weigh all things 
 and accept no man's judgment except as it will stand 
 the test of unselfish analysis ! The human mind, truly 
 desirous of the common good, is divinely moulded, and 
 can successfully work out the destiny of mankind ! The 
 human race has passed through centuries of torture and 
 slavery, by letting the privileged classes think for them 
 on public questions ! Let us now resolve that the dawn 
 of man's emancipation is at hand !" 
 
 COIN had closed for the day, and as he did so, Rev. 
 Dr. Thomas rose in the audience and said : 
 
 "I have listened attentively at this School, and I now 
 understand what was said on the first day about the 
 religion of politics. While we ministers are trying to 
 save souls, the devil is industriously at work driving men 
 to poverty, despair and to crime. And I can see how 
 religion is at its best in politics, and politics at its best may 
 be a heaven on earth. The ministers ought to all engage 
 in the study of this subject — I hope they will. If the men 
 who are making munificent donations to endow colleges 
 will aid with their means such avenues of learning as this, 
 until the people of this United States are brought into one 
 great school of education on the subject of civilization,
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISxM. 
 
 105 
 
 as affected by the laws of a government, I can see how 
 this knowledge may spread rapidly. And it means, if 
 pressed, the beginning, soon, of a civilization so grand 
 and so inspiring as to transcend all earthly things." 
 • The Rev. Dr. Thomas was followed by Mr. S. L. Clem- 
 ens, the noted writer under the nom de plume of "Mark 
 Twain." He rose and said : 
 
 'T was once asked by the newspapers to write an article 
 entitled 'My First Lie.' I wrote it. I could not remem- 
 
 A PANIC IN A BED ROOM. 
 
 ber the first lie, but I did remember the second. I had 
 discovered that when a baby if I cried I was petted and 
 got about all I wanted. To be stuck by a pin was fol- 
 lowed by petting and sugar. So, one day, the pin not 
 sticking, I thought it did and cried as if it did. That 
 was my second lie— I don't remember the first. But as 
 I wrote on the subject I thought that nearly all mankind 
 was lying from morning till night, from the time they
 
 106 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 got up in the morning till they went to bed at night, I 
 speak of the lie of silent assertion. For instance, it would 
 not be possible for a humane and intelligent person to 
 invent a rational excuse for slavery ; yet you will remem- 
 ber in the early days of the emancipation agitation in the 
 North the agitator got but small help or countenance 
 from any one. Argue and plead and pray as they might, 
 they could not break the universal stillness that reigned, 
 from pulpit and press all the way down to the bottom 
 of society — the clammy stillness created and maintained 
 by silent assertion, the silent assertion — that there wasn't 
 anything going on in which humane and intelligent people 
 were interested. 
 
 "What I am arriving at is this : When whole races 
 and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in 
 the interest of tyrannies and shams, why should we care 
 anything about the trifling lies and little crimes and short- 
 comings of fellowmen that receive so much attention 
 from the press and pulpit and society of to-day? To 
 sum up: The silent, colossal, national lie, that is the 
 support and confederate of all the tyrannies and iniquities 
 that afflict the people — that is the one to throw bricks and 
 sermons at. Little man," addressing COIN, "more 
 power to your elbow ! and every rugged and honest heart 
 in the land will say amen to what I have said !" 
 
 And others spoke, until the close of the School session 
 for the day resembled an old time class meeting. 
 
 END OF FOURTH LESSON.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Fifth Day. 
 
 On the assembling of the School on Friday, the fifth 
 day, there was unusual interest manifested from the 
 known fact that "Trusts" was to be the subject discussed. 
 
 From a reading of the morning papers it was evident 
 that the little schoolmaster had broken the lances of the 
 "royal dragoons" who now, as it were, circled about him 
 in the arena of debate, observing him closely and hoping 
 for vantage point that had not been discovered. 
 
 His manner of conducting himself, his charity, his 
 fairness, candor of meeting all questions, and, withal, 
 his appeal to his hearers' intelligence, had resulted in 
 making the abuse of the newspapers of the privileged 
 classes sound silly and out of place. The subject had 
 been put upon the high plane — that the true purpose of 
 human government is the promotion and development 
 of the human race — and upon such a field of conflict the 
 advocates of special privileges were at a disadvantage. 
 
 He appeared promptly on the platform at the time for 
 the opening of the exercises, and was greeted with hearty 
 applause. 
 
 "All over the land," he began, "we see wealth and 
 opportunities passing into the hands of the few, and the 
 number of the dependants increasing. The land, upon 
 which should be the homes of the people, their homes by 
 ownership, and the industries that were formerly divided 
 among the millions, with each mainly his own employer, 
 or the hope of being such, now passing rapidly into the 
 ownership of a few. The employees becoming, relatively, 
 
 107
 
 108 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 mere numerous, with a growing feeling of their depen- 
 dency upon the few who own the wealth and the oppor- 
 tunities from which a living can be made. The employees 
 are now mainly tenants ; or, where they are the owners 
 of homes, uncertain as to the duration of their employ- 
 m.ent; or as to how soon the home, beautified by wife 
 and children, is to pass into the hands of others, when 
 employment is lost, or must be sought elsewhere. Tens 
 
 A WARNING FIVE YEARS AGO. 
 
 of thousands are discouraged in the unequal strife and 
 have lost hope and incentive. Other tens of thousands 
 are buckling on their armor for the impending struggle ! 
 "The concentration of industries and wealth in the 
 possession of a few are known as Trusts. They are some- 
 tim.es referred to as combinations or monopolies. They 
 did not spring up in a day. The centering of so much 
 wealth in the keeping of a few has been going on for
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 109 
 
 more than twenty-five years, and now assumes propor- 
 tions that attracts the attention of every one. In the 
 previous days of the School we have learned the reason 
 for the property of the many passing into the hands of 
 the few. 
 
 "In order to act intelligently and remove the evil, we 
 must know the cause of Trusts. All remedies will fail 
 unless the cause that produces Trusts is removed. The 
 previous days of the School were necessary for you to 
 understand the subject upon which we have now entered. 
 In my 'School' held in this city beginning March 4, 1895, 
 I gave as the natural result of the workings of our finan- 
 cial system the coming of the present situation, and I now 
 call your attention to a picture used in illustrating what 
 was then said." 
 
 COIN displayed the picture referred to, to the audience. 
 It appears on page 24 of the report of his SCHOOL of 
 March, 1895. He then continued: "The little pigs as 
 shown in that picture are now large, grown-up rooters! 
 Those who have understood the financial question have 
 always known the cause of Trusts. Those who have held 
 different views on the financial question, but who recog- 
 nize the great danger of Trusts, are reluctant to recog- 
 nize the error of their previous opinions, or being inter- 
 ested on the side of the Money Trust, are willing to find 
 other excuses for Industrial Trusts, rather than believe 
 that the business that profits them is the cause thereof. 
 And others, free from selfish motives, have honestly 
 differed as to the cause of Trusts. 
 
 "It was obvious to many in 1895 that this would be 
 the situation. The gradual bankruptcy of the people, 
 under falling prices, is causing our factories and busi- 
 ness institutions, and lands, to pass into the ownership of 
 the creditor classes — the money lenders. The passing of
 
 110 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 
 
 the property of the many to the few thus gradually went 
 on. When the business and industries belonged to the 
 millions, competition regulated prices and combinations 
 were impossible and not thought of. The nearer the 
 ownership came to be reduced to a few, the more possible 
 became meetings of these men, to make agreements for 
 controlling trade and fixing prices, that they would all 
 agree to charge for the articles produced. 
 
 THEY AEE NOW FULL GEOWN. 
 
 "The idea first arose with them from its becoming a 
 necessity. As the quantity of money in circulation — 
 money in the market in search of property — grew less, 
 the prices of products went down, till there was no profit 
 and often a loss in their production. This led to meet- 
 ings where the owners of factories conferred as to what 
 might be done to save themselves from further loss and 
 ruin." 
 
 "Why didn't they organize to defend themselves 
 against the Money Trust?" asked John Fay of Ashland, 
 Wis.
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. HI 
 
 "Some of them did try to," replied COIN. "The man- 
 ager of the Cohimbiis (Ohio) Buggy Company and a 
 few others saw the cause of falhng prices, and tried to 
 direct the attention of others to it; but many of these 
 same men were stockholders in banks, and a majority of 
 them were either under obligations to bankers for loans 
 and afraid to antagonize the views of the bankers, or be- 
 lieved that bankers knew what monetary laws were best. 
 Many of them regarded the money question as beyond 
 their comprehension. So they looked in other direc- 
 tions as to how they could better themselves. 
 
 The Philosophy of It. 
 
 "At one of these first meetings where the owners of 
 factories had come together, one of them made a speech 
 to the others and this is what he said: Trices on what 
 we make,' addressing the meeting, 'are so low that there 
 is no profit over and above the cost of production. The 
 average price of all those things which the people eat 
 and wear and use in their business and in the building 
 of their houses, is now about one-half what it was some 
 twenty-five years ago.' This was true a year or two since, 
 before Trusts found a way to raise prices," interpolated 
 COIN, and then went on in the language of the other 
 man : " Tn proportion to population the people are not 
 eating or wearing or otherwise using more than they did 
 then,' said the man to the others at the meeting. 'And it 
 means that we must each, at present prices, sell twice as 
 much as we then sold to make the same profit that we 
 made twenty-five years ago. Calico is now worth 4 cents 
 a yard, where it was once worth 8 cents a yard. Cotton 
 and woolen goods of all kinds have declined the same. . 
 Nails and other kinds of hardware have also fallen 50 
 per cent. Wheat, cotton and other staple products
 
 113 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 of the farmers have hkewise fallen 50 per cent. So 
 that whether you are manufacturers of clothing, 
 ironware or manufacturers of flour or other things 
 you find that where one of you formerly did a 
 business of $300,000 each year, and at the end of the year 
 had a dividend of 6 per cent on the capital invested, you 
 find now at one-half former prices that you must do a 
 business of $600,000 to make the same profit. 
 
 " 'We cannot all,' continued this man to his associates, 
 'double the amount of our business, because in propor- 
 tion to population, the people are not and cannot use 
 twice as much as formerly. What it means is that as 
 prices shrink, the volume of business, while the things 
 handled may be as much as before, must shrink in dollars. 
 And, proportionate to increase in population, there is only 
 room now for one-half as many business men as formerly. 
 If I am to do a business of $600,000 each year as against 
 a business of $300,000 twenty-five years ago, it means that 
 I must handle twice the quantity of articles, and that some 
 one else must go out of business, as we cannot all double 
 our business. As prices shrink, margins are cut in like 
 manner.' 
 
 " 'And,' one of the conference asks him, 'what is your 
 remedy ?' 
 
 "He replies: 'We must meet this new situation by 
 reducing expenses. What I propose is that we consoli- 
 date. Say there are ten of us engaged in one class of 
 business, barbed wire, for instance. Let the ten factories 
 agree on a valuation for each, and take stock for that 
 amount in the consolidated company. We will have then 
 one company instead of ten. We will have one manager 
 where we now have ten. That will be a saving of ex- 
 pense. Where each of us now pay a salary to a firm of 
 lawyers, we can dispense with nine firms of lawyers, and
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 113 
 
 one firm will do the joint business for a salary much less 
 than the total of the ten salaries now paid. We each now 
 have, a set of traveling salesmen covering the same terri- 
 tory. We can let nine sets of traveling salesmen go and 
 keep only one set. Where we each now run an advertise- 
 ment in the papers, only one will be necessary. It will 
 be another saving. In like manner there are other places 
 where the expense can be pruned down. The combined 
 concern will be a larger buyer of raw material than either 
 one now is ; that will enable us to buy cheaper. In this 
 way there will be a saving of expense that will increase the 
 m.argin of profit in the business. 
 
 " 'Where each of your traveling salesmen are now com- 
 peting to get orders, with one set of traveling salesmen 
 on the road there will be no competition and prices can 
 be more easily maintained. So that while reducing ex- 
 penses at one end, we will be increasing prices at the 
 other end. You will each of you in this way receive more 
 profits on the money invested than you will to go on as 
 you are now doing business/ 
 
 'This advice was taken," continued COIN, "and the 
 formation of combines was begun. At first, to insure 
 harmony among the owners of the combine, the stock of 
 each was put in the name of a trustee, and it was called a 
 Trust company.' In that way these combines have be- 
 come known as TRUSTS. 
 
 "As prices of products shrink," continued the little 
 schoolmaster, "civilization must shrink and shrivel with it. 
 The number of business men will grow less and the wage- 
 earners will increase in number. It has proved true of 
 Asia. It is proving true in Europe. And will prove true 
 with us if our present financial system is continued. Fall- 
 ing prices reduces the number of business men— and pro- 
 portionately as prices fall, business men must go to the
 
 114 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 wall. It means dear money. And to pay taxes and debts, 
 the producers and business men find ultimately that they 
 cannot sell their property for sufficient money to pay their 
 taxes and debts. The continued shrinkage of prices 
 means the shrinkage of business and, ultimately, the 
 shrinkage of population, as was the case at the coming of 
 the Dark Ages. 
 
 "I was speaking of the ten men who had formed a 
 
 THE TEN COEKS HOLD UP THE ONE SINKER. 
 
 'Barbed Wire Trust.' On their second meeting to report 
 progress, they found that several of their number belonged 
 to the Iron Trust, and that among the latter was a Mr. 
 Hanna. It developed that an advance in the price of 
 barbed wire had been brought about very easily since the 
 ten firms had ceased to bid against each other. They also 
 found as a result of the higher price that a new com-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 lis 
 
 pany had started at Omaha that was offering barbed wire 
 to the farmers of Nebraska at a sHghtly lower rate than 
 the Trust was quoting. It was proposed and adopted that 
 the Trust should quote barbed wire in Nebraska slightly 
 below cost until the Omaha factory was either broken up 
 or consented to transfer its plant to the Trust, on such 
 conditions as the Trust would grant. This had the result 
 desired. As one of the Trust members remarked, 'While 
 lowering the price in Nebraska, the Trust would have the 
 
 THE FARMER AND THE BARBED WIRE TRUST. 
 
 balance of the United States to itself, and the latter would 
 act as corks to sustain the one sinker in Nebraska, tempo- 
 rarily, while the factory at Omaha was forced to suspend.' 
 "Another factory was threatening to go into the barbed 
 wire business at Pittsburg by reason of the recent advance. 
 This was discussed. Mr. Hanna said that when the 
 Pittsburg factory referred to came to buy its raw material
 
 116 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 from the Iron Trust that he would see to quotations being 
 made it on the raw material that would discourage the 
 idea of going into business ; that there would only be so 
 much used and he preferred that all the barbed wire made 
 should be sold through the Barbed Wire Trust, of which 
 he was a member. The Trust before adjournment de- 
 cided to advance the price of barbed wire to four cents. 
 It was selling at two cents at the time the Trust was 
 formed, had been advanced to three cents, and was now 
 to be sold at four cents per pound. 
 
 "So that a Trust," continued the little statesman, "that 
 had started for the purpose of protecting business men 
 against the fall of prices, was now to be used to crush 
 others, and to advance the price, where unusual profits 
 might be made — thus laying tribute upon others. This 
 emphasizes the principle that when a class of men have 
 the making of laws or prices, they use it to their selfish 
 advantage and against the interests of the common wel- 
 fare. The farmer, who two years before had bought the 
 barbed wire with which to make his fences at two cents, 
 was now required to pay four cents. Whereas the aver- 
 age price of his crops had not advanced to exceed lo per- 
 cent as the effect of war money in circulation, and he was 
 now required to pay an advance on his barbed wire of 
 loo per cent by reason of the price fixed, arbitrarily, by 
 the Trusts. 
 
 "The coal mines of the United States are now owned 
 by such a limited number of people," continued the little 
 teacher, "it has become practical for them to come to- 
 gether and form a Trust. A Trust is not always formed 
 by the method before described. They can accomplish 
 the same object by an agreement to maintain prices. The 
 number owning all, is so few, a 'governing committee' 
 can keep a watch over each, and usually money is deposited
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 117 
 
 by each to be forfeited if prices are not made as the 'gov- 
 erning committee' directs. In this way the Coal Trust 
 has been formed. It has advanced the price of coal 25 
 per cent, or on an average grade of coal about $2 per ton. 
 "There was once a large number of small dealers in coal 
 in this city, the same as elsewhere in the United States, 
 each engaged in his own business in a small way buying 
 and selling coal to the many families and business men. 
 
 THE COAL TRUST. 
 
 As business became unprofitable, the number of coal deal- 
 ers were reduced, and a few large coal dealers have taken 
 the place of the many smaller ones ; this business, like 
 other business, thus centering in the hands of a few. The 
 other day in this city a coal dealer who had about 100 
 teams with which to deliver coal and many of them being 
 idle, offered coal at 25 cents per ton less than that at which 
 the Trust had fixed the retail price for the same coal. As
 
 118 MONEY, TR.USTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 soon as it became known to the Trust that he had done 
 so, though it only affected him by reducing from 75 cents 
 to 50 cents what he was to receive for hauHng it, he was 
 refused coal thereafter and his wagons went to the coal- 
 yard in vain trying to get coal for his customers. In 
 this manner, by the action of a Trust, this man, with 100 
 teams, was forced to either suspend business or comply 
 with the demands of the Trust. And men and women and 
 little children whose means are moderate are thus forced 
 by the higher price of coal, to unnaturally economize in its 
 use — and many of them to do without it entirely. 
 
 "Trusts, since 1896, have been strengthened and per- 
 fected in nearly all lines of industry handling sugar, salt, 
 paper, coal, meat, products made from iron, leather, hmi- 
 ber and many other things used to eat and wear and in 
 household comfort. Those things upon which Trusts 
 have not been formed are mainly the products of the' 
 farmer. Farming is carried on by so many people it is 
 impossible for them to come together and agree on a scale 
 of prices. The farmers being widely scattered over the 
 United States prevents a Trust being formed so as to 
 m.aintain the prices of their products. However, if there 
 sliould come a time when all the lands have passed into 
 the hands of a very few people, they could come together 
 and it would be possible for them to fix and maintain 
 prices of products. While much lands are going rapidly 
 into the hands of the money lenders, before the owners 
 are so few in number as to be able to form a Trust on 
 farm, products, the Republic will have ceased to exist, 
 and we will have crossed the dead line — something 
 which we are not going to do. We are going to save this 
 Republic, and the little boys and girls now growing up 
 are going to help us save it. 
 
 "The farmers are thus at the mercy of the Trusts," he
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 119 
 
 continued, "that will lay tribute on them, making- them 
 pay more and more for their lumber, coal, salt, barbed 
 wire, nails, harvesting machinery and the many things 
 which they eat and wear that they cannot produce them- 
 selves. 
 
 "The farmers in all true Republics are classed among 
 the most honored and respected citizens. And, under 
 equal rig-hts, are the most prosperous of citizens. The 
 manner of life of a prosperous farmer and family develops 
 mental and physical growth, making, as a rule, healthy, 
 strong and fine looking young men and healthy, well- 
 developed and beautiful women. They are most consid- 
 erate of the rights of others. They seldom marry from 
 motives of vanity or selfishness, a practice, where it oc- 
 curs, that almost surely leads to unhappiness and a weak- 
 ness in offspring. Their courtships, are, almost universally, 
 from motives of love, thus bringing together those of a 
 natural affinity, and resulting in strong, healthy offspring. 
 The country mother does not intrigue to bring about the 
 marriage of her sons and daughters, but while watching 
 them with great motherly interest, leaves them to the 
 natural selection of a life companion. I am speaking of 
 a prosperous class of farmers, such as exists in all Repub- 
 lics before they are destroyed by wicked and evil systems 
 of government. It is from the ranks of such farmers as 
 I speak of that our real statesmen and great philosophers 
 and wisest men have come ; and when tribute is laid on 
 the farmers, such as the Trusts are now exacting from 
 them, we are permitting a system that is destroying that 
 class of people that is the foundation of a true civilization. 
 When you reduce them to serfs, when you make them 
 tenants and dependants, when you break their courage 
 and independence, you have destroyed that class that in
 
 120 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 the past has made the Rei^ubhc strong, and when gone 
 the RepubHc goes with them ! 
 
 "In addition to laying tribute on the farmers, who are 
 wholly at their mercy, the Trusts are likewise planning 
 to lay tribute on all classes of consumers. The wage- 
 earner may, during a period of war and an issue of bor- 
 rowed money, receive a slight advance in wages, but the 
 advance in price by the Trusts of those things the wage- 
 earner consumes will more than offset the slight advance 
 in his wages. 
 
 "The wholesale dealer and likewise the retail dealer are 
 now having their prices fixed for them on those things 
 they sell, by the Trusts. For instance, the Tobacco Trust 
 has raised the price of tobacco, and notifies the wholesale 
 dealer wdiat price he shall charge when reselling it to the 
 retail dealer. If the wholesale dealer treats such dicta- 
 tion as an interference with his business and refuses to 
 allow the Trust to thus run his business, the Trust refuses 
 to sell him any tobacco. As the Trust owns all of the 
 tobacco manufactories, the merchant cannot get any else- 
 where. If he does not handle it he is deprived of a natural 
 profit, if exclusively engaged in that business he must 
 comply with the demand of the Trust or quit, and if in a 
 general grocery trade, as are most wholesale dealers — 
 if tobacco is not handled — the retail dealers are apt to buy 
 groceries from another house where they can buy to- 
 bacco. 
 
 "We have a class of business men known as traveling 
 salesmen. This class is rapidly disappearing under the 
 management of Trusts. As before explained, each con- 
 solidation dispenses with a large number of these men who 
 have been previously employed, and with the contraction 
 of opportunities they find no other profitable employment 
 in which to engage. These men, traveling salesmen,.
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 121 
 
 were a great saving to the retail merchants to whom they 
 sold merchandise. They saved the retail merchant the 
 expense and loss of time in traveling to the cities where 
 the wholesale houses are located. A traveling salesman 
 traveling from this city a distance of 500 miles, will call 
 on more than 100 merchants, and save them all the ex- 
 pense and loss of time in coming here to buy their goods. 
 It is the expense of one man against the expense of one 
 
 THE TRAVELING SALESMAN. 
 
 hundred men ; and when the expense of the one man is 
 divided between the one hundred that he sells, it is a sav- 
 ing and a convenience. The traveling salesman visits 
 the merchant and displays on the merchant's counter the 
 samples of what his house has for sale, affording every 
 convenience for the buyer to select and order what he 
 wants. It brings in competition, for the benefit of the
 
 122 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 retail merchant and the consumer, the houses of Chicago, 
 St. Louis, New York and other cities. The travehng 
 salesman is thus an advantage and saving. 
 
 "The traveling salesmen are among our best citizens. 
 We rarely see one of them who is not bright, broad- 
 minded, manly and generous. They meet and talk with 
 all classes of people and learn much philosophy and wis- 
 dom from doing so. This is one of the things that assists 
 in making them wise men. They are being ruined and 
 driven from business by the Trusts. When ten firms con- 
 solidate and one set of traveling men take the place of 
 ten, it is not a saving of that many salaries, to any one, but 
 the Trust. The Trust does not give the merchants or 
 consumers the benefit of it. The Trust reduces expenses 
 by that much. And having thus destroyed competition 
 next raises the prices on what it is selling. 
 
 "As the Trusts are formed, and get a firm footing, they 
 are making a reduction in the number of people employed 
 wherever it is possible ; and it is possible in many ways 
 when competition is destroyed. And having destroyed 
 competition they then advance prices." 
 
 A j\Ir. Depew of Xew York was in the audience, who 
 was prominent as a railway attorney and politician. He 
 interrupted COIN to ask this question: 
 
 "One of your main reasons for opposing the present 
 financial system is that it has lowered prices, and now 
 you are finding fault with Trusts for raising prices. 
 Wherein are your two statements consistent?" 
 
 "With free competition," replied the little statesman, 
 "and an opportunity for the people to engage in all kinds 
 of business, when prices advance by reason of more 
 money going into circulation, the advance is general — 
 extending to all classes of property. The products of the 
 farmer and of those who are victims under the Trust
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 133 
 
 system all rise in price along with other property. This 
 puts money in the hands of the people. The farmer is 
 then prosperous and can buy what he needs. The cir- 
 culation of the money is general and business multiplies. 
 The wage-earners are all employed and wages generally 
 advance. j\Iore traveling salesmen are employed. All 
 these things happen where there is a general advance. 
 Why? Because with a general rise in prices from in- 
 creased quantity of money in circulation, the money re- 
 ceived therefrom, goes into the hands of the people. It 
 gratifies the many wants and otherwise sets in motion 
 a thousand little industries among the plain people where 
 each may be his own employer. 
 
 "On the other hand," he continued, "when the Trusts 
 advance prices, only those things advance, in which the 
 Trusts are interested. They are the only ones benefited — 
 already rich, more riches are added to that which they 
 have. Those who are most in need of having their condi- 
 tion improved are not benefited. On the contrary, they 
 are injured. The wage-earner, seeing his employer — the 
 Trust — making money, may with his associates get an 
 advance in wages by a strike that forces a more even 
 division. But this proves only a seeming advantage to 
 the wage-earner. The Trust factories are soon found 
 to turn out more than the demand consumes. Then a 
 shut-down is ordered of one or more or all of the fac- 
 tories for a time, and the wage-earner in the end, by loss 
 of time, receives less wages in the aggregate. The farmer 
 finds that the market for his products ultimately is limited 
 to the Trusts, the Elevator Trust, the Cotton Mill Trust, 
 or other Trust that fixes a price for him on his products. 
 And he finds that he is bitten on his way to market by the 
 Railroad Trust. Thus the rise in prices of Trust articles 
 has done him no good, but much harm. It has crushed
 
 124 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 him. This in a general way is the difference between a 
 general advance in prices, which is healthy, and an ad- 
 vance in prices on the products of the Trusts. The latter 
 presents a situation like a house that has fallen. The 
 rafters and some of the timbers may still be in place, but 
 the body of the house is flat on the ground in ruins." 
 
 Mr. Depew took his seat looking as if something had 
 hit him. 
 
 "While the formation of Trusts," continued the little 
 fellow, "is attributable to the fall of prices resulting 
 
 PRESENTS A SITUATION LIKE A HOUSE THAT HAS FALLEN. 
 
 from a confused financial system, they are increasing in 
 growth from other reasons. As a cancer that originated 
 from microbes may be hastened in its growth by impure 
 blood, so have Trusts been enlarged from causes other 
 than that which originated them. 
 "These are several in number. One is railway discrim-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 125 
 
 inations. In all the big Trusts stockholders will be found 
 who are also stockholders in railroads. A system of re- 
 bates is often given by the railroad companies to the 
 Trusts on what is transported for the Trusts over the 
 railroads. Thus a coal trust that 
 puts i,ooo bushels of coal a day 
 into a city may receive 50 cents a 
 ton rebate, or $500 a day. This 
 assists the Coal Trust and gives it 
 an additional advantage when it 
 sees fit to put down the price of 
 coal to destroy a new coal com- 
 pany that may be started and that 
 refuses to join the Trust, and that 
 does not get a rebate from the 
 railroads. It is being done in the 
 case of the OIL Trust, the IRON 
 Trust, the COAL Trust and many 
 of the others," 
 
 "Does not the Inter-State transportation law of Con- 
 gress prevent this?" asked Mr. F. Koelling of Chicago. 
 
 "It provides against it," was the reply, "but does not 
 prevent it. So long as politicians, many of whom are 
 themselves stockholders in Trusts, are in charge of the 
 government the Trusts and the politicians will laugh at 
 the people. Laws to regulate Trusts have only served to 
 multiply the army of office-holders who are drawing sal- 
 aries from the tax-payers, and add to the burdens of the 
 people instead of lessening the evil. All laws attempting 
 to regulate Trusts condone an evil and permit it to 
 remain. 
 
 "Another source of nourishment to Trusts," continued 
 the little schoolmaster, "is our imperfect patent laws, 
 ^lost of the articles produced by Trusts are made by the 
 
 MR. DEPEW TAKES HIS 
 SEAT.
 
 12G MONEY, TRUSTS, IiMPERIALISM. 
 
 use of improved machinery, tliat lowers the cost of pro- 
 duction. Large combinations of capital can more easily 
 than can the plain people buy these patents, and thus 
 owning them, in many cases, it is difficult, were there no 
 other reason, for new plants to start and compete with 
 the Trusts. They watch the new patents, and where one 
 is an improvement on those in use they buy the new 
 patent and use it, or do not use it. Having secured the 
 sole right to use it, no one else can do so. Formerly, 
 before the property of the many had passed into the 
 hands of the few, the right to use a patent was usually 
 sold by counties, and some one in each county had the 
 right to use it, but now a Trust will buy the exclusive 
 right to the patent for the whole United States. Thus 
 Trusts that originated through a general fall of prices, 
 due to the monopoly of money, now have the opportunity 
 to seize upon other means for increasing their growth. 
 
 THE NEWSPAPER TRUST. 
 
 "A Trust that threatens us in a more vital spot, prob- 
 ably, than others," he continued, "is the Newspaper 
 Trust. In the fall of prices, with its influence on all 
 business, the country newspapers have found the expense 
 too much, as a rule, to continue publication if all the type 
 is required to be set in the office of the paper. This has 
 led to the establishment of a few large printing plants 
 that reduce the expense and furnish the country editor 
 each week his paper, with one side of it printed. The 
 country editor has the type set in his office for the other 
 half of the paper — the half that contains the editorials 
 and the local news — and then goes to press with his 
 paper at less expense than if he set all the type in his 
 office. 
 
 "The central houses that furnish the paper with one
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 127 
 
 side printed are called 'ready print houses.' The country 
 editor, as a rule, is now compelled to thus print his paper, 
 because of his lessened patronage, due to the less pros- 
 perous condition of the farmers and business men of the 
 villages, who formerly advertised with him, and who are 
 now being gradually replaced by Trusts in the form of 
 'department stores' and otherwise. 
 
 "The large 'ready print houses' being few in number, 
 all in the United States being owned by not to exceed 
 some seven or eight firms, they have come together, the 
 larger ones have, and entered into an agreement to main- 
 tain prices. So, if a country editor tries to shift from one 
 to the other of these plants, when prices are raised on him, 
 he is quoted at each place the same price. These 'ready 
 print houses' also furnish what is called 'plate matter,' 
 which is moulded from impressions on type that can 
 be used, a column, more or less, at a time, in papers, 
 where the type is mainly set in the office of the paper, as is 
 often done in city papers. An agreed price is also main- 
 tained by the 'ready print houses' that are in the Trust, 
 on the plate matter. 
 
 "The side of the country paper printed by the 'ready 
 print house' contains all the general news. A long list 
 of Republican party papers are thus printed by a 'ready 
 print house' and by the same house is printed a similar 
 list of Democratic and a list of Populist papers, and it 
 tries to p'ease them all by printing that class of news in 
 each that will likely interest the readers of each class, 
 respectively. This is the way at present, the country 
 newspapers are, as a rule, printed. 
 
 "In the crusade that is about to be made to save this 
 people from impending slavery, we should rely mainly 
 on the country press. The news columns on one side 
 of a country paper should reflect the facts on which the
 
 128 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 editorials are based, printed on the other side of the paper. 
 Our fight must be to dissolve all combinations in restraint 
 of trade, and, to show that if successful, our remedy- 
 leads to such a prosperous condition of the farmers and 
 business men generally that the country editor will again 
 be independent, able to set his own type, and print a 
 profitable and more progressive paper. This would either 
 dissolve the business of the 'ready print houses' or make 
 
 THE COUNTRY EDITOR. 
 
 the country editor an independent competitor as to print- 
 ing his own paper. It would break up the Trust agree- 
 ment that now exists between the 'ready print houses.' 
 
 "If, in the struggle on which the people are now enter- 
 ing to dissolve Trusts, the Newspaper Trust openly or 
 secret!}', takes sides with the political party that cham- 
 pions Trusts, they can injure our cause by printing mat-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 129 
 
 ter in papers advocating our cause that one friendly to 
 our cause would not print, and omitting to print those 
 things that should be printed. We are now nearing the 
 dead line, and the American people must act quickly and 
 vigorously, if they would not be slaves, and should the 
 Newspaper Trust openly or secretly antagonize our cause, 
 an organization of the people must instantly put 'ready 
 print houses' in operation to be conducted till our edi- 
 tors and people are emancipated from industrial slavery. 
 The country editors are among the most patriotic of 
 any class of people. As a rule they are industrious, self- 
 sacrificing, and intelligently devoted to the principles of 
 free government. They abhor being a dependent citizen, 
 would be independent citizens and hope to make this a 
 nation of independent citizens. We should encourage 
 and aid them and watch zealously any point of attack 
 where we are in danger of losing their assistance. The 
 country editor should feel that the responsibility is his ! 
 He should be an educator and fearlessly but charitably 
 defend the heritage of liberty." 
 
 Mr. Warwick Saunders of Omaha w^as in the audience 
 and he was much pleased at what COIN had said. Mr. 
 Saunders is manager for the Country Publishing Company 
 of Omaha, that prints one side of about seventy-five 
 Democratic and Populist weekly papers, and his firm is 
 not in the "Ready Print" Trust. He is a sincere advocate 
 of all that the little statesman had said, since the first day 
 of the School. The Trust has cut the prices in his terri- 
 tory, but the country editors for whom Mr. Saunders is 
 printing one side of their papers, have loyally stood by 
 him, well knowing that if the Trust succeeded in ousting 
 him, that prices for "ready prints" would be advanced 
 higher than ever before.
 
 130 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 Mr. Saunders now rose and asked a question that 
 turned the subject. 
 
 "I would Hke to have you state," he said, "when the 
 first Trust was formed." 
 
 "In 1873," repHed the little teacher, "when silver was 
 struck down as a competitor with gold. The Money Trust 
 began forming soon after the war to control the volume 
 and issue of money, the same as Industrial Trusts have 
 since sought to control the products in which they deal. 
 The Money Trust may be said to have succeeded and 
 fastened itself upon the country in 1873. With each 
 year since then the bankers have strengthened their or- 
 ganization. Of the 12,804 banks in the United States, 
 which means some 300,000 directors and stockholders, 
 nine-tenths of them belong to an organization that m.eets 
 annually, that is influencing and shaping financial legis- 
 lation. This organization is the principal ally of the po- 
 litical party that champions the interests of the priviliged 
 classes. In each village or town where there is a bank, 
 except in the instance of a very few bankers, who have 
 unselfishly taken up our cause, the local bank or banks 
 are constantly bringing influence to bear on the business 
 men, who are borrowers of the banks, to have these busi- 
 ness men support the political party that the banks 
 favor." 
 
 "What is the outcome if class legislation and Trusts 
 continue unchecked?" asked Mr. J. F. Glasgow of Indi- 
 ana. 
 
 "The Financial Trust will own all the other Trusts," 
 replied COIN. "After the present temporary cause for 
 the increased money in circulation has passed, the con- 
 suming power of the people will diminish. When war 
 and famine money have all passed into the hands of the 
 money lenders in payment of interest, as it will, the situa-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 131 
 
 tion will be intensified. Consumption of Trust articles 
 will decrease, and Industrial Trusts will begin to com- 
 pete with each other by each going into the other's busi- 
 ness. This will result in debts, and bonds and mortgages 
 on Industrial Trusts, till their property passes into the 
 hands of the money trust. 
 
 'T would like to know," said W.J. Corner of Davenport, 
 
 AS IT IS NOW. 
 
 17 ■"^^' 
 
 AS IT WILL BE. 
 
 Iowa, "to what extent the people are small stockholders in 
 Trusts ?" 
 
 "In organizing Trusts," was the reply, "the main pro- 
 moters, frequently, seek to enlarge their capital by getting 
 small sums of money from numerous people. They do 
 this by enticing them to buy the stock as a speculation.
 
 132 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 The promoters then bear the stock on the stock market 
 and wipe out the holdings of these numerous small stock- 
 holders, which gives the few who are in charge the own- 
 ership of all. In this way, at times," concluded the little 
 teacher, "numerous people become temporarily interested 
 in Trusts." 
 
 Mr. Aaron F. Hatch, an attorney representing many 
 Trusts, rose and put this question : 
 
 "Say, a department store brings under one roof, every 
 line of business, at a saving of $10,000 each year, in rents, 
 and a further saving in the way of management and in 
 buying, and in many other ways, thus reducing the cost 
 of everything to the consumer. Why is it not an advant- 
 age to all the people?" 
 
 "The reply is this," said the little boy: "It may, in 
 the end, result in higher prices for the Trust articles, for 
 a department store is a Trust. But admit that it-will not 
 — what aids the general welfare is a system that tends 
 to an equal distribution of wealth. The department store 
 having driven all the shoe merchants, the hat stores, the 
 groceries, the dry goods men, the dealers in meats, and 
 others who dealt in separate lines, out of business, the 
 profits, if any, are centered in a few and not distributed 
 among the many. It is not the price we pay for the hat 
 we wear, or the shoes or clothes we wear, so much as 
 what price do we receive for those things we sell and 
 our services. If under an equitable system, we receive 
 more for those things for which we are paid money, than 
 under the present system, we are able to buy; whereas, 
 now, receiving less ourselves, we may not be able to 
 buy those things we need. The people who work in fac- 
 tories that produce cotton fabrics at 2 and 3 cents a yard, 
 will not be able to buy many comforts or necessities for 
 themselves, no matter how cheap they may be. And those
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 133 
 
 who raise the cotton, under such a system, are perpetu- 
 ally doomed to be serfs. 
 
 "With prices higher, by reason of plenty of money in 
 circulation, a general rise of prices, not of Trust articles, 
 but of everything, and the people prosperous, a man will 
 walk into a hat store or a shoe store to buy a hat or a 
 pair of shoes, in preference to going to a department 
 store. Why? Because there he meets the proprietor, a 
 man who is making a specialty of hats, or of shoes, as 
 the case may be, a man who studies the shapes of men's 
 heads or feet, a man who feels an acquaintance and 
 respect for his customers and neighbors; who from self- 
 interest and stimulated by competition, will try to please. 
 The customer gets something better — a better fit — than 
 if he had gone to a department store, and he is willing 
 to pay a better price, for he is prosperous and able to do 
 so. On the other hand, as now, the pinching times tend 
 to drive people to the department stores, where they 
 compromise their desires and take that which will answer 
 their needs at the lowest price obtainable. 
 
 "And, a more serious thing than any that has been 
 mentioned," continued the little fellow, "is this : The men 
 who formerly owned the hat stores, the shoe stores and 
 other lines were men engaged in their own business. 
 They were proprietors. They could put on their hats and 
 walk out of their place of business at any time in the 
 day, could be public spirited and meet their fellow-cit- 
 izens in town meetings at any hour; could go home an 
 hour earlier than usual in the evening and play with 
 their children till the evening meal was ready; and in 
 other respects be independent cithcns. But not so now. 
 These men are being driven out of business by the Mer- 
 cantile Trusts, that bring everything under one roof, 
 and they are seeking employment at the different counters
 
 134 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 
 
 in the department stores. Men who once owned a busi- 
 ness of their own, may now be found behind the coun- 
 ters in department stores. When they come in, in the 
 morning, they are told to hang their hats on a row of 
 pegs provided for that purpose, and when they go out, to 
 walk easy and make no noise. They cannot leave till 
 quitting time comes. They are no longer independent 
 citizens, such as the citizenship of a Republic should be 
 composed of, but dependants, without time for and a les- 
 
 A DEPARTMENT STORE. 
 
 sening inclination to be public spirited. A nation of 
 dependants soon means a nation of slaves, unless they 
 throw off the system that is enslaving them!" 
 
 Mr. Hatch is a man who would have answered COIN, 
 if he could have seen how to do so, but none occurring to 
 him, he sat down. 
 
 COIN continued : "The remedy for Trusts is to first
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 135 
 
 bring prosperity by establishing a sound, healthy finan- 
 cial system. A prosperity that will bring higher prices 
 for products and services, to all, to the farmers, to the 
 
 wage-earners, to the lawyers, 
 doctors, dentists, ministers — to 
 all — and set going anew numer- 
 ous small businesses, whose 
 competition will break down the 
 Trusts. A financial system in 
 the interest of mankind. The 
 remedy is to first do this, and 
 kill off the Financial Trust that 
 has bred and born and caused 
 all the other Trusts. The 
 Money Trust is interested in in- 
 creasing the price of money — its 
 product. It wants the money 
 to buy more and more of your 
 property. It has made neces- 
 sary the other Trusts. Those 
 who formed the Industrial 
 Trusts were forced to do so by 
 falling prices. So long as the 
 first continues, the latter will 
 continue to exist. It is no rem- 
 edy to 'regulate' trusts, their 
 existence is wrong. The nation 
 must be brought back to a con- 
 dition of independent citizen- 
 ship. The first thing to do is 
 to abolish the Financial Truust. So long as the blood of 
 civilization is corrupted, and drained from the arteries 
 and veins of commerce the limbs will be paralyzed and 
 sores will break out on the body politic. 
 
 DEPARTMENT STORE. 
 
 Questions Applicant for po- 
 sition must answer in a de- 
 partment store in Chicago: 
 
 Give list of names and ad- 
 dresses of all former em- 
 ployers, in the order in 
 which you were employed 
 by them, beginning with the 
 last employer. 
 
 What is your age? Single 
 or married? Do you live 
 with relatives? 
 
 Do you keep house and 
 what rent do you pay? 
 W^hat do you pay for your 
 room and board? 
 
 Are your parents living? 
 If so, what is their address? 
 
 If your father is living, 
 what is his occupation or 
 business and weekly earn- 
 ings? 
 
 What means of support 
 have you other than your 
 salary ? 
 
 Have you brothers or sis- 
 ters, and if so how much 
 do they contribute to the 
 support of the family? 
 
 Give names and occupa- 
 tions of your brothers and 
 sisters, if you have any? 
 
 If you give all your salary 
 to your parents, state what 
 they allow you for car fare 
 and incidental expenses. 
 
 I hereby affirm that the 
 above is a true and accurate 
 account of my past record. 
 I have never worked for 
 anyone whose name does 
 not appear in this state- 
 ment. 
 
 Signed
 
 136 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "Then," he continued, "you can treat the sores success- 
 fully. The tendency will be for them to disappear. Those 
 things can be corrected, on which Industrial Trusts may 
 continue to feed for a time. The g-overnment can take 
 charge of all the railways and change the patent laws, to 
 pay a premium on useful patents, throwing them open to 
 general use by any citizen. The government has a right 
 to condemn anything, for the public good, by paying com- 
 pensation. The government should do all things affirma- 
 tive and negative that will secure equal rights to all and 
 special privileges to none. The men in the Industrial 
 Trusts should assist in destroying the Financial Trust, 
 and bankers who would save their progeny and who 
 would assist in saving civilization should rise above petty 
 selfishness and help us in this great struggle for man- 
 kind ! If not, then let them answ^er to God ! The people 
 must act and act quickly !" . 
 
 This closed the School for the day. The interest that 
 had been manifested was intense and for more than an 
 hour groups of persons remained in the hall in conversa- 
 tion on the topic that had been discussed. 
 
 END OF FIFTH LESSON
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Sixth Day. 
 
 The fifth day's session of the School in the news col- 
 umns of the Chicago papers appeared without editorial 
 comment, except in the Chronicle, which, on the whole, 
 approved of what had been said. The other papers were 
 editorially silent. 
 
 Trusts were not as yet an issue between the two existing 
 political parties. It was a foregone conclusion that the 
 "Democratic party" would declare strongly against them ; 
 but it was not so certain as to what the "Republican 
 party" would do. And in the meantime the other four 
 morning daily papers that w-ere certain to support the 
 "Republican party" ticket in 1900 were circumspect or 
 silent. They were insistent and bitter in opposing all re- 
 formers or any change in existing conditions ; but were 
 not yet ready editorially to claim advantages for the 
 existence of Trusts, though opening their columns for 
 others to do so. 
 
 In this respect these same newspapers were following 
 very much the course they had pursued on the gold stand- 
 ard and other laws that had perfected the Money Trust. 
 At first they had opposed the gold standard and clamored 
 for the remonetization of silver. Between '76 and '80, the 
 Tribune had done so vigorously, and the Inter Ocean had 
 continued its opposition to the gold standard as late as 
 1895. But gradually the money power had chloroformed 
 the patriotism of the owners of these papers and dead- 
 ened their sensibilities to the blow that was about to be 
 struck. And now the same process was going on that 
 
 137
 
 I<i6 AlONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 would ultimately, as was plainly to be observed, bring 
 thern all around to the advocacy of Trusts as they had 
 become the insistent advocates of the gold standard. But 
 for the present the transformation was only in process of 
 accomplishment. 
 
 Intuition prompted the proprietors of these papers and 
 also the power for evil behind them, that, to oppress the 
 people and to have the latter assist in putting the yoke of 
 despotism on their own necks, they must be dealt with 
 diplomatically. So, in the meantime, ridicule and scorn of 
 all reformers would be their policy. They were now 
 standing boldly by the Money Trust and were preparing 
 with all their influence to protect Trusts of all kinds. 
 They would advocate regulating them, as they had 
 favored each piece of patchwork brought forward by the 
 bankers as the timbers in the Republic cracked and 
 groaned under the influence of an erroneous monetary 
 system. 
 
 Would one of them break loose from its environments 
 and strike in defense of mankind ? This was the hope of 
 many. The circulation of the Chicago morning dailies — 
 five of them — sweeps the great central states, and not one 
 of them opposes the money power. The concentration of 
 wealth in the hands of the few has carried with 
 it all the great morning daily papers in that city — that 
 are now either muzzled or turned against the people upon 
 whom tribute is being laid. Should one of them turn to 
 the cause of liberty, it would be because a philanthropic 
 spirit had won the mastery in the breast of its, proprietor 
 over the destructive spirit of Evil. 
 
 The historian will be asked the question, Why was not 
 a newspaper started in Chicago to advocate the cause of 
 intelligent human liberty? The answer to the question 
 is, That the present Chicago newspapers own for that city
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 139 
 
 the exclusive right to the ne'vvs service of the Associated 
 Press that receives daily over the wires of the telegraph 
 companies the news of the world. The existing papers 
 will not divide that privilege with a new daily paper. 
 And no newspaper, no matter how just the cause it advo- 
 cates, can succeed that does not lay the news before its 
 readers as fully as do the other papers. 
 
 Those now organizing for the supreme struggle of 
 mankind will have to, in part, rely upon some system of 
 general education that is not dependent upon the metro- 
 politan newspapers. It was at a time like this, and in an 
 emergency such as described, that the little character 
 whose history this book relates, was givipg his School in 
 Chicago. 
 
 On the morning of Saturday, the sixth day, a delega- 
 tion of some thirty people arrived from Nebraska and at 
 COIN'S request seats were provided for them. 
 
 The little teacher promptly appeared on the platform 
 at the usual hour and announced that there would be two 
 sessions of the School for that day, in order to close with 
 the present week, the last session being fixed for 8 P. M. 
 He began : 
 
 "On the first day we analyzed the true principles of 
 human government and noted the dangers to civilization 
 that might come from laws that gave privileges to a few, 
 that in the end would, if continued, work the ruin of the 
 many. In the subsequent days of the week, we have 
 traced the rise of class laws in the United States, and can 
 see their destructive influences. They are now cul- 
 minating for the overthrow of the Republic ! 
 
 "Republics are not, as a rule, destroyed by forces from 
 without. They are destroyed by influences from within. 
 The lancet that opens the veins of a Republic and lets out 
 its life blood is class legislation. And class laws are
 
 140 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 prompted and obtained through narrow selfish motives. 
 Self-interest can best be served by promoting the interest 
 of all ; but narrow selfishness seeks to build up self at the 
 expense of others, and in the end, if permitted, destroys 
 the common good. Unhampered, as such men have been 
 in recent years in this country, class laws become numer- 
 ous, and the process of transferring the property of the 
 many to the few, as w^e have seen, goes rapidly on. All 
 classes of people who can do so are now forming them- 
 selves into unions or combinations for self-protection. 
 And, not intelligently understanding the cause of their 
 discomfiture or thrown into confusion for the want of 
 union of action, looking to the good of all, the friction in- 
 creases, till riots and disorders are of common occur- 
 rence. 
 
 "Troops are called out to quell these riots and the heavy 
 hand of the law for a time brings peace and order, only a 
 little later to see the people, restless and discontented, 
 again protesting in some violent form, requiring a new 
 call for soldiers to suppress and scatter them. Many of 
 them are cowed and humbled and with spirits broken are 
 willing to kiss the hand that smites them. 
 
 "The evil system continuing, the number of depend- 
 ants increases, and in mad competition for the limited op- 
 portunities to work and gain a living they strike blows at 
 each other, and again the soldiers come and drive them 
 into subjection, w^hile the awful cloud of despondency 
 settles down darker than before on the country. These are 
 the symptoms of a Republic breaking down. 
 
 "The men, securing class legislation, cater to the law- 
 makers, and while the former are getting their laws the 
 latter also pass other laws unnecessarily increasing the 
 number of office holders, till a swarm of office holders of 
 no particular necessity come into existence, all drawing
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 141 
 
 salaries from the people. Taxes increase. Corruption is 
 fostered. Bribery becomes a common practice. Finally 
 the men who sought and obtained class legislation, set- 
 ting the evil example of a few preying upon the many, 
 become disgusted by increased taxation and the flagrant 
 crimes that have grown from the seed they have sown, — 
 and desire a change from a popular form of government. 
 This is the cause of Republics breaking down. 
 
 "They then, talking among themselves, say one to the 
 other, 'The Republic is a failure.' These men of class 
 legislation so talk. Having obtained the wealth of the 
 country, they desire to lower taxes and to get rid of the 
 politicians. They want a king or an emperor, who will 
 appoint all the officers necessary and who will recognize 
 no political crimes except that which is concealed in privi- 
 leged legislation. This step usually begins by centering 
 all power in the President of the Republic, and conditions 
 approaching a Monarchy or Empire often exist in a Re- 
 public before the word king or queen, or emperor, is 
 openly spoken. 
 
 "A. large number of patriotic people see the situation as 
 it is and know what is intended. They watch the coming 
 change with extreme anxiety — see the privileged few with 
 the powerful influence their wealth gives them, the de- 
 pendency of so many upon them for employment and the 
 covert or negative aid of their newspapers ; see the people 
 rioting in mad revolt ; see martial law declared ; see the 
 corner grocer or merchant, whose trade is five dollars a 
 day, throw up his hands as the soldiers go by shooting 
 down the people, and, who, knowing naught of why Re- 
 publics fall, exclaiming in unison with the privileged few, 
 'Give us a stronger government.' 
 
 "It is thus that the work of demolition in" a Republic 
 goes on. In the meantime the privileged few. having made
 
 142 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 up their minds to change the form of government, they 
 watch their opportunity. They reason that to act rashly 
 is to lose, to act cautiously is to win what they desire. 
 They first wait for the people themselves to get more or 
 less disgusted with a corrupted Republic. In the mean- 
 time their newspapers print pictures of kings and queens 
 and of other 'royal personages,' always giving them their 
 titles of assumed nobility; and otherwise exciting the 
 vanity of the men and women, and accustoming them to 
 the ways of Monarchies and Empires. The next step is 
 to secure a standing army, sufficiently large to cope with 
 a liberty-loving people who will sell their lives rather than 
 see the Republic destroyed. 
 
 "The nation being thoroughly honeycombed with fraud, 
 many classes of people, good people, say 'The Republic is 
 a failure.' One man will say to another, 'Within a week 
 two men on juries in this city have sought a bribe of one 
 of the litigants. Assessors, for a bribe, mark down the 
 valuation of property, all branches of the government are 
 rotten — popular liberty is a failure.' Many, not knowing 
 why Republics fall, will thus express themselves. By 
 general consent the business men will want a Monarchy. 
 The first step is a standing army. They want as little 
 bloodshed as possible. They want soldiers to encircle the 
 capital. They want soldiers quartered near all the cities. 
 When the time to strike has come, the army is used to 
 overawe the people — Congress is driven from the halls of 
 the capitol — this is the way it has been done in other Re- 
 publics, and it is the way they are plotting to do it in this 
 Republic, little realizing that while a Monarchy may bring 
 to them security and peace, it is the peace of death to 
 mankind and to civilization. 
 
 "As a rule, while waiting, the opportunity presents it- 
 self. An evil system ripens one part with an other. A
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 143 
 
 selfish force having despoiled its own people, seeks other 
 peoples whom it may despoil. Haying preyed upon its 
 
 own people, with an enlarged appetite, it looks about for 
 other peoples to prey upon, — which is called conquest. It
 
 144 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 
 
 was so with Caesar and was true of the fall of the Roman 
 Republic. It is what may be called a national appetite. It 
 means that selfishness has developed among the individ- 
 uals in such a nation till it is of national character. This 
 nation is now in that condition and the boys growing up 
 are coming of age none too soon to save it from the fate 
 that otherwise awaits our Republic. 
 
 "The opportunity the privileged classes have waited for 
 has come about in this way : Recently Spain, one of the 
 Monarchies of Europe, had permitted its privileged few 
 to lay tribute upon the people of Cuba, till the latter had 
 risen in revolt and were contending against the soldiers of 
 Spain sent to hold them in subjection. The non-com- 
 batants, the women and children, were being herded and 
 starved, and the Cuban people generally had become so 
 poorly clothed and fed as to look gaunt in person, arous- 
 ing the indignation of all good people. 
 
 "Finally the United States battleship ]\Iaine was blown 
 up in the harbor of Havana by the Spaniards, and war 
 was declared by this nation against Spain. The war was 
 a just one, but furnished the opportunity that the Mon- 
 archists in this country had been waiting for. All that 
 was necessary to free Cuba was to send our ships to de- 
 stroy the ships of Spain, and have them see that no more 
 Spanish soldiers landed in Cuba ; to transport to Cuba all 
 volunteers who wished to join Gomez's army and furnish 
 them arms and money ; and, if necessary, to send our reg- 
 ular army of 25,000 men over there. It required less than 
 that number of our soldiers, added to the Cuban army, to 
 whip the Spaniards. 
 
 "It was the opportunity, however, to encourage the 
 military spirit, that the privileged few so much desired, 
 and a great army was called out. And bonds were issued, 
 which pleased the money lenders. The war was soon
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 145 
 
 over lasting only a few months. Ending so soon, it did 
 not furnish a sufficient excuse for keeping a large army 
 and disappointed the privileged class. But an opportunity 
 was made to continue the necessity for it. 
 
 "At the beginning of the war with Spain, our ships 
 
 commanded by Commodore, afterward Admiral Dewey 
 
 were sent to Manila to destroya Spanish fleet there, which 
 
 they did one morning before breakfast. The Spaniards 
 
 ^vere treating the people of the Philippine Islands the 
 
 same way they were the people of Cuba. There, too, was 
 
 an army of liberty contending for their freedom from the 
 
 tyrannical rule of Spain. The Filipinos had formed a 
 
 Republic and had contended against a large army of 
 
 Spanish soldiers, had captured about 7,000 of them, and 
 
 had driven the remainder, some 20,000, into the walled 
 
 city of Manila, at the time Dewey destroyed the Spanish 
 
 fleet. 
 
 "United States soldiers were hurried over, who arrived 
 in time to assist in the capture of the city. Our general 
 was instructed from Washington to not allow the Filipino 
 soldiers to enter the city, their city, the capital city of 
 their island, and much talk soon began that the United 
 States did not intend to allow the Filipinos to govern 
 themselves. Our President also quartered an army of 
 soldiers in Cuba, claiming that the people of that island 
 were not capable of initiating a government for them- 
 selves. The Cuban people submitted because of a resolu- 
 tion that was part of the declaration of war against Spain, 
 guaranteeing independence to the people of that island; 
 and they are treating the occupation of their island by the 
 United States army as temporary. 
 
 "By our constitution Congress declares all wars. A 
 majority of the Senate was not then in sympathy with the 
 evil forces that are compassing the overthrow of the Re-
 
 146 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 public, and one of the people's Senators offered and had a 
 declaration of independence as to Cuba attached to the 
 declaration of war, well knowing the influences control- 
 ling the President and what might happen if such a declar- 
 ation was not made ; but no one suspected that the spirit 
 of conquest would seek to go so far from home as the 
 Philippine Islands to deprive a people of their liberty. 
 
 "The President is still keeping the army in Cuba and 
 is protecting all the special privileges granted by Spain 
 to her money lenders and other citizens in that island. 
 The evil influence back of the President has since obtained 
 a majority of the members in the Senate and has retained 
 a majority of the Lower House. The Evil influence now 
 has possession of the President and both houses of Con- 
 gress, and it is questionable whether they intend to re- 
 spect the guarantee of independence made to the Cuban 
 people. The spirit of conquest and a desire for a standing 
 army, it is thought, will cause them to goad the Cubans 
 into taking up arms and again contending for liberty. 
 
 "When the American army and Filipino army were 
 drawn up facing each other, at Manila, our general in- 
 formed Aguinaldo, the President of the Filipino Republic, 
 that his army would not be permitted to enter their cap- 
 ital city and demanded that his men surrender their arms. 
 About that time Agoncilo, the minister of the Filipino 
 Republic, arrived at Washington, to represent his little 
 Republic. Our President and his Secretary of State re- 
 fused to see him or to otherwise give him a hearing. 
 
 "If Mr. Lincoln had been President we know how 
 Agoncilo would have been received. Mr. Lincoln 
 would have sent the White House carriage to the depot 
 and would have had him brought direct to the White 
 House. And he would have said to Agoncilo: 'Sit 
 down and make yourself at home; tell me all about your
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 147 
 
 people ; how many men has Aguinaldo in his army ? We 
 are your friends and we are glad Dewey went there ; you 
 have had an awful time with those Spaniards for several 
 centuries; does it not make you feel good to have kind 
 strong friends like we are ? You are the first Republic to 
 arise in Asia, and we are going to give you a helping 
 hand.' 
 
 "And Agoncilo, looking into the kind face of Mr. 
 Lincoln, would have answered him by saying : 'Mr. Presi- 
 dent, my people have contended for liberty for centuries 
 and feel very thankful to this great Republic for having 
 assisted us in breaking the chains of despotism. It was 
 the example of this Republic that nerved our arms and 
 gave us hope. There came to us the echo of the words of 
 your noble Patrick Henry: 'Give me liberty or give me 
 death' — all of our cabins are placarded, 'independence or 
 death: " 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln would have answered him, saying: 'Go 
 to the telegraph office and cable Aguinaldo that the great 
 Republic of the western world sends greeting to the 
 young Republic of the Orient, and will protect it from the 
 other nations of the world.' 
 
 "That is the way Mr. Lincoln would have talked, and 
 those people would have done anything in the world for 
 him. Jefferson would have treated Agoncilo as Mr. 
 Lincoln would. But Mr. AIcKinley acted just the oppo- 
 site. He refused to see him and did not answer Agon- 
 cilo's letter, sent to know why he was not given a hear- 
 ing. The Filipino minister cabled Aguinaldo how he was 
 received and his army knew how their minister had been 
 treated, and that it foreboded evil to them. The next day 
 two Filipino soldiers insisted on passing the American 
 soldiers. An altercation occurred and shooting began. 
 Then the American 'governor general' ordered that the
 
 148 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 Filipino soldiers be shot down. The President sent more 
 soldiers there and now has about 60,000 soldiers in the 
 Philippine Islands. They are hunting down the Filipinos 
 and shooting them just like the Spaniards did. Our main 
 officer in command there is called 'Governor General.' 
 The same name that Spain used for hers. He has bought 
 the Spanish river gunboats that were formerly used by the 
 Spaniards for the same purpose, and is sending them up 
 the rivers to kill the Filipinos. The American soldiers, 
 reluctantly obeying the commands of their officers, are 
 shooting these poor people down, all, just as the Spaniards 
 had been doing before us." 
 
 COIN was here interrupted by a Mr. Easley, a most 
 excellent man and one of many who are reluctant to be- 
 lieve that a wrong intention should be imputed to our 
 government. He said : 
 
 "Is it not a fact that the Tagales are in the minority in 
 Luzon Island, and that the President is seeking to sup- 
 press them in order to ascertain the wishes of all their 
 people?" 
 
 "If the President had so intended," replied COIN, "he 
 would have said so. He has not announced that as his 
 intention. Had he so intended he would have received 
 Agoncilo. Don't you think so? He has, however, said 
 that his intention is annexation. He has said that wher- 
 ever the flag goes up it shall not come down. Which 
 means that if our flag is put over a man's house we should 
 steal his house! What he means is conquest, and he has 
 said so ! It is plainly to be seen that the Evil influence is 
 controlling him ! The Tagales are the only educated peo- 
 ple in Luzon. Their President and Congress and generals 
 are all said to have been educated in European colleges. 
 The fact that they had about conquered the Spanish army 
 and had 7,000 of them prisoners is some evidence that
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 149 
 
 they are the dominant people in their country. There are 
 some ignorant tribes said to be in the northern portion 
 of the island, but the President would hardly go to war 
 to consult them. No," concluded COIN, shaking his little 
 head, "if the President had intended 'fair play' he would 
 have consulted Agoncillo and learned all that he could 
 about those people." 
 
 Mr. Easley next asked this question : 
 
 "Did not Aguinaldo, for a bribe from the Spaniards, 
 play traitor to his people some six months before Dewey 
 went to Manila ?" 
 
 "No," was the reply. "The Spaniards thought they 
 could buy him and tried to, just as tyrants have ever tried, 
 with bribes, to weaken patriotic people in their struggles. 
 They offered him several hundred thousand dollars to 
 play the traitor to his people. When the offer was made 
 he called his cabinet and generals together and informed 
 them of it. It was proposed in the conference that Aguin- 
 aldo should accept the money, and v.diile assuming to do 
 what was expected of him, to go to Hong Kong and use 
 the money to secretly buy and send into the island arms 
 and ammunition which they then stood much in need of. 
 The moral side of the question was discussed and Aguin- 
 aldo concluded that in time of war it v/as fair to forage 
 upon the enemy; and that the offered bribe gave the 
 money and the opportunity to go after arms and ammu- 
 nition. His generals so thought, and he went through the 
 lines, accepted the money, and returned after purchasing 
 the arms and ammunition, medicines and other things 
 they needed." 
 
 Mr. M. F. Dunlap, of Jacksonville, 111., was in the audi- 
 ence. He is an avowed advocate of the Chicago platform 
 and one of the few bankers who stand with the people on 
 their side of the financial question. He is banking be-
 
 150 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 cause it is permitted by law, but is willing as a matter of 
 justice to vote down and abolish all laws and practices 
 not beneficial to civilization. He had followed the School 
 with interest and now asked this question: 
 
 "Many of the people are favorable to the policy of the 
 President because it will, they believe, extend the com- 
 merce and trade of the United States. They call it ex- 
 pansion and believe it will improve business. I would like 
 
 
 THE DOG AND ITS SHADOW. 
 
 to know for their information how you answer the propo- 
 sition." 
 
 COIN began his reply by relating the story of a dog 
 crossing a stream with a piece of meat in his mouth, and 
 seeing his shadow in the water and taking it for another 
 dog with a piece of meat, let go the piece in his mouth 
 while trying to get the shadow. And then continuing 
 said:
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 151 
 
 "While engrossed in trying to get possession of tlie land 
 of other people and their products, we overlook the possi- 
 bilities of our own people. The United States has a very 
 large area of land containing and producing all the things 
 useful in civilization. To form an idea of its size I will 
 state that you can put all the people in the world, men, 
 women and children, savage and civilized, — 1,400,000,000 
 of them— all of them, in the state of Rhode Island, and 
 each one will have tw&nty square feet. You can put them 
 all, all the people of the ivorld, in Cherry county, Ne- 
 braska, and each individual will have 73 square feet. You 
 can put all the people of the world in that part of the 
 United States west of the Mississippi river and they can 
 live and be prosperous and have practically all the things 
 which the people of the world now enjoy. 
 
 "We have room here in the United States for indefinite 
 expansion. In our narrowness we are overlooking- our 
 opportunities. We are broad compared with the animal 
 state, but we are yet narrow. The hog under the apple 
 tree does not look higher than his head. He sees the 
 apples on the ground, but knows naught of how to im- 
 prove the tree that grows the apples. We must see our- 
 selves as one might see us from another planet, or as we 
 might examine bugs under a microscope. Man's covet- 
 ousness makes him narrow. We must lift the human 
 race to a higher plane. 
 
 "The money already spent in buying a foreign people 
 and in waging a v/ar against them would build great 
 canals and public improvements i . the United States that 
 would result in permanently expanding our tr- de at home. 
 It would connect Lake Michigan with Lake Erie by a 
 big canal, employing tens of thousands of people. It 
 would do infinitely more than that. It would connect the 
 Mississippi river and Lake Superior. If the same money
 
 152 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 were spent on roads in Arkansas it would be a permanent 
 testimonial to the statesmanship of the tirries and make of 
 that state a garden spot. The same may be said of other 
 states. In each instance, our home commerce would ex- 
 pand from the expenditure of that sum of money, much 
 more than it will from spending 
 it in a way involving cruelty 
 and loss of life. 
 
 'Mr. Avon Moore has made 
 a preliminary survey of a 
 great irrigating canal. The 
 headgate of the canal he lo- 
 cates on the Missouri, just 
 south of where the Cheyenne 
 river enters it. The canal 
 thence runs about 150 miles in 
 a southeasterly direction, cross- 
 ing the southern boundary 
 line of South Dakota, continu- 
 ing the same general direc- 
 tion for a distance of 50 miles through the northwestern 
 corner of the state of Nebraska, toward its western 
 boundary, it cuts past the head of the Niobrara river. 
 The canal will enter the state of Colorado about 100 miles 
 west of its eastern boundary line; crossing the North 
 and South Platte rivers by aqueducts, it follows the con- 
 tour 01 the country, leaving the ity of Denver about 30 
 miles to the west i.nd reacnes to the Arkansas river, 
 stretching from the 105th to the 98th degree of longi- 
 tude. The entire length of the canal will be 490 miles. 
 The plan for it provides for eleven gre^t reservoirs and 
 the canal will wate "fty-seven .'"Hliori acres of arid lands. 
 
 "Such an en'erprise as this .vould be expansion, putting 
 as much money in circulation as does the war on the Fili- 
 
 d? (?> 
 
 HE DOES NOT LOOK HIGHER 
 THAN HIS HEAD.
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 153 
 
 pinos. It would add millions of home-owners to our pop- 
 ulation and ennoble and benefit mankind. And yet these 
 things, that have been enum_erated, are but the beginning 
 of a new, prosperous and happy era, when we shall have 
 lost our narrowness and shall recognize that governments 
 are instituted for the promotion and development of man- 
 kind. When we have lost our greed, our covetousness, 
 we will recognize our opportunities for expansion, at 
 home, and cease to grab what other people may have. 
 We will set an example that will invigorate and stimulate 
 other people, till they, too, are great and all the world 
 shall sing in harmony. 
 
 "If it is lawful for the nation to spend money In a war 
 for expansion of commerce abroad, it is lawful for the 
 nation to spend money in a war of expansion at home. 
 We can throw open our mints to silver, putting five mil- 
 lions of men, women and children in the Rocky and Sierra 
 Nevada mountains ; we can build great irrigating ditches, 
 canals and other improvements, till the United States is 
 a beehive of industry ; we can thus pay our debts to Eng- 
 land and stop her subtle design for our conquest. All 
 these things are within our immediate reach if we will but 
 emancipate ourselves from the privileged classes. 
 
 "As it is, like the hog under the apple tree, not seeing 
 our opportunities at home we go knocking down fences 
 and eating the apples of other people. 
 
 "Our course must be original and not copied from that 
 of decadent nations. Their example is one of greed and 
 blood and carnage. Our ideals must be newer and higher ! 
 Our backs upon the past, our faces bathed in the brilliant 
 light of living truths, our course onward to a higher 
 plane — a new example to all the world ! !" 
 
 And here, dropping this subject, that to the audience 
 was of fascinating interest, the little reformer continued :
 
 154 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "By our constitution. Congress is the war-making 
 power. No one was intended to put our nation at war 
 against a people unless Congress first declared the war. 
 Our forefathers were wise in this provision. Congress 
 declared war against Spain, and later at Paris a treaty of 
 peace was signed. Then a second war began. The first 
 war was declared by Congress, the second was declared 
 by the President. The first war was against a Monarchy, 
 the second was against a Republic. The first involved not 
 
 to exceed 20,000 soldiers in action and cost $250,000 per 
 day ; the second war has involved 50,000 soldiers in action 
 and is costing $500,000 per day. The first war was con- 
 stitutional and the second war is unconstitutional. It 
 shows that power is being, arbitrarily, concentrated in the 
 hands of the President ; and that when the time comes to 
 strike they will try to tear the constitution to shreds."
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 155 
 
 A man by the name of Governor from Iowa was in the 
 audience and he now threw a firebrand into the School. 
 He is a poHtician who is under the Evil influence. He had 
 bitterly denounced all those who were opposing the war 
 on the Filipinos, just as his kind living in Spain had acted 
 when that nation was doing the same thing. He had said 
 that if any citizen shot down one opposing the war against 
 the Filipinos the person thus slaying his fellow man ought 
 to go free. He said to COIN : 
 
 "You are a traitor ! or you would not use such language 
 toward the President. The war is not unconstitutional ! 
 The President has a right to quell and suppress a rebel- 
 lion ! The Filipinos are rebels, sir ! The President does 
 not wait for an act of Congress to suppress rebels ! It is 
 his duty, sir, to act without such authority !" and with this 
 Mr. Governor sat down. 
 
 The little philosopher listened without amazement, and 
 as calmly as one looking through a microscope at bugs, de- 
 livered his reply. He answered: 
 
 "A rebel is one who defies the authority of his country. 
 One, to be a rebel, must be either a native or a naturalized 
 citizen. The Filipinos are neither natives nor naturalized 
 citizens of the United States. No one has the right to 
 class them as rebels. The President claimed they were 
 citizens by purchase from Spain. A truly Republican 
 President or Congress would not recognize such a pur- 
 chase. Republics are founded on the principle that 'all 
 just governments derive their power from the consent of 
 the governed.' It is only Monarchies that buy and sell 
 people. The mission of a Republic is to set a peaceful 
 example of freedom, which mankind will be glad to fol- 
 low and that will encourage peoples, deprived of their 
 liberty, to strive to regain their freedom. The Filipinos, 
 encouraged by our example, having gained their freedom,
 
 156 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 wished to establish a RepubHc Hke ours, with a President 
 and Congress, and elections like ours. If you are in busi- 
 ness you do not want others to come and run your busi- 
 ness for you and put high-salaried officers in your business 
 for you to pay. You want to run it yourself. They 
 wanted to rule themselves, like we are trying to govern 
 ourselves. Hence they were overwhelmed with surprise 
 and astonishment at the way our President treated them. 
 They did not know what many of us know, that the ruling 
 classes is this country no longer desire a Republic, — so 
 the humiliation and disappointment to the Filipinos were 
 very great when we refused to hear their minister, or to 
 recognize their Republic, 
 
 "A man is not a traitor," continued the boy, "who de- 
 fends the right of self-government. He should be com- 
 mended for trying to save the flag from spoliation and a 
 bad purpose. On the other hand, it is treason to try, cov- 
 ertly, to destroy this Republic. It is treason to Repub- 
 lican principles to discourage other people when trying to 
 establish a Republic, or to give aid or sympathy to a Mon- 
 archy w^hen engaged at war with a Republic !" 
 
 The little fellow delivered this reply without feeling or 
 emotion and in a most kindly tone. Its reception by the 
 audience was electrical. The sympathy the President is 
 showing England in the latter's effort to destroy the Re- 
 publics in South Africa occurred to all, and added em- 
 phasis to the applause that greeted the little patriot's an- 
 swer. 
 
 'T arraign the President," he continued, "for treason 
 in waging a war without that war having been first de- 
 clared by Congress, as required by the constitution ! I 
 arraign him for treason for a secret alliance with England 
 against Republics struggling for liberty! I arraign the
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 157 
 
 majority in Congress as the willing puppets of the Evil 
 influence that prompts the President !" 
 
 No one had doubted the firmness and moral courage of 
 the little advocate, but when he became for the moment 
 the orator, denouncing those in high position as enemies 
 of the Republic, and charging the President with treason, 
 — the older and more conservative people, for the mo- 
 ment, caught their breath ; but the effect on the boys was 
 just the opposite. They jumped to their feet, stood on 
 
 THE PKETOEIA RACE TRACK. 
 
 chairs, shouted and waved their handkerchiefs. With 
 them there was courage ! They are the prototypes of the 
 boys of the nation, whose instincts are humane and whose 
 characters have not been warped and corrupted by covet- 
 ousness! The women clapped their hands partly to en- 
 courage the boys and partly in admiration of the little
 
 158 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 speaker. The man who had put the tart question to the 
 little defender of popular liberty, had, at the close of the 
 reply, drawn fire as from flint. When the commotion that 
 had been produced subsided, COIN continued : 
 
 "A double purpose is now being served, by keeping a 
 standing arm in Cuba and 60,000 soldiers in the Philip- 
 pine Islands .anting down and shooting the people as 
 Spain did before us. One is conquest — a national appe- 
 tite. The other an excuse for sustaining a standing army. 
 
 "Our forefathers warned us against maintaining a reg- 
 ular or standing, army, — and said we should rely in time 
 of peril on a citizen soldiery — the state troops — the state 
 volunteers. They said that a regular army could be used 
 by men who would overthrow the Republic, and that the 
 citizen soldiers could not be thus used. What our fore- 
 fathers said is still strongly impressed on the minds of the 
 people and a law of long standing exists, that the regular 
 army should not exceed 25,000 men. When war began 
 the President asked Congress to increase it to 100,000 
 soldiers, but a small majority of the Senate, at that time, 
 being on our side, a compromise bill was passed allowing 
 the President to increase the United States army, tempor- 
 arily, to 100,000. A majority in both houses of Congress 
 is, since the last election, subservient to the privileged 
 classes, and the danger is now imminent that the standing 
 army will be permanently increased. The opportunity has 
 thus arrived that those secretly plotting for the overthrow 
 of the Republic have waited for. Anything and every- 
 thing they w^ant is now about to go through Congress, 
 including a reduction of the one per cent money to the 
 bankers to tzvo-fiftJis of one per cent. 
 
 "A regular army is organized in a way that causes it to 
 unjustly shoot down the people when protesting against a 
 change in their form of government. The men who are
 
 Money, trusts, imperialism. 159 
 
 coming into possession of all the property of the people, 
 through class laws, and the formation of Trusts, foresee 
 that they will need a hired soldiery to protect them should 
 the people become exasperated. They also foresee that a 
 time of general riots and corruption in office will soon be 
 at hand, under this system of pilfering and degrading the 
 people, when it will become necessary, in their judgment, 
 to establish a Monarchy ; — and they want a standing army 
 to protect them. 
 
 "A standing army is mainly made up, as to officers, of 
 men who are ambitious for promotion. Who welcome 
 war as an opportunity to that end. The privates are, as a 
 rule, men looking for work, — men without homes — and 
 who have abandoned the hope of owning a home. By 
 military law, a private soldier in the regular army is not 
 allowed to have a wife. Thus we have an army made up 
 of men who are in a w^orse condition than that of tenants ; 
 who have neither home, wife nor home influences. Their 
 associations are not refining. Their sphere is narrow, and 
 to gratify their mere selfish wants becomes the usual limit 
 of their ambition. They are trained in cruelty, till they be- 
 come anxious to practice that cruelty, by planting bullets 
 in the body of some human being. Such is a standing 
 army. And it has ever obeyed the command of tyrants 
 in authority — the men who give therri their pay — when 
 ordered to shoot down their own citizens protesting 
 against the overthrow of a Republic! It is this kind of 
 an army that the privileged class now want. 
 
 "The citizen soldiers are our state troops, — the state 
 volunteers. They compose the army our forefathers said 
 we should encourage. The state soldiers are allowed to 
 marry. They have the refining influence of home. They 
 take an interest in the government. Such an army is 
 composed of the sons, husbands and fathers of the na-
 
 160 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 tion; who spring to arms at the call of country and hu- 
 manity ! When the war is over they lay down their arms 
 and return to the bosom of their families. Such an army 
 is the true defender of a nation ! It is the only army 
 sacred to the soil of free institutions ! And such an army 
 will not assist those who have made wealth by law to 
 overthrow the Republic ! 
 
 
 r^ i<'^i\ 
 
 A CITIZEN SOLDIER LEAVING HOME TO FIGHT FOR 
 COUNTRY AND HUMANITY. 
 
 "Our citizen soldiers are not willing to engage in wars 
 of conquest. They universally, some twenty regiments of 
 them, demanded to be returned from the Philippine 
 Islands — not one regiment was willing to remain ! Their 
 conduct settles for all time the question of the justness or 
 un justness of that war! In the war between the states 
 from '6i to '65 the armies were made up of citizen sol-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 161 
 
 diers. It was the First New York, the Fifth Ohio, the 
 Tenth IlHnois, or the Twentieth Iowa, as it happened, and 
 the first and second calls were for men for a few months. 
 Did they come back at the end of their enlistments ? Till 
 the war was over did you see regiments marching home 
 with flag^ flying and drums beating? No! And if they 
 had come they would have been hissed throughout the line 
 of their march ! 
 
 "How is it with this Philippine war? This war of con- 
 quest and design? All the regiments of citizen soldiers 
 have returned though the war continues! And as they 
 traversed the continent, as they marched into their native 
 states, with flags flying, drums beating and their com- 
 manding officer at the head of the regiment, it has been 
 amid patriotic cheers and shouts of welcome ! The cheers 
 of the people and their plaudits of welcome were partly 
 because of love for their citizen soldiery, and partly be- 
 cause those soldiers had refused to aid in subjugating a 
 people whom they had gone to war to liberate !" 
 
 This last statement was received with deafening ap- 
 plause, and the little orator continuing said : "We do not 
 need a standing army in time of peace or war. Wars 
 come preceded by months of diplomacy. There is always 
 time to arm and drill the citizen soldiers. ONE citizen 
 soldier is worth TWO of the standing army ! The former 
 is a man fighting for principle and humanity, and his tact 
 and courage rises above that of the regular soldier ! One 
 citizen soldier in South Africa is worth two of the En- 
 glish army ! One is fighting for home and children, the 
 other for medals and pay! 
 
 "A standing army is an idea born of Monarchies and 
 is designed on this continent for the enslavement of the 
 people ! Any war that our citizen soldiers will not fight is 
 an unjust war! Let a Republic be so conducted that its
 
 163 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 people are the owners of homes and they will ever be its 
 bulwark and defense !" 
 
 Thr6ughout this recital of the return of the citizen sol- 
 diers from the Philippine Islands, his arraignment of a 
 standing army, and his praise for the citizen soldiers, the 
 little speaker was interrupted time and again with ap- 
 plause, the boys as usual leading in the acclamation of 
 approval. 
 
 "Will it pay to try to subjugate foreign people? Hit 
 'em from that standpoint !" exclaimed Captain Parkhurst, 
 of South Omaha, Neb. 
 
 "No," was the reply. "It does not pay. The Roman 
 Republic tried it, depleted her treasury, and fell in ruins ! 
 Spain tried it and now lies humiliated, an object of pity 
 among nations, England, the money lender of the world, 
 with a power to aid her greater than had Rome or Spain, 
 she, too, has tried it, — conquest by force and by subtlety. 
 She now shakes upon her foundation and is ready to 
 crumble in ruins ! All honor to the Dutch of South Africa 
 who have struck the blow that is the beginning of the end 
 of the British Empire! Iler centuries of oppression in 
 Ireland ; her cruelty to the people of Egypt and India ; her 
 covetousness in dealings with all nations, is now to react 
 upon her ! Her former sturdy yeomanry are tenants and 
 dependants ! The character of her citizenship is depleted 
 by vanity and selfishness ! The soldiers of such a nation 
 will be vanquished in battle by the soldiers of a liberty 
 loving people ! The experience of England is now to be 
 added to that of Spain and Rome ! Humbled and bleed- 
 ing, her treasury depleted, she will be a new example to 
 America ! 
 
 "Selfishness is a consuming fire that burns and destroys 
 in one all that is true and noble ! It is true of an individ- 
 ual and it is true of a nation ! It prematurely brings old
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 16: 
 
 age, and death! Conquest — the subjugation of other 
 people — will injure us both in purse and morals! 
 
 "But all this is incidental only to the great drama of 
 nations being played on our soil. Monarchy is ready to 
 spring at the throat of the Republic ! The privileged few 
 seek by arbitrary force the permanent subjugation of the 
 people. They will push a bill in Congress to increase the 
 standing army. If they carry the presidential election in 
 
 Bafi p!l|iS||®E- 
 
 ALL THESE THINGS THEY WILL DO IN AN EFFORT 
 TO DECEIVE THE PEOPLE. 
 
 1900, in four years more, they will disclose openly their 
 desire for a Monarchy ! Do not deceive yourselves that 
 the struggle will be an easy one! The forces of Evil we 
 are combating are organized, and determined of purpose 
 to enslave America ! They will resort to all manner of 
 methods to entrap and deceive the people. A great man.
 
 164 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, once said, 'The last resort of a villain is pro- 
 fuse patriotism !' It is as true to-day as when the words 
 were first uttered ! They will wrap themselves in the flag 
 and ostentatiously appeal to your patriotism ! They will 
 put the names of their candidate across the pure folds of 
 the stars and stripes ! In an effort to deceive, they will 
 thus debase the ensign of liberty ! They will use Thanks- 
 giving day as a delusion and a snare! They will hold 
 aloft the Cross and comm.it crimes in the name of Chris- 
 tianity ! They are now in many of our schools teaching 
 false histories of the nation ! They will use money to de- 
 bauch the people where they can ! This is the force we 
 have to meet ! Let us meet it as becomes the descendants 
 of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln ! As men 
 who would not be slaves ! !" 
 
 COIN had finished amidst tumultuous applause on the 
 subject of Imperialism. He had made plain the cause of 
 the fall of Republics. Had answered the arguments of 
 expansion by pointing to the opportunities for unlimited 
 expansion on our own vast area ; had shown that all at- 
 tempts at the subjugation of other people had been disas- 
 trous, financially, and had reacted in loss of pride and na- 
 tional humiliation. His portrait of the true purpose of 
 the special classes to overthrow the Republic was vivid 
 and convincing. That Trusts and Imperialism were the 
 logical offspring of class legislation none doubted, and 
 few who heard him failed to see the imminent dangers 
 now confronting the American people. The School ad- 
 journed till the night session, that was to prove memor- 
 able on the subject of a remedy, for a nation in the hour 
 of its peril. 
 
 END OF SIXTH LESSON.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Last Lesson. 
 
 It was Saturday evening, and it was known to all who 
 had followed in the local newspapers the proceedings of 
 the School that it would close that night. Great crowds 
 began coming early to get a glimpse of the boy, till by 
 7 130 over ten thousand people filled the lake park in and 
 around the Art Institute. 
 
 Demands for admission had grown with the progress 
 of the School, and after the adjournment of the day ses- 
 sion on Saturday a temporary wooden gallery was erected 
 in the room with about 300 additional seats. Besides this, 
 every conceivable space of standing room was permitted 
 to be occupied. The hall was brilliantly lighted with elec- 
 tric lights and on the platform was the easel so often used, 
 with the one word on it — organization. 
 
 The interest was intense when the little statesman and 
 orator at 8 o'clock appeared on the platform. He began 
 by thanking all for the great respect and attention that 
 had been shown him, and then proceeded : 
 
 "How are we to bring swiftly and surely a remedy that 
 will put the past behind us and a glorious future before 
 us ? That is the most important question of the hour ! 
 
 "Upon the subject of a remedy, the product of human 
 wisdom of to-day may be improved upon as we proceed ; 
 but the foundation for the superstructure can now be 
 safely laid. Among other things, the following are im- 
 perative : 
 
 "l. Education should be pressed till every one is 
 
 ie5
 
 166 
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 aware of the nation's peril and intelligently understands 
 the source of danger. 
 
 "2. We should be charitable and kind towards those 
 who oppose us and dignified and firm with those who are 
 without charity and ill bred. And at all times be steadfast 
 and unalterable in our purpose. 
 
 "3. While recognizing the rights of others, we should 
 
 be industrious in providing for ourselves. Besides the 
 necessity of it, there is much happiness to be had from 
 having one's time usefully occupied. Laziness leads to a 
 desire to have some one support such person in idleness 
 — and breeds false pride, vanity and unhappiness. Such 
 people become the most selfish and the most willing to prey 
 upon others. 
 
 "4. Boys and girls, early in life, should accustom
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 167 
 
 themselves to be honest and upright. Good habits, Hke 
 bad habits, become second nature from long practice. 
 When one becomes industrious and honest from practice, 
 it is easy to remain so." As he said those things which he 
 numbered "3 and 4," he looked at the boys and girls, the 
 former especially being numerous in the middle portion of 
 the audience, and then continued : 
 
 "5. We must learn that the laws of God are as fixed as 
 his law of gravitation, that pain and disaster will come, 
 now or hereafter, to individuals and nations, that do not 
 recognize and obey those laws ; and that by learning and 
 observing them a great and glorious future will come to 
 individuals and nations. 
 
 "6. All state troops and other soldiers should be re- 
 quired to study the elementary truths of civilization and 
 the elementary principles of a Democracy. 
 
 "7. All who would assist in saving the Republic — who 
 would not be slaves — should join together in one political 
 organization. 
 
 "8. Thorough organization of our forces. 
 
 "g. As early as possible the Referendum should be 
 established in this Republic as it is now practiced in the 
 Swiss Republic, or an improvemxent on the Swiss plan, — 
 which means the submission of all questions of national 
 policy to the people — the will of the people as the basis, 
 the government to be conducted upon strictly business 
 principles. 
 
 "The first six of the foregoing remedies are educa- 
 tional, and the last three are organizational. The first- 
 named would cover the sixth, but the sixth is to impress 
 its special importance. These are practical remedies, that 
 underlie all other remedies. If organized effort is not 
 used for the accomplishment of these nine things, the spe- 
 cific remedies that are desired will never be enacted into
 
 168 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 law. We must begin lower and deeper down than we are 
 working at present, and then all things desirable will come 
 easier, after a time. 
 
 "We must learn anew the principles that governments 
 are instituted for the promotion and development of the 
 human race; that man serves himself best by promoting 
 the common good ; that kindness begets kindness and 
 cruelty begets cruelty. We must learn the elementary 
 principles wrought from the experience of those who have 
 preceded us in attempting to solve the problem of man- 
 kind. All this is educational, and, for success, depends on 
 organization. Wherein the foundation work begins is 
 organization. And, first, a word to the boys : 
 
 "Boys," he continued, looking at the group in the cen- 
 ter of the hall, "upon you this struggle will mostly de- 
 pend. You will be voters when you come of age. You 
 will be active agents in setting your country right. Paul 
 Revere was a boy who was first, in 1776, to give the alarm 
 that the British soldiers were coming. To you we must 
 look for the greatest source of our strength. And, girls, 
 you are the type, when making pictures, of which we 
 make angels. You must encourage the boys that they may 
 all vote right when they come of age." 
 
 Speaking to the audience generally he continued : 
 
 "The inventor in the mechanics and arts, may achieve 
 wonderful results, because the crude material is put to- 
 gether as the inventor directs. But not so in statesman- 
 ship — the science of government. To bring civilization 
 to perfection the people must move en masse. Inventive 
 minds may direct, but must wait on the people to approve. 
 We must move en masse. This requires general educa- 
 tion and organization. And organization is necessary to 
 secure universal education. 
 
 "Organization begins with concentrating our efforts in
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 169 
 
 one political party. If political parties are corrupt, it is 
 because jnen have neglected their dut)'. If we divide our 
 votes between two or more parties, we cannot hope, so 
 easily, to succeed. In tmion of effort there is success. It 
 is as easy to make pure one of the existing political par- 
 ties as it is to start and build up a new political party. 
 The same influence that corrupts existing political parties 
 
 PAUL REVEBE. 
 
 will corrupt any new political party when those who wish 
 to use it for bad purposes see that it is coming into prom- 
 inence. Our shortest road to success is to take charge of 
 one of the two largest political parties : make it, truly, rep- 
 *resent the common good ; and through it, as an organi- 
 zation, elect a President, a Congress and L^slatures that 
 will repeal all class laws and pass such other laws as will 
 restore equal rights to all and special privileges to none.
 
 r:0 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 To do tills, it means that we must organize ; and our or- 
 ganization must be a political party. We will gain ten 
 years by winning to us one of the existing political par- 
 ties. 
 
 "Our enemy — the enemy of mankind — the great Evil 
 influence of which I have spoken, has tried to capture all 
 political parties, that the Good influence that seeks to save 
 mankind, might have no effective organization. This 
 enemy, this Evil Spirit, a ffew years ago, had captured the 
 two leading political parties, known as the 'republican 
 party' and the 'democratic party ;' and some people began 
 the organization of a third party, known as the 'populist 
 party,' while others tried to throw off the Evil influence 
 that had taken possession of the two first-named parties. 
 In the case of the 'democratic party,' our friends suc- 
 ceeded in 1896, and the 'democratic party' declared plainly 
 on the side of the people, and nominated for President a 
 statesman. Those desiring privileged laws succeeded in 
 controlling the 'republican party.' Those in the 'demo- 
 cratic party' who belonged with the privileged classes 
 went over to the 'republican party.' On the other hand, 
 many in the 'republican party' went over to the 'demo- 
 cratic party;' and those who had begun forming a third 
 party, seeing that the Good influence had control of the 
 'democratic party' commenced coming over to it. Many 
 of them, however, hesitated, believing that the dominant 
 influence in the 'democratic party' was trying to deceive 
 the people, to get their votes, and that it would not enact 
 proper laws if put in power. 
 
 "It is true that the Evil influence is still trying to cap- 
 ture the 'democratic party;' and the way to prevent it is* 
 for all of us to go in and help our friends in that organiza- 
 tion. There is not time to form a new political party ; — 
 we will cross the dead line before a new party can grow
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 171 
 
 strong enough in numbers to save the Republic. If we are 
 not strong enough to capture or retain one of the two po- 
 htical parties, we are not sufficiently strong to capture the 
 nation. We can do so. And then the two forces of GooH 
 and Evil will confront each other: One under the banner 
 of the 'democratic party' and the other under the banner 
 of the 'republican party.' The names signify practically 
 the same, meaning a democratic or republican form of 
 government. The true purpose of the two organizations 
 must be judged by their actions and what the men repre- 
 sent who compose them. 
 
 "The 'democratic party' in the main has for leaders men 
 who are not interested in class legislation and who are sin- 
 cere of purpose in trying to establish equal rights to all 
 and special privileges to none. The 'republican party' in 
 the main is controlled by men who are profiting by class 
 laws, and who are seeking to pass still other class laws. 
 Mr. McKinley was made President by them. 
 
 "A few years ago he was living at Canton, Ohio, and 
 was in debt about $100,000, and a few men interested in 
 class laws paid ofif this debt for him, and thus placed him 
 under obligations to them. They then put him up as a 
 candidate for President of the United States and suc- 
 ceeded in electing him, using the 'republican party' to do 
 so. This man is now the recognized head of the 'repub- 
 lican party' and we can best judge of the power control- 
 ling him by the men he confers with. The chairman of 
 the Republican National Committee is a Mr. Hanna, one 
 of the men who helped to pay the debt of $100,000. He 
 is the head of the Iron Trust. He has a bed in the White 
 House, where the President lives, patterned after the 
 style of a bed the Queen of England sleeps in, and often 
 sleeps there. He recently said on returning from a visit
 
 17S MONEY. TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 to England that theirs was a better form of government 
 than ours. 
 
 "The President's Secretary of State is a Mr. Hay, who 
 was formerly secretary of the Oil Trust — the Standard 
 Oil Company. His Secretary of War was at the time of 
 his appointment the attorney of Trusts, and his environ- 
 ments have taught him to believe that what the Trusts 
 want is just and right. The Secretary of the Treasury is 
 a Mr. Gage, who, at the time of his appointment, was 
 president of the First National Bank of Chicago, one of 
 the leading men of the Money Power — the Money Trust. 
 All the other men in his cabinet are connected with some 
 one or more Trusts, and are interested in class laws. The 
 Vice-President, who recently died, and who was elected 
 by the 'republican party,' was the head of the Coal Trust. 
 From this we would be blind if we did not see that the 
 'republican party' is the champion of the cause of the 
 privileged classes. 
 
 "So, having naturally decided that we will go with the 
 'democratic party,' we come to the next step that we 
 should take. 
 
 "It is to thoroughly organize that party that it may 
 grow purer and stronger, and with such an organization 
 overthrow the forces of Evil in the United States. And 
 how organize? 
 
 "First, we should favor an early convention of our 
 party in 1900 to nominate our candidate for President. 
 Our party is a party with a remedy and is therefore a pro- 
 gressive party. A progressive party, to be successful, 
 must be aggressive. The earlier the convention the more 
 time we will have to organize and educate. At the na- 
 tional convention, each four years, a national committee 
 is selected, in this way : Each state delegation to the na- 
 tional convention selects some one as the member of the
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 173 
 
 national committee from that state ; so the committee is 
 composed of one man from each of the states and terri- 
 tories. This is done at the time of the national convention 
 and the first thing done after the convention adjourns is 
 a meeting of the new national committee. 
 
 "The committee elects a chairman and secretary, and 
 usually leaves to its chairman the selection of an executive 
 committee and such other committees as he may find de- 
 sirable. So that practically the campaign is placed under 
 the direction of one man, the chairman — which is proper. 
 Thus our general — our campaign manager — is selected. 
 Of equal importance with selecting the proper candida^te 
 for President is the selection of the chairman of the na- 
 tional committee. He should be a man of vast executive 
 ability, who knows the value of time, fruitful in resources, 
 who can systematize work, of splendid judgment, quick of 
 decision and aggressive. 
 
 "He should be a man who can give all of his time for 
 four years to the work, and, in order to enable him to do 
 this, he should be paid a salary in keeping with his tastes 
 and private expenses. He should have no other occupa- 
 tion, position or employment, and should not be a candi- 
 date for any office. His mind should be solely occupied 
 with organization to advance a principle disconnected 
 from personal advancement. No man can m.aster two 
 things with the success that he can master one. As a rule 
 if he tries to do two things neither will be attended to 
 properly. Nor can he delegate his powers without cre- 
 ating indecision in the executive head, or other resulting 
 embarrassment. There must be no diminution in the 
 highest possible service from such a man. All now de- 
 pends upon this struggle upon which we enter; and our 
 commander-in-chief is the chairman of the national 
 committee. A candidate for President is so situated that
 
 174 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 beyond being adviser he cannot manage the practical 
 work — and he ceases to be a candidate within the year that 
 he is nominated. The chairmanship lasts for four years ; 
 and it should be four years of incessant work, whether 
 successful in 1900 or not. Success means a beginning, 
 and defeat means, in a political sense, a Valley Forge and 
 then a Yorktown ! 
 
 "Our people should take great interest in the selection 
 of delegates to the national convention, and each delega- 
 tion should select a man for member of the national com- 
 mittee who is practical and of a high order of executive 
 ability. Send delegates to the national convention firm of 
 purpose and determined in character. 
 
 "Having selected a commander-in-chief, a chairman 
 of the national committee, it becomes his duty to set in 
 motion organization. In this work he will need many 
 assistants — all of us — but two kinds of assistants. One 
 kind that give all of their time; the other that give part 
 of their time. Those who give all of their time should not 
 be permitted to have any other occupation ; if they have 
 they cannot become proficient in their duties. They 
 should be paid a salary. Those who give part of their 
 time, as all will do, in work in their neighborhoods or 
 otherwise, should receive nothing therefor from the com- 
 mittee. 
 
 "There must be a fund to financier the committee. 
 Money, as we have noticed, in a measure, is as necessary 
 as air and water. Success in organization cannot be ac- 
 complished without money, and a sufficient quantity of it. 
 This must be furnished by all. The committee should 
 have a regular income ; and subscriptions, taking the form 
 of monthly payments, should be the way of assistance the 
 m.ost serviceable. We should all give — a penny a month, 
 5 cents a month, 10 cents a month, 25 cents a month, 50
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 175 
 
 cents a month, a dollar a month, or more— and give it 
 gladly, to an emancipation movement that is to render 
 slaves freemen ! 
 
 The Philosophy of It. 
 "One who gives as much as a penny a month to such a 
 fund will not require a buggy to be sent to bring him to 
 the polls on the day of the election. You will understand 
 the philosophy of why the people should financier their 
 own political organization by examining as to how class 
 legislation has been obtained in the United States. 
 
 "Prior to 1896, both of the two political parties were 
 financiered from the same source. The national com- 
 mittees of the Democratic and Republican parties re- 
 ceived the money to pay the expenses of their campaigns, 
 mainly, from those who were profiting by class legisla- 
 tion. The secretary of the Sugar Trust in 1893, testified 
 before a Congressional investigating committee. The 
 committee was investigating the election of 1892. He 
 testified that his company contributed a large sum to 
 each of the two national committees. On being asked 
 why his company gave to both of them, he answered: 
 'We want to be safe, no matter who is elected.' Other 
 Trusts and men wanting privileged legislation did the 
 same, and it made little difference which party came 
 into power. These men had placed the leaders of each 
 party under obligations to them. 
 
 "When Congress met, these men of class legislation 
 were there, with their bills, and mainly had politicians 
 to deal with whom they had furnished money to pay the 
 expenses of their campaigns. 
 
 "Politics had thus degenerated, till the people were 
 taught to believe, that no one had any interest in elec- 
 tions but the candidates for office and those who could
 
 176 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 make something for themselves out of it. It became a 
 common practice of the national and local committees 
 to seek money for campaign expenses only from those 
 who expected to be specially benefited — and thus class 
 legislation grew and fattened. 
 
 "In 1896, the people in the 'Democratic party' had be- 
 come indignant and aroused, sufficiently to throw off the 
 evil influence in their own party, and make a platform 
 and put a candidate on it, that truly represented the 
 people. They w^ere so firm and determined of purpose 
 that the men of class legislation became frightened. That 
 is, they believed that if they assisted it, that it would 
 result in no good to them ; and, these men of class legis- 
 lation all went into the 'Republican party.' 
 
 "In the campaign of 1896, the Sugar Trust gave one 
 million dollars to the Republican national committee ; and 
 when that party went into povv^er, the next year, the 
 Dingley tariff bill was introduced and referred to its 
 proper committee. The officers of the Sugar Trust indi- 
 cated to the Republican members of that committee what 
 tariff they would like to have on sugar. It was given 
 to them in grateful recollection of the million dollar 
 donation to their national committee. As soon as the 
 bill passed, the Sugar Trust raised the price of sugar 
 one cent a pound ; and in one year that one cent per pound 
 represented two million dollars profit to the Sugar Trust. 
 The tariff had protected it that much from competition 
 from other countries. In one year the Sugar Company 
 had back its one million dollars, invested in the Republi- 
 can national committee, a million dollars profit, and future 
 years to draw upon. 
 
 "These men of class legislation are not philanthropists, 
 and they gave to the national committee for the purpose 
 of getting the laws they wanted. They all went out of
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 1T7 
 
 the 'Democratic party' in 1896, and went into the 'Reptib- 
 Hcan party.' Whereas, before 1896, they had their eggs 
 in two baskets and did not care which party was elected, 
 the action of the Democratic national convention caused 
 them to put all their eggs in one basket. That is, to rely 
 solely on the 'Republican party.' Thus having only one 
 chance, they were frightened and placed in the hands of 
 that party's national committee, ten times as much money 
 as they had formerly given to both national committees. 
 
 'Tn the campaign of 1896, the Democratic national 
 committee did not have a dollar in its treasury as late as 
 September ist of that year; and afterwards had very 
 little to what was necessary. A national campaign is one 
 of organization and education, and frequently the com- 
 mittee's telegraph bills will amount to as much as $200 
 per day ; and if the organization of the people is without 
 money, to provide for the expense of speakers, clerks, 
 literature, telegrams and postage, it can be defeated, with 
 a just cause." 
 
 COIN had proceeded thus far without any interrup- 
 tion ; but a question was now asked by Mr. "Buck" Tan- 
 ner of Paris, Illinois. He said : 
 
 'T know of money being used by both political parties 
 to buy votes. Is it excusable under any circumstances?" 
 
 "No," was the reply. And the boy continued : "Hon- 
 esty is always the best policy. When one resorts to tricks 
 and dishonest methods, it grows on him, and he will, 
 from habit, thus resort when an honest method would 
 better answer the purpose. There is no limit to the in- 
 genuity of the human mind, and it can become more 
 proficient in honest methods and accomplish more, than 
 it can with dishonest methods. A plan that teaches the 
 people to rely on themselves, and furnishes the money 
 with which to send organizers into each county, can
 
 178 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 arouse within the people the spirit of freedom — and will 
 bring success in a just cause. There are tens of thou- 
 sands of RepubHcans who will flock to our standard as 
 soon as they feel that our cause and its leaders are honest ; 
 and each act of dishonesty such as you speak of, if com- 
 mitted by any of our people, will only serve to repel those 
 who should come to our assistance." 
 
 Mr. W. H. Thompson, the Democratic national com- 
 mitteeman from Nebraska, was in the delegation from 
 that state, that had arrived in the morning, and that had 
 been given seats on the platform. He now rose, not to 
 ask a question, but to make a statement. He said : 
 
 "In connection with what has here been said, I want to 
 say that in Nebraska, we have tested the plan of inter- 
 esting the people in financiering their own campaigns. 
 With one man at work four months, we raised in small 
 monthly payments, the last payment to fall due November 
 I, 1900, $20,480, in subscriptions; and during that four 
 months $4,500.35 of the money was paid in cash, a sum 
 slightly in advance of what was due on the subscriptions. 
 The same man perfected organization as he proceeded, 
 thus starting organization in fifty counties. We found 
 that it interested our people, and made workers out of 
 many who never before took an interest in politics. In 
 one of those meetings a ]\Ir. Shoemaker of Fairbury arose 
 and said : 'I am going to contribute one dollar a month 
 to this movement, and I look at it in this way : If we don't 
 go at this thing in a self-respecting way, and win, we will 
 have to pay the Republican campaign fund of 1900, as 
 we paid its campaign expenses of 1896. Their method is 
 to advance the money and afterwards take it out of the 
 people.' 
 
 "At Beatrice, a Mr. Davis said: 'This beats life in- 
 surance. You do not have to die to beat the game.' At
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 1'<'9 
 
 Plattsmouth, a Mr. Todd said : 'I will give five dollars 
 cash and one dollar per month thereafter as long as I 
 live,' and so wrote his subscription, saying : 'This move- 
 ment ought to have started thirty years ago.' At Dakota 
 City, a Mr. J. F. Leedom rose in the audience and said : 
 'I am now 73 years of age and make my living pounding 
 iron all day on the anvil, but I will gladly give one dollar 
 per month to this emancipation movement.' At Albion, 
 an ex-soldier, a poor man, getting $8 per month, pension, 
 said that he felt that his country was in more danger 
 now, than it was in 1861, and that he would not feel at 
 home with his conscience if he did not give one dollar 
 of that eight, each month, to this cause, and he is now a 
 regular contributor to the fund. 
 
 "Some," continued Mr. Thompson, "are giving less 
 than a dollar per month, and the highest we have is five 
 dollars per month. While the money makes it possible 
 for us to organize and educate, I look on the effect, as of 
 greater benefit than the money. They all become work- 
 ers. It makes of them proprietors in politics ; and the 
 man who gives nothing, seeing what his neighbors are 
 doing, is the more anxious to help with his vote or with 
 his services. 
 
 "The result was," he continued, "that we, this year, 
 increased our vote by ten per cent over last year, while 
 the Republicans lost one per cent on their vote of last 
 year. We carried the state by over 11,000 larger ma- 
 jority than last year. From experience, I heartily ap- 
 prove of such methods as have been here presented. And 
 I want to say further that in Nebraska we made an educa- 
 tional campaign along the same lines that this 'School' 
 has followed. We explained the duplications of loans 
 by the bankers and showed why they wanted to hold 
 down the supply of money by demonetizing silver. We
 
 18U MOKEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 made an aggressive campaign. And t we won, mainly for 
 the reason that the people were financiering their own 
 campaign." 
 
 Mr. Thompson, having made this statement, sat down. 
 COIN thanked him and proceeded : 
 
 "The farmers' alliance a few years ago reversed a Re- 
 publican majority of some 60,000 in Kansas ; and the 
 main reason for their success was that they financiered 
 their own campaign. The O'Connell movement in Ire- 
 land that came nearly giving Ireland its freedom was 
 sustained financially by what was known as the 'Penny 
 Rent.' It was a one cent, per month, contribution, to pay 
 Mr. O'Connell's expenses and to justify him in quitting 
 his law practice and devoting all of his time to the cause 
 of Ireland. In an average sized county in the state of 
 Illinois over $20,000 per annum is paid in ministers' sal- 
 aries. It means two million of dollars annually for the 
 state of Illinois alone. These are voluntary contributions. 
 It shows that when a cause is brought to the people and 
 made their cause that they are willing to financier it. 
 
 "Our cause is a religion. It is God against Mammon ! 
 All religions must give way by extinction or corruption, 
 if Mammon wins ! All attempts of ministers to save 
 souls, will make but little progress, while the people, by 
 a system of laws, are being driven to despair and poverty ! 
 By the present system. Mammon is preparing souls for 
 eternal punishment, in all classes of society — using covet- 
 ousness and poverty for its purpose. A minister is with- 
 out religion who, hearing our cause, does not recognize 
 it as such ! 
 
 "An established church goes with Monarchy and Mam- 
 mon; and all other churches must give way under a sys- 
 tem that is establishing trusts. Our cause is a religion! 
 And, properly managed, all the money necessary for
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS. IMPERIALISM. 181 
 
 defraying the expenses of missionaries, and organizers, 
 and education, will be forthcoming. 
 
 "Just so long as we look to those who are to be specially 
 benefited by laws, for the expenses of education and 
 organization, we will go onward to our national ruin! 
 Let the issue be sharply defined, of the people on one side 
 financiering their own cause, and those selfishly inter- 
 ested, on the other side, financiering their evil cause, and 
 the triumph of God over Mammon on earth is achieved ! 
 Ten thousand men, contributing one dollar each, on our 
 side, will have more influence than one man contrib- 
 uting ten thousand dollars on the other side ! 
 
 "While thus managing, there are some other things we 
 can do. We can nominate men as our candidates for 
 Congress, who will pledge themselves to give all of their 
 time, when not at Washington, to organization, A con- 
 gressman receives a salary of $5,000 per year. It should 
 enable him to live without engaging in any other busi- 
 ness. This would place at the service of our chairman 
 of the national committee as many as 150 organizers for 
 an average of eight months in a year, whose salaries are 
 thus provided for. There is no better way in which they 
 could serve their country. The people in nominating 
 candidates for Congress, should select men who have a 
 willingness and natural ability as organizers, and who 
 will pledge themselves to thus assist. 
 
 "We must put our organization in motion, continuously, 
 during campaigns and when there are no campaigns, till 
 it is triumphant — till we have the President and both 
 houses of Congress. It will then be well for us to re- 
 member the principle that in a Republic 'all the people 
 should be educated on questions of national policy' — as a 
 safeguard against special legislation and the loss of our 
 liberties.
 
 183 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 "What would do this, is the separation of all questions 
 of national policy from party politics, and submitting 
 them to a direct vote of the people. It throws upon the 
 people the responsibility of a decision, disconnected from 
 partisan politics; and, will more than anything else en- 
 courage their education on questions of civilization. 
 Those who want civilization preserved, will outnumber 
 those, who, selfishly, want special privileges, and the com- 
 mon good wall be thus protected. 
 
 "In the meantime, by the present method, a few reme- 
 dies are quickly needed to restrain the force that is re- 
 ducing our people to dependency and degradation. At 
 the earliest possible moment we must destroy the wicked 
 system that is draining the nation of its life blood — 
 behind which are the organized bankers — who are mainly 
 responsible for all our ills ! 
 
 "In the order in which remedies come, organization, 
 practical organization, and organized education, come 
 first. 
 
 "To the man who is discouraged, let us say: 'Have 
 hope ! We are going to win ! The flagrant greed of the 
 classes is arousing the American people! Organization 
 will make of the latter a thunderholt. To those who are 
 with the 'republican party,' let us say, 'You are welcome 
 in our ranks — espouse our cause, the cause of mankind — 
 and there will be great rejoicing with us as each of you 
 comes under our standard.' 
 
 "There are men who claim to be Democrats and yet 
 believe in the present system. To them we would say, 
 'Every instinct and principle of democracy is opposed 
 to your views. Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic 
 party, was the great leader of the people against the 
 privileged classes. If one wath pick in hand were to 
 shatter the tomb at Monticello, it would be no less a re-
 
 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 183 
 
 flection upon the memory of that sleeping 
 statesman, than, in his name — in the name of 
 the great party he founded— to advocate the 
 class legislation of the bankers, that is de- 
 stroying the Republic, founded upon the 
 immortal document that he wrote — the 
 Declaration of Independence! Having 
 seen the error of their way, they, too, 
 should be welcomed as members of our 
 religion. 
 
 "To the men of class legislation, we 
 would say: 'You are destroy- 
 ing the Republic; you S ^ 
 are striking blows at 
 
 civilization 
 that must be fatal 
 unless it is rescued from your 
 assaults. The man who com- 
 fraction of a statute law is called 
 You use the law to unjustly 
 others their property — to de- 
 life, liberty and happiness. You 
 despair — your act reaches the 
 There is much to extenuate and 
 example has been set you by 
 have been willing 
 ciety has 
 
 mits an in- 
 
 a criminal. 
 
 take from 
 
 prive them of 
 
 ^/ drive many to 
 
 j^/mfant in the cradle. 
 
 @/ excuse you. The 
 
 others — politicians 
 
 to help you ; so- 
 
 heretofore c o n - 
 
 doned your crime 
 
 l|nj]|i'jlll'
 
 184 MONEY, TRUSTS, IMPERIALISM. 
 
 — but now the pillars of the RepubHc are giving way, 
 and all who are not blind can see who the men are who 
 are committing this monstrous crime ! You are respon- 
 sible to God and man! and you are responsible to your 
 own self-respect ! Now is the time to stop, to set your- 
 selves right while you are yet living! You," too, we will 
 welcome as the church welcomes the converted sinner ! 
 
 "To the American people I would say, the chains are 
 now being forged, intended for our hands. Will we wait 
 the coming of our jailers ? Will we wait till we are tied 
 hand and foot and cannot help ourselves? Will we not 
 realize the danger and take warning in time? To the 
 intended victim the crouching panther gives warning by 
 eyes and posture of its coming leap ! So we are warned ! 
 Monarchy stoops to spring! Cold, pitiless Monarchy! 
 that would pull over the form of the Republic, the wind- 
 ing sheet of death ! Its God is Mammon and it seeks 
 to enslave mankind ! God forbid that you intend to su- 
 pinely permit the act ! Babes now in their mothers' arms 
 are in your keeping! Will you meet to consult for 
 the common good ? Will you follow chosen leaders, that 
 union, system, organization, momentum and success may 
 be given to our cause? Or, will you join the herd that 
 knows only self, that brings disunion and distraction and 
 a hell on earth ? The latter are limbed as human beings, 
 but otherwise are wormy, creeping things ! No ! You will 
 do your part ! Each boy, each girl, each man, each wo- 
 man, will be like heroes in the strife ! !" 
 
 Amidst applause that rang and rang again, the School 
 closed.
 
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