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Conclusion. A policy that keeps our increase of wealth in the country, and prevents it from lodging in a few hands, can work no injury whatever. No enterprise worthy of notice will languish for the want of the necessary capital. The savings banks are the depositories of the people, and the capital of those institution in all the cities of the country exceeds that of the commercial or capitalistic banks, and the "statements" of the savings banks should dispel any fears as to whether capital can be concentrated afterit once gets into the hands of the people. $50,000,000 is the assets of more than one savings bank in the City of New York. And our own San Francisco has its Hibernia and other banks of its kind, with from $5,000,000 to $30,000,000 of capital. And when it is remembered that the total deposits of an individual in most of those institutions is not allowed to exceed $3,000, we can see that the people will not fail us as "concentrators" when their help is needed. Those statements also show whether those of small means are for concealing it, or for putting it into the hands of competent managers for investment. And if these competent managers approve of an enterprise they will not neglect their client's interests by refusing to make the required loan. At present, they do not seek investment outside of corporate limits, and, of course, the money they have been intrusted with, must be about all invested, and cannot be called idle money, or there could be no interest paid to its owners. There will be no friction in the management of industrial enterprises when this savings-bank depositor makes a direct investment. The voter at the polls has his say as to who shall fill a political office, but he cannot interfere in the work of the office itself. Neither will our investor have the right or power to interfere. In short, the modern industrial world would go to pieces even now, if it was run by its million owners, instead of by its appointed or elected superintendent. These small depositors are either laborers or in "business;" business that they would enlarge if business of all kinds was not already overdone. It is not to be inferred from this that the new law will cause factories to run day and night, or keep the merchant's door always on the swing. There will be an increase of business surely; but this world is not like a goose whose liver we are after. Her capacity to absorb what we make or produce is limited, and when we reach that limit, let us be content, and chain down Greed for the moment, that we may look out and see how beautiful is this world whereon we live, when freed from the crack of the master's whip. - Through Confiscation alone can the people regain their liberty and possession of their resources. A readjustment means justice to all. Without it the days of the republic are numbered, and the overwhelming disaster to mankind will mark the burial place of the aspirations of its founders, and the latest conquest of individual greed. That disaster cannot be averted by Grover Cleveland, the head of the Democratic party, finding a foreign market for a few more shiploads of our products. And never should the oppressed of other lands find an enemy here to take their bread. Pinching nature has not made wolves of this people that they should go and show their teeth among the cabins and hovels of Europe. Theirs is but a crust now, and a judgement should wither the hand that would take it from them. This disaster cannot be averted by Thomas B. Reed, the idol and recognized leader of the Republican party, forcing the producers of those few ship loads of products to consume them themselves. The whole could be dropped to the bottom of the sea, or sold for their value a hundred fold, and it would not stay the doom of the Republic one swing of the pendulum. This disaster cannot be averted by Robert G. Ingersoll - another idol - advising the millionaire to be extravagant. Or by taking the labor-saving machinery away from the people, and keeping them longer at their toil, as this humbug has suggested. - |
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