The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 19, 1921, Page 7

crisis. tails on these pages! ular, and the world in general. The federal re- serve system, therefore, will be operated so as to promote money making, not for the reserve banks, but for the member banks and the prin- cipal clients of those banks. If the reserve - banks make much profit, the government will get it, but if the reserve banks enable their - member banks to make the money, then the government will not get the profit. When the proper time comes, the reserve banks will re- duce the discount rate to 5, 4 or 3 per cent or even less, and thus reduce earnings. The mem- ~ ber banks and the super-financiers will make all the money that is made. When will the reserve board take its hands off the commercial brakes, reduce the interest rate, ex- pand currency and credit and thus bring a business revival? I have told you now, through a series of three ar- - ticles, that the federal reserve board purposely and deliberately created the existing financial depression. * The board’s excuse for this was that prices . were getting too high and it was nec- essary to call a halt. I won’t quarrel - with that. It is enough that the board admits that a halt was called. Busi- ness is stagnated; manufacturing plants are idle or working part time; over five million men are out of work; farmers have suffered a loss of bil- lions; business men’s profits have dis- appeared; deflation has proceeded mercilessly. The men at the head of this nation say that the things which have been done have been good things and that by and by business will revive. .THE PRICE TO BE PAID FOR BUSINESS REVIVAL If throwing five million men and women out of employment, if robbing the farmers’of billions of dollars, if charging business men exorbitant in- terest rates at a time when means to pay interest have dwindled—if all of these things are good things, then the country has been run wisely. r When will the deflation process stop ? Business will revive ultimately, of course. Even big business can not make money when there is no busi- ness. The big financiers and the big - exploiting interests will see to it that business does revive, but before busi- ness is permitted to revive, the super- financiers are determined to accom- plish five specific things. Congress was assembled in extra session to per- form its part in carrying out the pro- gram. These five things are as fol- lows: 1. The deflation of the farmers so. as to get. cheap raw materials. This was accomplished in about seven - weeks without the aid of congress and wholly by the federal reserve board. 2, The deflation of labor so as to get cheap labor. - This is in process of accomplishment, but it has taken a much longer time than it took to deflate the farmers. It could be accomplished only by throw- ing men out of work so as to create a surplus of labor—in other words, by starving workmen into submission. And in order to do this the reserve banks had to deflate the business men. 3. A shift of the tax burden. Removal of the excess profits tax and the higherincome taxes. The big fellows do not care to make money if they have to give it-up to the government, just as the reserve John Lord in these-articles, of whi oly exists under government sanction in America. “tecting itself, ruthlessly brought on the present dis ‘ He shows how the money barons can revive will not be ready till they force congress to pass the demand. When congress completely surrenders, tation of the people, they will let business have not done so, and don Shall you complain who feed the world? Shall you complain who are the world, The world must follow you! The world’s life hangs on your right hand! d, You hold the whole world in your hand, " See to it what you do! t, The world is made by you! Then rise as you never rose before! ™ And show as was never shown before, The power ‘that lies in you! Believe, and Dare, and Do! ch this is the fourth banks do not care to make profits if the profits have to be handed over to 'Uncle Sam. The new tax bill will provide for the repeal of the excess profits tax and a reduction of half of the taxes on the incomes of the rich. The newspapers all over the land are telling you every day this is a good thing. . Of course, it is a good thing for those who pay taxes on big incomes and who make big profits. 4. A tariff law which will protect the key indus- tries, such as textiles, steel, iron, ete. They want a tariff which will enable the big manufacturers to take large profits from what is sold in the United + States. By getting these large profits at home the manufacturers may sell their surplus abroad at small profit or none at all. The whole problem of business is to dispose of the surplus. If an Amer- D), Tl S W o ~ OB : o W = e At s Who clothe the world? ho keep the world? f what the world may do? from this hour You use your power, Your strong .right hand, Your skilled right han Or dark or light, Or wrong or righ! Nor hoped before! Nor dared before! Stand all as onel See justice done! —Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 1 ican manufacturing corporation may make sewing’ machines at a cost of $25 and sell these machines at home for $100, the corporation can make enrough money supplying the home market so that the sur- * plus machines may be disposed of abroad at $30 per machine, or even below cost. Such instances are _ innumerable in our history.. The new tariff law is designed for this identical purpose and no other. The tariff act will be a law by the first of the year. 6. Access by the railroads to the treasury of the United States, so that the railroads may borrow on government credit and use the power of the _PAGE SEVEN , has proved that a gigantic financial monop- He has shown how this monopoly, while pro- astrous business depression and agricultural business when they get ready to. But they tax, tariff and railroad legislation which they so that the ground will be laid for a new exploi- revive. It is a diabolical plot. Read the de- Read the former articles in the Leader by Mr. Lord if you ’t miss his next articles in the coming issues! DARE AND DO : ; 5 ( D A‘\ N\ —Drawn expressly for the Leader by John M. Baer. government to so fix wages and rates, so as to earn dividends on watered bonds and watered stocks. Now, when these various steps above enu- merated are accomplished, the reserve board will take its hands off the brakes and let busi- ness revive. When the little folks are all proper- ly squeezed, when the small business concerns which butted in on the preserves of the big folks during the war are eliminatéd, when big business has cleared away all the obstructions and has everything to its liking, then the brakes will be taken off and full steam turned on by the reserve banks. Profiteering and amassing of new fortunes will commence all over again. The administration hopes that its K program will be accomplished and the wheels turning before the members of congress have to face another election. With times easier they will ask you to send the congressmen and senators back to Washington with increased majorities. They will count on your short memory to for- get the battered wrecks along the way—the crime of 1920, when they deflated you farmers with an axe, when they created an unemployed army of millions. They will tell you that the cause of your troubles was due to “bolshe- vism” in Russia and “radicalism” in Europe, or that it was due to the ex- travagance of the Wilson adminis- tration. I suspect that a lot of peo- ple will believe these fairy tales. ORGANIZATION IS ONLY PERMANENT REMEDY Surely you of the Nonpartisan you have been better taught. You have been made fun of by the kept press for giving up $18 in dues to the Nonpartisan league, but you will no- tice THAT PRACTICALLY THE ONLY RESISTANCE DOWN IN THE HALLS OF WASHINGTON TO THE PROGRAM WHICH BIG BUSINESS IS PUTTING ACROSS IS COMING FROM THOSE SENA- TORS AND REPRESENTATIVES WHO LIVE IN STATES WHERE THE LEAGUE IS ORGANIZED AND ITS PUBLICATIONS CIRCU- LATE. g If you are ever going to dig your- selves out of the hole you are in you’ve got to pay for it. Instead of $18 a year, it is my opinion as an ob- server that you ought to be paying twice ¢r three times that much, and thus enable your organization to move faster than it is now moving. What shall we do with the federal reserve system? It is too great a menace to the popular welfare to leave it as it is now. There are two possible remedies: 1. Government ownership, outright, of the re- serve banks. 2.. A change in the method of appointing the gov- erning board so that the board will be responsible to the people, instead of responsible to nobody ex- cept the bankers. The federal reserve board con- sists of seven members, two of whom are the secre- tary of the treasury and the comptroller of the cur- rency. The other five members are appointed by the president. The administration, therefore, con- (Continued on page 15) league will not believe them, because. 4] ] g g i & # i ]