The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, August 16, 1901 Page: 1 of 8
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Peoples Voice
VOLUME 10.
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1901.
NUMBER 4
Scents Danger in the Banks,
The United States Investor is a
leading financial journal in the Unit-
ed States, and has always been so re-
cognized. It is an old established in-
stitution and has won the confidence
of the pnblic by its sage advice in
regard to the investment of money.
It is Republican in politics, ultra
conservative, and it need not be said
that it has no patiencc with Bryanism
or Populism. But its honesty and
its duty to its patrons compel it to
sound a note of warning to those who
deposit their funds in the banks.
Such advice, coming from the Mercury
would be attributed to red-eyed fana-
ticism. Let thoughtful men read
and ponder what the Investor says,
and remember that there is no point
of basic agreement between the two
journals. What we agree upon in
this case is not principle, but fact.
The Investor savs:
"Great banking does not consist in
getting a vast amount of wealth to-
gether in the shape of deposits, and
lending it in large amounts in an ar-
bitrary fashion. It consists in hand
ling the funds committed to your
charge, be they great or small, with
honesty, intelligence, and in a man-
ner to build up and strengthen the
material interests of ths entire com-
munity. If greatness in banking
consists in taking great chances,
then certainly American banking is
entitled to be called great. But if
it consists in acting with disinterest-
edness, with a shrewd knowledge of
human nature, with a quick under-
standing of what is actualy needed
to advance the material interests of
the community in a permanent man-
ner, with an eye sharp to perceive the
opportunities to further this last
mentioned end, with a breadth of
vision that will not be bound by
purely local and temporary condi-
tions, American banking is still far
from being entitled to the de-
signation "great."
"All this has been exemplified
time and again. Perhaps the gravest
defect in connection with our bank-
ing has been the tendency to conduct
banks on about the same principle on
which we conduct an ordinary private
business enterprise. Banks are of
course to be governed by all the eco-
nomic considerations that influence
the merchant and manufacturer.
But their obligation does not end
here. A merchant may fail without
entailing widespread disaster, but it
is hardly passible for a bank to do so.
The merchant has only to think of
himself and the few people to whom
he may owe money, but the bank has
to think, or at least, ought to think,
of the effects its acfions will have on
the entire community. This is an
obligation, however, which the banks
ignore to quite an appalling extent.
Many of them are stated in just ex-
actly the same spirit that actuates
the creation of private business en-
terprises, and are conducted with an
eye purely to the interests of the
few people who are actually con-
cerned in the money in their mana-
gement. They solicit the money
of the community at large,
and proceed to use this money in a
way to advance their own interests
and those of their particular friends;
and to public interests are advanced
in any measure, it is a mere incident.
Eevery financial panic sends a swarm
of insitutions of this class to ruin.
We need not stop to recall how many
of them toppled over in 1893. Such
incidents as the present Seventh
National bank affairs are getting to
be altogether too frequent. Instances
of these kind are appareutly not on
the decrease, but are ;ictualiy in-
creasing. Of course, we understand
that a good deal of allowance should
be made for banking in a new coun-
try, such as this has been up to a
comparatively recent period; and we
are ready to make such allowances.
It would be gratifying, however, if
we could begin to see some marked
indications that we are at last get-
ting down to a large and scientific,
not to say disinterested, kind of bank-
ing. We do not fail to recognize
that there are a host of National
banks in the United States today
that are models of banking propriety
-thatis, so far as can be under a law
which contains features that must
ever strike the economic mind as
absurd—but notwithstanding this
fact, the main drift seems to be
away from instead of in the direc-
tion of, sound and stable banking.
Another feature which to our mind
indicates that banking in the United
States is drifting away from safe
moorings is the modern doctrine that
banks exist more for the purpose of
furthering large stock market deals,
than for the purpose of primarily
effecting mercantile transactions.
The old idea of a bank was that of a
financial institution which stood
ready to discount the notes of its
customers, issued for the purpose of
transacting the commerce of the
world. That is still largely the func-
tion of the American banks, but
their is nevertheless a manifest
tendency in certain quarters to re-
gard this as a more or less archaic
form of banking. A very large part
of the business of the banks of the
great financial centres now consists
of loans on stock market collateral:
and many banks frankly declare that
this is the kind of business they most
like to transact; to be too solicitous
for the comfort of mercantill borrow-
ers is regarded as a bit of old-fogysim
and there are not over-anxious to
have mercantile accounts (especially
if they are not more than moderate
in size) that we may trace in very
large measure the enormous increase
in the volume of stock market specu-
lation in recent years. Now the
dangerous feature of this policy is,
that the banks in making the great
financial centers now consists kept
'^AAA*
rvnCY<~>P^vfy'Vr^ orrt rir>hTn"oTn"^T^TpTr-v TYhrvnnooTP "n
CLEARANCE SALE
FOR BARGAIN HUNTERS
WE have put the bal-
ance of our sum
ance of our sum=
mer Drgss Goods, Shoes,
Clothing, Straw Hats,
Shirt Waists and all odds
and ends at spot cost and
some instances below cost. These goods
must be closed out Come at once and
you get the best bargains.
Your Friends.
loans are a good deal more influenced
by the mere market quotations on
the securities which constitute the
collateral for the loans, than they
are by the real facts in connection
with the industries against which
securities are issued. One reason
why they are so much inclined to
make loans ^>f this sort, in prefer-
ence to purely mercantile loans, is
that they can realize on their assets
so much more quickly. Tnere prin-
cipal care is to keep their stock
market loans properly margined.
Now it is well enough known by the
community at large, and it is prob-
ably equally clear to the banks, that
a very large part of the stock market
securities against which they lend
their money so freely represents
"water," pure and simple; that is,
there are no tangible assets back of
them in the shape of plant and sup-
plies, and very little of intangible
assets in way of earning capacity.
But that is a matter which the banks
who do this business do not feel
called upon to take very much ac-
count, as these securities have a
ready market. The theory is beauti-
ful; in actual operation it does not
always work as well as might be de-
sired. The objection too great a
prevalence of this kind of banking is
two-fold. In the first place, it in-
vites over speculation in the stock
market, and is therefore the mother
of financial panics; and in the second
place it is likely at any moment to
cripple the legitimate mercantile
business of the country by the with-
drawal of loanable funds necessary
to its proper conduct. No one who
has kept an eye on the financial situa
tion in recent years can question the
fact that the policy we have been
describing inevitably works in the
direction of overspeculation in the
stock market. This point couhl be
amply illustrated by the case of the
National City bank of New York.
(We may parenthetically say that
we allude to this institution so fre-
quently because it is the largest
bank in the United States, and be-
cause it is one of the leadnig expo-
nents of the dangerous tendencies in
American banking which we have be-
fore pointed out, had a great deal to
do with fostering the great boom in
copper shares a few years ago, and
the part with which it is universally
credited with playing in connection
with the panic of May 9th of this
year is another instance of the thing
we have in mind. As regards the
likelihood of hardship from this
policy (viz., of loaning whenever pos-
sible on stock market collateral) to
the real mercantile business of the
country, there is no occasion for us to
say anything at this time; the danger
is too obvious to escape any one's
notice.
"This tende icy to make banking a
mere adjunct to the stock market is
bound to impose a very severe strain
on the morals of those who have the
banks in charge. The new policy
brings the managers of the banks
into too close intercourse with Wall
street, and makes them too suscepti-
ble to the inlluence of the "get-rich-
quick" theory. The managers of an
old commercial bank were hardly
likely to be carried off their feet by
any temptation to misuse the bank's
funds in carrying out private com-
mercial ventures. They were not in
a position to carry through such ven-
tures requiring much time and special
knowledge for their consummation.
] But it is altogether different with
I stock market nctiemes. As regards
these, the managers of a bank can sit
in the back parlor, and by using the
\ bank's funds for their private pur-
pose
j out any effort at all. That
, fvvvv'vv''*'>**'*V'VVVA*A)>**VVVV * VVVV*VVNA^S/VSAA^*VVVVV^
WE HAVE I
A number of broken pairs of Lace
Curtains that we can make prices
on. Also a large new line of Lace
Curtains. See them. No trouble
to show goods.
El.
Undertaking and Embalming.
mainly to further speculation the j
temptations to misapply other peo-!
pie's money to their own unlawful |
ends might not be quite so hard to!
overcome."—Southern Mercury.
ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE!
John 0. Zabel, National Organizer. Asks election morn;
for the Formation of Independent
Voters' Clubs-
To the Populists and Independent
voters of America;
At the meeting of the national
committee of the People's party
held at Detroit, Mich., July 4, 1901, I
was selected as chairman of the Na-
tional Organization Committee with
power to select my own assistants.
From letters received by the various
members of the committee, it ap-
peared to the committee that there
was almost a universal desire on the
part of the rank and file to overcome
the general impression that there
are two factions in our party, only
persistently called "regular" and the
other "mid-roader" causing confusion
and preventing us from obtaining
recruits from other parties, and, at
the same time making it extremee
difficult for us to perfect an organi-
zation under the rules adopted at
Cincinnati. The committee became
satisfied from these letters, as well
as their own experience and observa-
tion, that a change of name would
ultimately become necessary
"Independent Party" was the favor-
ite so far as the committee was con-
cerned. But as the committee had
no power to make such a change, the
matter is left as it should be, for the
people to settle themselves. In the
meantime, 1 desire to perfect the or-
ganization of "Independent Voters"
precinct clubs, requiring each
member to subscribe to our platform
and the rules adopted at Cincinnati,
pledging each to oppose fusion with
either of the old parties under any
circumstances. And right here I
wish to make a comment; Many of
our most ardent mid-roaders, while
opposing fusion in notional politics
favor fusion in local elections.
This is all wrong. Is you permit
fusion in local elections, you breed j
fusionists faster at the bottom than
you can kill them off at the top. A
A JINGLING RHYME.
Here is a jingling rhyme that crept
into the Denver News for some un-
accountable reason that states the
situation that exists between Labor
and Capital the Fakers and Suckers,
quite clearly and should be read on
the
Hit
but
The suckers do the labor and the fa-
kers draw the pay,
The suckers do the voting and the fa-
kers hold sway.
The suckers raise the crops, but the
fakers fix the price,
The fakers hold the market and get
the biggest slice.
The fakers take the harvest, the
suckers hold the bag,
Tile fakers dress in broadcloth, the
suckers chew the rag.
The suckers feed the cows and the fa-
kers get the milk,
The suckers feed the silk worms, the
fakers get the silk.
The suckers build the mansions
fakers occupy,
The suckers are the bakers, but
fakers eat the pie.
The suckers make the fabrics,
tlie fakers own the mills,
The fakers have the pleasures, while
the suckers foot the bills.
The faUers have the yeasts, while
I the suckers get the crusts,
alM' 1 The suckers pay the prices, while the
fakers run the trusts.
The suckers are the workers,
The fakers are the shirkers,
The fakers are wealth takers.
And this is why I say
There are on earth today
Just the classess
And the massess,
And the massess are the prey;
Just the ones who do the toil
And the ones who get the spoil—
And the spoilers doth toilers in the
same old way.
NEW COMMISSION.
To Locate South Western Normal School
Appointed by Governor Jenkins,
One of the closing acts of Gover-
nor Barnes' administration was the
j appointment of a commission of five
taste of office obtained by local fusion to choose a location for the South-
was the cause of our trouble in 18%. J western Normal school under the re-
f -r.f,
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;: 1,^,'w-; 7
uiu <jiu ui1- ,wj.ivu.vaj..wj..iv-luluv^vjsj.
1 have divided the territory into ' quirements of the law creating the
seven divisions as nearly equal in j 8Chool. The commission consisted of
population as possible and as soon ije, Cade of shawnee; Dr. 11. A.
can secure active organizers for each Southard of Perry: II. J. Lowryof
division, these seven divisions will j stillwater; A. J. Stine of Alva, and
again be sub-divided by seven and so ! c. B. Ames of Oklahoma City. The
make vast sums of money with- on down to the precinct, the unite ol ]aw reqU[re(] the commission to agree
ffort at all. That is, they j organization. While this work is i : upon a between August 10 and
very readily think they can, and they progress, I trust that the boys in the September
very frequently try their hand at trenches will not hesitate to act, but seenls that the above commis-
the game. Of course, as a matter of begin the worn at once by organizing j sjon not suit Governor Jenkins
and last week the Governor appoin-
trenches will not hesitate to act, but
begin the worii at once by organizing [
| fact, they are fully as lUely to come a precinct club in their locality and
I to grief, and to send their bank to! reporting to me until a division or- |
] ruin, as they are to come through
[successfully; but experienced bank
presidents and directors are quite
I apt to be carried off their feet by
the curse of stock gambling as any
one else. Our plea is, that if they
confined themselves a little less ex-
clusively to making stock market
loans for their banks—or at any rate
if they were a little less disposed to
ganizer has been appointed. One
man is powerless; all must do their
part, and if you will but do your duty
now, I will guarantee an organiza-
tion of patriots that can not be sold
out by any clique or combination of
traitors, but on the contrary will be
invincible and will bring us many
victories at the next election.
John O. Zabel,
Chm. Nat. Organization Com.
ted a new commission consisting of
the following named gentlemen:
James H. Wheeler, Oklahoma City.
W. C. Teterick, Blackwell.
George S. Green, Guthrie.
John Embry, ^ handler.
Luther Martin, Alva.
Farmers Wishing Seed Wheat
Call on Cy Williams for two varie-
ties of seed wheat; The Mammoth
take the view that banks exist Petersburg, Mich.' July 27th, 1901" 1 Red and the Frost Proof May. 2-tj
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Allan, John S. The Peoples Voice (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, August 16, 1901, newspaper, August 16, 1901; Norman, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc117405/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.