Andrew J. Osborne
C.H. Kerr & Company, 1898
THE MONEY POWER
In establishing the national banking law Congress created a national money power in this country which is a branch of the great money power of the world. The men who are the projectors of this power are men of the most profound judgment, broad intellect, subtle management and are highly educated. Therefore they are capable of doing great good for society, if their intellectual powers were used for the general good, but when avarice, greed and selfishness are their leading traits of character and the means used to carry out their designs are coercion, intimidation, starvation, and when, as a last resort, the Winchester rifle is called into service to subdue the people and to fully establish the money power, we inquire what, then, is the money power?
The money power is the power that established nearly 4,000 national banks and controls their policies, which controls the organization and the actions of over 100 trusts, controls and regulates the policies of all the railroad and transportation lines, dominates gas and water privileges and street-railway franchises, dominates manufacturing and mining, fixes wages and earnings of labor, and in elections puts up money to buy lying newspapers and dishonest politicians, and to bring corrupt men to vote for its candidates, and to hire forgers and thieves to falsify returns, steal ballots and otherwise debauch the ballotbox, and which, after the election, buys United States senators and members of Congress to frame such measures as the sugar schedule in the tariff bill and other schemes which will legalize the robbery of the public. The money power is the power that gives birth to the Mark Hanna-John Sherman class of statesmen, bought the election of McKinley and now owns a majority in both branches of Congress and a part of the federal judiciary.
It is the power that controls the elections to secure the election of United States senators of its own kind and sometimes governors of states. It is the power that has controlled the Harrison and Cleveland administrations and made Charles Foster surrender the option of the government to the creditors, and then made J. G. Carlisle eat his own words inside of a week after he proposed to exercise the government option to pay in either gold or silver. It is the power that owns John Sherman and which worked through him the demonetization of silver, and by that act stole billions of dollars from the debtor class and taxpayers of the country. It is the power that rules Europe and America and dictates peace or war for its own financial advantages. It is the power that has dwarfed the American statesman into a poll-parrot, putting the words that he must say into his mouth and he says them; but it is hoped that there will yet be found a few noble exceptions to the rule. The money power is the fountain head of villainy, despotism and crime, a cesspool of iniquity, the climax of all combinations to destroy the equality of human rights.
The money power is here, is here to destroy civil liberty and government by the people. It is plain that it is already, in control, its despotic powers are felt in every department of government and social life.