The Ohinemuri Gazette. MONDAY, FEB. 24, 1913. POWER OF THE DOLLAR.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIV, Issue 3056, 24 February 1913, Page 2

The Ohinemuri Gazette. MONDAY, FEB. 24, 1913. POWER OF THE DOLLAR.

Ix is, of couise, too much to suppose that there exists a money trust in the

sense ot any organisation or combma-

tion of organisations controlling the

money supply or credit of the world. Yel, though we c.tnnot speak of a money trust in the same way, for instance, as the Standard Oil Trust, the evolution 01 modern capitalism has been in the direction of concentrating financial authority into a few hands that something nut unlike a trust has been called into being

in almost every country. Something like this beliei appears to be agitating the American Congress, which recently

set up a commission to inquire into the matter, and although the evidence certainly fails to suggest the existence-of a trust having international ramification*,

it nevertheless shows that in America itself the power of money, if not actually swayed by a trust, is operated by something uncommonly like one. Mr Pierpont Morgan was naturally called as a witness, and, of course, declared the ex-

istence of a money trust to be a figment

of the imagination. This, however,

moved American opinion very little,

since Mr Morgan himself is regarded as the centre of a financial coterie, far the most powerlu! industrial influence in the States. To understand the situation in the United States, it is necessary to grasp the fact that banking institutions there

closely interest themselves in industry by directily financing industrial enterprises. A bank there will finance a manufacturing trust, an insurance com-

pany will assist a railway company, and as the same group of men are usually interested in all four undertakings it is obvious that they have at their disposal the savings of millions, and can handle them practically as they like. A man or men having absolute control over a rail-

way, a shipping company, a coal mine, or steelworks, can bring pressure to bear on all these points, simultaneously, and American expeiience shows that this is frequently done. It is also clear that when a group of individuals has the power to precipitate a financial panic or

crisis the motive to do so is ever pre

sent. How such a power as this is to be effectively checked is a question difficult to answer, and it may be doubted

whether the American people have yet the clear vision and necessary determination for such a task. But in the last

resort the power of the State is greater than that of any subject or combination of subjects, and will certainly have to be evoked to control a form of despot-

ism capable of such oppression as Capital organised in this way undoubtedly is.