FINANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19353, 5 September 1934, Page 9

FINANCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —For months past I have been reading in your correspondence columns arguments concerning our present economic system. A few’ cx- | tracts from Arthur Kitson may be of interest. J “The late Pierpont Morgan, of New York, was on.ce credited with the remark that ‘Yankees are not in, business for their health.’ The profession of moneylending has always been a. very lucrative one, and lias been made so by the monetary and banking laws of all countries, which have been written and enacted under their supervision. For this reason legislators have given no consideration whatever to the jusl lice of such laws, nor whether they

would tend to promote the economic welfare of the public. The only'consideration seems to have been insuring to the bankers supreme control of the public's currency, .lust as the land laws of this and other countries have been made by landlords, so the monetary laws of this and other countries have been made by . I lie nioneylords. No one can, there lore, understand the real motive which prompts the leading bankers of all countries —together with tlie Treasury otllcials, city editors, Lhe orthodox economists, and many financial writers •—to continue their advocacy of the gold standard without knowing Ihe enormous power it furnishes to those engaged in the moneyleading profession. Tlds power is due lo two circumstances. One is Ihe comparative scarcity of gold in relation to the world's monetary needs; and Ihe other, the laws enacted compelling debtors lo pay their obligations on the demand of their creditors in legal tender. These two conditions give to the money merchants absolute control over the lives and fortunes of the people. On the one hand, you have an unlimited demand for money, arising out of innumerable transactions; and on tile other, there is a strictly limited and privately controlled supply. No form of oppression ever devised by man has been more cruel, more ruinous, nor more enslaving than the operations of these two sets of ordinances; flic one limiling Ihe- supplies of the debt-paying instruments far below Ihe public needs, and (lie other compelling payments in this particular

form, subject to the penalty of-bank-ruptcy, And no modern Government has ever taken the trouble to ascertain the amount of money necessary to meet 1 he public needs, nor to provide for them. On the contrary, in this country particularly, from the time of William HI., who was the first monarch to curse this country with a national debt, and from whom Hie Institution which lias been the greatest barrier to the industrial welfare and progress of Great Britain —the Bank of England—received its first charter, every Government of whatever parly that has held office have approved by their conduct a system under which the public are made the victims of the moneylending classes. “The present world crisis has arisen entirely from these causes. .Governments have permitted their Treasury officials and bankers (who seem to be in partnership with one another) to contract debts payable in gold without any consideration as to the proportion of gold available lo Ihe volume of debts created. “It has been estimated that the total gold debts of the world exceed the ! gold available nearly fifty times! And to add to this impossible situation the bulk of this gold is Hie property of the world’s principal creditor—the United States-—from whom its debtor must first, buy or borrow it In order to meet their obligations! Such a position can only lead to one of two results—repudiation or war. “II may be asked, what possible object have the world's financiers in imposing upon nations debts of such

magnitude as they imust know can never be repaid? The answer is that the annual Interest charges from these loans constitute the revenue of the class who live upon their investments. The last thing on earth that the money-lords desirei is the repayment of the principal of their public loans. —I am, etc., TRUTH SEEKER. 'Hamilton, September 1, 1934.