Charles Binderup

“ I remember a few years ago when the Republicans were trying to cure this depression, and they suggested as a remedy to build prosperity from the top and down, telling us that in this way the money would dribble down to the farmers and the working people, and thus prosperity would be returned. I have often said, and I wish to repeat it once more, that you cannot build prosperity, my friends, from the top and down, any more than you can build a 10-story brick house and build the top story first. You have to build from the bottom and up. ”

“ Know the cause of these disastrous depressions, and know that all depressions, all panics, are man made, just by a few men interested in keeping the control of money; inflating by bankers lending a credit money, fountain-pen money, figures on the book, lending dollars that do not exist, that have never been made; lending an intangible thing, a vision, a dream of a dollar, and then asking payment in something else—a dollar that is tangible, it has never been made, it does not exist. ”

“ I want again to recall the words of the Comptroller of the Currency, our old, white-haired friend, John Skelton Williams, the ex-officio member of the Board, the great friend of humanity, when he once more warned the Federal Reserve Board of the Federal Reserve bank, and said to them, in substance, this: "Gentlemen, you cannot take away from the people their money. Don't you realize they have promised to pay in dollars, and even now there exists less than one-tenth of the amount necessary to meet the people's obligations? ”

“ I told you about the great inflation that we had during the war and after the war, when we were on a single gold standard that they preached so much about, that was so safe, when we had the greatest uncontrollable inflation this country has ever had, and yet, let me remind you again, on a single gold standard. ”

“ Every depression is man-made, and yet we did not understand.
Everybody said and whispered to each other, "Isn't it strange? What in the world is the matter? We seem to have too much of everything, and yet we are in want. We have too much to eat and to drink, too much of the necessities of life, too much of the luxuries, and everything, but we can't have it." Yes, my friends, we are sitting upon the largest pile of gold that has ever been accumulated in the history of the world in any nation ”

“ And we had another cause and we still have it, that silly, strange, foolish, incompetent, childish monetary system and banking system, whereby the banker was allowed to deposit these bonds in a certain drawer in any Federal Reserve bank, draw his interest in full semiannually, and draw every dollar in cash besides, and then take these dollars and loan them 10 times to the public, each time drawing interest on every dollar, even the dollars he did not have. Such a monetary system cannot possibly mean anything but bankruptcy every few years. ”

“ And, friends, I want to repeat once more and warn you that you cannot crush down a price level, after you have done business for a number of years on a certain price level. You bought and sold your farms and homes and your goods on the shelf. Every obligation and future contract is based on this price level. You cannot crush a price level down unless you bring in return to the people starvation and deprivation and misery and want and soup kitchens and bread lines. ”

“ He said to the members of the meeting in substance this: "Don't you see that the farmers and the laborers have mortgages on their homes and farms, and that they will wake up some morning and find all that is left of their homes and farms is the mortgage, and some day they will know that by creating this scarcity of money you thus wiped out their equity?" ”

“ Speaker, I know there are millions and millions of people of our great Nation that will welcome, and shout back "Amen", when I make the following announcement. A challenge has just been issued to predatory wealth, to Wall Street, and to international bankers. A bill has just been introduced that demands in no uncertain terms that this sacred right and privilege, this constitutional guarantee to the people, that Congress shall coin and regulate the value of their money, has been included in the bill that has just been introduced in this Congress. ”

“ We gave those millions of dollars to the Missouri Pacific in order to create work, in order to make the railroads safe, that the public might travel in confident safety, in order that labor might have employment. ”

“ They tried 24 times before in the United States and in other nations. Every economic writer told them, "Just crush down the price level, and interest, remaining stationary, will have the purchasing power back again." ”

“ And so the campaign went on and on, and in a short time it reflected more drastically on agriculture, because agriculture has no protection. Its prices are decidedly governed by supply and demand. The farmers were selling their products for one quarter of the cost of production. ”

“ Dawes' bank, locked up. It never moved. Then do you remember that they gave to the Missouri Pacific Railroad millions of dollars because, we said, the money would dribble down and give work to the laboring people? ”