THE GOOD NEWS FROM THE PRIMARIES
THE GOOD NEWS FROM THE PRIMARIES IT is indeed encouraging to observe that the people of this nation in almost every state in the Union are awakening to the danger of monopoly and wealth in...
...T^ROM the Pacific coast word has just come that the two great chain and branch banking organizations in California, the Bank of Italy and the Bank of America, have been merged...
...If this machine is put into general operation it will take the place of thousands of skilled workers and relegate them to the unemployment scrap heap along with other trained workers whose jobs have been usurped by the machine...
...There are signs that it is becoming apparent to Big Business that these mechanical slaves of theirs, the Robots, are producers but not consumers...
...Senator Couzens has not gone over bag and baggage to the special privilege gang in the national government...
...Edward P. Costigan, an ardent progressive, won the Democratic senatorial race...
...HERE is an almost overwhelming example of what the public may expect to happen if these great money and credit oc-tupi are allowed to expand and thrust their tenacles into the banking resources of this nation...
...The Bank of America controlled 161 branches in 97 places...
...And, of utmost importance, too, is the election of executives and legislators who can be depended upon to foster and enforce a program that will curb the activities'of these financial monsters and insure the financial independence of the local communities...
...IN every field of industry the growing use of automatic machinery is taking its toll among workers and Augmenting the already severe plague of unemployment that leaves misery and despair in its wake across the land...
...unemployed...
...Shortly afterwards, however, it was discovered that the Chase National Bank of NewYork, the biggest Wall Street bank and the largest financial institution in the United States, holds a big mortgage on the very building of the Northwest National Bank of Minneapolis, the parent bank of the Northwest Bancorporation chain...
...Until recently, it has not bothered itself very much about the dire results from unemployment that these workers "suffered...
...With the demand of the workers of the consuming class greatly reduced, the welfare of the big industries is endangered, and as depression sets in and more and more workers join the ranks of the unemployed, the position of Big Business wanes and profits decline...
...FROM all parts of the country come these reports that the stalwart Old Guard is suffering defeat after defeat...
...Decker maintained that his chain had no relation or connection with big Eastern financial interests...
...The voters are beginning to realize that the Big Business government is concerned chiefly with the welfare of Big Business...
...This week 'the news comes that in both Republican and Democratic camps the staunch old stand-patters and reactionaries in Congress and in state offices are being' weeded out by an aroused electorate and that those candidates who have proven themselves progressives in their parties have been given a ringing endorsement by the people...
...And from Arizona comes the good news that another progressive, Governor Hunt, has won in the Jj|^mocratic primary for governor...
...4 In Colorado the old Phipps machine suffered a serious setback...
...His opponent tried to defeat him on those very grounds—that he wasn't a "regular" party man, and the voters rose mightily against this attack...
...THE CHAINS MUST BE CURBED PROGRESSIVES of the nation, and other opponents of chain, ^ group, and branch banking have consistently pointed out that centralized and monopoly control of banking is presenting an ever increasing menace to the American people and to American ideals and institutions...
...Progressives have warned the public .that the primary purpose of these monopolistic banking schemes is the aggrandizement and enrichment of a few at the expense of the many—that the welfare and happiness of the common man,— the small, independent banker, the small business man, the working man, and the farmer, will have little consideration in the reckonings and plottings of the big chain bankers...
...The Bank of Italy was the dominant chain in California with 292 branches in 166 cities, towns, and villages of that state, besides branches in other states...
...MEN AND MACHINES NOT very long ago the introduction of the automatic telegraph printing machine in newspaper and telegraph offices threw thousands of telegraph operators out of their jobs...
...Yet Mr...
...In the south, South Carolina and Louisiana sent two professional stand-pat office holders packing and replaced them with young, progressive Democrats whose progressive views have won them public recognition and support...
...Further, it is becoming apparent that the value of the worker as a consumer is greatly reduced when he is...
...It was content to let the worker make his own "adjustment," however painful that may have been...
...This new machine is known as the Teletype-setter, and with these machines at the end of receiving wires in newspaper offices, one operator can set type automatically in thousands of places simultaneously...
...The combination of these two financial giants into one huge chain organization to be known as the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association will concentrate the control of approximately $1,500,000,000 in deposits in 453 California banks, some of which are operated as branches and others as units of the chain through the holding company device...
...BIG BUSINESS has learned how to make huge profits by replacing human workers with mechanical Robots...
...With the nation in the grip of a severe economic depression brought on by the speculations and inflation of industry and big business encouraged by money dominated national administrations, the people are turning against the false prophets that led them into present difficulty...
...It has even been charged that the chains controlled leg...
...ion and dominated elections...
...And now comes an announcement of another "labor saving" machine that may work a similiar hardship upon the highly trained workers who earn their livelihood as operators of typesetting machines...
...THE GOOD NEWS FROM THE PRIMARIES IT is indeed encouraging to observe that the people of this nation in almost every state in the Union are awakening to the danger of monopoly and wealth in government and are repudiating in recent elections the men in public office whose records have demonstrated them to be servants of the big interests...
...The great bulk of the banking resources of California, where chain and branch organizations had their earliest start, have now passed into the control of a great holding company with its headquarters in Wall Street in V ' York...
...And now, with the control of 1 h; ¦ new super-chain passed into the hands of a few financial barons in New York, it may be expected that the commanding voice of Wall Street will be heard louder and louder in California's political and governmental affairs...
...In the heart of Wall Street, New York City, there is a great holding company known as the Transamerica Corporation that under the direction of its organizer, A. P. Giannini, promoted the California merger and now controls the $1,500,000,000 California chain...
...The pyramiding of banking control by means of chain, group, and branch organizations is rapidly resulting in the establishment of a dominating financial oligarchy whose control-over money and credit—the very life blood of modern civilization—gives them a more authoritative voice in the economic, social, political, and governmental affairs of this country...
...Any development that will enable the worker to increase his productiveness and by so doing increase his earning capacity, without working hardships upon his fellow workers, is to be welcomed...
...However, these new mechanical developments have been and are being applied by the big industrial interests of the country—-as a source of more and bigger profits by replacing human workers and so adding to the evil of unemployment-—they have become harmful rather-than useful servants of humanity...
...The big chains in California have long been an infill' al force in the political and governmental activities of tha ate...
...It has learned that where an expert cigarette maker could turn out 2.200 cigarettes a day an automatic machine can make 160,000 cigarettes a day...
...Public repudiation of men in public life who have served the interests of wealth and monopoly is indicative of a great awakening...
...In addition, this holding company has acquired a chain of banks now operated under the name of the Bank of America National Association of New York City, with a city-wide chain of branches in greater New York having resources of over $500,000,000...
...IN Michigan, Senator James Couzens beat his pro-Hoover conservative administration by the amazing majority of a quarter of a million votes...
...The actual control of these 453 banks involved in this giant merger is not, however, in the state of California...
...One of the big defenses of the chain bankers who are responsible for the formation and expansion of the so-called local or territorial chain systems throughout the country has been that such organization is necessary to keep control of the local banks from passing into the hands of Wall Street...
...E. W. Decker, president of the Northwestern Bancorporation, the $500,000,000 chain operating banks in Minnesota and the Northwest, recently, made a statement/along this line...
...Legislation against this sort of thing is needed badly...
...And the profits from the use of this machinery have been enormous, for Big Business, although producing goods in large quantities and at greatly diminished costs, have not passed on to the consumers any but a trifling share of the savings...
...And in the railroad systems of this country since 1920, 235,000 men have been added to the forces of the unemployed largely through the introduction of automatic devices such as automatic firemen...
...rplIE judicious introduction of modern machinery into work-shop and factory would be a blessing rather than a curse to the workingman...
...Existing banking laws and regulations are ineffective against it...
...The intelligent electorate is learning the truth...
...Big Business has learned that the productive capacity of the mechanical man— the Robot—is far greater than that of the human being...
...Many of these men twere highly trained experts in their field and when these new machines forced them out of their specialized positions, they found it very difficult, to find suitable employment, and much suffering and unemployment followed...
...Isn't it about time that determined, aggressive action was taken to root out this cankerous growth that is eating its way into the banking resources of this country, destroying the small, independent banker, and taking away the local control of money and credit and placing it in the hands of a few financial overlords in the big financial centers...
...He has maintained his integrity and his independence and has consistently supported the rights of the common man against the encroachments of great wealth...
...Recently, however, especially since the general business depression of the country has cut into the big profits of Big Business, some »f its spokesmen seem to have realized the vicious circle that the wholesale introduction of labor-replacing machinery has created...
...they have learned that a mechanical puddler in a steel mill with the aid of 150 workers can turn out 500 tons more iron in a given time than 400 workers could without the machine...
Vol. 1 • September 1930 • No. 41
