this is just ugly.

[arethinn]

via dionysusdevotee, who remarked "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes":

Supposedly this is from "United States Bankers' Magazine" in 1892. I tried to find a direct original for that and couldn't; closest I came was from an 1893 book: "the Chicago Daily Press recently published a dispatch from Wall Street, dated March 21, 1892". But the text itself seems to be for real, whatever exactly was its original provenance. (If that link doesn't work, try searching Google Books for the phrase "At the coming Omaha Convention to be held July 4th 1892". The title is Imperialism in America.)

We must go forward cautiously and consolidate each acquired position, because already the inferior social stratum of society is giving unceasing signs of agitation.

Therefore, prudence dictates to us a line of conduct that seems to give in to the will of the people, until the execution of our plans be well-enough established for us to be able to declare our intentions without having to fear any organized resistance.

Our confidence men shall have to closely watch the Farmers Alliance and the Knights of Work, and take steps immediately, either to control both associations in accordance with our interests, or to break them.

Our men will have to attend the Convention that will be held in Omaha on the 4th of July, and be in charge of all activities. Otherwise, this Convention could muster such an antagonism to our plans that we would have to resort to force to overcome it.

Now, at the present time, using violence would be premature. We are not yet ready to confront such an assault. Money must first of all seek maximum protection in schemes and in legislation.

Let us make use of the courts. Let us go forward as fast as possible at perceiving debts, at foreclosing (depriving of recourse to justice when a certain time limit has been transgressed) on debentures and mortgages.

When, through the law's intervention, the common people shall have lost their homes, they will be more easy to control and more easy to govern, and they shall not be able to resist the strong hand of the Government acting in accordance with the orders of the central power of imperial wealth, under the control of the leaders of finance.

Our top leaders are perfectly aware of the truth. They are presently working at establishing an imperialism of the capital to rule the world. But while they are implementing this plan, they must keep the people busy with political antagonisms.

We'll therefore speed up the question of reform in the custom rates by the political organization called the Democratic Party; and we'll put the spotlight on the question of protection and of the reciprocity by the Republican Party.

By dividing the electorate this way, we'll be able to have them spend their energies at struggling amongst themselves on questions that, for us, have no importance whatsoever, and on which we only touch upon as instructors of the common flock.

It is thus that, through discreet acts, we can maintain what was so generously projected and executed with such a remarkable success.

Comments

[all_adream]

Hmm, I can't find any evidence of this being actually-historical at all, like even the existence of the magazine in this incarnation during that time (there are American Banker and United Bankers etc.). There are a zillion recent postings and repostings, but none of the magazines were called this, that I can find. It's certainly ugly, and reminiscent of, say, Talcott Parson's early 1930s fascist stuff about how 'doctors need to keep the knowledge in their own hands and not in the hands of the patients for social control purposes' (not direct quote, just me summing it up--I ran across that in research when I studied for graduate degrees at University of Durham in England twenty years back, so that was documentable and I'm sure could be found online). I just wish the real provenance of this would surface, even if fake, so people are informed accurately. The sentiments are indeed not good.

[arethinn]

Hmm, I can't find any evidence of this being actually-historical at all

As I said, I wasn't able to find any cites under that supposed name, which is why I put it in quotes. The link I gave is to a book titled Imperialism in America, which reprints it claiming it was in the Chicago Daily Press, italics original, implying an exact title of a periodical. I can't find that as such either but it might be the Chicago Daily News or else the Chicago Tribune which has undergone some name changes (some including "Press") over the years. I suspected the link might not work (and indeed it doesn't), but as I said, you can find it by searching Google Books for "At the coming Omaha Convention to be held July 4th 1892" and skimming the results for Imperialism in America.

Jarin's link in his comment similarly doesn't work, but I think he may be aiming at the November 1892 issue of Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, which says vaguely that the "Chicago press" (no capital on "press") published it from a "confidential circular issued by Wall Street capitalists". He used the search phrase "we must proceed with caution and guard" and you can skim the result titles to find it. As far as I can tell these are genuine historical cites, if not literally facsimilies of the original "circular".

[all_adream]

I always have this illusion that if I just look hard enough, it'll be there, since I used to be good at research in school etc. and can usually get around the internet. So many citations of this were simply reposted from each other though--it'll be interesting to see who finds what.

[jarandhel]

I haven't found the original yet, but I did manage to find one reference to it from 1892 here.

[arethinn]

Google Books links just plain don't seem to work. (My own doesn't either.) Is this Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine?

[jarandhel]

It was supposed to be, though that's not the book that's coming up when I follow the link I posted... (they still work for me, apart from this one now going to the wrong book.) "The Plutocratic Programme." It claims it was a confidential memo circulated on Wall Street that had recently been published by the Chicago Press. No mention is made of any Banker's Magazine.

[arethinn]

Someone complained of misdirection in the Snopes forum post on this too. For me, I just get a blank page when I click the links. *shrug*