80 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



Government's policy of contraction, came a fall of 

 prices and widespread unemployment. It is not 

 strange, therefore, that this body at once declared 

 itself in favor of inflation. The plan proposed was 

 what was known as the "American System of Fi- 

 nance": money was to be issued only by the Gov- 

 ernment and in the form of legal-tender paper re- 

 deemable only with bonds bearing a low rate of 

 interest, these bonds in turn to be convertible into 

 greenbacks at the option of the holder. The Na- 

 tional Labor Union recommended the nomination 

 of workingmen's candidates for offices and made 

 arrangements for the organization of a National 

 Labor party. This convened in Columbus in Feb- 

 ruary, 1872, adopted a Greenback platform, and 

 nominated David Davis of Illinois as its candidate 

 for the presidency. After the nomination of Hor- 

 ace Greeley by the Liberal Republicans, Davis 

 declined this nomination, and the executive com- 

 mittee of his party then decided that it was too late 

 to name another candidate. 



This early period of inflation propaganda has 

 been described as "the social reform period, or 

 the wage-earners' period of greenbackism, as dis- 

 tinguished from the inflationist, or farmers' period 

 that followed." The primary objects of the labor 



