THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE. 75 



industrial classes, to improve their financial condition, or promote their general 

 welfare. 



"2. We demand that all the public lands be held in small bodies, not 

 exceeding three hundred and twenty acres to each purchaser, for actual settlers, 

 on easy terms of payment. 



" 3. That large bodies of land held by private individuals or corporations, 

 shall be assessed for taxation at such rates as they are offered to purchasers, 

 on credit of one, two, and three years, in bodies of one hundred and sixty 

 acres or less. 



" 4. That, whereas, large bodies, of our public lands have been sold to 

 foreign capitalists, thus tending to the establishment of land aristocracy in 

 this country, similar to that which has reduced the people of Ireland and other 

 monarchical governments to a condition of abject serfdom, we demand the 

 passage of laws forbidding the ownership of lands by aliens, whose allegiance 

 belongs to other nations ; and that the public domain be held as the heritage 

 of our own people and our children after us. 



"5. That all lands forfeited by railroads and other corporations immedi- 

 ately revert to the Government and be declared open for purchase by actual 

 settlers, on the same terms as other public lands. 



" 6. We demand that all fences be removed, by force, if necessary, from 

 public lands unlawfully fenced by cattle companies, syndicates, or any other 

 form or name of monopoly. 



"7. We demand the extinguishment of the public debt of the United 

 States by operating the mints to their fullest capacity, in coining silver and 

 gold, and the tendering of the same without discrimination, to the public 

 creditors of the nation, according to contract. 



"8. We demand the substitution of legal-tender treasury notes for the 

 issues of national banks ; that the Congress of the United States shall regulate 

 the amount of such issue by per capita circulation, that shall increase and 

 keep pace with the growth of the country's population and the expansion of 

 her business interests. We further demand the repeal of the present national 

 banking system. 



"9. We demand that the Department of Agriculture be made one of the 

 departments of State ; that it shall be increased in scope and efficiency, and 

 in connection therewith there shall be established a bureau of labor statistics. 



"10. We demand the enactment of laws to compel corporations to pay 

 their employees according to contract in lawful money for their services, and 

 the giving to mechanics and laborers a first lien upon the products of their 

 labor, to the extent of their full wages. 



"ii. That the laws relating to the suppression of the transmission of 

 immoral, profane, or obscene literature through the mails, be made more 

 stringent, and be extended so as to suppress the transmission of such litera- 

 ture by any public carrier. 



"12. We demand that the United States Government purchase, by right 

 of eminent domain, the telephone and telegraph lines, and operate them as 

 adjuncts of the United States postal service. 



