AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



law-making functions of our nation, a monetary system that shall con- 

 form to the interest of^the producing and laboring classes, as well as 

 the speculator and usurer ; that the coinage of silver be as free as gold, 

 and that gold and silver be supplemented with treasury notes (which 

 shall be a full legal tender for all contracts), in a sufficient amount to 

 furnish a circulating medium commensurate to the business necessities 

 of the people. 



There is, perhaps, no question that demands more serious attention 

 at this time than the present condition of our land. 



From its many resources flows all the wealth of our nation ; and upon 

 its proper and just distribution depend the prosperity, contentment, and 

 happiness of the yeomanry a class upon whom all nations must largely 

 depend for strength and support. 



During the greatest prosperity of Rome, about eighty-five per cent 

 of her population owned titles in land. It was then that she was 

 founded upon a rock, and was mistress of the world ; but in the course 

 of her history, through the monopolization of her lands by the few, 

 through unjust legislation, the homes were wrenched from the hands 

 of the masses, and when the dark death-ford was reached, upon which 

 civilization was to die, less than two per cent of the people controlled 

 the land ; and it is said that about fifteen hundred men controlled the 

 wealth of the world. 



To-day we find in America millions of acres of her fertile lands, 

 bought by the lives and efforts of our forefathers, which should have 

 been held sacred for homes for their posterity, squandered upon rail- 

 roads and other corporations, and millions more are owned and con- 

 trolled by domestic and foreign syndicates ; while a large per cent of 

 our homes are hopelessly mortgaged, and about fifty per cent of our 

 sons are tenants. 



This wholesale absorption of land by aggregated capital must be 

 checked, or it will finally enslave the honest yeomanry pf our country, 

 and inevitably destroy our much-loved republic. The hope of America 

 depends upon the ownership of the land being vested in those who till 

 the soil. Give the people homes, theirs to improve, theirs to culti- 

 vate, theirs to beautify, and theirs to enjoy, and our grand republic 

 will stand as the acme of modern civilization and national greatness. 



I would recommend that you demand legislation for the better 

 protection of the lands and homes of our people, and a law prohibit- 

 ing the alien ownership of land in America. Lands of America should 

 be owned and controlled by citizens of America. 



As a means of developing the many natural resources of our great 



