128 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



ing the amount and quality, and that United States legal tender paper 

 money equal to eighty per cent of the local current value of the products 

 deposited has been advanced on same, on interest at the rate of one per 

 cent per annum, on the condition that the owner, or such other person 

 as he may authorize, will redeem the agricultural product within twelve 

 months from date of the certificate, or the trustee will sell same at pub- 

 lic auction to the highest bidder, for the purpose of satisfying the debt. 

 Besides the one per cent interest, the sub-treasurer should be allowed 

 to charge a trifle for handling and storage, and a reasonable amount for 

 insurance, but the premises necessary for conducting this business should 

 be secured by the various counties donating to the general government 

 the land, and the government building the very best modern buildings, 

 fire-proof and substantial. With this method in vogue, the farmer, 

 when his produce was harvested, would place it in storage where it 

 would be perfectly safe, and he would secure four-fifths of its value to 

 supply his pressing necessity for money, at one per cent per annum. 

 He would negotiate and sell his warehouse or elevator certificates when- 

 ever the current price suited him, receiving from the person to whom he 

 sold, only the difference between the price agreed upon and the amount 

 already paid by the sub-treasurer. When, however, these storage cer- 

 tificates reached the hand of the miller or factory, or other consumer, 

 he, to get the product, would have to return to the sub-treasurer the sum 

 of money advanced, together with the interest on same and the storage 

 and insurance charges on the product. This is no new or untried 

 scheme ; it is safe and conservative ; it harmonizes and carries out the 

 system already in vogue on a really safer plan, because the products of 

 the country, that must be consumed every year, are really the very best 

 security in the world, and with more justice to society at large. For a 

 precedent, attention is called to the following : 



In December, 1848, the London Times announced the inevitable fail- 

 ure of the French republic and disintegration of French society in the 

 near future ; but so wise was the administration of the statesmen of that 

 nation that two months later it was forced to eat its own words saying 

 in its columns, February 16, 1849 : 



" As a mere commercial speculation with the assets which the bank 

 held in hand, it might then have stopped payment and liquidated its 

 affairs with every probability that a very few weeks would enable it to 

 clear off its liabilities. But this idea was not for a moment entertained 

 by M. D'Argout, and he resolved to make every effort to keep alive 

 what may be termed the circulation of the life-blood of the community. 

 The task was overwhelming. Money was to be found to meet not only 



