THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE. 149 



threatening state of things cannot much longer exist. Congress must 

 come nearer to the people, or the people will get nearer to Congress. 



Let us not be diverted, through the machinations of political intrigue, 

 from the great and paramount issue now before the American people 

 financial reform. Let this be the slogan and the rallying cry of the peo- 

 ple until relief shall come. We cannot hope for relief if we accept the 

 financial policy adopted and practised for a quarter of a century by the 

 two great political parties of the country. 



Never in the political history of the country was there such universal 

 interest among the people, and such urgent demand on the political par- 

 ties for financial reform, as characterized the recent campaign ; and yet 

 the great effort of the leaders of each of these parties and of the partisan 

 press, was to give overshadowing prominence to questions and issues 

 partaking largely of a partisan character to the exclusion of the one 

 great vital, living issue financial reform. Indeed, the evasion of this 

 great issue has been prominently characteristic of the two great parties 

 for the past twenty-five years. 



The great absorbing question, let me repeat, before the American 

 people, is not whether the Democratic or the Republican party, with 

 their evident subserviency to the will of corporate and money power, 

 shall be in the ascendency ; but the question is, whether under our re- 

 publican form of government the citizen or the dollar shall be the sov- 

 ereign. Thoroughly imbued with the magnitude and importance of this 

 issue, the people who constitute the parties revolted against the designs 

 and dictation of suborned leadership in the recent election. 



A system of finance which recognizes and secures to every citizen of 

 this country an equitable, fair, and just right to share its benefits, and 

 which will furnish a volume of circulating medium adequate to the legiti- 

 mate demands of the country, at a low rate of interest, is the greatest 

 and most urgent need of the times. Let the people here represented 

 continue to reiterate, and with increased emphasis demand : 



1. That silver shall be restored to its dignity and place as a money 

 metal, with all the rights of coinage and all the qualities of legal tender 

 which gold possesses. 



2. That the currency of the country shall be issued direct to the peo- 

 ple, at a low rate of interest and without discrimination, and shall be a 

 legal tender for all debts, public and private. 



3. That taxation shall be more nearly equalized, by requiring that all 

 property shall bear a just proportion of its burdens. 



4. That alien ownership of land should be resisted and prohibited, 



