CHAPTER VIII. 



GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF MONEY. 



BY JUDGE W. A. PEFFER, UNITED STATES SENATOR, AND EDITOR OF THE 

 Kansas Farmer, TOPEKA, KANSAS. 



A CAREFUL consideration of the working people, farmers, and all others 

 whose livelihood depends upon their labor, has satisfied the writer that 

 this general prostration of trade is the fruit of our financial legislation ; 

 that the laws are based on a system wholly wrong and dreadfully vicious; 

 and that the only wise, safe, and permanent remedy lies in the people 

 taking charge of the finances of the country, making their own money 

 in their own way, and issuing it through agencies established by the gen- 

 eral government. 



Is there anything unreasonable or dangerous in the request that 

 money be issued by the government directly to the people ? It must 

 be remembered that the money of every nation is issued by the govern- 

 ing power. In this country Congress is authorized to " coin money and 

 regulate the value thereof," and no other body is so empowered. Every 

 American coin, every piece of money, whether of metal or of paper, 

 which has been given to the people as money, was made and issued 

 to them by authority and direction of Congress. Four hundred million 

 dollars in treasury notes were so made and issued in 1862, and the 

 national banking law was enacted one year later for the express purpose 

 of giving more money to the people. At one time the aggregate 

 amount of treasury notes (greenbacks) and national bank notes in use 

 as money, was more than $700,000,000 dollars. Besides these, some of 

 the bonds were used as money. The government issuing money to the 

 people is not a new or untried proceeding. But what the farmers object 

 to is, that the government unnecessarily uses a very costly channel 

 through which to effect the distribution, and the people are charged 

 with the expense ; that is to say, the money is passed to the people 

 through banks, and they the banks charge anywhere from ten per 

 cent to twenty-four per cent per annum for making the transfer; 

 whereas, if it were issued to the people directly, without the intervention 

 of the banks or any other private agency demanding profit on the work, 

 the expense would not exceed one to three per cent. If the money is 

 intended for the people (and it is), why not give it to them at once 

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