146 



of production should help, too, the settlement of this- 

 one of our most pressing- problems, as much for the 

 farmer as for the man in the street. 



It is surely worth while dedicating some attention 

 towards understanding the financial position of our 

 chief producers of food and wealth. 



WARRANTS AS A SPECIAL HARVESTING 

 EMISSION. 



As I have said before, on these bases Warrants- 

 form a secondary emission of paper money r or bank 

 notes. On the shortage of money circulating I will 

 dwell. 



The problem of the fiduciary, or paper, money is 

 one calling for immediate solution. On the question of 

 emissions guaranteed by percentage of metal, on emis- 

 sions guaranteed by paper, by rediscount bills, on emis- 

 sions without guarantee, disputation has laged with- 

 out solution up to date. By adding the proposal of 

 emission on a suitable solvent security, not of more 

 paper money, but of that which is already issued but 

 unemployed, I hope I will not be charged with aug- 

 menting the difficulties, by adding to the dust which 

 apparently obscures all solutions. 



In regard to the question of adequate solvent se~ 

 curity, I take it that as a matter of real security an 

 article which is of eternal practical utility to the world 

 at large, and' which increases in value and can be turn- 

 ed to effective use in case of dire necessity, is surely 

 of better securing than a metal which has no value other 

 than a fictitious one which it loses in times of acute ne- 

 cessity, and so far fails to fulfil its mission as it be- 

 comes an article of absolute uselessness on ;;alls of emer- 

 gency . 



The use of gold as a security for paper motiey is 

 pure^v conventional, there is no reason why wheat 

 should not be used ; in other times and in other lands 

 in the course of centuries, history shows that copper, 

 precious stones, silver, shells, wood, and many other 

 objects have all served the same purpose, and just as 

 effectively as the gold of modern epochs. 



In the famous warrant banks which were intro- 

 duced into the French monetary system, it was aimed 

 to make every article of commercial value, stand as se- 

 curity for the emission of value-bearing documents, si- 

 milar to the paper money here which we are familiar 

 with to-day, and which, according to the ideas of maiijv 



