674 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



in circulation ; but it is really due to the fact that note-issue is 

 no longer profitable. The party complains that the national 

 banks do not perform the functions which they are bound by 

 law to do, and demands their abolition. In suggesting such a 

 change, the Populists must undertake to provide a currency suited 

 to the needs of the country. This has not been done, except 

 through the sub-treasury scheme, which is by no means accepted 

 by the party as a whole. The plank was placed in the platform 

 to satisfy the general prejudice against national banks, which are 

 regarded as direct roads to wealth. 



The characterization of the present contract and immigration 

 laws as inefficient, coupled with the demand for their abolition, 

 was undoubtedly a concession to the labor societies, which were 

 represented at the convention by delegates. Naturally the farmer 

 is not opposed to immigration ; for he is an employer of labor, 

 and the influx of immigrants into the more unsettled regions of 

 the South and West enables him more easily to harvest his crops 

 and enlarge his business. It is much the same as an increase of 

 his capital, because it increases the number of laborers and thus 

 lowers the price of labor. The farming element, too, objected 

 to the plank favoring eight hours' work for the laboring man, 

 when the farmer is compelled to toil from twelve to sixteen hours. 

 But in order to win this element it was necessary to introduce 

 the clause favoring the eight-hour day. The platform also favors 

 pensions, a patriotic thing, but smacking somewhat of political 

 effect. Yet the party could hardly remain silent on the question. 



The election of senators by the people cannot be called a po- 

 litical issue, but the People's Party, in voicing the sentiment that 

 senators shall be elected by the people, has done a good thing. 



The reader can easily observe from the analysis of the planks 

 given thus far that there is a contradiction in some of them, in 

 others evident attempts to please two factions. In fact it must 

 not be taken for granted that all the members of the party favored 

 all the measures set forth in the platform. The planks as a whole 

 were compromises. In the Ocala convention there were elements 

 which favored free coinage, but were against the sub-treasury 



