686 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



call for a circulation of $95,150,000,000. The platform is con- 

 servative beside them, but the two must be taken in connection 

 with each other, the platform as the cause, the bills as the effect. 

 The planks which refer to the mode of distribution of the cur- 

 rency have been passed over by the party, more stress being laid 

 on the free coinage of silver and the increase of the circulation. 

 In fact the entire energy of the party seems to be bent toward 

 financial reform. 



When the new party determined upon the abolition of the 

 national banks it was necessary to offer some substitute by which 

 the currency of the country might be circulated. The wording of 

 the platform in regard to this point reads as follows : 



We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the general 

 government only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that 

 without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable, and efficient means 

 of distribution direct to the people at a tax not to exceed 2 per cent per annum, 

 to be provided for as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, 

 or a better system ; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public 

 improvements. 



Under the plan of the Farmers' Alliance, the issuing of money 

 comes under one or two alternatives, "either the government 

 must permit the individual citizen to issue scrip based in some 

 manner upon his own labor products, or the government must 

 itself supply him with money notes at cost, as it now furnishes 

 them to banks." The first is acknowledged to be a worse than 

 useless form of money, for it would not circulate beyond the 

 immediate neighborhood of the issuer and would not meet the 

 exactions upon it. The only way left, then, is for the govern- 

 ment to furnish currency directly to the people, the cost of 

 printing, issuing, and other expenses to be borne by the one 

 first receiving the money. In return he must give ample security 

 and must promise to pay the loan in a reasonable time. The 

 government burns the scrip when it is returned. The security 

 acceptable to the government is to be, if it is so desired, non- 

 perishable farm products, real estate, and manufactures. The 

 borrower is to receive in notes 80 per cent of the value of the 

 product deposited. These he may use as he wishes. When 



