FARMERS' ALLIANCE AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. 181 



donating to the general Government the land, and the 

 Government building the very best modern buildings, 

 fire-proof and substantial. With this method in vogue 

 the farmer, when his produce is harvested, would place 

 it in storage where it would be perfectly safe and he 

 would secure four-fifths of its value to supply his pressing 

 necessity for money at one per cent, per annum. He 

 would negotiate and sell his warehouse or elevator certifi- 

 cates whenever the current price suited him, receiving from 

 the person to whom he sold, only the difference between 

 the price agreed upon and the amount already paid by the 

 sub-treasurer. When, however, these storage certificates 

 reached the hand of the miller or factory, or other con- 

 sumer, he, to get the product, would have to return to 

 the sub-treasurer the sum of money advanced, together 

 with the interest on same and the storage and insurance 

 charges on the product. This is no new or untried 

 scheme; it is safe and conservative; it harmonizes and 

 carries out the system already in vogue on a really safer 

 plan because the products of the country that must be 

 consumed every year are really the very best security in 

 the world, and with more justice to society at large. For 

 a precedent, attention is called to the following. 



"In December, 1848, the London Times announced the 

 inevitable failure of the French republic and disintegra- 

 tion of French society in the near future, but so wise was 

 the administration of the statesmen of that nation that 

 two months later it was forced to eat its own words say- 

 ing in its columns February 16, 1849: 



u * As a mere commercial speculation with the assets 

 which the bank held in hand it might then have stopped 

 payment and liquidated its affairs with every probability 

 that a very few weeks would enable it to clear off its. lia- 

 bilities. But this idea was not for a moment entertained 

 by M. D'Argout, and he resolved to make every effort to 

 keep alive what may be termed the circulation of the 



