state Convention—Currency, taxation , etc. 19* 
There are so many currency tinkers at work that, for me to give 
a plan would seem useless; but, whatever plan is adopted, it 
ought to reduce the rate of interest to five per cent., as that is all 
the producing classes can afford to pay, and is more than they 
make out of their capital invested in farming. There is no good 
reason why strips of paper, called money, should bring a larger 
income than the same amount of money will bring when in¬ 
vested in almost any productive industry. So long as money¬ 
lenders receive a larger income on loans than can be realized out 
of real estate, there will be a dull and declining market for our 
farms. 
Among the most feasible plans that I have seen, is for the 
government to issue bonds convertable into currency, and cur¬ 
rency into bonds at the pleasure of the holder. Interest to cease 
on the bonds when given as security. This is called an elastic cur¬ 
rency. If currency accumulates it can be converted into bonds,- 
and if a stringency occurs, bonds can be changed into currency. 
Any plan that will furnish good money and enough of it to pre¬ 
vent the people from being bankrupted when a panic occurs by 
reason of one of the stock-gamblers failing to make his pile out of 
some scheme for a railroad that is to begin and end nowhere. 
Our present, and I might say all previous, system of banking 
has failed to furnish relief to the business men when most 
needed. Instead of banks being able to furnish money when 
there is a sudden ^panic, they have to call in their loans, thus 
adding to the embarrassment of the business men, and frequently 
causing heavy loss and ruin to many of the best business interests. 
We have a right to, and should demand in the most emphatic- 
terms, that our law-makers so amend the present plan of distri¬ 
buting the currency as to place it where it is most needed to 
move the produce of the country. There is no good reason 
why a few men who have by some means combined and got 
hold of and control the circulating medium called money, should 
be allowed to use all the working classes as their slaves—- 
compelling them to work hard year after year and give all the 
profits of their earnings to pay for the use of those strips of paper 
called legal tenders. The people are being convinced through 
the discussion of this subject, that such men as Amasa^Walker 
