force of more than about three or four thousand persons to operate all the agencies required in the whole country, and they would do as much work as is now done by nearly a hundred times that number, all living off of commissions which borrowers must pay. Three hundred agencies, with an average force of ten persons each, would be enough for some years to come, and one per cent would pay all the expenses of the loan bureau. Money put out on short time and on personal security requires more time and closer attention, with some personal risk to the agent; the expense is necessarily greater, and for that reason the charges are higher. The banks would go right along as they are now doing, with the changes before suggested. If it be objected that there are too many details for the government to look after, compare it with the Post-Office Department, which consists of a central establishment at Washington, with 59,000 branches in different parts of the country, in charge of 150,000 persons, all looking after details, and doing a business amounting to more than $1,000,000,000 annually. Where will the money come from to start this scheme? As before stated, the national banks have withdrawn from circulation, since 1882, $225,000,000 of their notes. The steady increase in the number of banks (average 159 yearly the last eleven years, as before shown) is evidence conclusive that, judged from the banks' own standpoint, the business of the country is increasing, needing additional banking facilities, and it would seem reasonable that a larger circulation would be needed as much as more banks. But the circulation was contracted by the banks to the amount stated, and this contraction covers precisely the same period in which farming has become discouragingly unprofitable. With the retirement of national bank circulation, prices of wheat, corn, cattle, cotton, and other farm products, and manufactured articles, except sugar, fell about thirty per cent. Let us restore that circulation, and add to it as much as would have been a reasonable expansion, say $8,500,ooo annually, and issue treasury notes for the whole amount,—$300,000,000. On the first day of March, 1878, the national bank circulation was $313,888,740; and on the first day of October, 1882, it was $356,060,348, showing an average annual increase of $8,434,321 during the period of five years. A like increase during the next seven years, to 1889, would have increased the volume of currency $59,040,247. To this add the $100,000,000 held as reserve for the redemption of treasury notes, and the cash balance, whatever it be, say $50,000,000,- and we have about $450,000,000 available money to begin with. Repeal the resumption law so far as it requires the holding of a redemption fund; establish free and unlimited coinage or use of silver, at present weight and fineness, using the coin or bullion as basis for the circulation of paper certificates. This fresh money could be used for the immediate relief of persons whose homes are mortgaged to secure debts which are due. They would pay their debts, and the money would at once begin to circulate where it is most needed, — among the toilers. Instead of being used for speculation, it would be used in building, in manufacturing, in mining, in transportation, in making homes, in erecting permanent improvements, and in every legitimate way, where poor as well as rich would receive equal benefit from its use. Being worth less as a commodity to traffic in, because production and traffic yield a profit greater than one per cent per annum, there will be no temptation to deal exclusively in money. And the banks will receive as much profit on the same amount of business as they do now, because relieved from all taxation on their notes and other moneys, and without risk of loss from "corners" and "runs "the work of gamblers. Money not being taxable, the banks would enjoy an advantage from that source equal to an average of about three per cent per annum in the new States a little more, in the old ones a little less. -- This particular scheme is not presented as that of the farmers or of any association. It is an individual contribution to the discussion of the question, how to get money from the government directly to the people, and at cost. As before intimated, the details have all been thought out, but it is not possible to give more than a skeleton of the plan in this place. It may be objected that a sudden reduction of interest would be equivalent to the confiscation of a large amount of property now invested in money. That, too, has been considered. Did those who thus object estimate in advance the effect of contracting the currency to resume specie payments, increasing the value of money and reducing the value of everything else? Did they think about how much farmers would lose by the operation of that dreadful process? And if they did think of it, did they care? When they now look out over the four and a half million farms of the country, and see that everything there is depressed by reason of low prices, and when they learn that this condition has been present some half-dozen years, are their hearts troubled, and do they feel that the debtor has been wronged and that they are responsible? Millions of dollars have been sunk by this heartless forcing down of prices, adding to the gains of the already rich. The government is not under obligations to furnish investments for its citizens, but it is bound to supply them with money. The poor have lost enough. Let them have some benefit now from the just protection of the government. What are the special advantages of the proposed plan? First, It would dethrone the money power and make panics impossible. Second, It would add twenty-five per cent to the value of all commodities in general use,― farm products and manufactured goods more particularly. Third, It would save to their owners the homes of a million families within ten years. Fourth, It would afford a good investment for persons of small means. Fifth, It would force money into circulation and keep it there. Sixth, It would aid poor people to obtain homes on the public lands. Seventh, It would encourage the organization of building associations, securing homes for mechanics and other persons of limited means in cities. Eighth, It would bring banking privileges close to the people. Ninth, It would afford a ready means of relief to farmers who wish to hold their crops a few months; elevator and warehouse receipts would secure money at low rates on short time. Tenth, A complete record of private mortgages would be kept. Eleventh, It would establish a monetary system that with little change, and that to simplify it and lessen the cost, would be permanently satisfactory to the people. CHAPTER IX. THE RACE PROBLEM. BY J. H. TURNER, NATIONAL SECRETARY-TREASURER OF THE NATIONAL FARMERS' ALLIANCE AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. SINCE President Lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation, January 1, 1863, no question has provoked more discussion and serious consideration than this one, and after twenty-eight years of discussion and legislation, until recently the question seemed no nearer solution than it did when the famous proclamation was issued. Writers of every character, both white and black, have taken a turn at its discussion, and have widely differed as to the means to be employed in its solution. In writing this short article, I fully realize the gravity of the subject I have in hand, and will therefore remain near the shore. It is not my purpose to solve this question, but simply to give my experience with. the negro in the South, coupled with such facts and suggestions as will enable those who know but very little of the real conditions that exist in the South, to form correct ideas in regard to the true conditions that exist between the great masses of the white and colored people of the South. I shall be perfectly satisfied with my effort, if I am able to elicit one thought, word, or deed that will help to bring about a better understanding all over this country, that will bring peace and prosperity to the great common people, both white and black. I hope the reader will pardon me for alluding to myself in this connection just enough to state that I was born on a farm in middle Georgia. At the time I was born my father was a slave-owner. I have been intimately associated with the negro on the farm, all my life, and know something of the relation of the two races from actual experience. What I have to say on this subject shall be entirely free from all party spirit, and solely in the interest of truth. After the war, when the negro found himself a citizen of the United States, he was besieged by a class of pretended friends (I allude to the carpet-baggers from the North) who have proven to be his worst enemies. To control them politically, these same carpet-baggers promised each head of a family forty acres of land and a mule, if he would vote right; that is, for the carpet-baggers. The poor negro was not only promised this, but social equality with the whites, and a great many other things |