Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-08-19

which he says that the original sub
treasury plan was intended to render
the st. Louis platform effective, but as
the Ocala platform adds land as basis
of loans, the bill must be changed to
correspond, which, he saws, can be done
with lone or more sub-treasuries as
in each state, with or with
out government warehouses. The
present facilities for warehouses will
answer without the expense of govern
ment warehouses or apparatus" And
he further says: 'If congress will enact
a law authorizing the issue of notes to be
deposited in the states and to be loaned
on non-perishable farm products and
real estate at not more than two per
cent per annum, we will be perfectly
satisfied. We will and can take care of
the warehousing and all necessary de-
tails without any help from the govern
ment whatever. All that we insist up
on is thus freely stated. We demand
that the amount of circulating medium
be speedily increased to not less than
$50 per capita" He says that 1.-The sub
treasury plan means to declare that the
United States congress is legally and
morally bound to furnish the amount
of currency necessary to successfully
carry on the business of this country
without let or hindrance to any calling
Qegitimate) or section"
In view of the above fact, as above
stated, it is to be hoped and confidently
expected that the chosen leaders of the
alliance will mutually counsel with
each other and with the rank and file
in the peoples movement everywhere,
to the end that such bill, when formu-
lated, shall embody the features that
will afford to the people the needed and
necessary relief from 1.-The ills that do
them oppress."
The particular forms of oppression
under which the people are groaning
and the specific modes of relief from
such oppression may be briefly epit-
omized as follows:
1st. The delivery of the people from
''the power of money to oppress," such
power to oppress inuring in the control
of the volume of money by individuals
and corporations and their unrestricted
power to charge usurious interest for
the use of money. Relief from this
form of oppression can be afforded only
pie by the government and the loaning
the credit of the people, or government,
to the individual at a low rate of inter
est. Nothing else will do it.
I'd. The delivery of the people from
the clutches of spectators and COM
bines and from the ruinous effects of
frequent fluctuations, or the sudden rise
and fall in prices of products, goods,
commodities and wares.
A discussion Of the mode of relief
from this form of oppression must,
from the very nature of the case, be
divided into two or three sub-heads.
First. As to the price of domestic
products and commodities, the price of
which7is not governed by the foreign
price upon the surplus to export. Moth
ing is needed to maintain a steady and
uniform scale of prices upon such COM
modities and products (subject only to
the law of supply and demand) but the
maintenance of a steady and uniform
volume of money upon certain per
capita basis, subject to the demand of
the people, and beyond the control of
individuals or corporations. The rem
edy, or plan already designated, will
Second. AS to the prices upon Amer
lean farm products, such as grain, cot
ton and food products" of which we
raise a large surplus for export, and
the prices of which are governed by
the price, in gold, of the exportable sur
plus in foreign markets, it may be safe
ly affirmed as to such products that no
amount of manipulation of or legisla-
ton governing our domestic currency
or money, can by any possibility have
any effect upon the price of these prod
ucts. The volume of domestic currency
has nothing to do with such prices,
which are, and will, under the present
system, ever remain the price in gold in
foreign markets, less the expense of
transportation to such markets
But there is an important, nay, vital
fact to consider in relation to such for
eign markets, to wit: They cannot es-
cape the inevitable control of the law
of supply and demand. If the American
farmer was in a position to withhold
his products from foreign markets and
instead of going abroad to seek buyer
could force buyers to come here to buy
grain, he could dictate the price of the
products of his labor. There is vast
deal of difference between wheat in a
farmers granary and wheat in specu-
lator's elevator-one is upon the mar
ket, the other is not. If the farmer
could hold his grain, subject to demand
for legitimate consumption, he would
receive the same price the whole year
round, and that price would be the
IN afS Il fIa
of transportation to the United States
and what tariff duty might be imposed
upon foreign grain. Forced as he is by
urgent and pressing necessities to glut
the market far beyond the ability of
the worlds consumers to consume, he
has to sell at loss and see with as
much complacency as possible the mid
die men-bulls and bears, spectators
and elevator men-pocket the profits
which justly and fairly belong to him.
This state of affairs can be remedied
by the people making advances to the
individual farmer upon the security of
his imperishabie farm products And
this Is the essence and the basis of the
sub-treasury plan.
A few weeks ago / offered as the
financial plank for the platform to be
adopted in February. 1899, the follow
ing:
(A)-The right to make and issue money is
a sovereign power to be maintained by the
people for the common beneht, hence we
demand the abolition of national banks as
banks of issue, and as q sui stitute of national
bank notes we demand that legal tender
treasury notes be issued in sufficient volume
| to transact the business OF the country on a
cash basis without damage or especial ad.
vantage to any class or calling, such notes
to be legal tender in payment OF all debts.
public or private. We further demand the
naturalization of the banking system of the
United States In the interest of the whole
! people. To this end we favor the establish
roeIlE OF United States banks of loan, dis
count and deposit IL. au cities ana towns de-
manding banking facilities, the officials o!
such banks to be bonded employees of the
people, and the legal tender treasury notes,
| specified above. to constitute the banking
caDital for such limited States banks: such