Connecticut western news., 1891-03-11
FARMERS AS FlNANCiERs BRIEF ITEMS OF NEWS.
Chairman Macune Explains a
 Big Alliance Scheme.
IT IS THE SUB.TREASURY SYSTEM.

The Ox-Cart System of Finance Is a Thing
 of the Past, He Thinks, and a Modern
 System Would Fill a Want Among All
 Classes Except Spectators.
 WASHINGTON, March 9-Leaders of the National Farmers Alliance complain that much Of the adverse criticism on their sub- treasury scheme is due to the fact that the principles underlying and the necessity for it are not properly understood.
 Dr. C. w. Macune, chairman of the ex- ecutive committee of the Alliance, in speak. ing of the scheme, said:
 Chairman Maeune's Statement.
 "The necessity for something of this kind has been developed by the onward march of material progress. For the last twenty five years agriculture has, as com pared with the other two great branches of production-manufact and con- merce-been rapidly becoming depressed and unprofitable
 "This depression during period without parallel of material progress in the world's $ history is indicative of potent cause and is worthy the most careful anal ysis. For this purpose take two of the leading products of agriculture-wheat and cotton-and trace the changes made in regard to them during that period. The Seasons Shortened. "Twenty-five years ago wheat was raised by farmers throughout the north generally as one of their leading money crops. Near. ly all the work of gathering and market. ing it was done by hand; local mills, thick ly scattered over the country, ground the flour for local consumption, and the bal ance was sold when the price suited the farmer
 ,"All of this guaranteed moderately even sale of wheat by the farmer from August until the next June or July. Now the de velopment of railway systems has brought | the great west so close to market that wheat can no longer be profitably growr l in the east, while in the west the wheat is | cut and bound by machinery, taken to i'm mense steam threshers. and the moment il | strikes the elevator it is on the markets o | the world.
 "The season, therefore, in which the farm CT realizes from his productive effort, i! | reduced from ten to twelve months to { l period that does not, in it's utmost limit exceed three months.
 l New Finance System Needed. 1 For the same reasons the season fol marketing the cotton by the farmer ha! | shortened as much or more than tha 1 of marketing the wheat. These changes brought about by the modern improve ments that have substituted the railwa. train for the ox-cart and the telegraph fo the courier, make some other changes nee essary, one of which is modern instead o an cart system of finance.
 | "Under the old system the demand fo money to handle the products of the coun try being nearly the same throughout th | year, the marketing of the products o | agriculture produced no great effect upol the money market. But under moder1 conditions it produces a most powerful l effect.''
 | A Punctuation of Forty -one Per Cent l After alleging that the volume of none, in circulation is wholly inadequate for tn demands of business MT. Macune says tha the average annual fluctuations in pric of the five products affected by the sub treasury system for twenty years-fron 1868 to 1S87-was Al per cent.
 ''This practically means that if the farm CT received 79.5 cents for product durin! the three months in which he was com pelled to sell that the mean price he migh | have realized could he have waited a shor time was 100, and the price the consume | would have paid him still later was 1905 l These changes are due to the reduction o general prices that must follow the violen contraction of the relative volume 0 money, condition that is unavoidable the result of a fixed and inflexible volum meeting great and suddenly augmente' demand.
 "The farmer makes his investment whel the volume of money is relatively large and prices higher He realizes from his in vestment during the season in-which price are depressed on account of the excessiv l demand for money meeting an infleXibl supply. The result is, and has been to twenty years, that he sells at a time whe1 prices are 40 per cent. lower than they wer when he bought. This is largely repre sented at this time by mortgage indebted ness and is an actual tangible discrimina tion against agriculture of 40 per cent N class is benefited by thls discrimination except the 'exploiter.
 "Every useful and productive interest il this country should be deeply interested il securing d flexibility for the volume o money that will be a guarantee agains this violent contraction, which is the tru cause for the depressed condition of ayr1 culture.
 The Sub-Treasury Scheme.
 "The methods of the proposed sub-treas
 
 this condition. and benefit all classes. is the settled policy of this government l. forbid any issue of money except by tn government itself. There are at prescn only two ways for the government to ge it in circulation. One is to sell it and tn othe- is to lend it to the national bank and let them lend it to the people.
 "As modification of this owners of sil yer bullion are now authorized to deposi it in government warehouses and the gov ernmcnt lends them money on it. Now, the subtreasury system provide for a emergency issue that will increase the vo
 tune so as to keep pace with the suddenl augmented demand created by dumpin the years product of agriculture upon tn
 market without increasing the relativ volume of money above what is the no nal mean average, and, provided alst
 that such emergency volume shall be ( such character that it will always pas current on d par value with gold coil then the sub-treasury plan must be at
 mitted to be d conservative and efhcleu remedy for the financial question, othe { wise not. Willing to Stand the Test.
 ITO this severe test the advocates of th measure are ready and willing to submi The sub-treasury system is an enlargemer of the present national banking law, th
 only notifications being sthat the loan (
 the bills by the government be not restric
 ed to certain corporations, but extended { all people having the required collateral $
 deposited, instead of being restricted { government bonds, simple evidence : debt, be extended to few leading product of agriculture that form ,he basis of tt export trade of this country and are pos | tive evidence of wealth."
 From the 10th of last June to tn
 last day of December there were o1l
 seven days in North Dakota when th