•XÍ^E ALLIAN-
The Sub-Treasury PlmN
POI ITICS
A SPEECH
DKUVEKEÜ BY
Indianapolis, Ind., November '3,1891
WASHINGTON, D. C. I
NATIONAL ECONOMIST PUBLISHING CO.
THE ALLIANCE,
The Sub-Treasury,Plan,
POLITICS
A SPEECH
DELIVERED BY
C. W. MAC UNE,
AT
Indianapolis, Ind., November 18,1891.
WASHINGTON, ». C.:
NATIONAL ECONOMIST PUIUSHINO GO.
1891.
¿.J«..
JJe:Í973
M/f? Six,
FINANCIAL REFORM.
Address of C. W. Macune, at Tomlinson Hall, ln>
dUnapolis, Ind., November i8, i^gi.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen—The re
sponsibilities resting upon both the audience and
the speaker throughout this great meeting are of nc
ordinary character; and they will not cease wher
you depart from here and go to your homes. Thej
will cojitinue to rest and bear more heavily even a:
time progresses, the conflict thickens, and the flght
becomes warmer. They are responsibilities for ac¬
tion, and can not be discharged by inaction. There
afe evils which afflict this country that no man who
recognizes them can sit idly by and not contend
against, without being somewhat responsible foi
their continuation. The responsibilities of to-day
are for action, and to sit here during this great se¬
ries of meetings, hear the arguments adduced and
the facts presented, admit them in your hearts to
be true, and then not enlist under this banner tc
fi^t, will be virtually joining the ranks of the
enemy. Again, 1 repeat, the responsibilities of
American citizenship to-day are for action, and you
can not discharge them by inaction. Hence, it is
very important that we consider calmly, deliber¬
ately, carefully and without prejudice the evils
4
which seem to afflict this country, and carefully de»
cide upon remedies w^ich shall be so sound, so con¬
servative, and so safe that they will not do an in¬
justice to any class in this republic. This being
true, the situation is, to my mind, too grave, the re¬
sponsibilities rest too heavy, tor me to devote any
of the short time I may occupy in addressing you
to an attempt at oratorical display, to anecdote, or
even to any mirthfulness. I shall try to bring my
heart in direct communication with your heart. I
shall speak of the- truths, what I conceive to be the
great truths, that should burden every heart that
loves this country.
To do this, it is well to pause and consider.
Where are we in this reform movement? How far
have we progressed ? What now are the indi¬
cations? In this movement, from th<v, point
which I address you—that of the National Farmers
Alliance—we get our landmarks from the history
made by the national organization. It was organ¬
ized at Waco, Texas, in January, 1887, about the
20th of January, and right there was the first his¬
tory made. Now, I am not going into a history of
the Farmers Alliance; I am proud to-day to say
that the history of the Farmers Alliance is common
in every home, almost in this whole land. [Ap¬
plause.] But it is pertinent to c^l the attention of
this great body to the acts of the Supreme Council,
the national legislative body, the acts that have
passed it, the methods it has pursued and the ob¬
jects it sought to achieve. The first meeting is
noted for two lines of action which will pepetu-
ate it in history. Mark you well what they are:
First, its first work was to provide for organizing.
5
Organizing what? One or two States? No, in¬
deed! It started out organizers into every State in
this Union; it provided a plan in which organiza¬
tion should be extended in every direction. It
started out to carry on a reform campaign. It
knew no North, or South, or East, or West. It went
to seek those who^e hearts were true to their coun¬
try, and who desired to fight the evils that afflict
not only agriculture, but every class of producers.
[Applause.] Organizers were sent, and soon noble
men who were devoted enough to the cause to go
and risk making themselves self-sustaining, went
in everv direction. That was one thing it was
noted for. It started in to spread this organization
to all people in this country. What was the other?
The other is one which will ever note this Order,
and which may ever, by future generations, be re¬
ferred to with pride. It went forth with the olive
branch of peace in one hand extended to every or¬
ganization in this country. [Applause.] It did not
start out with the selfish idea that we will build up
this organization to be a grand thing. It did not
do that. It started out with the reform first—the
organization simply a means—and said to every-
other band of organized producers in the United
States, we will give and take with you to secure
this end. I well remember it, for I was president
at that time and it was maSe my duty to correspond
with every organization that harmonized with our¬
selves in the United States and make overtures to
them tending to consolidation. Now, wasn't that
grand? Wasn't that noble? Didn't that show that
the very first object of this organization was to se¬
cure these reforms? I want to impress that on your
6
minds. The 'next meeting of the national was
about eight months later and it indorsed the same
policy.
The next was at Meridian, Miss., in December,
1888, and that was noted for two lines of action,
two lines—1 want to make this distinction—two
lines of national action; two lines of action that
formed a nucleus to bind every section to it; two
lines çf action that were in no sense of the word
local—^they were national. One was; It put a test
on the membership as to whether they meant this,
trying if they were willing to sacrifice everything
for the reform movement; willing to sacrifice the
Order as an organization that they held most dear :
williiig to sacrifice' every personal ambition to
achieve distinction in the Order; willing to sacri¬
fice details, and say: In things essential, unity;
and in all things, charity. What was that test?
They submitted a constitution providing for or¬
ganic union with the Agricultural Wheel, in which
the Alliance men who had folight truly for ye»rs for
the Order and built it to what it was, actually gave
up the name of that organization and called it the
Farmers and Laborers Union. Now there was a
test of the fealty of those men to the reform move¬
ment. They must lose their identity as Alliance
workers; they must lose all possible ambition they
had to build the Alliance to the grandest organiza¬
tion in the world—they must do it—all to gain
this accession of strength, and I am proud to
say to you they laid it all on the altar. That
was the first thing. The next was, they inaugu¬
rated measures of economy, one of which was to
oro vide for a national orian as the cheapest way
7
i-f che •ii.-'Siniinatif.n oí the principles of the Order.
Now I prefer to speak of the national organ as one
cf the mcMures af economy, and that is all 1 have
to say about it.
The ne».t meeting was at St, Louis, "and it is
noted for two lines of action also that tended to
harinorúze, and build up, and draw together, and
rtrengtheti, and make natioinal this movement for
the neat succeeding year. What were they ? One
was "the famous St. Louis demands'[applause], with
special stress upon the sub-treasury plan. [Ap-
plau,se.] The next was another test of the idea that
the.Farmers iMliance was willing to give and take:
with anybody for the sake of reform, ánd that was,,
they confederated with the Knights of Labor. [Ap¬
plause.]
Another year rolls around, and we have theOcala
convention, the Ocala meeting last year, which i;
one year ago now. It ratified the action of St.
Louis most gloriously, after having discussed it
throughout the year, and it adopted two lines of ac¬
tion that will forever live in history, and that have
been, in spite of all the discord and tendency to
division that could be introduced by the bosses ol
the Democratic party and the bosses of the Repub
lican party,^_backed.by all the teachings of the doc¬
trine of hate for twenty-five years, by politicians,
and driven home by thousands of newspapers
There were two lines of action adopted at Ocala
have withstood all of this and come out victorious
[Applause.] What are they? One was that not
only did they indorse the St, Lours aemanOs and
:he sub-treasury, but they took the position that
Congress must pass laws to carry them into effect.
8
[Applause,] And il called en ail men to cq-opc-
rate with us to secure that end. And the other was
that they provided for a great political meeting in
February^ 1892 [applause], at which every organ
ization of producers in the United States was in¬
vited to be represented. And the object was an¬
nounced—mark it well what the object was an-
nouncedto be. It was announced that it was given
over a year's time to place the demands of all these
organizations before the whole people; that they
could be thoroughly discussed; that they could send
delegates to that meeting thoroughly conversant
with their wants and wishes, fully instructed and
empowered to represent them—to do what ? To
say what concessions of his own prejudices, likes
and dislikes in the reform movement, what conces¬
sions each would jnake to secure harmony of all, to
secure united action, to bring every organization
of producers in this whole broad land together; to
say this is what we want, this is what we must and
will have. [Applause.] And I say to yoii when
you do that th^battle is won. Whenever you har¬
monize the producers of this whole broad land
there is nothing on earth can stand against it, and
you will get your reform. [Applause.] The dan¬
ger is—I have gone over this brief review of the
the history to call your attention to Ihe one fact—
the danger is, in such a great organizatiijn, spread¬
ing over such a great country, with so many diver¬
sified interests, so many local conflicts in every
section, the danger is that too much prominence
will be given to local fights, that the Order will be¬
come divided upon ¡«cal issues, and this is aug¬
mented by the fact that every local fight is largely
9
■jjarticipated in by men whose personal ambitiom
are advanced by the success of, the local conflict.
I don't say, sir, that that is wrong; I don't say that
that should be stopped; but I do say that It puts a
responsibility upon the national to have a great,
broad, overwhelming issue that every section can
and will stand by, and that will form a nucleus, ot
a national rallying cry, so that whether local flghts
are failures or successes, the victorious or the routed
sections will return to the grand central army
again. [Applause.]
Now 1 tell you to-day^the eyes of the world are
on Indianapolis to see whether this great Meeting
.shall measure up to its predecessors. Their action
has not been accidental. It has been the result ol
wise judgment, cool deliberation. Now 1 have
gone far enough to show where we are in this reform
movement. We have this February meeting and
we have the Ocala demands, with special emphasis
upon the sub-treasury plan, that are proper themes
for discussion. What the action of this convention
will be—these two great conventions that are here
now—are not known. There should be discussion
in private meetings until a decision is reached^that
is intended to be made public; but the pertinent
question for me to discuss to-night is the Ocala de¬
mands and the February meeting. It seems by com¬
mon consent with those that I have met since I have
been here that I am expected to devote my time
especially to the sub-treasury. This I am glad to
do. The Ocala demands, each one of them, is
sufficient for a long speech, and no man can do
them all-justice in one talk. I will, therefore, take
up the leading features of the sub-treàsury plan.
10
Perhaps no economic measure ever presented rr
the public has so grown in favor as this plan has.
Perhaps none has ever been so completely mfsrep
resented and so largely misunderstood by those
who do not indorse it. It is not offered as a remedy
for everything. It is not an omnibus that is going
to do everything that is needed in this reform
movement. It is simply offered for one special
purpose, and I doubt whether there is one man in
ten thousand that understands what that is. I shall
take it up, and first show the necessity for it, then
the object of it, and then the effect.
The necessity lor it may be shown by a glance
at the history of the commercial transactions of this
country in any recent year. I am glad that the
fight which has been made on it has frequently
taken the shape of assertions that it woüld have the
effect, too, at certain seasons of the year, to expand
or inflate the volume of currency, and at others to
contract it, and that such expansion or contraction
would be a very great evil to commercial pursuits;
that it would be ruinous to alníBst every class of in¬
dustry. I am glad, 1 say, that the attack is frequently
made in that way. I have no doubt that you have
often heard it, so I am glad, because I like to take
the words of those who oppose us, when they can be
so taken, as the strongest evidence of the justice oí
our side. Now we can turn this argument to oui
own use honestly and correctly. I admit that
position, and concur in it, that to have a volume
of money expand or contract at different seasons of
the year is one of the greatest curses we could have,
and I am here to say to you that this is exactly
what we have to-day under the present financial
1 I
system of this country. [Applause.] We have a
volume of money that during the short season of the
year is contracted to less than one-half what it is
at the long season of the year, to actually less than
one-half what it is at the long season of the year.
Now, how may this be demonstrated? The sta¬
tistics of the gross volume of business last year
showed it to be about 130,000,000,000. The
general statistics of the country show that the gross
volume of manufactured output of every kind is
about five billions, and the gross volume of all
agricultural products of every kind whatsoever foots
up to just about the same amount, something more,
but is fully equal. Now if, to be conservative and
fair, and yield to the other side more than they,
perhaps, would claim for themselves, if we say that
the products of manufacture constitute twice as
much of the commercial transactions of the country
as do the products of agriculture, then we have for
a conclusion that of the exchanges of the country,
of the one hundred and thirty billion^ exchanges,
the exchanges resultant upon all manufactured and
other products outside of agriculture, such as have
an even production and consumption at all seasons
of the year, amount to about $96,000,000,000, 01.
$8,000,000,000 a month. Now that is an even
business throughout the year, about $8,000,000,00c
a month, after eliminating at a low estimate the
products of agriculture and the exchanges resultant
upon it. About $8,000,000,000 a month. Now,
then, the products, of agriculture come in during
the fall season, in a very.short season say, not over
six months altogether, in which the products of
agriculture are marketed, and the remaining $48,-
12
000,000,000 during that six months adds Í8,ooo,
doojooo a month to the regular transaction. Con¬
sequently, by this very conservative method > or
reasoning, the products of agriculture in the time
they are put on the market at least double the de
mand for the use of money; they at least double it.
Now, then, I won't waste any time in demonstrat¬
ing the assertion that to double the demand, or
double the use, or double the transactions of money,
is equivalent to reducing the volume of money one-
half. It is exactly the same thing as saying that
the exchanges of this whole country must be con¬
ducted with a volume of money equal to half of
what we have now. We know that prices would
eventually go down and down, until after they all
became adjusted they would reach something near
one-half what ,they are now; something near one-
half. Consequently, the volume of money is act¬
ually contracted when it is compared to the relative
business of the country. It is contracted during
the fall season to one-half what it is during the
other season. Now this proposition is more than
proved by the actual facts themselves as they have
been presented in the recent commercial transac¬
tions of this country. You remember last fall, in
September, when we had the September squeeze—
this fall a year ago, when Mr. Windom was Secre¬
tary of the Treasury—how the country became
agitated for fear of a panic, and how Mr. Windom
paid the interest on the bonds for a year in advance;
how he had to buy bonds at 1.28; how the banks
in New York issued $30,000,000 clearing-house
certificates in place of their reserves, and how,
altogether, during Che fall months, Mr. Windom
<3
put out $200,000,000 to save Wall street Thî
commercial interests' of the country stood almost
breathless, and the United States treasury had tc
be brought behind Wall street and the deficiency
made up, including the $30,000,000 panic certifi¬
cates, was about $230,000,000.
"Our worthy president, in his address last night,
was correct, practically correct, as to the volume
<>f money in circulation in this country. I am not
jioing to take up that question. Before you leave
here you will have it fully treated by one of thebesi
and ablest men in the United States. [Applause.]
But I am calling your attention to this contraction
and expansion. The contraction was here last fall.
The expansion came this spring. During the
month of May the circulating medium was reduced
some $2 7,000,000 or $28,000,000 by an accumula¬
tion in the treasury. During the month of June it
went up to thirty-two. Those $30,000,000 panic
certificates were all taken up with money put in
those bante-fbr reserves, and we sent $72,000,000
in gold in the spring to Europe, making in all a
contraction of over $160,000,000 in four months,
and money was such a drug in New York that it
was quoted at per cent on call. Well, in the
fall it had gone up to 188 and prices in the rural
districts went down until farmers wrote me in
Mississippi and Alabama that for three weeks at a
stretch they could not sell cotton at two cents a
pound that was quoted at 12 cents in Liverpool,
and was worth 10 cents right there. That was a
year ago. Now, why was that? There was a local
jcarcity there, whiph is a local contraction, and
which consequently augmented the purchasing
' 1
power of money I defy any man to deny tire
proposition that the present volume of money is
twice as big at one season of the year as it is at the
other, and that consequently the tendency is for
prices to be only half as great at one season of tlie
year as the other. Only half as great. Now I
admit that the prices of everything in this country
do not go down to one-half during the fall season.
The general prices do not sympathize to the extent
of 50 per cent, and I will tell you why they do not
It is a reason that is just as plain as reason can be.
We do this $130,000,000,000 worth of business—
we will be liberal and take the secretary of the
treasury's estimate of fifteen hundred million in
circulation less the reserves in the bank, and less
the other local reserves, and put it down, as the
California bank president does, at about six^ oi
seven hundred millions in active circulation—we
do this $130,000,000,000 worth of business, 92
per cent on credit and 8 per cent with cash, ac¬
cording to the statistics of the secretary of the
treasury himself. Now, when that money, aboui
half a billion dollars, or half a cent on the dollar
for the actual transactions—when that money
is used to that extent, scattered out throughout
this great broad land in the hands of sixty-twc
millions of people, and used so that it has to be
turned over about sixteen times a month, and
nobody has any more than he wants, hasn't even a'
much as he needs in his business; when the m'Hiey
is in such active use as that, and agriculture dump-
in here and calls for all of it, and more too, and
must have it, and she is a beggar for it, she ha» gol
to make concessions to get it. That must be .»Utn,
'5
If you have got money and are using it to your own
satisfaction, and I come along and say I must have
it, I am forced to make concessions to get it; and
that is why the fluctuations in price have affected
agriculture more than other pursuits,, because the
demand is sudden, the demand is great and gene¬
ral prices do not have time to sympathize with it.
The products are squeezed out of the farmer's
hands in the shortest space possible, and all the
cut in prices is laid on his shoulders. 1 have been
in the habit of showing through the country where-
ever 1 have talked on this, that it was impossible to
do a cash business; that it would ruin the great cit¬
ies if the farmers of this country were able to sell
a single crop for cash. It is easily demonstrated,
because one crop that they sell, or the part of the
crop that they will sell in the last four months ol
the year, is equal to three or four times the volume
of money in circula):ion. [Applause.] Now, then,
it is perfectly plain that if the farmers were out of
debt, did not have any debts to pay, and were able
to sell that crop for cash, that before they had one-
third of it sold they would have every dollar bill
in the United States in the bottom of a rusty^
pocket and gone home for a week. [Applause and
laughter.] Then what would become of your fine
insurance buildings, your big ipank buildings with
plate glass windows, and all of the great interests
of your cities? I cite this here to call your atten-
tention to one thing. That condition won't be
met by simply increasing the volume of money.
You may double the volume of money and you will
double the price of everything as soon as it be¬
comes adjusted, and the value of agricultural pro-
i6
ducts will bear the same ratio to the gross volume
Df business, and the demand will be doubled in the
same season of the year ^nd the same Oondition will
exist. You may double it as many times as you are
a mind to, you may have a hundred dollars where
you have got one now, and you do not meet that
condition. You would be just as bad off if that
volume of money contracted one-half at the seasort
of the year at which you were geller and doubled
itself at the season of the year at which you were
buyer—you would be just as bad off as you are now
because the same discrimination would exist against
you. Now, as i said be''ore, 1 like to quote state¬
ments from the opposition. We have away up here
in Boston, the Hub, a statistician of national re¬
nown, a man whom our friends of the banks and
the politicians and the monopolists all love to quote.
1 refer to Mr. Edward Atkinson. Now, if he ad¬
mits anything on our side of the fence it must be so
true that he cán not gel around it. 1 want to read
you a few words here of what he said. In a paper
entitled "Financial Strength and Weakness," in
Bradstreet, he says:
In other word«, do not these facts bring into view a
curious paradox which may be stated in these terms ?
How an increase of producf, wealth and capital may
for a time put up the rate of interest on short loans and
create a grea: ñnatmial disturbance. When lawful
money is held in the reserves of banks it serves" as a
bàsis for transactions conducted upon credit to mani¬
fold the amount of such reserve. When such lawful
money is withdrawn from bank reserves in order that
each piece may serve as a mere token or instrument for
measuring each single transaction^'in which each sepa--
rate bit of money is used, it restricts the basis of credit
on which many thousand doliars' worth of exchange
might have been made in order to measure transactions
to the amount of a singie thousand dollars' worth or
less. Such are the financial difficulties which must en-
17
sue under a banking system under which a fixed anv»
arbitrary reserve of lawfai,money mcft be maintained,
without regard to the change and ftuctuaturms in the
exchanges of products. These conditions will continue
with increasing aggravation until some system is de¬
vised by which the reserves of banks and bankers may
be held and maintained in fullest measure at the very
time when the crops are gathered and when the pro¬
ducts are largest, in order that such reserves may therr
and there serve as the basis of the widest extension of
credits which is then most needed and can be most
safely granted. Yfet, under present conditions is not
that the very time of* year when our reserves of lawful
money are most heavily drawn upon? In order that thi.s
end may be attained, is it not necessary that, measures
should be taken for the issue of convertible bank noies
or other transferable instruments of credit, which shall
be issued as the symbol of the product or capital which
is in process of movement, to be redeemed when the
product enters into consumption? It is a trite but t-rue
saying that the fault in our present banking system is
in the want of elasticity and in the incapacity of the
managers of banks under existing laws to adopt the
methods of sound and safe banking to existing condi¬
tions, or to the increase in the exchanges of the country.
The solution of the whole question must finally rest
not upon abundance of money in the sense of separate
pieces of coin, or of lawful money in the form of notes
which serve a limited and subordinate purpose outside
of bank reserves, but in such provisions for the use oi
credit as may enable the producers of each annual crop
or annual product to make the crop or product itself
the basis and source of thé instruments pf credit by
which it may be moved to market.
Now, that is Mr. Edward Atkinson. But I have
other good evidence in support of this proposition,
and I want to bring it out here. It is none other
than Mr. Windom himself, late Secretary of the
Treasury. Here is what he said on the same sub¬
ject;
In my judgment, the gravest defect in our present
financial system is its lack of elasticity. The national
banking system supplied this defect to some extent by
the authority \vh ch the banks b-.vo to increase their
circu'i.ition 111 I irne.-i of St! i ^ ne,, and-to reduce w:itn
iS
money becomes redundant, but, by reason of the high
price of bonds, this authority has ceased to be of much
practical value.
The demand for money in this country is so irregular
that an amount of circulation, which will be ample dur¬
ing ten months of the year, will frequently prove so de¬
ficient during the other two months as to cause string¬
ency and commercial disaster. Such stringency may
occur without any speculative manipulations of money,
though unfortunately, it is often intensified by such
manipulatiops. The crops ot the coimtry have reached
proportions so immense that their movement to market
in August and September annually causes a dangerous
absorption of money. The lack of a sufficient supply to
meet the increased demand during those months may
entail heavy losses upon the agricultural as well as upon
other business interests. Though financial stringency
may occur at any time, and from many causes, yet
nearly all of" the great commercial crises in our history
have occured during the months named, and unless some
provision be made to meet such contingencies in the
future like disasters, may be cowfidently expected.
I am aware that the theory obtains, in the minds of
many people, that if there were no surpius in the treasury,
a sufficient amount of money would be in circulation,and
hence no stringency would occur. The fact is, however,
thafsuch strmgency has seldom been produced by treas¬
ury absorption, but generally by some sudden or un¬
usual demand for money entirely independent of treas¬
ury conditions and op>erations. The financial pressure
in September last, which at one time assumed a threat¬
ening character, illustrates the truth of this statement.
There was at that time no accumulation of money in
the treasury from custom or internal-revenue taxes, nor
from any other source that could have afiected the
money market. On the contrary, the total disburse¬
ments for all purposes, including bond purchases and
interest prepayments, during the last preceding fifty-
three days, had been about ^29,000,000 in excess of the
receipts from all sources.
That is enough of that. We have got Edwaj^d
Atkinson and Mr. Windom both, who never made
any public acknowledgment that they were devoted
to the sub-treasury heresy. 1 We have their state¬
ments to prove that the foundation we build jipoij
is correct, and that foundation is simply this, that
under present conditions the volume of money in
'9
tlíis country is contracted ai one* seá^ofij^níf, ex
pandeó at the other. Now, whenever"tnat point i;
made, the necessity for the sub-treasury is devcl
oped because that season of the year in which the
contraction,takes place and prices go down is the
•season in which agriculture is a seller, and theothei
season is the one in which agriculture is a buyer.
That is it. That is just exactly it, and exptesses
the whole thing. Now, this condition of a depres-'
sion of prices at that season, and an augmentation
at the other, under the circumstances that this great
class of people are sellers at the low season and buy¬
ers at the higher, constitutes an actual discrimina¬
tion against agriculture equal to 40 or 50 per cent.
[Applause.] It is a discrimination against the great¬
est pursuit in this country, the pursuit that is the
basis, in one sense of the word, of all others—an
actual discrimination. Now, if, as hinted by Mr.
Windom—you recollect that I am taking the most
conservative view possible; I am simply stating
wiiat must follow, not what does follow; I am stat¬
ing what must follow on account of the relation of
the volume of money to the business of the coun¬
try—if 1 were to tell you what does follow, I would,
say that in addition to these things a few men in
New York might combine and be able to control
two hundred millions oí dpllars—that is nothing
nowadays; nothing at all for New York men; a few
of them could get together and control two Imndrcd
million dollars—and suppose they did at the season
that this yearly contraction is inevitably bound to
come, just simply put it in the safe and lock it up.
What have they done ? What kind of a crime have
they committed against the productive interests of
20
vhis^ouBj-rs i* They have taken one-third of the
•'keuiat'ipg litiediuin. The resuit is a tendency to
depress prices 33 yi per cent, the hard-earnings of
the man with the hoe. Suppose we go a little
further with it. If they carry it into the agricul¬
tural districts and buy up the crop under a rate of
prices 33 yi per cent less than they ought to be, the
conseäquence is that just simply by turning that
money loose, nothing else in the world, just sim¬
ply by turning that money loose, in buying the crop
at 33 y^ cent less than it is worth they have in¬
creased the volume of money to that extent and
raised prices. If you grant it a rapidity of circu¬
lation so that it is not over 25 per cent, if the
profits of the transaction are not over 2 5 per cent,
do you not see they have made $50,000,000 on
$200,000,000? Is not that a conservative estimate?
Now, then, the great iniquity is bad enough when
you take into consideration that you have an
inflexible volume there that makes a discrimination
of 40 or 50 per cent against the productive inter¬
ests of this country, but when you 1:ake into con¬
sideration this fact, that it gives concentrated wealth
the power of robbing the country on top of it, it is
one of the worst crimes any people ever suffered on
top of this earth.
A discrimination of from' 40 to 50 per cent
against any other occupatio^ in this country would
soon completely destroy it, and the only reason
that the effects upon agriculture have not been
more disastrous and apparent is, that agriculturists
have been more industrious, more economical,
more frugal, and more saving; they have worked
harder and consumed less, both of the necessaries
i 1
and the luxuries of life, than any other class ofpeo-
ple in this country, and still the blighting effects
of this discrimination against agriculture are
everywhere present to prove and demonstrate this
proposition. It has long been proverbial that the
boys were leaving the farms. Much has been said
and written in recent years about the migration of
population from the rural districts to the cities,
and now, as the truthful record of present condition,
statistics show that the wealth gained by agri¬
culturists has during the past 40 years decreased
from 75 to 25 pef cent. But the most conclusive
evidence, and the one that must disarm any oppo¬
sition to the position here taken, is that the in¬
crease of the general wealth of the nation during
the decade from 1880 and 1890 was about 45 per
cent, and that during the same period the increase
,of wealth for that portion of the people of this coun¬
try engaged in agriculture was only 8 per cent.
Now by a very simple application of arithmetic to
the wealth of the nation in the light o^ these im¬
portant truths, it will be seen and demonstrated
that the actual increase in wealth of all other oc¬
cupations except agriculture was 67 per cent, and
:hat therefore the difference between the increase
m wealth by those engaged in agriculture and
;hose not engaged in that pursuit, has been 59 per
cent, and that represents the effects of the discrim¬
ination against agriculture, and clearly demion-
itrates the proposition here laid down: That the
regular annual contraction of the present volume
cf money under existing conditions, which produces
tn abnormal scarcity, and depresses prices in the
fall of the year, is an actual and unavoidable dis-
22
crimination against agriculture of from 40 10
per cent.
Now, in going this far to show you the necessity
for this measure, I have developed the sub-treasury
plan until it is plain sailing. I come to the object.
It has but one object in the world, and that is to
iupply a supplemental volume, or auxiliary volume
at the season of the year in which this scarcity must
come, barely sufficient to prevent that contraction
and keep the volume uniform at all seasons of the
year That has two results; it prevents the depres¬
sion of prices and takes away the power of any man
or set of men to cornet the money market. You
will never have any cause to kick on account o!
cornering the wheat market or cotton market, 01
any other market, if they can not corner the money
market. [Applause.] That is the basis of all your
corners, every one of them. They can not lock up
the money then and reduce the volume and depress
prices, and when they can not do that the farmers
have an efqual chance, and that is all the farmers
of this country need. [Applause.] They are not
beggars; they ask no favors of any man;, all on
earth they want is an equal chance to use the gifts
which God has given them. The object, then, is
simply to supply a supplemental volume which shall
compensate for this contraction and thereby pre¬
vent the depression of prices wjiich constitute a 4c
ro''50 per cent discrimination against agriculture.
That is the only object—to supply that supplemental
volume. Now how may that be done? Why, sirs,
we want to be so conservative and safe, and fair
and just in presenting this to the commercial world
that we say we don't want to put out a dollar in
«3
this supplemental volume that is not as good as anj
dollar on earth. [Applause.J it must be good
money. , It must be equal to any money 1 don';
care it comes from. It must be the verj
best money in existence. To be that, we are will-
ing to copcede some of our prejudices on the money
question; we are willing to say we will make jt a
redeemable money that shall always pass on a parity
with gold, if you please. Now that sounds like ar.
absurdity, to talk about a paper money, a credit
money, being redeemable money, that shall always
pass on a parity with gold But it will do it. J
will explain why a little later. I prefer first to go
through the character of this supplemental volume.
We have advocated the doctrine of basing this
money on wheat and cotton. Now that has created
a great stir in this country. They have called ii
inflating the country with wildcat money based
upon pumpkins and shucks, and it has been ridi-,
culed in every way possible. Now 1 want to place
particular stress upon the reasons why we would
base this money on wheat and cotton. 1 honestly
believe that if the great mass of conservative think¬
ing people 'in'the -United States knew this one'
thing they would quit fighting us on the sub-treas
ury. I believe that here is the key to the whole
situation, and that if they understood this one
thing they would quit fighting the sub-treasury.
WHry do we base- that issue of supplemental volume
•Til wheat and cotton? Is it to benefit the farmer
and discriminate in his favor? No, sir; it is not.
Is it to benefit him by lending money to him? No,
it is not. Is it to benefit him by warehouses? No,
no such thing. Wh^, then, should we base it or
M
wheat and cotton? Simply because wheat and
cotton ate the disturbing elements. [Applause.]
It is wheat and cotton that cause this contraction
in the volume of money and depress prices. There¬
fore, they are the true gauge of when you need
it, where you need it, and how much you need it, sc
that you do not produce any inflation. [Applause.j
It is wheat and cotton that there is no mone)r to
handle. It is wheat and cotton that are discrimi¬
nated against. It is wheat and cotton that come
every year begging for money that has got more
work than it c'an do, and Uncle Sam stands there
and lets it go begging, and starves the men that
made it. [Applause.] Now whenever a man tells
you that this is a scheme to get up a class benefit to
the farmer, just tell him he doesn't know anything
about it. Wheat and cotton are the disturbing
factors, and consequently the supplemental volume
can only be properly gauged by them. Now
what is the present condition? It is that the
volume of money is contracted by capitalists and
we are suffering from it. What other condition,
has ever been advocated? Why, they would have
it controlled by the government, and we would
suffer from that; not only because the govern¬
ment is sometimes in the hands of politicians,
but because the governfnent has no way on earth
to gauge it, to make it fluctuate according to busi¬
ness, which it must do in order to be just to every
class in this country. The government would iiave
to exercise an autocratic control if it controlled the
volume. The fact is, you will never have it work¬
ing properly'until you have an automatic^control
of the volume of money, which will keep it in the
2S
Jame ratio to the business of the country, and come
the nearest approach to stability of prices.
I said a few moments ago that this money ough;
to pass on a parity with gold. I want to demon
strata that. 1 do not propose to go into the monej
question itself, and advocate a gold circulation.
It is foreign to the subject in hand; but we take
this position, in öTder to show the veriest goldbug
in the United States that even he can notK>bject to
this supplemental volume put out under this method.
Some of our Congressmen have advocated an in
crease in the volume of money simply issued by
the governmciit on the credit of the government.
That is good enough money for me. I believe
that is good enough money for the country;
but I am not going to take that question up. 1
say that money issued on these crops would
be the best money in existence, that it would al¬
ways pass on a parity with gold. Why? In the
first place, it is issued on the most potential form
of wealth known, that which miist be consumed by
the people if the people live—must be consumed.
And in the next place these products constituti- a
very considerable proportion of the expor'..^ of the
country. Now 1 want to call your attention to this
fact, that our economists all agree that products, a
, large per cent of which are exported, are gov¬
erned in price by foreign quotations. This is a
universally-admitted proposition. Not only the
price of that which is exported, but the price of
nearly all that is consumed or used in this country.
Economists tersely put it that the little which runs
over fixes the price of all that is in the bucket.
Now, this being true, we do not propose to affect
í6
the price, of these products, the foreign price, but
I call your attention to this fact, and one that is
often overlooked : The gold price of Great Britain
is the maximum price that the farmers of this coun¬
try may ever hope to get for their products, less the
cost of transportation. I mean to say they can not,
by any fortuitous circumstances whatever, ever suc¬
ceed in getting any more than the gold price of
Europe—Äan not get above that when ¡you get to
the highest. You have heard a gre^t deal about
pauper labor and about competing with pauper la¬
bor, but, right here, the regulator of the prices of
pauper labor fixes the maximum price that can be
put on our products of export [applause], and the
minimum price is governed by the local combina¬
tions and the local money market. Now, when¬
ever, in any State in this Union, or in aily county
in any State, money can be made scarce enough to
make its purchasing power greater than the purchas
ing power of gold in Great Britain, then your prices
go below that, and local men who have money can
buy your products at those lower prices, and sim¬
ply get in communication with the New York money
market and make the profit. Do you catch the
point? We can not control these foreign prices;
they are controlled by the volume of money abroad.
We can not go above them We never can, by any
manipulation of' the sub-treasury system, raise the
price of these products to the consumer. All
we can hope todo is to crowd out the middle man
All we can hope to do is to break the power of the
man that now cuts us down to half of it I want
to be particularly plain on that, and I wilt re¬
state that the gold quotations govern the prices
-11
Now, then, since these products are sold in the
jold market and the gold quotations govern the
price, it follows that it would not pay to use the
jubHreaáliry except when our prices were lowei
than the gold prices. 1 mean to say by that,
that if a man brought a load of wheat to town when
wheat was worth 90 cents per bushel—if it was worth
$i a bushel in Europe and 90 cents here, or 80 centt
here, arid could be deposited at 80 and he could
iraw 60, say, three-fourths;' if he could deposit ai
So and draw 60, and he brought a load of wheat tc
town, and found the local scarcity of money such
that he could not sell for over 65 or 60, it would
not then be half as bad as 1 have often known with
cotton. Now, it does not take much of a financier
to see that it would pay that man to deposit and
draw the money, and it is very simple, that by do¬
ing so he puts that money in circulation there and
tends to raise the price. That follows just as plain;
and it follows, too, that when enough of them have
done that, they have put enough more money in
circulation to raise the price up to the purchasing
power of gold in Great Britain. Suppose we go a
little further, and the local volume of money be-
cott>es redundant enough to carry prices above that,
and the farmers come in and find it is worth 8c
cents, and they could deposit at that and draw 60,
but that they could sejll for 90 cents, any fool knows
:hey would sell it. [Applause J What, is there-
suit ? The result is, it just simply calls on the
farmer to do what pays him best. And what does
that do ? That regulates the price right square up
to the gold standard; it keeps that money equal to
gold every time. And it just simply does this—it
28
breaks the power of any combination of capitalists
to reduce the volume so as to depress prices, and
puts it in the power of the farmer himself to in¬
crease the volume so as to keep the prices up.
Whenever the price went a bit above they would
draw out and sell.
Now, this measure has been presented in Con¬
gress as a non-partisan measure. It was pre¬
sented in both Houses, an interpretation of it in the
shape of a bill the one by a Democrat and the other
by a Republican,and I have no doubt that next winter
it will be considered at the February convention.
I don't think we ought to contend for detail.
When we presented it in Congress, your worthy
president and myself presented it to the committee,
and we made our arguments on the lines I have
presented to you to-night. We told them, this
measure is not prefect ; we do not present it as a
great embodiment of wisdom, but it is the best we
can do, the best we can do, and all we have to say-
is this : We show you the evil, we point out the
remedy as well as we can, and we ^ask you to ac¬
cept that or give us something better. [Applause]
Now, I say to you that when we bring this candidly
before any honest-thinking people, there is a cer¬
tain responsibility attached to it, and it is this,
that they must refute this argument or accept this,
platform. When we say, give us this orsonlfething
better, our piatfo/m is so broad that every single
man in the United States can and must stand on it,
or defend that of the opposition and sustain the
present system. [Applause.]
It is called class legislatipn. 1 will hurry through
As I get interested in this subject 1 sometimes talk
29
too long; but I shall hurry through. It ist:alíed
class legislation. 1 think I have met that very well;
but I want to bring out one point in that connec¬
tion, and th^t ig, there is no benefit accrues from
the warehousing and no benefit from the money
lending. Warehousing done by the government
or anybody else, at cost, is no benefit to the man
who has the stuff warehoused or the man who ware¬
houses it. It is simply a co-operation, an exchange
of service. Co-operation, the true function of gov¬
ernment. There may be an incidental benefit to
some man who has not a warehouse of his own, or
an elevator; but it does not result from any provi¬
sion of this bill because it simply provides for the
co-operation of services. The same is true of the
money lending. There is no direct benefit of
class discrimination in lending you money at one
per cent. It will cost that to do it, and is that
much expense to you. It is true you may have been
in the habit of paying five per cent, and it is an
indirect benefit to you to get it at one; but as a
matter of fact it is no diçect benefit, and it is true
that if you had but one warehouse in the United
States under the sub-treasury plan it would benefit
every section of the country alike and every man
in the country alike. Why? Because the object
is\to get that supplemental volume of money in cir¬
culation at the right time to prevent the depression
of prices. It would do that, and for the same rea¬
son it does not make any difference what you put
in; it is no discrimination either way. But it is
no argument against the measure that it is attended
with incidental benefits. Mark you well, I want to
place particular stress upon that. I want you to
iO
think of every transaction that ever you were famil¬
iar with in your life, and you will be bound to admit
that you never saw a man do a good deed, an emi¬
nently righteous or eminently just deed, that some¬
body else was not benefited by it; and you never
>aw a man do a great wrong or evil d«ed that
somebody else was not injured. It is one of those
great laws of God Almighty-himself that good car¬
ries incidental good with it as ablessing to human¬
ity. [Applause.] And that is one of the strongest
arguments why this is an eminently just measure—
it injures nobody, it discriminates in favor of no¬
body, and still distributes incidental benefits to the
whole community and to everybody in it. How
tifies it? It prevents that terrible depression o!
prices in the season of the^ year when it robs the
laborer and helps the speculator. I do not deny
that there is a benefit to the farmer that does not ac¬
crue to anyone else; but it is not from the money
lending and it is not from the warehousing. What
is it? It is from abolishing conditions that make
the forty or fifty per cent discrimination against
him. That is what it is from. [Applause.] Ano
the Democrat or the Republican who says that that
is class legislation, and therefore contrary to the
principles of his party, is the worst enemy his party
has [to-day. [Applause.] It is the very oppo¬
site of class legislation; it is class justice, an act o!
justice, and an act of right. These incidental
benefits accrue to the laborers in the city, and the
merchants, and the lawyers, and the doctors, and
everybody else.
I mentioned earlier in my talk to-night that yor
dould not do a cash business. You remember the
3
Illustration I made, that it would ruin your cities.
1 want to call your attention to one idea in that
connection. What a crime it is against the gov¬
ernment that was instituted in behalf of the great
common people; a government that was to be a
home of liberty, a government that pretended to
dispense jcqual rights to a.\l and special privileges
to none; a government of a people that were fleeing
from oppression and tyranny; what a crime it is
against every principle of this government to have
a financial system that places the interests of the
farmers and the interests of your great cities in di¬
rect antagonism; a system that says to the farm«s,
"if you were out pf debt to-day and started in tc
sell your crops you would ruin the prosperity of the
city;" a system which says to the city, "if you are
prosperous and make money all the year through
you have got to have the farmers in debt to you. ' '
Isn't that a crime against the people; isn't it
wicked? Don't you tell me, for I know it is true.
Don't you tell me that the interests of our people
that live in our cites and the true interests of our
farmers are antagonistic. It is not true. [Ap¬
plause.] 1 tell you the ideal condition for the
farmers in this great country is to have the agricul¬
tural districts thickly spotted with cities, and these
cities filled with manufactories employing hundreds
and thousands of employes who would consume the
products of the farm, and who in turn would sell
products of their labor to the farmer. There would
be a direct exchange without the friction of a mid¬
dleman, and each would be benefited. Cities could
buy their farm products cheaper, and the farmer
could buy his manufactured products cheaper.
32
Thal would be the very best thing. The ideal con
dition for those who live in the towns would be to
have the farmers prosperous, to have the farmers
living under just conditions, able to live decently,
able to educate their children, able to get fair re¬
muneration for their labor and get out of debt.
There is no class of people on earth that benefit b)
this discrimination agairist agriculture except the
speculator in the city, the exploiter who lives of!
these conditions and spends money to perpetuate
them. It is not your friends in the country towns anc
cities that are benefited by this, and whenever the)
understand this, whenever they come out to heai
an örthodox sub-treasury speechj you capture therr.
every time. [Applause.] They are as deeply in
terested in this as the farmers are themselves, and
that is why this cause is bound to prevail. [Ap¬
plause.]
Now I come to the concluding features, the
methods by which we are to enforce this demand.
That is going to involve a little politics, and poli¬
tics may wake you up if I have made you sleepy.
[Laughter.] 1 am coming right straight forward
and meeting these questions openly and fairly.
I am hot seeking to color it from my side; I will
not array statistics and facts to prove my assertions,
because 1 am stating what you yourselves know to
be facts, and self-evident facts need no demon¬
stration. It is the most convincing logic in the
world. I believe that we will secure these de¬
mands by the influence brought upon the law¬
making powers of the country. 1 believe that in¬
fluence should be brought just as we have started
to bring it, openly, publitly, fairly and honestly.
33
We throw down our gauntlet to the world; we say,
"Here is our plan. We will discuss it with the
ablest men you can bring, no matter where from."
The ablest lawyer, the ablest preacher, the ablest
politician, the ablest man you have got in the
United States to-day can hardly strike a copnty in
an Alliance State where he will not find a man
willing to get up on the stump and meet him on
the sub-treasury., [Applause.] Now why is that?
We do not claim the ability to meet those skilled
in argument and debate. Why is that? It is be¬
cause we believe in the measure; and if it is wrong,
we are more anxious fo find it out than anybody
else on earth. Now to give you my idea of how
we should go to work in politics to force our re¬
form measures, I want to say a word about my idea
of the genius of this institution, this FarmerS Alli¬
ance. I served as president two years while the
organization went through all the Southern States,
'and I have been on your executive board now two
years, and I have run the national organ three
years, and I. don't really to-day know what the
objects of the Farmers Alliance are as well as I did
before I joined it. I thought I knew more about
it then, and I could tell you in a few words what
the object of it was better than I can to-day. But
1 have studied its history, I have looked at it all
the way from a to z, up to the present time. I have
noticed that those men who organized it are not
prominent in the work to-day. I have noticed
that the organic law) the constitution has been
changed almost every year. I have noticed that
the ritual has been changed a time or two, and
that almost every year the officers have changed,
3-4
and that at least four or fíve times the general pop
uiar conception of the objects and work of the
Order has undergone a complete change. Now
this means something. I am led to believe thai
this great reform movement t}oes not depend on
the wisdom of the men who inaugurated it; that it
does not depend for its spread and growth upon
the wise provisions of its organic law, neither does
it depend for its. great influence upon the wisdom
and executive ability of its officers; neither does it
depend for its power upon the popular co»ceptioii
of its objects, and methods, and purposes, and
work. What is it then? What does it mean? Why is
it that after every one of these changes, or in spite
of them, and right straight along, it has undergone
a steady growth onward and upward ? Every day
records it stronger than yesterday ; every month
shows a greater growth than ever was made before
in à month [applausej, and every year outstrips
any two previous years. Why is it ? It is be¬
cause it is the highest evolution of material pro
gress to-day. It is because it is a great reserve
force for good, for right, for justice. It is because
it is not tied ' down to any local or fleeting issue.
It takes for its issue, the broad plane of right, and
justice, and equity. Now as such it never tied to
its business efforts, it never tied to its political
efforts. It could not do it. If you tied it down
to a local issue it would be fatal, because success
would obviate the necessity for its existence, if
it was tied down to local business effort such as wc
used to think it was, or to any local political effort,
whenever it had accomplished its object, there
35,
'would be no use in its existence. People would
drop it, and it would go to pieces ; or if it failed
they would become discouraged and disheartened,
and quit. But when you pat it on this higher plane,
when you take for its'object, a great reserve force
for good, a sinking fund, a savings bank, as it were,
of right, and justice, and power to meet" evil in any
shape so it be evil, you place it on a plane above
local issues. Then it is so high, so true, so grand,
so, nbble that it never can fail, and that it pever
will succeed.as long as there is evil to be met and
wrong to be righted. [Applause.] Its mission
never will be accomplished. It is a permanent
reserve force ; and every time you annihilate one
enemy it will give you strength to attack half a
dozen more. [Applause.], Now with this idea of
the objects and, purposes of this Order, we can
yield the utmost fealty of our heads and hearts; we
can take our wives and daughters by the hand and
march into its borders and offer up our devotion
there; and we can ask the blessing of Almighty
God upon everything it undertakes. [Applause.]
Now with this conception of it, 1 am ready to say
to you that I am not afraid of politics, not a bit.
[Applause.] Politics may be a method. Mark
the distinction, for it is important. Politics may
be a n.tthod, but they never can be an object. I
never will, as long as I live, advocate these reform
measures for the sake of building up a new party,
[Applause ] But 1 may be and am ready whenever
it is necessary. I am ready to advocate a new
party to get these reform measures. [Applause.]
Now a failure to recognize that.s.imple distinction
has given us no end of trouble, no end of trouble.
36
We should stand on a platform ?o broad and so
true that we make this reform movement the sum
of oyr object, not party. The reform is what we
want. We started into this. Alliance movement,
as I have shown you, ready to sacrifice the Order
to secure the reform. Let us stick to that all the
way through. Never marry the party, but stick
to the reform, and never be divorcéd from it by
any kind of sidetrack. [Applause.] Now I say"
this: 'It has given us no end of trouble, friends
whose zeal has exceeded their discretion, and who
have been so ^bliiidly for party that they have
actually said that those that did not go with them
were not true to the reform movement. Now I an>
ready to say to you, if you need the third party to se¬
cure these reforms, if that is the best thing in your
State, God bless you for taking it, but I also say
to you, that if you can get what you want best
in the Democratic or Republican party,if that is
the best, why take that. It is reform we want; it
is not method. [Applause.] Now, we have seen
a great deal of political corruption. You see the
country nearly divided by two great parties. Next
year there will be a national election. If you will
think back to the last | one in 1888 I will tell you
something about it that is not generally known",
and that is, that each one of those political parties
used over eight million dollars as a campaign fund;
over eight millions of dollars apiece; the exact
amount can not be known, because they won't tell
it. [Applause.] But it is not necessary. There
is enough to know that it was over eight millions
of dollars. Now, we are not particularly interested
in what was done with that money. As true Ameri-
37
can citizens we would rather iy>t know. I do not
know [Applause.] And if 1 knew I would not
delineate; I would not describe it. I would not
tell it to this intelligent audience. But there is a
question in connection with it of deep concern to
us, a question that should be of such deep concern
to us that we would .stand up and demand an an¬
swer, and that is, where did they get it ? I will tell
you where they got it—from men whose interests
are inimical to yours. And mind, they did*not
want you and me to donate that campaign money.
They did not want that. They have got a good deal
of cheek; but they never have had cheek enough to
ask for that. They do get some donations from
appointees and such as that, as a cloak to cover the
big pile that is put in by the very man that is in¬
terested in keeping this 40 per cent discrimination
against agriculture. This 40 per cent discrimina¬
tion against agriculture puts into their pockets not
less than two billions of dollars a year. Two bil¬
lions of dollars a year! In four years it is eight
billions of dollars. Now, it is a good investment
for them to give sixteen or twenty millions-of dol¬
lars once in four years to perpetuate conditions that
can make them eight billions without effort. Mr.
Jay Gould himself testified before the committee
that he. made liberal donations to the campaign
fund of both parties as a business investment.
[Laughter and appladse.J Now, what is that ? That
is machine domination. Machine domination I
And I say to you that you never can break the
shackles and liberate yourselves from the power of
money to oppress in any party until you destroy
machine domination.
3»
An ipstructive lesson in theSe methods may be
learned from the rbcent elections. Both Campbell
and Fassett were betrayed by their friends. The
bosses -fíxed it all up beforehand that New York
should go Democratic and Ohio Republican. They
must preserve conditions in which the interests
they represent can wield the balance of power.
They prefer to have Republican States stay Repub¬
lican and Democratic States Democratic, and by
keeping the people more evenly divided they can
stir up more partisan interest at the expense of wis¬
dom and judgment. Of Course the Republicans in
New York did not work for Flower, but the Re¬
publican bosses did not want him beaten, and con¬
sequently they did a character of work that was
sure not to defeat him. The same is true in Ohio.
The Democrats did not .work for McKinley, but
theydiá not want him beaten, and they did a char¬
acter of work that was sure to elect him. Chairman
Hahn realized this, though he was not probably
apprised of it from headquarters, as he made a ter¬
rible blunder and gave the whole thing away after
the election by telegraphing his thanks to Mills
and Crisp for the service they had rendered the
Republican party.
I want to say right here, I have drawn a picture
of conditions that every man in this house and
every lady in this house must recognize to be true.
I know it, I feel it, 1 can see it in your faces; and
still I have not touched the worst features. You
can not measure this evil by dollars and cents. I
know that it is a great evil that this machine be per¬
petuated that keeps these conditions in vogue in
which one class is enriched at the expense of another.
39
But it is not the greatest evil. You can not meas¬
ure the greatest evil in dollars and cents. Let me
tell yqu what is the greatest evil. This is a govern¬
ment under which we are trying the experiment ol
popular self-government. Now, as John C. Cal¬
houn once said in the United States Senate : " In
the world of letters, in politics, in statesmanship,
in edúcation, in the development of the arts and
sciences and. the higher vyorks of the intellect, de¬
mand and supply has the same effect that it does in
commercial pursuits." I am not quoting him ex¬
actly. It is a long time since I read it; but I am
giving the idea. The'idea is that demand and sup¬
ply governs the development of intellect, motality,
virtue, religion, honesty, patriotism, devotion, just
as much as it does the production of corn, and wheat,
and cottqn. If you place the greatest rewards upon
effort, if the greatest rewards for effort are given to
virtue, intelligente, education, devotion, and hon¬
esty, you place an impetus upon the production of
these attributes; but when you place a reward upon
scheming, upon trickery, upon manipulation, you
put a blight upon these higher attributes and are
striking aj: the very foundation of free «institutions.
[Applause. J It is tending to demoralize your^hole
country. It is a greater evil than taking every dol¬
lar of wealth you have. [Applause.] There is the
evil that is greatest; there is the necessity for youi
enlisting in this fight as soldiers, as Christians, as
men, placing your very heart's blood in the cause,
and invoking the blessing of God upon it.
Now, in conclusion, I desire to thank this audi¬
ence from the bottom of my heart for the undivided
attention, for the great compliment which I feel by
40
the close attention you have given iné through this
long and dry address. And 1 will now close,
hoping that, as sometimes I visit different sections
of the country, I may be enabled to take up some
features that I have not touched to-night at your
homes. I thank you. [Applause.]
332.^973
Ml 75a