WERSTATE CG%^ 
 
 I HB 172 ^ 
 
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 Copy 1 
 
 L<aLi\d, Morvey 
 
 and 
 
 Highways: 
 
 Evils ©Li\d Remedies 
 
 A Scientific Solution of the Capital and 
 Labor Problem 
 
 
 
 By 
 
 A. 
 
 H 
 
 . LOW 
 
 Third 
 
 Editi o n 
 
 
(Jfe^<^^L 
 
Land, Money and Highways: 
 
 EVILS AND REMEDIES 
 
 BY 
 
 A. H. LOW 
 
 Attorney and Counselor at Law 
 
 Fellow of Southern California Academy of Sciences 
 
 and 
 
 Author of "Common Sense on Money," "Scientific C6m= 
 
 mercial Standards," "Protection and Immigration," 
 
 "Poverty, Interest and Wages," Etc., Etc. 
 
 "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame 
 unto him. " 
 
 Copyright 1905 by Alvin H. Low 
 
 Third, Revised and Enlarged Edition 
 1906 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Title Page 
 
 Preface page 5 
 
 Preface Second Edition page 6 
 
 Part I. — Land page 7 
 
 Part II. — Money page 9 
 
 Part III. — Highways page 11 
 
 Part IV. — Summary page I2 
 
 Part V. — Authorities page 15 
 
 Part VI. — Conclusion* page 18 
 
 Hope On, Hope Ever — A Poem by Gerald Massey. . . . page 23 
 
 APPENDIX 1. 
 
 A Proposed Act of Congress page 24 
 
 APPENDIX 2. 
 
 Questions. Criticisms and Answers page 28 
 
 By Trauafo*- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is my overwhelming conviction that the application of the 
 remedies herein suggested to the evils pointed out will bring 
 about a just relation between Capital and Labor, and insure 
 a fair division of the wealth thereafter created by their com- 
 bined employment, and establish justice in many departments 
 of our economic system. 
 
 The subjects treated are of such vast importance as to war- 
 rant a much more voluminous work. But such a book I think 
 could not so well serve my purpose — which is to reach the 
 great mass of voters who have no time in which to read large 
 books, as well as those of more leisure. 
 
 I have therefore expressed my thoughts in as few words as 
 possible — recalling in justification the old sayings, "Brevity is 
 the soul of wit," and "Enough is as good as a feast." 
 
 Extracts from this pamphlet, accompanied with proper ac- 
 knowledgments, will not be treated as infringements of the 
 copyright." A. H. L. 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The cordial reception and rapid sale of the first edition has 
 convinced me that I have not mistaken the temper of the times. 
 To give this edition the highest utility while keeping its volume 
 within the lowest practicable limits, I have eliminated the copy 
 of the petition to Congress, sent by me through the General 
 Assembly of the Knights of Labor in 1885, praying for a just 
 money system ; also the speech of Leland Stanford in the Sen- 
 ate of the United States May 23, 1890, in support of "A Bill to 
 provide for making loans by the Government and securing the 
 same by liens upon land," which bill was substantially in re- 
 sponse to the prayer of said petition, and provided for Gov- 
 ernment loans to the people at a rate of interest of 2 per cent, 
 per annum. I cannot refrain from making the following quo- 
 tation from that most able and patriotic speech : "The masses 
 are beginning to realize that the condition of life for humanity 
 i:-. not what is possible. To reach the possibility is the great 
 question now to be considered. In the unrest of the masses 
 I augur great good. It is by their realizing that their condi- 
 tion of life is not what it ought to be that vast improvements 
 may be accomplished. It is the duty of statesmen to furnish 
 means, if possible, to find out the way by which the Creator's 
 design for the highest advance of civilization is to be obtained. 
 Want, discomfort and misery are not necessarily the heritage 
 of the industrious and provident man." 
 
 But for Mr. Stanford's untimely death, I believe the work 
 so nobly begun would not have languished these fifteen years, 
 in which the necessity for such a law has been augmented a 
 hundred fold, and I exhort my liberty-loving countrymen to 
 see to it that no such period be allowed to elapse before we 
 shall experience the fruition of his noble effort. 
 
 As a help to this end, I have given the space occupied in the 
 first edition by said petition and speech to a bill which I have 
 drafted for submission to Congress, and such criticisms and 
 questions ?s have been elicited by the first edition before and 
 since publication, together with my answers to the same, as I 
 think will add clearness and usefulness to the work. 
 
 If in the opinion of any, I have fallen into important error, 
 and am attempting to teach doctrines not founded upon scien- 
 tific principles, I invoke his kind consideration in calling my 
 attention to such error. 
 
 A. H. LOW. 
 Los Angeles, Cal., 1906. 
 
LAND, MONEY AND HIGHWAYS: EVILS AND 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 Part I. — Land. 
 
 Private monopoly of public necessities is the chief evil of 
 civilization. To it may justly be charged most of the ills that 
 beset a commercial nation. Chief among the subjects of pri- 
 vate monopoly are land, money and highways ; and, first of all, 
 land. Land, air and sunlight are absolute essentials to life. 
 Land is limited in supply, hence may be monopolized. 
 
 It is a fundamental truth that all persons are endowed by the 
 "Creator with certain inalienable rights," among which "are 
 Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." If, therefore, 
 there is any one of us who has not sufficient of any of the first 
 essentials to these ends, there must be others who have more 
 than sufficient. The monopoly of land by one portion of the 
 human family is a most serious menace to the God-given right 
 of life and liberty. 
 
 We Americans have been taught to believe that a person's 
 right to acquire title to land is as unlimited as to that of per- 
 sonal property, and that if he could command wealth enough 
 he might acquire title to the land of the whole state, or the 
 whole United States, and control it with as arbitrary and 
 despotic power as he can his horse and carriage. Now, either 
 this law and doctrine is erroneous, or the Creator has made a 
 grave blunder in attempting to endow us with any inalienable 
 rights. We must either abandon the American idea of human 
 God-given rights, or the theory of land-ownership brought 
 from the mother country. If a new born babe is entitled to 
 any part of the earth's surface as a natural heritage, he is en- 
 titled to the best that is not already in use by others. Is not 
 this assertion in accordance with the fundamental principle of 
 Justice? Now if we find human laws which lead to the de- 
 privation of any one of a natural right, what shall we do? Let 
 us adopt the language of Sir William Blackstone, and say, "the 
 law of nature is superior in obligation to any other. No human 
 laws are of any validity if contrary to it, and they derive all 
 their force and authority from it." 
 
 There is no more forcible proof of the violation of any natural 
 law than those resulting from our laws in relation to land. We 
 
need not go out of our own country to see the evil effects of a 
 land system that permits one generation to forestall its suc- 
 cessors in the enjoyment of the land. This is one of the means 
 by which colossal fortunes are secured to a few and abject want 
 and wretchedness to the many. 
 
 Laws for the regulation of society, among which are laws 
 regulating the title to or occupancy of land, highways, money 
 and everything requiring artificial regulation, are human, and 
 there is no reason why the law-making power — which in this 
 country is primarily in the people — should hesitate to correct 
 any law which, from experience, has proven to be defective, 
 and the one test of the law should be : is it just? 
 
 But it is easier to find fault with a law or anything else than 
 to offer an improved substitute for it. The great evil of our 
 present land system is the facility it affords to those who can 
 command money, to acquire title to more land than they can 
 use, to the exclusion of those who would otherwise use it, and 
 as land enhances in value by the increased demand caused by 
 the increase of population, the land owners reap the benefit 
 of labor which they have not performed, by the increased price 
 they are enabled to receive for their lands. The evil results 
 to those whose labor is confiscated, as it were, by those who 
 have no just right to it. 
 
 Fortunately, the subject of land taxation is within the juris- 
 distion of the state. We do not have to wait for national 
 legislation for that. We should tax all land not in actual use 
 to the full extent of its speculative value, i. e., tax the specula- 
 tive element out of land values. The object of every trans- 
 action is gain. No one would buy or own land unless there 
 was a hope of gain to result from the purchase or holding; and 
 if every land owner was compelled to pay to the state all that 
 his land increased in value from year to year, outside of that 
 added to it by his own labor or expenditure upon it, there 
 could be no motive for owning land not in actual use. Is not 
 this a plain, simple, just and efficient remedy for the evils of 
 our land system? It would not be confiscation. It would 
 simply stop further confiscation. The state, which is the 
 people as a mass, would simply claim and take all of the value 
 of land that the people in mass have given to it without com- 
 pensation, or any service on the part of he who owns the land. 
 Society — the state — has a right to the unearned increment 
 due to its existence and activities. 
 
 The ballot is the only instrument we need to use in this 
 struggle for Justice. Shall we use it? We shall see. 
 
 (See Appendix 2.) 
 
Part II. — Money. 
 
 The laws relating to Money are also man-made and are 
 equally defective with those relating to Land. To abolish all 
 forms of money would in effect reduce all exchange to barter. 
 
 Money was invented in answer to a necessity. Facility for 
 making exchange was needed, and, as all exchanges of labor 
 and commodities were made according to the relative value 
 of the things exchanged, a measure of value was as necessary 
 as measures of size and weight. Standards of all measures 
 have been securely fixed except that of value. The material 
 and mass of the money unit has been fixed: the gold dollar. 
 But the value, the most essential part of this measure, is varia- 
 ble, everywhere and all the time. The value of money, like 
 that of labor and commodities, is governed by the law of supply 
 and demand. The value of money can be regulated only 
 through the supply for use. While the supply of money was 
 confined to a certain commodity, as gold or silver it was an 
 easy subject of private monopoly, and has always been a most 
 potent instrument of extortion. The history of money shows 
 what fantastic and always abortive efforts have been made to 
 fix and regulate the value of money, through usury laws; which 
 have failed of their purpose for the sole reason that there has 
 never been an adequate supply of money to meet the demands 
 of commrce at the rate of interest prescribed; and until the 
 invention of coined credit — paper money — to meet the demand 
 not met by the supply of commodity money, such a supply 
 was practically impossible. Credit money is quite a modern 
 invention, to answer a necessity as imperative as the demands 
 for money in its original form. The invention of credit or 
 paper money has made it possible for our government to fur- 
 nish a supply (by loans on good security) to meet all demands 
 for money at a just and low rate of interest, and by that means 
 fix the value of money and maintain that value at all times 
 and places throughout the country. Instead of doing this, 
 however, it has created and is now fostering a private monopoly 
 — the National banking associations — with full power to supply 
 much or little credit money ; not to meet the demands of com- 
 merce, but to meet their demands on commerce, and their 
 standard is "all the trade will bear." 
 
 To one who has made a study of this subject it seems incred- 
 ible that this thing can be suffered in this country much longer. 
 My limit of space does not permit me to even touch upon the 
 wrong and injustice our present money system entails. Money 
 is the measure of value and should be as fixed and certain in 
 
its own value as the yard stick is in its length. The interest 
 it will draw when loaned on good security shows what the 
 value of money is, and the current rate of interest on money so 
 loaned is the standard of rents and profits. A just rate of in- 
 terest maintained by a sufficient and certain supply of money 
 would reduce rents and profits to the same level. That in- 
 terest — which is profit to capital — is unjustly high is evidenced 
 by the rapid accumulation of all wealth into the hands of the 
 few, to the impoverishment of the many. 
 
 It is by the authority of the Government that all paper money 
 is issued. The National banking associations use their monop- 
 oly of the issue of paper money for their private personal gain. 
 in the same sense that does a man his business, who runs a 
 hotel or store. 
 
 The loanable function of money is only incident. The pri- 
 mary purpose and functions of money are, a measure of value 
 and a medium of exchange. The incident function should be 
 subservient to the primamy; but almost from the time money 
 was invented its susceptibility to private monopoly through 
 supply, has rendered the function of loanability at interesc 
 dominant, and through it the money-issuing and money-lending 
 powers have always held both the economic and political des- 
 tiny of the world in their hands. 
 
 It is the lawful right and plain duty of the Government to 
 fix interest at a low rate and insist on the National banks lend- 
 ing money on good security at all times on demand at that 
 rate, or take the issue of credit money out of their hands and 
 exercise that sovereign function itself. While the profits of 
 agriculture do not average two per cent, per annum on the 
 capital invested, it is clear to me that interest should, at most, 
 not exceed that rate. How much lower than that it should 
 be to give capital its just share of the profits of the industries 
 in which it is engaged is open to discussion, but I believe this 
 matter of the normal rate of interest, ii. e., the current rate at 
 which money is loaned on sound security, is the vital question 
 between Capital and Labor. The bone of contention between 
 them is the division of the profits of their combined employ- 
 ment in the industries. Fixing the price of Labor by law 
 has been tried and from the very nature of things has failed. 
 
 Fixing the value (use) of capital has only been attempted 
 through usury laws, which have also failed of their purpose 
 because no provision was ever made at the time of their en- 
 actment or otherwise for a supply of money— the representa- 
 tive of all commercial values — to meet the demands of com- 
 merce at the rate prescribed. This can now be done, as it 
 could never, with the knowledge existing, have been done be- 
 fore. There bing (aside from land) but the two factors of 
 
 10 
 
production, is it not clear that all that is left of profits after 
 one factor has received its share must go to the other? As to 
 its share of profits, land is a form of capital. Its portion of 
 the Capitalistic share of profits being called rent instead of 
 interest, but its value is governed by the same law. Congress 
 alone has the right and power to cause justice to be done in 
 this matter. What shall we do? We shall see. 
 
 (See Appendixes i and 2.) 
 
 Part III. — Highways. 
 
 We have next to consider Public Roads, usually called High- 
 ways. The highway is a public necessity scarcely less in im- 
 portance in our advanced state of society than money itself. 
 Certainly no great advancement in commerce could have been 
 made without this means of transportation. When the land 
 of a country is held in common by all its inhabitants and com- 
 merce is in its simplest form, little or no attention is given to 
 public roads ; but as soon as the land is occupied so that the 
 members of society claim exclusive possession of portions of 
 the land, it becomes necessary that a part of the land should 
 be reserved to be held in common, over which the people may 
 pass from place to place without let or hindrance. The in- 
 stitution of highways, therefore, must date back about equally 
 with that of money, for they are both vital necessities to com- 
 merce, the first and grandest step towards civilization. About 
 the year 1830 a new impetus was given to commerce. 
 
 It was the employment of steam as a motive power in the 
 transportation of persons and property, applied to the railroad 
 locomotive, and was in itself one of the grandest strides for- 
 ward in the march of human progress the world has ever wit- 
 nessed. It was to the system of highways, what paper money 
 was to the money system. Grand in its conception and benefi- 
 cent in its purpose — a power given to man as a help to his 
 moral and spiritual growth ; but like money and everything 
 else of general necessity capable of private monopoly, it has 
 passed into the hands of the few, who are using it with an eye 
 single to their personal advantage. Suppose for a moment, 
 ii you can, that every railroad in this country was suddenly 
 blotted out of existence and the invention of the locomotive 
 forgotten. Should the sun be darkened by a total eclipse for 
 a year, the stagnation of business and general distress would 
 be little more intense. 
 
 Where is there a railroad in this country upon which every 
 
 11 
 
citizen may travel or send his goods at a rate equal with that 
 of every other citizen? Where is there a railroad which is 
 not in the control of one or more private persons who manage 
 it as they see fit without regard to public interest or common 
 justice? 
 
 Without laws to suit the business of constructing railroads 
 there could be but slow progress, if any, in the' matter. All 
 the land in the country is either owned by the Government or 
 by private individuals, and land ownership carries with it 
 exclusive possession. The law of eminent domain, which re : 
 serves to the Government the right to take private property 
 for public use, had to be invoked before the railroad could be 
 built. So we have the spectacle of a necessity which is public 
 while it is being built and "private property" afterwards, 
 without any change of title. However, I hold that the ex- 
 ercise of this sovereign prerogative, the right of eminent do- 
 main, makes the railroads public highways, and the Govern- 
 ment has the inalienable right to regulate and control them, 
 precisely as it has the money system. In each case a sov- 
 ereign prerogative has been farmed out to private corporations 
 for their personal advantage, with but little consideration for 
 justice or the public weal. The interests of the public in 
 either case have been subserved only as it has been necessary 
 to the corporations in question. As it stands today, railroad 
 corporations are simply legalized highwaymen. 
 
 Such vast utilities should no longer be left in the control of 
 private monopolists. Every sovereign prerogative is inalien- 
 ably in the people of this country. It can neither be lawfully 
 given nor taken away, and if unlawfully given or taken away 
 it may be reclaimed, recovered and again exercised by the 
 people through their government. I believe the time has 
 narly arrived when this will be done by the people of this 
 country. The Government, however, will not do so unless 
 the people demand and insist upon it. 
 
 Shall we make these demands? We shall see. 
 
 (See Appendix 2.) 
 
 Part IV. — Summary. 
 
 In our three preceding articles we have considered briefly 
 the three great instruments necessary to Labor in the produc- 
 tion and distribution of wealth. It is my purpose now to sum- 
 marize the whole subject. 
 
 There is practical unanimity on the part of the great suffer- 
 in g majority as to the existence of great evils in our economic 
 
 12 
 
system. All know, and the masses feel the effects of these 
 evils and are crying loudly for their removal, but as to the 
 remedy there are innumerable theories, each having its advo- 
 cates, and those who are profiting by the injustice of the pres- 
 ent system, profit further and are most secure by reason of 
 the division in the ranks of the would-be reformers. They 
 have learned the truth of the legend, "In union is strength," 
 and are acting accordingly, as witness their combinations into 
 partnerships, corporations, syndicates and trusts ; while the 
 trades and labor unions are the only substantial and forceful 
 combinations among the oppressed. Combinations of laborers 
 as such, however, can act only on the supply of labor, and 
 while the labor market is glutted with unorganized and un- 
 employed laborers literally begging for work to do and every 
 demand for labor filled, nothing but the greater skill and 
 education of the organized laborers can have any potent and 
 lasting effect upon wages. 
 
 Political action, which is free to those belonging to the unions 
 as well as those who are outside of them, is the only field in 
 which all must work to accomplish a substantial and satisfac- 
 tory improvement in our economic system, and because I be- 
 lieve this, I have attempted to point out the paramount evils 
 and a method for their eradication. 
 
 Land, money and highways are comparable in our economic 
 system to the three great mechanical powers in machinery: 
 money corresponding in importance to the lever. There are, 
 to be sure, other subjects for legislative correction. Every 
 great public utility should be under Government control, to 
 at least prevent its doing an injury to the community, but 
 when we have taxed speculation out of land values, established 
 a just rate of interest on money loaned and payments deferred, 
 and applied government regulation to the operation and tolls 
 of railroads of this country, there will be such a new impetus 
 to commerce that with the exclusion of undesirable immigrants 
 from other countries, every one who is able and wants to work 
 will be employed, and at wages that will give him all the wealth 
 he creates. My suggestions of methods of bringing about this 
 happy state of things have necessarily been accompanied with 
 but few illustrations of how they would operate. I hope now 
 to supply this lack by describing at least some of the effects 
 of the remedies advocated, and later to point to the authority 
 now existing, for the laws necessary to be enacted to accom- 
 plish the end sought — the establishment of Justice in our 
 economic system. If the State takes in taxes all the value 
 that land not in use acquires by reason of the operations of 
 that part of the community not its owners, there can be no 
 inducement to monopolize land, or hold it for speculative 
 
 13 
 
purposes, because no profit could arise from" such holding. 
 This would put agricultural and otherwise valuable land in 
 the market at their true value for use and within the reach 
 of the people of small means. What need is there to explain 
 <>r describe the results of equal and just rates on the railroads? 
 It may not be so obvious, however, how lowering the rate of 
 interst on money loaned, would benefit the wage-iaborer who 
 never borrows money, and has no security to pledge for the 
 use of it even if he wanted to borrow. This is a fair and 
 pertinent question and its proper answer is the crucial test 
 of the theory of fixed and low interest. 
 
 Interest, rent and profit of capital are kindred if not iden- 
 tical. They are each compensation for the use of things ac- 
 cording to their value. We, however, use the word interest 
 to more specifically designate compensation for the use of 
 money loaned or payments deferred. It requires no illustra- 
 tion to show that since profit is only the surplus wealth pro- 
 duced by the combined employment of capital and labor on 
 land or that which has been derived therefrom, any division 
 which fixes the share of one of these two factors, necessarily 
 determines the share of the other. If the share of capital is 
 fixed, only the share of labor will be variable, whereas, under 
 our present system of a variable standard of value, the share 
 of each is variable, and the division is based on might without 
 regard to right. As a wage-earner, I am asked: "If your 
 employer could borrow money at two per cent., would he pay 
 any more wages than he does now?" To this I answer, it 
 would at least be possible for him to do so ; whereas, with in- 
 terest at 6 or 10 per cent, as now, it may be, and generally is, 
 impossible for him to do so; and if all other employers were 
 able to do the same there would be such a stimulus to business 
 that more laborers would be in demand by employers and 
 the glut in the labor market would be accordingly relieved, 
 and under the law of supply and demand, all labor would 
 command higher wages, mine with the rest. Fixing the rate 
 of interest, so that money has the same value at all times, would 
 add security to all legitimate business, which alone would be 
 most beneficent, for then financial crises and money panics 
 would be impossible. As it is now, one who enters upon a 
 business 'with money even as low as 5 per cent., must hedge in 
 his profits against the day when his interest on capital bor- 
 rowed will be raised to a ruinous rate, as witness the fluctua- 
 tions in New York, where at one time interest on call loans 
 is as low as 2 per cent, and at another time as highe as 100 per 
 cent., while fluctuations between those extremes are constantly 
 occurring throughout the countrv. 
 
 Again I am asked by a wage-earner himself: "How can 
 
 14 
 
lowering the rate of interest benefit me who never borrow 
 money and have no security to pledge for the loan if I wanted 
 to?" To this I answer: About four-fifths of the business of 
 this country is done on borrowed capital. Those who initiate 
 and conduct the business have to make it so profitable that 
 out of the proceeds they can pay the money lenders (usually 
 the banks) the interest they have contracted for before any- 
 thing can fall to them for even their services. It has been 
 estimated that 95 per cent, of business enterprises result in 
 failure. The test of success of any business is, does it pay 
 a profit? No business will be continued long when the re- 
 ceipts over expenses do not exceed the interest at the current 
 rate on the money invested. It follows, as of course, that 
 when business stops by reason of high interest, laborers are 
 thrown out of work and wages cease, and the wage-earner who 
 lives from hand to mouth is the first and most pitiful sufferer, 
 and would therefore be most benefited by low interest. With 
 a low and fixed rate of interest, therefore, business would be 
 immensely stimulated, consequently increasing the demand for 
 labor, and the supply remaining the same, just in proportion 
 increasing its price or wage, and by a proper limitation on the 
 coming of laborers from foreign countries, the supply would 
 soon no more than equal the demand for labor, and the Ameri- 
 can laborer and wage-earner would once again stand firmly 
 and erect upon his feet, able to command and sure to receive 
 his full share of the wealth he helps to create. 
 
 Part V. — Authorities. 
 
 Let us now see what authority and power we have and can 
 lawfully exercise over the forces of evil in our economic sys- 
 tem, and especially in the three branches of it which we have 
 been considering, and suggest, if we can, suitable remedies and 
 how to apply them. 
 
 The power of taxation, which is simply the power to take 
 and appropriate private property for public use without com- 
 pensation to the owner, other than that which he receives 
 incidentally through the public weal, is the highest prerogative 
 of sovereignty. That power is now exercised by our National, 
 State and Municipal governments without question as to fun- 
 damental right. All controversies over taxes arise from dis- 
 crimination in subjects or rates, but not upon prerogative. 
 Land is as common a subject of taxation as personal property. 
 
 15 
 
1 submit, without further argument, the question, is it not 
 just that the Government should take by taxation for public 
 use all of the increase of land values derived from the labor 
 of the community surrounding it, and in no other way con- 
 tributed to it by the persons who hold the title to the land? 
 The power to levy such a tax resides in the people, and the 
 State government is the instrument through which it can and 
 should be exercised. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States provides that "The 
 Congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the value 
 thereof and of foreign coin and fix the standard of weights and 
 measures." Also "To regulate commerce with foreign nations, 
 and among the several states." Also "To provide for the 
 common defense and general welfare of the United States ;" 
 Also that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance 
 thereof shall "be the supreme law of the land. 
 
 What greater powers than these do we need, in order to' 
 lower and fix the rate of interest on money loaned and to pro- 
 vide an ample supply of money to make that the normal and 
 current rate? The same power that enables Congress to coin 
 money empowers it to regulate its value, and it is self-evident 
 that the power to regulate carries with it the power to fix that 
 value. And it is as scientifically and as practically necessary 
 to fix the value of the standard of value as to fix the length 
 of the standard of length. 
 
 Prescribing a rate of interest without providing a supply of 
 money to equal the demand at that rate has always been, and 
 from the very nature of things must always be, abortive. The 
 value of money, like that of everything else of commerce, is 
 its use, and since interest is the price paid for the use of money, 
 it also indicates what the value is, and money being the meas- 
 ure of value and the medium of exchange, its value, like that 
 of everything else, is expressed in money, and its use is paid 
 for, unlike that of anything else, in a part of itself, or its 
 equivalent in value. It is for us through Congress to prescribe 
 what that part shall be and establish and maintain it. 
 
 Lastly, it is by the exercise of that certain prerogative of 
 eminent domain that we must bring, not only the railroads, but 
 all other branches of industry susceptible of private monopoly, 
 or of public utility, under Government control, to the end that 
 they shall be not only beneficial but in no way injurious to the 
 general community. 
 
 Bouvier's Law Dictionary defines Eminent Domain to be 
 "The superior right of property subsisting in a sovereignty 
 by which private property may in certain cases be taken or 
 its use controlled for the public benefit, without regard to the 
 
 16 
 
wishes of the owner. The powers to take private property 
 for public use. 6 How. 536. * * * So it was said by the 
 U. S. Supreme Court : 'The power to take private property 
 for public use, generally termed the right of eminent domain, 
 belongs to every independent government. It is an incident 
 to sovereignty and as said in Boom Co. vs. Patterson, 98 U. S., 
 requires no constitutional recognition. Field, J., 109 U. S. 
 513, 518.' ' The same authority says as to what may be 
 taken, "Every kind of property may be taken under this power. 
 It is attribute of sovereignty and whatever exists in any form, 
 whether tangible or intangible, may be subjected to the exer- 
 cises of this power, and may be seized and appropriated to 
 public uses when necessity demands it," for which authorities 
 are cited. 
 
 Further still, we have the law of Public Policy, defined by 
 Bouvier as, "That principle of the law which holds that no 
 subject can lawfully do that which has a tendency to be in- 
 jurious to the public or against the public good," and cites 
 cases in support of this definition. 
 
 Our right of eminent domain, however, is somewhat abridged 
 by the United States Constitution, as that instrument provides 
 that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property 
 without due process of law ; nor shall private property be 
 taken for public use without just compensation." 
 
 But here is also another provision in said Constitution : 
 "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and 
 subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
 States, and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall 
 make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges 
 or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any 
 state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without 
 due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdic- 
 tion the equal protection of the laws." The same Constitution 
 also provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
 except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall 
 have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States 
 or any place subject to their jurisdiction." It also provides 
 that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
 not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state, 
 on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." 
 
 In the last provision quoted there is a plain implication, and 
 it is a legal inference also, that the right of citizens to vote 
 may be denied or abridged for other reasons, and the fact is, 
 they are so denied and abridged on account of crime, insanity, 
 idiocy and (will God forgive us?) poverty and sex! 
 
 17 
 
Part VI. — Conclusion. 
 
 "Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey; 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 
 
 We have heretofore pointed to the evils resultant from un- 
 restrained private ownership of the three most prominent ob- 
 jects of human necessity susceptible of monopoly, and have 
 shown what the sovereign and constitutional rights and powers 
 of the people are, whereby we may apply adequate remedies 
 to them all and equally so to all the lesser evils not chargeable 
 to any of these, that vitiate our economic system. 
 
 There remains to be considered the manner of exercising 
 these rights and powers in applying the remedies. 
 
 I now solicit a heart-to-heart talk with my fellow citizens. 
 hoping thereby to make myself the better understood, and I 
 can unqualifiedly say that I entered upon this discussion and 
 desire to extend it "with malice toward none, with charity 
 for all." 
 
 Lest we forget, let me repeat that every voter in the United 
 States is a sovereign in his own right and that collectively 
 through the ballot, we have a remedy for every ill of our now 
 imperfect political and economic systems. Politics and eco- 
 nomics are so closely related that it seems almost superfluous 
 to separate them, as primarily, politics is the science of gov- 
 ernment and economics the science of national housekeeping. 
 Each is dependent upon the other ; but there usually exists in 
 every country as in this a division of politics known as par- 
 tisan, in the strife of which patriotism is often submerged be- 
 neath a sea of personal and private interests ; hence, I think 
 our political institution has not kept pace with our economic 
 forcse in the march of progress. Every evil in our economic 
 system should be removed without the instrumentality of 
 political parties as such, but men of all parties should unite 
 to perform the work as a necessity to the perpetuity of the 
 Republic, and the establishment of justice. There is but one 
 of two ways open to us. We may instruct our Congress and 
 our Legislatures to enact laws to carry the reforms we indi- 
 cate into effect, and, should they disregard or refuse to obey 
 our instructions, we must see to it that their places are filled 
 at the next election by those who are pledged to carry out our 
 wishes. 
 
 Petitions to government do not become sovereign citizens, 
 and if our wishes are expressed in that humble form we are 
 liable to be -mistaken for powerless serfs, bereft of all political 
 rights, as was recently illustrated in the Russian capital. Let 
 us demand of our Legislatures laws taxing all land to the full 
 
extent of its unearned increment, and a law that will enable 
 the state government to take such control of every industr> 
 within the jurisdiction of the state so far as is necessary to 
 prevent such industry being managed to the injury of the 
 public. 
 
 Let us demand of Congress a lav/ reducing and fixing the 
 interest on money loaned and payments deferred, to a just rate, 
 and that it provide, through the method now in use, or another 
 to take its place, a supply of money through loans to the people, 
 on good security on demand, to make that the normal rate; 
 and that it enact laws enabling the executive and judicial 
 branches of the Government to take control of every other 
 private industry not within the jurisdiction of the state, so far 
 as is necessary to prevent the same from working injury to the 
 public. As I have already pointed out, the right to enact 
 such laws is ample without even a constitutional amendment. 
 The effect would be to nationalize all the industries so far, and 
 only so far, as is necessary for the public welfare, and with this 
 secured on a just and equitable basis, the strife between capital 
 and labor will cease and these two essential factors in the pro- 
 duction of wealth will work together harmoniously for ttiert 
 mutual good. 
 
 A word to my comrades of 1861-5 : Eternal vigilance is the 
 price of Liberty in times of peace no less than in times of war. 
 We thought when we had loosed the bonds of four millions of 
 chattel slaves and cemented the Union with the blood of other 
 millions of our fellow countrymen, our work was completed, 
 and we have rested on our laurels for forty years, heedless of 
 the wise admonition, "When ye think ye stand, take heed lest 
 ye fall." And not only to you who wore the blue, but to you, 
 comrades, who wore the gray, and to my fellow countrymen 
 all, let me say : 
 
 This is not yet a free country, nor can it truthfully be said 
 that Old Glory no longer floats over a slave! We have not 
 exercised our sovereignty as best becomes citizen kings, in re- 
 straining the strong from undue aggressions upon the rights 
 of the weak, but have left free the spirits of Avarice and 
 Ambition to hold high carnival in our fields of industry, and 
 today our prisons, our alms-bouses and our potter's fields, 
 crowded with the helpless victims of a merciless commercial- 
 ism, crv out against us! Many thousands of our fellow citi- 
 zens, gaunt with hunger and clothed in rags, throng our high- 
 ways and our by-ways begging for work whereby they may 
 earn an honest living, but there is no work for them ; while 
 a few other thousands are surfeited with wealth and comforts 
 they have never earned and their granaries and storehouses 
 are groaning with food and clothing enough to satisfy the 
 
 19 
 
needs of all. Generally it takes a thousand paupers, beggars 
 and tramps to make one millionaire, and we have a thousand 
 millionaires and many multi-millionaires who have acquired 
 their estates within the past forty years ! What better evi- 
 dence than this could there be of our neglect of duty? There 
 is always a vast army of unemployed eager to take the places of 
 those who are employed should they on any pretext quit work, 
 as witness the readiness with which a strike is broken, and. 
 it is claimed by the supporters of our present system that this 
 army of unemployed is a necessary reserve for the use of the 
 '"Captains of Industry," in cases of strikes, harvest times, etc. 
 This alone is an unanswerable indictment against the system. 
 Instead of making and maintaining criminals and paupers by 
 such methods, the state should furnish work to all its citizens, 
 at honorable and living wages, while they are unable to get 
 employment in the industries. Highways and other works of 
 permanent and general utility are always in need of such labor 
 and the economy to the State would be immense. 
 
 The economic forces, which have been prodigiously aug- 
 mented within the past half century, have been steadily at 
 work without restraint, in making the rich richer and the poor, 
 poorer, until today, instead of four millions of chattel slaves, 
 there are in this country forty millions of wage slaves, whose 
 condition in many respects is more abject and pitiful than was 
 that of the subjects of chattel slavery in its most revolting 
 form ! Whoever is dependent upon the will or caprice of 
 another for the precious privilege of working for a living, is 
 a slave, and calling him by any other name does not change 
 the fact or ameliorate his condition. Every man, woman or 
 child who lives by his or her own labor paid for by another 
 private person or corporation at will, is measurably a slave, 
 whether the salary or wage be fifty or fifty thousand dollars. 
 Every one who works under the direction of another at that 
 other's unrestrained will, stands in a subservient position in- 
 compatible with sovereignty and in restraint of that freedom 
 which is essential to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness 
 as enunciated in our immortal Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Employment in every industry should depend on merit and 
 efficiency alone. Every business requiring government control 
 to make it serve the public most efficiently or to prevent it 
 being injurious thereto, will need, under government control 
 or restraint, precisely the same people, or such as they, to do 
 the work that do it now. I cannot conceive that any employe 
 now at work for a private person or corporation under no 
 government restraint or control would work less willingly or 
 cheerfully in the same position were the business under the 
 control or restraint of Government, and I believe that were 
 
 20 
 
such a change effected, the salary earner and the daily wage 
 earner alike, under proper civil service rules, woujd enjoy a 
 spirit of liberty and freedom from fear of displacement and 
 distress such as none of us can enjoy now. 
 
 To those in high places of power, both political and eco- 
 nomic, permit me to say : There is a spirit of unrest born of 
 our unjust economic system which is crying loudly for a change 
 which is nothing short of complete revolution, and the volume 
 of that cry is being augmented with every turn of the wheels 
 of commerce, which as now adjusted forces the centralization 
 of wealth into the hands of the few as payment for the use 
 of Capital, and leaves the masses who by their labor have 
 helped to create that wealth no share of the increase, but re- 
 duces them more and more numerously to a bare subsistence, 
 having no share in the benefits accrued from the inventions 
 of the age, which, too, have supplanted so many of them as 
 factors of production, and reduced millions of them, the noblest 
 and best people that the sun ever shone on, to worse than 
 beggary. This cry, while comparatively feeble now, is dailv 
 increasing in volume, and is for general confiscation of all 
 the property of those they describe as one class, by what they 
 conceive to be the only other class, consisting as they see it 
 of those who, as they are taught and believe, have been de- 
 frauded of it. Not only something must be done, and done 
 quickly, but everything must be done, and that soon, to prevent 
 further wrongs such as have led to this cry. History has 
 proven us to be a patient and long-suffering people. Count 
 not too confidently upon this characteristic. You have vested 
 rights? So have we all. The vested right to life and liberty 
 is paramount to that of private property. There are no vested 
 wrongs. All other claims must yield to those of Justice, for 
 they are eternal. Popular upheavals, under the stress of op- 
 pressions suffered, are as merciless as the earthquake or the 
 tornado. Deal righteously. To the masses, to whom I am 
 more closely allied by experience and condition, I say: Right- 
 fully and Constitutionally, such confiscation is impossible. 
 Fortunately it is not necessary. 
 
 If those who toil at honest work with brain or muscle obtain 
 their fair share of the wealth they help to create henceforth, 
 it will not be long until they will be self-employed or become 
 constituent parts of a co-operative commonwealth whose motto 
 will be : From everyone according to his ability ; to everyone 
 according to his need, and a fair chance and exact justice to all. 
 
 The proper use of the tools and machinery of production 
 and distribution by those who own them is all we should re- 
 quire. If they will not make such use, we must. What com- 
 pensation they are entitled to for the use of their tools and 
 
 21 
 
machinery, whether used and controlled by them or by the 
 Government, over and above the cost of keeping in repair, 
 will be determined by the rate of interest fixed for the use of 
 money loaned. When that is fixed, rents and profits will 
 adjust themselves to it. Hence the importance of making 
 that a just rate. 
 
 Let those who hold the titles now continue to hold them. 
 Private property in most cases, as we have seen, when taken 
 for public use, requires compensation to the owner. We don't 
 want to go in debt for all the capital in the country, and could 
 not, if we would, and a robbery today will not right the wrong 
 of a robbery yesterday. 
 
 Whenever the Government is forced to take control of pri- 
 vate property, either to restrain its improper use or to secure 
 its proper use, it can pay for that use out of the proceeds of 
 the business, and thus avoid all onerous obligations. 
 
 But again : The accumulation of the wealth into the hands 
 of the few has been done by men — our brothers — most of whom 
 are as good and as honest as we. 
 
 They did it with our consent. We could have prevented it 
 long ago, but did not. Our sufferings and deprivations are 
 chargeable to our own stupid neglect. Every one of us had 
 like opportunities offered, and had we known how, would have 
 done as they have done. They (many of them) are in lawful 
 possession because we made no law prohibiting it. Let us 
 now put a curb-bit into the mouth of this monster of Private 
 Monopoly and harness him to the car of State and compel him 
 to pull the load of our necessities along the highway of human 
 progress. Hate and Fear are the arch-enemies of human hap- 
 piness. They destroy whom they would defend. Let us go 
 to our work of reform resolutely but lovingly, that we may 
 invoke the guidance of the Spirit of all Love. When we shall 
 have done our duty as sovereign citizens and placed the ma- 
 chinery of production and distribution under proper and neces- 
 sary control, we will be in peaceful enjoyment of all the wealth 
 we create, and again the morning stars will sing together, and 
 all the sons and daughters of God will go to their labors shout- 
 ing for joy. 
 
 A. H. LOW, 
 
 Non-partisan Citizen. 
 
 1417 Hoover St., Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
 22 
 
HOPE ON, HOPE EVER. 
 
 By Gerald Massey. 
 
 Hope on, hope ever ! though Today be dark, 
 
 The sweet sunburst may smile on thee Tomorrow ; 
 Though thou art lonely, there's an eye will mark 
 
 Thy loneliness, and guerdon all thy sorrow! 
 Though thou must toil 'mohg cold and sordid men, 
 
 With none' to echo back thy thought, or love thee, 
 Cheer up, poor heart ! thou dost not beat in vain ; 
 
 While God is over all, and heaven above thee, 
 . Hope on, hope ever. 
 
 T know 'tis hard to bear the sneer and taunt — 
 
 With the heart's honest pride at midnight wrestle; 
 To feel the killing canker-worm of Want, 
 
 While rich rougles in their mocking luxury nestle ; 
 For I have fed it. Yet from Earth's cold Real 
 
 My soul looks out on coming things, and cherful 
 The warm Sunshine floods all the land Ideal, 
 
 And- still it whispers to the worn and tearful, 
 Hope on, hope ever. 
 
 Hope on, hope ever ! after darkest night 
 
 Comes, full of loving life, the laughing Morning; 
 Hope on, hope ever! Spring-tide, flushed with light, 
 
 Aye crowns old Winter with her rich adorning. 
 Hope on, hope ever! yet the time shall come. 
 
 When man to man shall be a friend and brother; 
 And this old world shall be a happy home. 
 
 And all Earth's family love one another! 
 Hope on, hope ever. 
 
 23 
 
LAND, MONEY AND HIGHWAYS— EVILS AND 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 Appendix i. 
 
 In order to more clearly define my position in relation to 
 our money system, which I believe is most in need of reforma- 
 tion, and which, when corrected, will lead to the correction 
 of our land and railroad systems, I suggest, by way of the 
 initiative, the following Bill for submission to Congress : 
 
 AN ACT 
 
 Fixing the Value of the Standard Measure of Value and further 
 Regulating the Value of Money: 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America in Congress assembled; 
 
 That on and after the first day of January, next after the 
 passage of this Act, the rate of interest for money loaned and 
 payments deferred, on all debts and obligations contracted on 
 or after that date, shall be two (2) per cent, per annum. 
 
 Section 2. The Secretary of the Treasury shall establish 
 loan offices as he may deem expedient, not less than one in each 
 county or parish in the United States and Territories and in 
 the District of Columbia, having a population of two thousand 
 or more, as shown by the latest census. Said offices shall be 
 for issuing, lending and depositing money, as banks of issue 
 and deposit are now used. Whenever, in the opinion of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster General, it will 
 be expedient, the offices of postofhce and loan office may be 
 combined. 
 
 Section 3. The business of the loan offices respectively shall 
 be performed by a cashier and one or more tellers, as the busi- 
 ness may require. The duties of cashier shall be to receive 
 money on deposit, pay out money withdrawn on check or draft, 
 lend money on good security, make settlements of loans made 
 by him, and keep a proper record of his transactions, and per- 
 form such other acts and duties as shall be imposed on him 
 by law and the rules and regulations of the Treasury Depart- 
 ment. He shall have immediate supervision of the business 
 of the office. The teller shall assist in keeping the accounts 
 and records of the office and perform such other duties as shall 
 be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 Cashiers and tellers shall be appointed by the Secretary of 
 the Treasury for the term of four vears unless sooner removed 
 
 24 
 
or suspended according to law, and shall receive such com- 
 pensation as the Secretary of the Treasury shall deem just, not 
 to exceed $3,000 a year, and until otherwise prescribed by law. 
 The Civil Service rules and regulations, as applied to the 
 Postal Service, so far as applicable, are hereby extended to 
 said loan offices. 
 
 Section 4. Every cashier and teller before entering upon 
 the duties of his office shall give bond with good and approved 
 security, and in such penalty as the Secretary of the Treasury 
 shall deem sufficient, conditioned for the faithful discharge ot 
 all duties and trusts imposed on him, either by law or the rules 
 and regulations of the department. The laws relating to 
 bonds of postmasters shall also apply and extend to bonds 
 of cashiers and tellers, so far as the same may be applicable. 
 In the settlement of the cashier's account he shall be charged 
 with all depositors' balances, moneys out on loan, all funds, 
 blank notes, and property entrusted to his care or keeping, and 
 be credited with all moneys, blank notes, and property on hand, 
 and shall, together with his sureties, be held accountable and 
 liable for all deficiencies, and for all moneys loaned and unpaid 
 or outstanding. 
 
 Section 5. Any person who shall have money to his or her 
 credit as a depositor at any loan office may withdraw from 
 such office money to the amount of the balance to his or her 
 credit, or any part thereof, on presenting by himself, his payee, 
 or endorsee, a proper check, draft, or order in writing, but 
 no such depositor shall be entitled to withdraw or reclaim the 
 identical money so deposited, or any part thereof. The Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury shall cause to be prepared and furnished 
 to the cashiers blank checks, which blanks shall be sold to 
 depositors by the cashiers at cost. 
 
 Section 6. To meet the demands for money at said rate of 
 interest in excess of the amounts of other money in their con- 
 trol subject to loan, the cashiers shall be provided with, and 
 issue in the manner hereinafter mentioned, notes of the United 
 States in denominations of one, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one 
 hundred, five hundred, and one thousand dollars, according to 
 the demands of commerce. The said notes shall be printed 
 and furnished by the Comptroller of the Currency under the 
 direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 Section 7. The notes as furnished in blank to the cashiers 
 shall express upon their face that they are secured by ample 
 pledges in the possession of the government of the United 
 States, and bear the written or engraved signatures of the 
 Comptroller and Treasurer, and the imprint of the seal of the 
 Treasury and the promise of the United States of America to 
 pay the bearer their face value on demand, and shall bear such 
 
 25 
 
devices and such other statements, and shall be in such form 
 as the Secretary of the Treasury shall by regulation direct, 
 and before the said notes shall become valid and in force thev 
 shall be dated and countersigned by the cashier issuing them. 
 
 Section 8. The notes provided for by this act are hereby 
 declared money and shall be issued and circulated as such, 
 and shall be receivable by the Government of the United States 
 for everything for which money is by law receivable, and shall 
 be a legal tender in payment of all debts and dues, public and 
 private, contracted after the passage of this act. 
 
 Section 9. Every cashier shall, on request to him by any 
 person lawfully competent to transact such business, and on 
 the presentation by such person of good and sufficient security 
 for the amount of money for which a loan is asked, receive 
 such security when he shall be satisfied of its sufficiency, and 
 lend money to such person, and for such time as such person 
 may desire, not exceeding one year without renewal, and at 
 the rate of 2 per cent, interest per annum, which said interest 
 shall be payable, at the end of every three months of the time, 
 unless the principal shall be payable before the end of any 
 such three months, in which case the principal and interest 
 shall be payable at the same time. 
 
 Section 10. The Secretary of the Treasury shall prepare 
 and issue rules and regulations for the conduct of the business 
 of loan offices, which rules when not in conflict with law shall 
 be obligatory upon the officers of the several loan offices. 
 
 Section 11. If any person shall, by means of any false or 
 fraudulent pretense, or by the use of any spurious or worthless 
 security, knowing the same to be spurious or worthless, or by 
 any secret or private collusion with any officer of any loan 
 office, obtain any money from any loan office, he shall be 
 deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction shall pay a fine of 
 double the amount so fraudulently obtained, or be imprisoned 
 at hard labor not exceeding twenty years, or both such fine and 
 imprisonment, and shall be disfranchised and disqualified from 
 maintaining any of the rights of citizenship under the govern- 
 ment of the United States. 
 
 Section 12. Any person who shall embezzle or appropriate 
 to his own use any money, blank notes, or property of the 
 United States, or of any other person or persons who shall 
 have entrusted the same to the custody or keeping of the 
 United States, at any loan office or depository of the United 
 States, and shall be convicted thereof, such person so convicted 
 shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall for each such offense 
 be fined not exceeding double the amount so embezzled or ap- 
 propriated, or be imprisoned not exceeding twenty years, or 
 both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. 
 
 26 
 
Section 13. The Secretary of the Treasury may at his dis- 
 cretion designate any of said loan offices as depositories of 
 public moneys, and when so designated the cashier of any such 
 office shall be the depositary, and may be required to furnish 
 additional security for the safe keeping of the moneys and 
 faithful performance of the trusts so confided to him. The 
 moneys so deposited may be loaned by the cashier as other 
 moneys in his control, or held as reserves for the redemption 
 of United States notes or subject to the order of the Secretary 
 of the Treasury as to the Secretary of the Treasury shall seem 
 advisable. 
 
 Section 14. Accumulating gold and silver coins of the 
 United States with intent to sell the same for any other form or 
 kind of currency authorized by the laws of the United States 
 at a premium, is hereby prohibited. Offering for sale as afore- 
 said any gold or silver coins shall be taken as prima facie evi- 
 dence of such accumulation and intent. Any person who shall 
 violate the provisions of this section and shall be convicted 
 thereof shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall forfeit and 
 pay as a fine his entire estate, goods, money and property, or 
 be imprisoned at hard labor for a term not exceeding fiftv 
 years, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of 
 the court, and shall forever forfeit his citizenship or right to 
 become a citizen. 
 
 Section 15. Whenever it shall appear to any cashier that a 
 demand for the redemption in gold of United States notes is 
 made for the purpose of embarrassing the Government or of 
 depreciating the value of any lawful money of the United 
 States, he shall refuse such redemption. And the Secretary 
 of the Treasury may, by rules regulating the government of 
 loan offices, require limited notice of intention to demand re- 
 demption in gold of any other kind of money. 
 
 Section 16. Any provision, clause or condition in any con- 
 tract or agreement made after the passage of this act, requiring 
 the payment of any debt or obligation in gold or silver, is 
 hereby prohibited, and shall be void as to such kind of money, 
 and may be paid in any lawful money of the United States. 
 
 Section 17. For the purposes of carrying this act into effect, 
 the sum of fifty million dollars is hereby appropriated out of 
 any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Section 18. All laws and all acts or parts of acts in conflict 
 with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 
 
 NOTE — The Author respectfully requests of every one who 
 approves the foregoing bill, that he send it to his Representa- 
 tive in Congress and urge its enactment into law. 
 
 A. H. LOW. 
 (See Appendix 2.) 
 
 21 
 
LAND, MONEY AND HIGHWAYS— EVILS AND 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 Appendix 2. 
 
 Herein I will exhibit the state of the discussion which the 
 first edition has aroused, omitting the names of my correspond- 
 ents and questioners, not having obtained permission to pub- 
 lish them ; and will number the paragraphs for convenience in 
 case of future comments or criticisms. 
 
 1. "Do you advocate the single tax doctrine of Henry 
 George?" 
 
 No, not if I thoroughly understand Mr. George. My idea 
 of taxes is, that they are for the purpose of supporting govern- 
 ment, and that government being for the protection of the 
 governed in the peaceful enjoyment of their persons and prop- 
 erty, as well as the promotion of the general welfare, it is right 
 and proper that everyone who enjoys such protection should 
 contribute to the cost of government in proportion to the value 
 of the property protected. Taxes in this sense are analogous 
 to premium paid for insurance. 
 
 A poll tax may or may not be necessary or expedient, since 
 in this all share equally; but while I would have every citizen 
 bear his share of the expenses of government, in proportion to 
 the value of his personal property, I would discriminate against 
 the ownership of unimproved and unused land to prevent the 
 monoply of that first essential to human existence, the Earth. 
 
 2. "How would your theory of land taxation affect the 
 rancher and farmer who are making use of their land for legiti- 
 mate purposes?" 
 
 They would usually pay less taxes than they do now; as, 
 while their land might bear more taxes, their improvements 
 thereon would bear less. At present, he who improves his 
 land is fined for his industry; while he who holds his land un- 
 improved, and keeps others out of the use of it, gets off with 
 little or no tax, and his land grows more valuable year by year 
 by reason of the work of others on land near it and the in- 
 creased demand for land resulting from increase of population ; 
 this is the injustice and evil I wish to overcome. 
 
 3. I will at once anticipate the question which will surely 
 be asked : 
 
 "In your bill (Appendix 1) why do you provide no penalty 
 for charging more than the rate of interest prescribed for, the 
 use of money?" 
 
 28 
 
Because it is not needed, and if such penalty were prescribed 
 it would injure rather than benefit the very persons whom it 
 would ostensibly protect, to-wit : those who were in need of 
 loans but having nothing to give as security, except their 
 known integrity. No one who has good security to give for 
 a loan would borrow of a private person or corporation at a 
 higher rate than he would have to pay the Government, and 
 to deny him the right to borrow at any rate he can obtain a 
 loan for, without such security, might cause his ruin, or make 
 it a necessity to save himself through the violation of the usury 
 law, in which case he would be required also to pay additional 
 interest as indemnity against prosecution. In fact, of such 
 has been the history of all usury laws, the world over. Usury 
 laws have always been abortive of any good, since they have 
 always been at variance with the law of supply and demand. 
 Take for instance the usury laws of our several states. Every 
 state at one time or another has enacted a penal usury law, 
 which is nothing more nor less than prescribing the value of 
 money under a penalty, with absolutely no provision and no 
 power on the part of the law-makers to furnish money to meet 
 the demand at the prescribed rate. The States and Territories 
 have thus assumed a function of the National Government, and 
 have exercised it by sufferance, fixing an arbitrary value on 
 money, each for itself, and neither they (having no right) nor 
 the National Government have ever even attempted to furnish 
 a supply of money in manner and quantity to so meet the de- 
 mand for money as to make the legal rate normal. For further 
 light upon the folly of penal usury laws, I respectfully refer 
 my readers to "Defense of Usury," by Jeremy Bentham, and 
 the speech of Richard H. Dana, Jr., before the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the Massachusetts Legislature, Feb. 14, 1867. 
 
 4. "If the current normal rate of interest is lowered to 2 
 per cent, per annum, values will rise in proportion, so, after all, 
 how will Labor, the first factor in production, be benefited?" 
 
 Prices, as computed in money will so rise, once for all, in 
 consequence of such change of interest, but the intrinsic value 
 or usefulness of things will not so change. The nominal value, 
 not the real value, of labor and commodities change with a 
 change in the value of the measure of value. The actual bene- 
 fit to Labor will be the difference between the 2 per cent, or 
 less rate we propose to establish, and the price it pays in 
 interest, rents and profits now. 
 
 5. "Why should money loaned draw any interest?"" 
 Because it is useful and its value is the measure of the value 
 
 of all other things of value which are limited in supply. The 
 law of supply and demand is the fundamental law of com- 
 
 29 
 
mercial value. If the use of money could be had for the ask- 
 ing, no one would part with his goods for money that he could 
 get for nothing. Money would therefore have no value, being 
 unlimited in supply and would no longer answer either as a 
 measure of value or medium of exchange, the two functions 
 for which it was created ; Aristotle to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 6. "Why do you prescribe 2 per cent, instead of 3 per cent. 
 or 1 per cent, as the desirable or just rate?" 
 
 Two per cent., as shown by late government statistics, is 
 about the average rate of net profit of agriculture in the United 
 States, and that is the primary and foundation industry. I can 
 see no fairness in allowing capital in any other industry a 
 greater rate of profit than that of agriculture. How much 
 lower the rate of interest should be, I think, is such rate and 
 no more, as would induce the owners of capital to part with 
 (sell) the use of their capital, rather than use it by consuming 
 it themselves. 
 
 The ethics of interest seems to me to be concerned solely on 
 behalf of live labor, as man can owe no duty to dead or inani- 
 mate labor, and aside from land in its natural state, all capital 
 is essentially dead or crystallized labor. We owe a duty to 
 the owner of capital no less than to him who has no capital, 
 but not because of his capital. 
 
 7. "Why should not the government issue a certain amount 
 of money per capita in order to give the people a sufficient 
 amount to do business with?" 
 
 Because the Government has no means of knowing how 
 much that would be. It is the volume of business, not the 
 number of people that determines the demand for money ; and, 
 further, the Government has no adequate way of supplying an 
 arbitrary amount per capita or otherwise; but by loans at a 
 fixed rate of interest, the supply will meet the demand auto- 
 matically, and when such supply is provided, it is possible, if 
 not probable, that the actual amount required will be less, in- 
 stead of greater, than now. It is the amount in circulation, 
 not simply the amount in existence, that facilitates trade. 
 
 8. "How can the Government's credit stand the strain of 
 such an immense issue of notes as would be likely to be re- 
 quired if that bill should become a law?" 
 
 Such law and issue would not tax the credit of the Govern- 
 ment a particle, because every dollar issued would be amply 
 secured by the private pledge given for its loan. There is no 
 analogy between such notes so issued and the present treasury 
 notes and "greenbacks" now in circulation, which were issued 
 
 30 
 
tor value received and consumed in war and otherwise; on the 
 contrary, they would be substantially like the gold certificates 
 now in circulation, absolutely good and at a par with the unit 
 of value, so long as the permanency of the Republic is secure. 
 
 9. "Do you believe in government ownership of public 
 utilities?" 
 
 That depends on the results attainable. A public utility 
 is that which serves the public, and the most desirable owner- 
 ship, as I see it, is that which gives the best service at the 
 lowest possible cost to the public in general. The principal 
 evils attending private ownership and administration of public 
 utilities are extortion and unfair discrimination. Eliminate 
 these two, and it will matter but little, whether the bare owner- 
 ship be private or public. It will require as many people, and 
 of the same efficiency to administer the utility in the one case 
 as in the other. 
 
 While the normal rates of rents and profits remain sub- 
 stantially the same as they are now, which they will do as long 
 as the rate of interest on money loaned, remains the same, I 
 can see but little advantage to be gained by the general public 
 in substituting for extortion in rates for service, extortion in 
 rates of interest on the purchase price of the utilities acquired. 
 As to discrimination in administration of the service, that can, 
 and should be prevented in either case, and the Government 
 has ample authority, as I have shown, to do that under private 
 c,s well as public ownership. 
 
 10. "Why should not the Government construct railroads 
 and other public utilities and operate them at cost?" 
 
 If in the word cost you include the current rate of interest 
 on the capital invested, I can seen no objection to it, provided 
 the Government has the means of paying for such construc- 
 tion. However, the Government has no such means except 
 by taxation, other than the moneys arising from the sale of 
 public lands. 
 
 If, on the other hand, you exclude such interest, the com- 
 paratively few who would use such utility, would have an ad- 
 vantage over those who did not, to the amount of the free use 
 of such capital for the time being, which would be no more 
 just to the rest of the tax-paying community, than would a 
 loan of so much money for the time being without interest. 
 That discrimination in favor of those who are now using the 
 Government credit at the rate of only one-half of 1 per cent, 
 per annum, is one of the injustices and evils we should abolish. 
 
 11. "How do you know that live labor is not receiving its 
 fair share of the profits of the industries?" 
 
 31 
 
For example, let us take government statistics and from 
 them make a few calculations. In the year 1900 capital in the 
 United States was invested about as follows: 
 
 Agriculture $20,500,000,000 
 
 Manufacturing 9,900,000,000 
 
 Mining 7,400,000,000 
 
 Railroads (transportation) 8,700,000.000 
 
 Total $46,500,000,000 
 
 Total wealth in V. S. in 1900 $94, 300,000,000 
 
 Total wealth in U. S. in [890 65,037,091,000 
 
 Increase in 10 years $29,262,909,000 
 
 Average increase per year 2,926,290,900 
 
 Which is 4J/4 per cent, at simple interest on the total in 1890. 
 
 If we allow this capital 2 per cent, for its use for the year 
 1900, (which is considerably more than was the profit of 
 agriculture), it gives $930,000,000. Deduct this from the 
 amount of the increase of wealth in 1900 and we have $1,996,- 
 290,900 to go to the laborers. With an estimated population 
 of 80,000,000 in the year 1900, and one laborer to every five 
 persons, there were 16,000,000 laborers. Divide the $1,996,- 
 290,900 between these and each will receive $124, being net 
 profit over and above all expenses of himself and family. 
 
 From page 647 of the annual report of the Commissioner of 
 Labor for the year 1903, it appears that of 2,567 families of 5.31 
 persons, the average income in 1901 was $827.19; average ex- 
 penses for all purposes, $768.54 (of which food cost $326.60) 
 leaving an average saving or profit per family of $58.65. Take 
 this from $124, which it ought to have been, and it leaves 
 $65.35 tnat tne family should have gotten but did not. 
 
 By the way, it would be interesting to know how many fam- 
 ilies of wage-earners received $327.19 for the year 1900 or any 
 other. The statistics do not show. The statistical abstract 
 o.f the United States for 1903 shows on page 66, that for the 
 year ending Sept. 1, 1900, the National Banks made net earn- 
 ings of 10.13 per cent, on their capital and surplus! Is it not 
 plain that with an average of only 4 l /> per cent, per annum 
 increase of wealth of which labor is robbed of more than one- 
 half of its share, and 95 per cent, of business enterprises en- 
 tered upon are failures, while the money-issuing and money- 
 lending power is clearing a net profit of over 10 per cent., the 
 money-lender now, as he has ever done, holds our economic 
 as well as our political destiny in his hands? 
 
 32 
 
12. "While you place much stress upon the law of supply 
 and demand, some writers on political economy, and many lay- 
 men, deny its validity and force." 
 
 In reply to this I will refer my readers to the diagram on 
 next page and the explanation which follows it. 
 
 33 
 
LAND, MONEY AND HIGHWAYS 
 
 fig i. 
 X 
 
 Use. 
 FIG Z. 
 
 USE. 
 
 FIG 6. 
 5 m v.io% D 
 
 User. 
 
 PIG 4 
 5 M- V.10% 
 
 x — 
 
 Use. 
 
 FIG 5 
 S m V^i% D 
 
 U6E. 
 
 Diagram illustrating the law of Supply 
 and Demand applied to money. 
 
 See next page. 
 
 34 
 
EVILS AND REMEDIES. 
 
 In the diagram on opposite page, V per cent, is the value of 
 money or rate of interest; S. M. the supply and 1) the demand 
 for money, balanced at Use. 
 
 Operation — For the purpose of illustration only, we assume 
 that in 
 
 Fig. i, 5 per cent, is the legal, just and normal rate and Sup- 
 ply and Demand are equal at that rate. It needs no figure or 
 illustration to show that when Supply and Demand change 
 simultaneously and in same proportion the balance will be 
 maintained at the same rate, but if as in 
 
 Fig. 2. Demand same, supply is doubled, value falls to 
 2V2 per cent. 
 
 Fig. 3. Demand same, supply lessens one-half, value rises 
 to 10 per cent. 
 
 Fig. 4. Supply same as in Fig. 1 ; demand doubled, value 
 rises to 10 per cent. 
 
 Fig. 5. Supply same as in Fig. 1 ; demand lessened one-half, 
 value falls to 2 J / 2 per cent. 
 
 The rate of interest per annum expressed by per cent, indi- 
 cates the price paid for the use of money, which is also de- 
 scribed as the value of money. 
 
 The value of money being the standard measure of value 
 (although as usually stated "money is the measure of value") 
 other things being equal — 
 
 Raising the rate of interest has the same effect on prices of 
 Labor and commodities, as increasing their supply or dimin- 
 ishing demand for them. 
 
 Lowering the rate of interest has the same effect on prices 
 of Labor and commodities as diminishing their supply or in- 
 creasing demand for them. 
 
 Thus it will be observed that a change in the ratio between 
 supply and demand on money, has the opposite effect on the 
 prices of all other things for which money is exchanged. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the rate of interest herein 
 discussed is the average or normal rate, with sound security, 
 throughout the country, and that change in the normal rate is 
 never as abrupt from one extreme to another as illustrated in 
 
 35 
 
the diagram. In actual practice the rate changes gradually 
 in proportion as the ratio between supply and demand 
 changes ; and too, an increase in supply has a tendency to stim- 
 ulate demand at the lower rate and a contraction of supply has 
 the opposite effect. 
 
 Who can predict the vast increase of business that would 
 result from a justly low and fixed rate of interest with a con- 
 stant and ample supply of money to meet the demand at that 
 rate? 
 
 Compare the foregoing diagram with the law of the lever 
 and note the analogy. The one is as much a natural law as 
 the other and both as immutable as the law of gravitation, and 
 all attempts to circumvent them have always resulted and 
 must necessarily result in absolute and iemominous failure. 
 
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