WJW.' °4. *'"'^o 'V. '.To' "•?,•*■ ,^ '>-'~'ii. ^ -^^ V^' . f JHE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. riy' By GEORGE WILLIAMS. TOLEDO, OHIO: BLADE PRINTING & PAPER COMPANY, 1876 M3 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1876, by GsoRGE Williams, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. CL PREFACE. THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. This book was written to announce and maintain the principle that money Is entirely a public thino^, chosen by society and made and legalized by government as an authorita- tive standard of value and medium of ex- change in the affairs of the government and people. That the custom of society and law of government make it necessary for the individual members of society to procure and use it in their business affairs and to pay taxes and public revenues. And hence that every member of society and subject of the government has a right to meet money in business, in exchange for property, services, or labor ; subject to the choice of the holders to make the exchange, and also subject to the competition that other people's property, ser- IV. nces, or labor may offer for it ; but not sub- ject to any right in the holders to make gain out of it, while they refuse to make such ex- change, nor while by notes and promises to pay money they hold it bound to return to them- selves, excepting only the money invested in the bonds and promises to pay of the United States Government. That it is the duty of the government to protect these common rights in the money by sufficient penalties and confiscations of property and money in- volved in violating them in any form, espe- cially in the form that is generally known as lending money for interest, or in exchanging it for private promise to pay money. It is not the intention to give a scientific treatise on money, but to illustrate the com- mon rights in it, and note and refute the sophisms of lending money for interest as they come up in the mind from the pages of fourty-four years of business experience, or as they are suggested by current events. There will be copious quotations from the works of learned authors and from lectures and newspaper articles to show the tendency V. and direction of the learning of the world on the subject of money, with such comments on the same as may help to let the truth appear over all. It will be the especial effort to make every chapter and article as near as possible a complete argument in itself against lending money for interest. GEORGE WILLIAMS. Northwood^ Columbus^ Ohio, CONTENTS. Chapter I. What Money is and what it is for. — The Right to every Member of Society - - - - g Chapter II. Why Lending Money for Interest is Wrong - 14 Chapter III. Circulation of Money ----- 19 Chapter IV. Standard of Value and Medium of Exchange - 23 Chapter V. Property Rent and Interest - - - - 36 Chapter VI. Time c-f Money ---.•- 41 Chapter VII. Capital and Labor ----.. 46 Chapter VIII, Finance --------53 Chapter IX. Interchangeable Greenback Currency - - 60 Chapter X, Inflation --------66 Chapter XI. Montesquieu on Money-Lending • - • 82 Chapter XII. Banking and Clearing-House System - - 91 Chapter XIIL Defending Money-Lending - - - - 107 Chapter XIV. Immoral Effects of Money-Lending •> - m Chapter XV. What the People Must Do - - - - 116 Chapter XVL Conclusion — Political Parties — If Arbitrary Distinc- tions in Society are Wrong - « - 15^ THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY CHAPTER I. The bankers and money-lenders are rapidly breaking up the business of the country, are taking the property from the mass of the peo- ple, and are reducing them to a condition of hopeless poverty and degradation. To un- derstand the power for evil that the bankers and money-lenders are exercising over the mass of the people by means of the money, it is necessary to revert to first principles and consider WHAT MONEY IS AND WHAT IT IS FOR. Money is a sign of value, and a medium of exchanging value, adopted by custom in the transaction of business, and legalized by gov- ernment, and made a final end or test of value 10 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY, that labor and property, and other things of vakie, shall be referred to and valued by. The affairs of civilized society and government re- quire the presence of a universal sign or rep- resentative of value, that real values shall be made to end or terminate in. The ending of all value in money, is effect- ed by custom and law, making a constant necessity for labor and property, to be con- verted into money to pay taxes and public revenues, and also business balances, at the option of creditors. This constant exchange of labor and property for money is necessary in the affairs both of the government and of the people, in securing and maintaining an interchangeable relation between money and labor and property. In a primitive state of society, THE ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF MONEY could onl}' be secured by making it of gold and silver. These metals are but little sub- ject to waste by rust, and as they exist in limited supply, it is supposed to cost as much in labor to procure them, as it would to pro- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY, 11 cure the things that they are the price of But whatever money may be made of, the con- trolling powers above enumerated must be organized In it by custom or law, or by both. These essential and controlling powers in money, afford the opportunity for the holders of it to inflict upon all the rest of the people the most terrible oppression and abject servi- tude, if they are not restrained by the power that makes the money. As is now seen, cus- tom and law lay a necessity upon the people, to determine and end all value in money, and this requires of them to constantly procure and use money ; a thing impossible for them to do, unless they can get it in exchange for labor and property. Now, the bankers and money-lenders, having gotten the money in exchange for labor and property, refuse to let other people get it in that way, but hold it until the need resting upon the people to pay business balances and public revenues, will compel them to borrow the money on prom- ises for Its return to the lenders with increase. The light of common reason, as well as sore experience, clearly shows that it is not possi- 12 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. ble for the people to fulfill the conditions made for them now, by the joint action of the government and the bankers and money- lenders, and that the bankers and money- lenders will continue, as they are doing now, to break up the business of the country, and take the property from the mass of the people, until they take all the property, and reduce all the laborers to a condition of abject pov- erty and servitude ; or until the government, the money-making power, restrains the evil business of money lending. As the individual members of society are placed under the necessity to procure and use money, by a regulation of society and govern- ment, to the intent that they shall be compel- led to constantly exchange labor and property for money, and thereby establish and maintain an interchangeable relation between money and labor and property for the benefit of society and government, there results THE RIGHT TO EVERY MEMBER OF SOCIETY to meet money in worldly affairs In exchange for labor and property, subject to the choice RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 13 of the holders of the money to make the ex- change, and also subject to the competition that other peoples labor or property may- offer for it; but not subject to any right in the holders to make gain, while they refuse to exchange it for labor or property, nor while by notes and promises to pay money, they hold it bound to be returned to themselves. The right to meet money in w^orldly affairs to be exchanged for labor and property with- out any right for holders to make gain while they hold it back from such exchange, is as important to the individual as his right to liberty ; for it is evident that his liberty and his condition will depend upon this right in money. Their right in money is the test of their right in property, and in their own labor. Their right in money involves all the impor- tant points of the conflict between freedom and slavery, with greater ease and less res- ponsibility resting on the money-lender, than rested on the slave-master. 14 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. CHAPTER II. WHY LENDING MONEY FOR INTEREST IS WRONG. It may be seen from common reason that no person has a right to take from another more than he gives, unless he accepts it as a gift of friendship, or acknowledges it as a gift of charity. If he takes increase, that is, more than he gives, in any other way, it is clear that he is an oppressor, a thief, or a robber. The nature of the crime is deter- mined by the circumstances connected with the taking. If the need of others is taken advantage of as a means to extort increase, it is oppression, or robbery, depending upon the circumstances of the case. If the increase is taken through deception it is theft. By whatever means taking from others more than is given is effected, unless it is accepted as a RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 15 gift of friendship or a charity, it is an offense against justice and right. The custom of society and the law uniting to make money a necessity to the people in their worldly affairs, while they are prevented by the same author- ity from producing it, presents an opportunity that is never or rarely offered to the holders of any other thing, for the holders of money to take from others more than they give. The act of holding money to lend for interest, is an offense against the rights of all the people in money ; while taking more in other matters than is given, very rarely, if it ever, effects any but those from whom it is taken. Takinor usury or increase on what is given in other things, marks the individual as an oppressor, and people will avoid him ; for they are not compelled to deal with him, as they are with one who stops the money from circulating in exchange for labor and property. The wrong will not only be limited in extent, but the per- petrator will be punished by neglect and loss of business, and will be checked in the evil practice. Taking increase on any other thing cannot be compared with lending money for 16 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. interest, nor can either of them be compared to making gain in business GAIN IN BUSINESS is no evidence that increase is taken, or that more is taken than is given. To illustrate the proposition, we will take the example of a merchant, who prepares a storehouse and fills it with goods, to sell to his neighbors. If he faithfully consults the good of his customers, he can scarcely avoid giving them more than they give him in profits ; as they would learn by experience, if they were forced to get along without the office, or function of the merchant, being filled for them. If he takes more from them in profits than he gives them in goods and in the services that he renders them, they will soon quit his store. It would be a rare situation in business, where people would be compelled to deal with a merchant who took more in profits than an equivalent for his recurring outlay, and for the goods and services that he gave to his customers. What is true of a merchant in this respect, is true of every other honest and faithful person RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 17 in business. If they are true and faithful, they give more than they take. If they pur- posely take more than they give, they, too, are usurers. To give a clear example of a busi- ness person giving more than he takes, let the intelligent and careful publisher of a news, paper be instanced. Consider the important fund of useful information that is given in a carefully prepared weekly newspaper, for three or four cents per week, and it will be seen that it is quite possible for business peo- ple to give more than they receive, and still make gain. The money-lenders alone, from the nature of their business, must be charge- able with taking more than they give, and they stand condemned by the Word of God, and by the sore experience of untold millions, as the oppressors of their kind. That the borrower frequently makes more than the in- terest upon the money borrowed, is no refu- tation of the charge that the money-lender takes more than he gives. It merely shows that the borrower has either unwittingly or purposely become a participant in oppressing the rest of the people. For the interest or 2 18 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. increase is not in the money borrowed, nor in the services of the lender ; and if it is taken^ it must be taken from other people. Increase means more than, or above the thing increas- ed ; and when a person takes back all that he gave, and something more than or above what he gave, the circumstances of the case deter- mine whether he is a recipient of a gift of friendship or of charity, or whether he is a usurer. To give in friendship is often the only way the giver can do the good that he wants to do ; but there is no doubt that the giver, when he bestows the gift upon a worthy person, reaps the highest reward of the two in satisfaction. True people in business try to give more than they receive, and are blessed with a blessing that the takers of increase cannot receive, or comprehend. While these truths may be seen through common reason^ we quote the sure foundation for them from the Word of God : " Take thou no usury of him or increase ; but fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy vic- tuals for increase." — Liviticus, xxv,, 36, 37. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY, 19 CHAPTER III. CIRCULATION OF MONEY. The circulation of money is often spoken of, and people pass along the remarks that are made on the subject in conversation, without noticing what the words do, or what they ought to, import. For instance, it is customary to hear the act ot borrowing money to pay a debt, or taxes, or to buy produce, or other things as circulating money ; without consid- ering that the larger part of the operation consists in taking the money back to the lender, with the required additions in the form of interest ; ahhough there may be, and gen- erally is, but a few days between the different parts of the transaction. And without con- sidering the fact that the interest paid, to- gether with the evident immunity from com- petition in business that the money-lender 20 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. enjoys, may at the time be causing people to take money out of business, to be used in lending for interest, instead of continuing to circulate it in business. Now, suppose that the average timxe of loans of money to busi- ness people is sixty days, it is evident that after the money is once out, instead of cir- culating, the operation is a constant contrac- tion of circulation. The business has been in operation long enough now, to afford a view of the other side. Let us go into the counting-rooms of the borrowers, and see what is going on there. Look at that careful man bending to the inspection of his business, to see where he may hope to draw out money, for the sixty days are passed, and he has only the days of grace left. After long hesita- tion, and with deep concern mingled with pain, he now makes drafts upon customers, that he knows ought not to be drawn. He is con- scious that in precipitating these drafts upon these careful business men, his customers, it will inevitably disturb the business relations ; but it must be done ; the money must be re- turned to the lender, with the interest. The RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 21 drafts are made and sent. We will now take a look Into the counting-rooms of the men to whom the drafts have just been presented. They go now to the work of examining ac- counts ; they find their business standing fair, but working close. There appears to be no margin of money. They accept and pay the drafts ; but take a hint, also, that business is working too close ; and they determine to contract the borders of their operations. These contractions effect others, and vibrate through business, till every branch is touched by them. So business goes on ; the borrow- ing continues up to its old volume, but each evening the circulation is less by the sum of the interest of that day, than it was in the morning. The people are novv^ conscious that money is becoming very scarce in their affairs, and they become more careful in parting with it. The motions of money become much slower in consequence, and the same am.ount of money does inuch less business ; while the amount in business is actually becoming less day by day, and its motions continue to get slower in a corresponding ratio. Any person 22 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. can recognize the picture as the true likeness of the existing condition cf the country; and they can also see at a glance that the picture, like the condition, gives no hope of anything better, so long as business runs in existing channels. They can certainly see, also, that borrowing money on promises to return it to the lender with increase, does not circulate money, but the reverse ; and that the only way to circulate money is to give it out in ex- change for labor and property. The more a7id oftener that money is bo7'rowed and returned to the lenders with interest, the faster it contracts the circulation ; and in aii eqttal degree prac- tically changes the ptirpose of mo7iey,fro7n that of supporti7ig the business of the gove7^n7ne7it, and all the people, to that of supportifig the mo7iey-le7iders RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 23 CHAPTER IV STANDARD OF VALUE AND MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE. In a work entitled " Money and the Mechan- ism of Exchange," by W. Stanley Jevons, M. A., F. R, S., Professor of Logic and Political Economy in the Owens College, Manchester, and published by D. Appleton & Co., 549 and 551 Broadway, New York, there is much in- formation given on subjects connected with merchandising in money. Also, a broad, rickety foundation for the business of lending money for interest. We quote here from the book, that part which appears to be offered as a foundation for money-lending, with the explanatory connections, as found in the first and second sections of the third chapter. " We have seen that three inconveniences attach to the practice of simple barter ; name- ly, the improbability of coincidence between 24 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. persons wanting and persons possessing; the complexity of exchanges, which are not made in terms of one single substance ; and the need of some means of dividing and distrib- uting valuable articles. Money remedies these inconveniences, and thereby performs two dis- tinct functions of high importance, acting as (i) A medium of exchange. (2) A common measure of value. In its first form money is simply any com- modity esteemed by all persons, any article of food, clothing, or ornament which any person will readily receive, and which, therefore, every person desires to have by him in greater or less quantities, in order that he may have the means of procuring the necessaries of life at any time. Although many commodities may be capable of performing this function of a medium, more or less perfectly, some one ar- ticle will usually be selected, as money par excellence, by custom or the force of circum- stances. This article will then begin to be used as a measure of value. Being accus- tomed to exchange things frequently for sums of money, people learn the value of other ar- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN xMONEY. 25 tides in terms of money, so that all exchanges will most readily be calculated and adjusted by comparison of the money values of the things exchanged." By the foregoing the public need of money as a measure of value, and medium oi ex- changing value, is well shown. The author appears to have a peculiar taste in this in- stance for putting his horse to the hind end of the cart, and making money a medium of exchanging value, before people have learned its use as a measure of value. He says that after money has been adopted, " by custom or force of circumstances, as a medium of ex- chaneinof value, this article will then begin to be used as a measure of value." And he adds, " being accustomed to exchange things frequently for sums of money, people learn the value of other articles in terms of money, so that all exchanges will most readily be cal- culated and adjusted, by com.parison of the money values of the things exchanged." It would appear from the last sentence that the author did not like the look of things while the horse was at the wrong end of the 26 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. cart, and people were exchanging values in money, before they had learned its use as a measure of value, and he concluded to take the horse away altogether. Now it appears to be his meaning that the people use money as a medium of exchanging value, before they learn the value of it ; but being selected, by the use of it, as a medium of exchanging value, this article will then begin to be used as a measure of value. Having learned the value of things by the money measure, people cease to use money as a medium of exchanging value, and most readily adjust all exchanges by comparison of the money values of the things exchanged. That looks like an improvement. The horse had better be away. But now he puts the horse back again, and again to the hind end of the cart ; for he says : " A third function of money soon develops itself Commerce cannot advance far, before people begin to borrow and lend, and debts of various origin are contracted. It is in some cases usual, in- deed, to restore the very same article which was borrowed, and in almost every case it RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 27 would be possible to pay back in the same kind of commodity. If corn be borrowed, corn might be paid back, with interest, in corn ; but the lender will often not wish to have things returned to him at an uncertain time, when he does not much need them, or when their value is unreasonably low. A borrower, too, may need several different kinds of arti- cles, which he is not likely to obtain from one person, hence arises the convenience of bor- rowing and lending in one generally recogniz- ed commodity, of which the value varies little. Every person making a contract by which he will receive something at a future day, will prefer to secure the receipt of a commodity likely to be as valuable then as now. This commodity will usually be the current m.oney, and it will thus come to perform the function of a standard of value. We must not suppose that the substance serving as a standard of value is really invariable in value, but merely that it is chosen as that measure by which the value of future payments is to be regulated. Bearing in mind that value is only the ratio of quantities exchanged, it is certain that no 28 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. substance permanently bears exactly the same value relatively to another commodity ; but it will, of course, be desirable to select as the standard of value, that which appears likely to continue to exchange for many other com- modities in nearly unchanged ratios." From the position the professor gained under the head of a medium of exchange and a common measure of value established by custom, or the force of circumstances, he finds people v/ill begin to borrow and lend, and that " every person making a contract by which he will receive something at a future time, v/ill prefer to secure the receipt of a commodity likely to be as valuable then as now. This commodity will usually be the current money, and it will thus come to perform the function of a standard of value." A measure of value, when it is adopted by sufficient authority, becomes a standard of value. Pie had the measure of value estab- lished by the strongest known authority, that is, by custom or the force of circumstances ; but he does not find it to be a standard of value till people begin to lend it to be paid RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 29 back In kind. When money is loaned, to be paid back in kind, the act values money at a future time, as compared with itself at the present time. A value set for a future time, of course, would be in the nature of a guess, but as there is in lending money always an advance in the value of money over its value at the present time, and as an advance in the value of money makes a decline in the things that mxoney measures the value of, it must be admitted that there is great propriety in the guesses, for they make their own fulfillment sure. The Professor might, with great pro- priety, have said that thus It came to perform the function of a measure of value; a dishon- est measure, always expanding to take unjust gains. But he could with no propriety say that thus It performs the functions of a stand- ard of value ; for those who use it always change values by It. He will hardly claim that it Is the function of a standard to make changes against others, at the will and for the gain of the interested parties who use It. Falsity is the garb of evil, and a writer des- cribing and tolerating an evil, will be sure to 30 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. clothe it in falsity, if he makes his language consistent with his work. Professor Jevons was writing a book on money. In the work he came to the point at which evil desires prompt men to take advantage of others, by taking money out of its function in business,, and holding it to lend for interest, an evil that in its every act injures the public rights in money. If he had had any (the least) of the reformer in the constitution of his mind, he would have seen the evil. But he is no re- former ; he appears to be entirely satisfied, and if advance is to be made, he will look for it in the straight line of existing conditions. He saw no evil in money-lending. But he was compelled to recognize and account for it in his work ; he did this, and he gave it the most comely dress that it was capable of wear- ing. It is the greatest evil extant in worldly affairs ; and he clothed and surrounded it with falsity and rags. The only thing remarkable Is that he should be so entirely unconscious of what he was doing. We will now look over the ground for our- selves. We will suppose that in the early RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 31 Stages of the question of selecting and adopt- ing money, two men meet in business ; one oi them has gold, and the other has corn ; and they want to make an exchange of a part ot their commodities. They will not exchange by even weights, or even bulks. It is evident, that they must fix a value for one of the com-^ modities by bulk or by weight, and then ascer- tain the quantity of the other that will agree with the value fixed for that one. They know that corn can be increased indefinitely,, and that it is very perishable ; it will not,, therefore, be suitable for a measure of value. But gold is limited in supply, and is very little subject to change ; and for these reasons. it is very suitable for a measure of value. They value gold by weight, therefore, and then determine what the corn is worth by the gold measure. That being done they are ready to make the exchange, using the fixed value of gold as the measure of value, and gold itself at its fixed value as the medium of exchange. They have now erected gold into a measure of value and a medium of exchange, and they show the convenience of it to others ; O'^ RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. and they adopt it also. When it has become customary to value things by the gold measure and exchange values in gold, they go to government, and it adopts it, and by law makes it the only legal sign of value, and legal tender. Thus it becomes a standard of value, and a standard medium of exchange. By custom and by \si\N all are now compelled to procure money to pay business balances and taxes, or they can hold no property or do no business. Certain sharp ones now see the grand opporticjiity and they exchange their property for money, and refuse thereafter to do business that will require paying out the money. Soon the need of the money that they extracted from business channels presses heavily upon other people, and they go to the holders of the money, not to borrow it, for they know that those who " go borrowing go sorrowing ;" but they go to exchange services or property for the money. Oh, no ! the holders of the money do not want labor or property ; but they will lend it on condition that it will be paid back to them RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 33 With more money. And now, In the palliating^ not to say deceptive, words of Prof. Jevons, " Commerce cannot advance far before people begin to borrow and lend, and debts of various origin are contracted." The statement of the condition carries positive proof on its face, that the people cannot perform the tasks that the money-lenders force upon them by taking the money out of business and holding it to lend. In the nature of things, money-lending, if it Is allowed to become general, will subject all business and labor to itself Many things may exist that may help to hold a sort of de- pressed life in business. As, for instance, large collections of taxes and revenues, to be dis- bursed among the people, in pensions, annui- ties and salaries. While this governmental control of large sums of money may make it possible for business among the people to re- tain some vitality, it is a slavish life for the masses of the people, and they cannot help but sink deeper and deeper into poverty and degradation. There is a view of the effects of the control of the money of the country as interest-bear- 34 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. ing capital, that all are interested in keeping before them, and especially the laboring and producing millions. That is, that an interest or inducement that acts to restrain the ex- change of money for labor or property, the product of labor, is borne and paid by those who labor and produce property ; and it is paid on every dollar's worth of business that springs from and is connected with labor and property. If the interest is one per cent, the producers pay it on all the business operations that are measured by money, and not merely on the actual money borrowed in transacting the business ; and they pay as much additional as the condition produces restraint upon the exchange of money for labor and property. Thus the one per cent, to-day reduces the prices of the product of labor by that amount. But after the reduction is established the one per cent, acts with as much force for another reduction of one per cent. This goes on, step after step, and in time creates such distrust of values of labor and property, that money will not be exchanged for them on any reasonable or measurable RIGHTS OF TFE PEOPLE IN MONEY, 35 terms. From these plain principles it can be seen how utterly the present rates of interest are grinding the producers, and how foolish or wicked those politicians are who want the government to Issue money that would be in- terchangeable at the will of the holders into United States bonds, bearing interest at the rate of three and sIxty-fiYe one-hundredths per cent. These politicians would not add straws to the already over-loaded camel's back, but mill-stones. 36 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. CHAPTER V. PROPERTY RENT AND INTEREST. It is not necessary to draw a parallel be- tween rent of property and interest on money for those who will give the subject a little thought, but as there are some who do not take the trouble to examine it, but blindly de- fend money-lending, we will illustrate the dif- ference by an example of a man who rents a farm. When a man rents a farm, he pays for what he receives of the store laid up in the farm, and which he does not return. The amount he pays is not determined by the money in- vested in the farm. In other words, the rent is not calculated on what the farm cost the owner in money, but is fixed by the produc- tiveness of farms of its kind. If the owner asks more than the other party can reasonably RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 37 draw out of the farm, he will not take it. Farms are property made by the people. They are neither limited as money is, nor are the people compelled to take those already improved, but may improve others until the supply brings the demands for rent to reason- able terms. Money, on the other hand, is not made by the people, but is a creation of soci- ety and law, and the law comipels all to use it, or own no property and do no business. It can only be gotten by the people in exchange for labor or property ; but when the holders refuse to part with it for labor or property, people are compelled to borrow it. When they have paid it back, they have returned all they received, and if they pay interest they return more than they received, which is usury, and is forbidden by the Word of God. As it is prohibited by the Word of God, it might be concluded at once, from that alone, that it is violative of the principles of justice among men. If a person takes more rent for a farm than would represent the portion that reason- ably would be taken from the store laid up therein, he also would be taking usury ; he 38 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. would be taking without giving, and would be a usurer. But society and government would not be participants with him In the evil, as they had not prevented the renter from mak- ing a farm for himself, and had not made the farm an unavoidable necessity to him. Soci- ety and government prevent people from mak- ing money, and, at the same time, place a ne- cessity upon all the people to procure and use it. Thus they become participants In oppres- sing Individual members of society, if they allow people to make gain by charging Inter- est for the use of money. The difference be- tween taking Interest for money and making gain by handling property, may be illustrated further by people taking rent for houses. A house for people to live In represents a store of uses and service performed for those who live in the house. The store consists of many things, namely, the building and grounds, the main parts of which It Is supposed, the renter returns when he leaves the house; and the wear and tear of the house from time and usage; the time and expense of the owner, in looking after the property, and keeping it in RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 39 repair ; and taxes and insurance. All of the items but the main portions of the house and grounds are used by the renter and kept, and the rent that he pays is for what he keeps, and not for the things he returns, There may be as much disposition in the ov/ner of a house to take increase on the things returned, as there is to make gain by taking interest on money, but the opportunity is rarely afforded ; and when it is done, it effects none but the individuals concerned in the transaction. If the holders of money are allowed to make gain by charging interest for the use of it, they will cease to part with it for services and property ; and w^ill, as they are doing now, subject all people to themselves, and take the labor and property for the use of the money, and while they degrade all others to vassal- age, they will own both the money and prop- erty. It is therefore the duty of society and government to follow up with confiscation, all acts of taking interest or increase on private promises to pay money ; for it« is the sum of all oppressions among men, and it is made possible, and edge is given to it, by the laws 40 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. of government. That Is, by government making money of limited material, or limiting the amount that may be made ; and making it the gnly legal sign of value, and legal tender. As farms are made of parts of the earth s surface, by authority of the laws of govern- ment, while "the earth is the Lord's," and made for all his children, it is doubtless right for society and government to be careful how the earth's surface is apportioned out. The move- ment against granting large tracts of it to corporations is in the right direction, but there might be further advance made in the same direction with propriety, and in time doubtless must be. But under the diversified order of productive employments existing in civilized society, it may be a long time before a farm or a piece of the earth s surface to cul- tivate, will become an imperative necessity to any individual. Whereas the law makes money an imperative necessity to all of the people, therefore, the protection of the right that every individual has in money, is the present need of society, and is the most im- perative duty that government could perform. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 41 CHAPTER VL TIME OF MONEY. It IS seen In business affairs that there are stoppages In the circulation of money from various causes. It Is claimed that If the money Is deposited In bank, that the banker can safely lend It Into the active business affairs of the country, In quantities agreeing with the average stoppage of the money. The stoppage of money In business while the sums to be moved are being collected, and other circumstances attendant on Its move-^ ments are being prepared, Is wholesome ; and it works no inconvenience but what has a very good effect in business affairs. Depositing the money for safe keeping, if the owner thinks it best to do so, would be orderly; but it cannot be loaned by the banker without In- troJucinor manv disorders. First, It offers an. 42 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY €asy way of supplying what, at the time, might be only a temporary deficiency of money in the business of the borrower; and turns the attention from the necessity of taking up the dropped stitch that caused the deficien- cy, and hurries the business to the fatal " nine deficiencies." Second, it incites to efforts to climb into fortunes through speculations, rather than through the slow, regular steps of productive industry. Turning money more and more out of regular productive business, inflicts continually increasing difficulties upon those engaged in such business ; and gives a general horror of regular business as the fountain of trouble. Finally, over the wild waste that money-lending works in productive business, it is made manifest to all that money is the one commanding and desirable thing of the world ; and the effort to get money out of b;^isiness and property, becomes the ruling motive amono- men. Evervthino- useful is lost sight of in the effort to abstain from employ- ing money; and saving money is the one es- sential business of life. Lending money for gain is a wrong inflicted upon society ; and RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 43 saving the time of money is only a false thought to excuse the wrong. It has been said that lending money turns the money from productive business. This results from the things adduced, and also from the fact that all of the movements of money require time to prepare for them ; consequently there is a large consumption of the time of money in preparing return movements to the money- lenders. This m.ovement is in a direction from business, and unlike a movement in the direction of business, it projects no life, but the reverse, through business channels, while the money is being collected. When the movement back to the lender is effected, the money is out of business to remain so, until a borrower takes it and starts it on a new course. But this, v/hen it takes place, leaves ail of the brerd^s that were made in business connections by collecting the money out of business to return it to the lender. The waste of the time of money in preparing and making the return movement to the lenders, and the in- crease of money that it takes out of circula- tion as interest above what it puts into circu- 44 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. lation, together with the breaks that such movements make and leave in estabhshed business relations, all disturb and discourage productive business, and cause money to be taken out of such business. The time of money belongs to the business in which it is engaged, including the time required to col- lect the sums, and the necessary stoppage while its movements are being prepared. If, in the meantime, the money is put into any other business, events prove, that the money ceases to belong to the first business, and that it does belong to the last. If the last busi- ness is banking and money-lending, the money belongs to that business, and does not, and cannot, belong to productive business. The merchant, when he takes his money to a bank- er to be loaned, lays the foundation for a busi- ness that will surely overthrow all regular pro- ductive employments. Every business has a right to direct the ir.ovements of the money that is engaged in it. If lending money for gain is right, then the money must obey the will of the lenders, and must seek such em- ployment as can be hurried through its move- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 45 ments. This, we know, takes place when bankers lend the money that is deposited with them. The money leaves the slow-moving, productive employments, and seeks such speculations as may be consistent with fre- quent returns of the money to the lenders. The necessities of the people will induce them to try to do business, and through in- creasing troubles they will borrow money for business and to pay taxes. But day by day they feel more acutely how abject and galling the yoke is, that the practice of money-lending places upon productive employments. 46 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. CHAPTER VII. CAPITAL AND LABOR. A solution of the purpose and true use of money, will settle the question between capi- tal and labor. This question has puzzled political economists for ages ; and the more that has been said or written upon the sub- ject, the further from solution it appears to be. Without stopping to consider the shades of meaning in the term capital, that appear to be the sources of confusion, as to the relation that exists properly between capital and labor, I will define the word by a feature of its meaning, by which all will recognize it ; that is, accumulation. The man has accumulation of powers of body and mind greater than the boy, and in this he has more capital than the boy. The man uses his powers in performing the various functions that devolve upon him RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 4T as a man, and he acquires more p6wer and skill of body and mind, and also rewards of his usefulness in worldly things. Now he has more capital and of different kinds. It is very evident that in such accumulation or capital, there can be no possible conflict with any person else in the whole universe, unless. the accumulations are used in a wrone direc- o tion, and for a wrong purpose. If accumula- tions are used in a direction that comes in conflict with other men's rights, it is the best evidence in the world of a wrong use of cap- ital ; and society must not clip and form other men's interest to the capital, but must teach the true direction and use of capital, ana clip- the capital when it runs in a wrong direction. In the worldly affairs of men, it is necessary to have money, as a means of representing and exchanging values in a condensed and easily-handled form, and as a medium of con-^ tributing support to the government. To fit the money for the purpose, it must be made under authority of government ; must be in. limited, and as nearly as possible, in uniform supply ; and there must exist between human 48 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. services and property (the things to be valued), and money, an interchangeable relation. These necessary qualities of money are secured by making it of gold and silver, or limiting it to a gold and silver basis, and by making it the only legal sign of value and legal-tender in payment of private and public dues. The character and function of money require its circulation in all business affairs, and also that the people shall procure it to pay their busi- ness balances and taxes. As the people are not allowed to produce money, it is evident they must get it of others, in business. At this point there is a possibility that those who hav? accumulations, that is, capital, will use it in a way that will Inflict great injustice upon all other people. Money being necessary to all, and existing in limited supply, by turning their accumulations of property into money, they have In their hands the means of con- trolling the labor and property of all other people. If they now refuse to let the money circulate In exchange for labor and property, they raise a conflict In the business affairs of the world. Their accumulation of knowledge RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 49 and skill may find exercise in blinding the people as to where the evil lies, and to point out relations between capital and labor, that will harmonize with their handlinof of their accumulations. The plain and easy mode of harmony was by enslaving labor, but this has a harsh sound in the present age ; and now they try it through what they call the rights of capital. They falsely apply the truth that there should be no conflict between capital and labor, to the evil handling they make of their accumulations ; though they are making the system of business among men unsound and corrupt from head to foot ; the head pam- pered vice, and the body squalor and corrupt- ing servility ; yet they get the sanction of statesmen and learned writers on political economy, or, at least, are not rebuked by them. The condition of society, that is resulting from the evil handling of capital in banking and money-lending In civilized countries, is ¥/ell described by Cardinal Manning, in a re- cent sermon, in which he refers to pauperism in England. He says : " England, the rich- est of all countries, has upon it a stain and a 4 50 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. shame, not to be found in countries which Engh'shmen assume to despise ; he meant pauperism, an intensely demoralized state of society. Poverty in itself was an honorable state ; but pauperism was something altogether distinct from poverty. Pauperism was that wrecked condition of men and of families, out of which there was no rising by any effort of their own. And what did it come from 1 It would take too long to endeavor to say. One reason he would state : the closeness of the hands and hearts, and the ignorance in which the rich lived and died, of the state of the poor, who lived and died round about their dwellings. The possession of wealth and prosperity generated a selfishness and uncon- sciousness of the sufferings of others, so that men were wrapped up in their own daily indul- gence, and were forgetful of those who were in want." Cardinal Manning describes a condition that cannot fail to grow out of the manner in which the few are controlling the money in banking and money-lending. Its direct and inevitable effect is to produce a state of RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 51 wrecked, demoralized pauperism, that the mass of the people cannot possibly avoid falling into, much less, being in it, can raise themselves out of it. He describes the con- dition of both rich and poor, and leaves it to be inferred that the rich ought to help the poor; but he leaves the cause of the condi- tion untold, unless we are to understand that it is because the rich do not help the poor. If the Cardinal intended to lay the cause to the neglect of the rich to give material sup- port to the poor, it would be in harmony with an error of the Catholic church. It has un- doubtedly been an error of that church to collect largely from the people, and then give support to the indigent, without sufficiently considering whether much of the indigence was not induced by the too heavy collection. The right rule for church, state, or individual, is first of all to be sure that you do not " lay grievous burthens upon men's shoulders," and when you give, be very sure that what you give has not been obtained by wrong and op- pression ; when all observe the rule of un- offending right, it will be found that people of 52 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. sound body and mind, will prefer to support themselves, and the number of the receivers of alms will be wonderfully lessened. Then such a condition as the Cardinal describes, both as to the rich and poor, would necessari- ly be greatly reduced, both in volume and vir- ulence. Why the Cardinal did not point out partic- ularly the cause of the condition that he des- cribed, cannot be known. The occasion could not fail to be as appropriate to explain the cause, as to refer to the condition. We know that the money-lenders, by forcing people to abstain from business, and from the use of property, unless they will borrow money of them, are bringing about, for the laboring and business classes, the condition that is describ- ed by the Cardinal. Money-lending cannot fail to force the producing classes continually deeper and deeper into vv^ant and degradation. The business literally takes people by the throat, and says to them, " serve me." RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 53 CHAPTER VIII. FINANCE. The term finance, as connected v/ith State affairs, and which, no doubt, is the connection that it was formerly most properly used in, signifies the money and revenues of the State. As connected with the science of political economy, it includes the proper mode of rais- ing and handling the State money or reven- ues. The term, as it is applied in the United States, signifies money in general, or in gov- ernmental affairs, and also in individual affairs. There appears to be nothing in the term itself that would vary its signification when applied to individual affairs, from what it would be when applied to State affairs. In the partic- ular as well as general application, it means the settlement, payment, or end ; or it means money, the thing by which the end is reached, and settlement and payment made. The gov- 54 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. ernment ordains that money shall be the set- tlement of, or payment of, or end of, all civil affairs ; hence money means finance or end, and finance means money or end, whether in private or in State affairs ; and the g'etting of money means the way to the end. Again, as getting money is the way to end things in money, getting money is Included in the term finance. The term finance, then, means the art and science of getting money, and paying or ending business affairs in money. Finance is the result of production and trade, and the science of production and trade is the science of finance. As finance means money, and includes getting money, and set- tlement and payment In civil affairs, while all these result from production and trade, it Is clear that finance results from production and trade ; hence the science of production and trade is the science of finance, and conse- quently that the mysteries of production and trade, are the much talked-of MYSTERIES OF FINANCE) no more and no less. It must be borne in mind that money is a sign or representative RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 55 of value, adopted by society and legalized by government, to settle and finish civil affairs. It Is readily seen that the things to be settled, ended, or finished, grow out of doing, owning" and trade. That is, out of production and trade. Without production and trade, there would be no civil affairs to be settled, and consequently there would be no need of money, and no such thing as finance. FInancef then, rest upon production and trade, begins where they begin, and stops where they stop. Now we see that the mysteries of finance are the merest myth, unless we understand by the mysteries of finance, the mysteries of produc- tion and trade. An Individual to conduct suc- cessfully the affairs of a vegetable garden to supply a city market with wholesome and pleasant vegetables In their season, must mas- ter the mysteries of production and trade, in one of its most varied and intricate forms, with all of Its parts very highly organized and in active operation to vary results. Yet com- mon men do master the mysteries of this in- tricate specimen of the art and science of pro- duction and trade, and its resulting finance, 66 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. with high success and pleasure ; unless their business Is blighted by unusual agencies over which they have no control. A merchant trading In foreign countries masters the mysteries of production and trade and resulting finance, though very many active forces conspire to make or modify the field to be occupied, and operated upon. If these men master the mysteries of production and trade and resulting finance, what Is the matter with statesmen, that they stand back with such awe before the word finance, which merely expresses the resultant effect of the active forces that others understand and har- monize ? What Is there In the w^ord ? A mere name. To understand this mysterious awe of states- men and politicians before the term money or finance, we must look further and more close- ly into the subject. We have seen that a common man will successfully carry on a veg- etable garden, and reach the end, finance, or money, that he had to keep In mind and work towards In the whole business ; though the operation Is a very complex one, and active RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 57 forces of both physics and metaphysics oper-- ate upon all parts of his business to modify results. The man knows this fact in its g^n- eral action upon his business, and that he must bring his operations to harmonize in a great degree, with these active forces. If he fails in any particular, he will know why he fails, and will modify or change that particular part ; but will go on, and in the main succeed, unless, as said before, some unusual agency changes the conditions. If he fails in conse- quence of such unusual occurrence, the origin and nature of the occurrence may be a mys- tery to him. But if he fails without such un- usual cause of failure, he will understand why he failed, and can point out the cause, unless, he is lackinor the decree of intellisfence that was required in his business. What then, we ask again, is the matter with the statesmen and politicians, that they should stand awe-struck before what they call the mysteries of money or finance.? They know what money is, why money is, how it is made> and what it is for. Knowing all of these things, and every one of them, with the exact- S8 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. ness that belongs to written law, they ought to be able to point with unerring certainty to any wrong that might occur in connection with money or finance. Of all things that effect the interest of men, money has the least mys- tery about it. It is adopted to simplify the affairs of the people and government, and do uway with mystery. If money performs its function, it removes mystery from all business relations. If it does not perform its function, why does it not f Being a creature of society and government, its purpose and function ought to be well understood and defined, and when it fails, or results in evil, a remedy ought to be plainly and easily seen. As a starting- point in investigating financial matters, it must be constantly borne in mind that society and government not only introduce a convenience into the business of society and government, by making money and organizing in it the control of labor and property, but they do a great deal more. They lay a necessity upon every member of society to constantly pro- cure and use money in their worldly affairs. This affords an opportunity for the holders of RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 59 money to retire it from business, and hold it to lend for interest ; and in that way take under their influence the entire business, prop- erty, and labor of the people, as their servants and for their gain. This they have done, and the evil is making society quake to the center, the world over ; while statesmen, with less wisdom than the cultivators of a vegetable garden, are awe- struck, and say " they do not understand the mysteries of finance." 60 RIGHTS OF THL PEOPLE IN MONEY. CHAPTER IX. INTERCHANGEABLE GREENBACK CURRENCY. The movement in favor of issuing a cur- rency, interchangeable at the will of the holder, into United States interest-bearing bonds, doubtless finds support from a few per- sons who are honestly seeking a way to stop the business of the people on its course to utter destruction ; but that it originated with any who were making an honest effort to al- leviate the sufferings of the masses, and to perform for their fellow-beings and country an unselfish service, it is not possible to be- lieve, when we consider what the effect of such a system of currency would be. Ever since the money in common use in business, was elevated from the condition of what was known in 1836 and 1837 as " wild-cat money,'^ there has been a continually increasing prac- tice of taking money out of business and property, and holding it to lend for interest. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 61 This practice had progressed so far as to cause, In 1857, what Is known as the panic of that year In business. The stringency con- tinued to Increase at that time, but the war of the rebellion breaking out In 1861, the gov- ernment was compelled to make and Issue to the people, large sums of money in exchange for property and services. The money so Issued sustained business while It lasted, not- withstanding the exhausting process of bank- ing and money-lending. But when the war issues were over and exhausted, business began to reel and stagger, and Is now pros- trate ; while the money lies in the banks, and the process of transferring the property from the debtor to the creditor, as the producing and money-lending classes are respectively called, goes on. The prostrate condition of business Is the result of capturing the money, and holding It to lend. People sell property, and get money in exchange for it. They now refuse to let it continue to circulate in ex- change for labor and property, but part with it thereafter only on promises for Its return to them with additional money.. This places 62 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. the productive classes under the necessity to borrow the money to supply the channels of business, Including the necessary stoppage of the money in the pockets of the people and in the public treasuries, while its movements are being prepared, and also return it with additional money to the lenders, at times set to suit their gain. If the conditions that are made for the producing classes by the busi- ness of banking and money-lending, and the requirements of bankers and money-lenders for their own safety and profit are borne in mind, we will be able to appreciate what the effect of issuing a currency interchangeable at the will of the holders, into United States interest-bearing bonds, would be, both upon the money-lending and producing classes. But to appreciate the full effect of such a measure, we must also bear in mind that the custom of society and the law of government, make money a constant necessity in business, as a medium of exchanging values and paying taxes ; and, as the people are not allowed to make money, they must exchange services and property for it Now, if the holders refuse to RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 63^ continue the circulation in that way, directly the business and producin^^ classes suffer for the money ; and not being able to get it in exchange for their products, they borrow it, and pay it back with increase. Day by day the process increases their difficulties, and piles up debt against their class, in favor of the banker and money-lenders. Business be- gins to fail, labor fails, poverty intensifies and spreads, and money accumulates in the banks. Politicians are now called upon, to solve the enigma of the times. This is the condition of affairs in the first centennial year of the nation's existence. One hundred years ago the Fathers of the Republic were called upon to resist the unjust demands of government, even through war with one of the most powerful nations upon the earth. They proved themselves equal to the requirements of the occasion. Their de- scendants, the statesmen of the present day, are asked to solve the enigma of production and business suffering for money ; while the money lies in banks, waiting safe interest- bearing promises to pay money. The ques- 64 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. tlon is a very simple one, and involves nothing more profound than to enquire for what use money is made, and whether it is performing its use. If money is merchandise, made for the benefit of the money-lenders, and which they may use to break up the productive in- dustries of the people, and take their property from them, the solution would naturally be different from what it w^ould be if it was made fcr a medium of transactino- the business of the government and people ; while money- lending is a disease or parasite, growing upon the body politic. If the money is for the money-lenders, and the lav/s of the govern- ment, that make it necessary in business and to pay taxes, are merely means furnished them by the government 'to break up productive employments, and to take the property from the people, the hard money theories, by which the money may be reduced in volume, have, at least, some small degree of application to the purpose of money. But their application to the purpose is remote, weak, and indirect^ as compared to the plan of making the money interchangeable at the will of the holder, into RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 65 United States interest-bearing bonds. Under this plan the money-holders would wipe out of existence, all the money that they could not use directly for their purpose, and would take the interest-bearing bonds of the gov- ernment instead. It relieves the money-hold- ers of all danger of cheap money, and at the same time gives them a large volume of gov- ernment bonds on which to draw interest, and if occasion suits, to again recover the money. It obviates all indirections that might grow out of the hard-money plan, in subjecting business and labor to the money-lenders. But if money is made to facilitate the transaction of business among the people, and as a just means in the hands of the government, to draw its support from the labor and property of the people, while its legal character and its limited volume are means to the end, and money-lending is a disease to be cured ; then are politicians failures on the money question, and the greenback politicians the worst of all. They are worse than failures; they are evil innovators. More will be said on this subject in another chapter. 66 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY* CHAPTER X, INFLATION. According to a statement of the New York World, as accredited to it by the Wood County (Ohio) Sentinel, of the nth of May, 1876, A. D. White, President of Cornell Uni- versity, read a paper before the Union League Club, in New York city, entitled "Paper Cur- rency Inflation in France — How it Began." It says : " The Club Theatre was filled with members, all of whom listened attentively to the strong, hard-money document, notwith- standing many of them were, or had previous- ly been, paper-money men." If the President made the statements re- ported, and made them the basis for conclu- sions in favor of hard money, as claimed for them in the report, it was a remarkable per- formance ; for the statements separately, as RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 67 reported, do not support the conclusions claimed for them. And when put together, they are Insufficient to support conclusions in favor of hard money. " After reviewing briefly the events which occurred toward the end of 1789, which created the financial em- barrassments in France, and led to a new issue of paper currency, the lecturer said : Within a few months after the first issue, another Issue of $400,000,000 was made, mak- ing the total issue $800,000,000, but with a solemn pledge that the total amount put in circulation should not exceed $1,200,000,000. But very soon this pledge was violated, under the popular pressure, and $400,000,000 more were Issued, but with a solemn promise that the circulation should never exceed $1,400,- 000,000. This, too, was violated, and the issues went on in a rapidly Increasing ratio. These issues gave a great stimulus, tempora- rily, to speculation, gambling, and stock-job- bing, throughout the country. There arose, and was rapidly developed, a great debtor class, partly of those who bought the national real estate, paying a small part down, and in- 68 FIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. tending to pay the remainder in small install- ments ; partly from those speculators and gamblers in values, who had bought for a rise in nominal values. Commerce and manufac- tures, though at first stimulated, were soon par- alyzed, and finally almost universally destroy- ed. The mercantile interest, which supposed that it was aided by this inflation, since the prices of goods on the shelves of the mer- chants were raised, soon found that it was in- jured, no less than other interests, since the merchants had to attach to their goods prices not only to cover the increase in nominal value, but the risks from fluctuation ; the number of buyers diminished, and payments grew less certain. Inflation brought the worst evils of all upon the masses of the nation, upon the people of small fortunes, and upon the working class. The uncertainty in values having paralyzed manufactures, vast numbers of workmen throughout the nation were thrown out of employ, so that after prices were inflated 200 or 300 per cent., the wages of labor remained the same as before the inflation. At the great centers, a reckless RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 69 gambling in values, which spread Into the country at large arose, which led men to look on steady labor and moderate gains with con- tempt. The idea of thrift was obliterated among the French people, though they are naturally one of the most thrifty of nations. Corruption of public men followed. Mira- beau, Chabot, Fabre D'Eglantine, and others, who, two or three years before, risked their lives from patriotic motives, had now become so involved in the speculating mania and lux- urious living, that Mirabeau received bribes from the Court, and others received bribes for their votes in the National Leo^islature. At last a franc in crold was worth 288 francs in paper. The measures of the Directory were then sketched together, with the issue of the "Territorial Mandats," which came to be as gold. These mandats were issued with every guarantee for their security, in the best of the national real estate, yet they depreciated to thirty and even to fifteen per cent, before they were issued from the press, and at last fell to live per cent. The collapse was then describ- ed, and the ruinous state in which France was 70 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. left. After this vast amount of paper money, 36,000,000,000 " assignats " and 2,400,000,000 " mandats," had been repudiated, coin began to come in easily and naturally, and trade having been put on a solid basis, prosperity was gradually restored." The professor says — " these issues gave a great stimulus, temporarily, to speculation, gambling and stock-jobbing, throughout the country." The fact alone of largely increas- ing the volume of money, is no reason or ex- planation for speculation, gambling, or stock- jobbing. Nor has the volume of money, whether it be large or small, any tendency in itself to produce such results. If such things exist, it is not from or owing to the volume of money, nor is it owing to the material that money may be made of But it is owing to the use that is made of money ; and the use that is made of it depends upon the laws of the government regulating the creation, and use of money. It may be safely affirmied, as the President of the University appears to imply, that the handling of money in France would be very much like the handling of RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 71 money in the United States, under the same or similar circumstances. To illustrate the fact that the volume of money, whether large or small, would not have in itself a tendency to beget '' speculation, gambling, and stock- jobbing," we will suppose that the government of the United States, being in need of money, determines to print and issue four hundred million dollars of paper money. The gov- ernment could not accomplish its purpose without a plan, and the plan would have to in- clude the makingj the issuing, and the circu- lation of the money. The circulation of a new issue of paper money, would spring from the fact that the government made It to be money, and thereby all private interests were formed Into forces, to propel the circulation. If the government gave the new issue the legal character of money, and proper legisla- tion prevented any private interest from springing up that would prevent the circula- tion, the money would, of necessity, enter into the function of measuring and exchanging values. In the business affairs of the govern- ment and people. The circulation of money 72 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. is often a matter of necessity, even when the money is made of gold of the common stand- ard. It circulates because the government and society make it the sign and representa- tive of the value, that is in houses for people to live in, in clothes for them to wear, and in food for them to eat. It is altogether a reg- ulation of society and government that an ounce of gold shall represent so many dollars* worth of the value of these things, or that gold shall represent value at all. The ordi- nance of the government propels the circula- tion by making it necessary in business, and to pay taxes and public revenues, when the money is of uncertain character. And when the value is of the fixed and stable character that belongs to the precious metals, the circu- lation is propelled by the desire and necessity to procure the services and property, the things of real value, that custom and law make the money the sign of In a primitive state of society, it was not possible to estab- lish confidence in the permanency in the value of money, and its interchangeability with property in any other way than by making it RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 73- of such metals as gold or silver. These metals are but little subject to change or waste by- rust, and are limited in supply. These cir- cumstances determined society and govern- ments to make money of gold and silver, and the choice of the metals for money, establish- ed the value of the metals. It is not the value of the metals that give value to money, it is the use that governments and society make of money that gives it value. To secure an in- terchangeable relation between the represen- tative value that society and government give to money, and the real value that is in labor and property, the government compels the people to constantly use money in their worldly affairs. This necessity induces the people to exchange the real value they have In their labor and property, for the represen- tative value in money; notwithstanding that the representative value cannot, in the nature of things, be as true as the real value, even when the money is made of gold or silver. The government having by its laws, brought the people to a willingness to exchange the real value in their labor and property, for the Y* RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. representative value in money, to the degree, at least, of supplying themselves with money to pay business balances and taxes and public revenues ; there will be established an inter- :hangeable relation between money, and labor and property ; unless there proves to be a de- ficiency in the supply of money, or that the holders of the money refuse to exchange it for labor or property. If the exchange failed because there was not sufficient money, it would clearly be the duty of government to lessen the taxes, or to increase the supply of money. But if the exchange of labor and property for money, to the degree of supplying the necessary money for business, and to pay taxes and public revenues, failed because the holders of it would not exchange the fictitious representative value in money, for the real value that is in labor and property, it would be conclusive proof that there was some wrong at work, that was destroying all order among men, and that it was determining the acts of the holders of the money. For it cannot be conceived that the holders of a fictitious rep- resentative would not exchange it for the real RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 75 thing represented, unless there was an extra- neous inducement leading to the result. If the holders of the representative value in money were as willing to exchange it for the thing represented as the people will be to give the real for the representative, to the de- gree of supplying their business with necessary money and to pay taxes and revenues, the ex- change will be made ; and business Vv^ill go on among the people ; labor will be nourished, and production and consumption will both continually increase, and worldly prosperity will be attainable by all, as the reward of hon- esty and industry. An increase in the volume, as long as the money would pay business bal- ances and taxes, would not have a tendency to turn the money out of the real values that are in labor and property, but the reverse. When the holders of money retire it from business, by refusing to exchange it for labor and prop- erty, and by the process starve labor, a great wrong is inflicted upon the people, by means of the monetary laws of the government. And it is the duty of the learned to point out the wrong, and the cure for it. And every 76 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. word of truth on the subject will satisfy rea- son. But to say or Imply that an increase in the volume of money, or any other thing that In its nature vv^ould lessen confidence in the permanency of the representative value in it, would cause the holders to refuse to exchange It for the real values, Is an absurdity on its face. Reason says at once, that if money re- tires from productive business to deal in shadows, it springs from another cause than an increase of the volume of money. What the cause was in France, may be in- ferred from the cause in the United States. We know that the holders of money In our country, retire it from business, and refuse to exchange It for labor or property, because they know the legal and social necessity there Is upon all the people to procure and use It In connection with their worldly affairs ; and they retire it from business, and refuse to ex- change it for labor or property, that they may levy tribute upon the mass of the people, for the use of it ; while by notes, and promises to pay money, the}^ still hold it under their own control. This handling of money, in its direct RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 77 effects, breaks up productive business ; for common perception as well as experience tells the people that money cannot perform the functions that exist for it In business, and to pay taxes and public revenues, while It is held as private merchandise, and its value changed at will of the holders, for their own gain. And for their gain it is compelled to make period- ical movements out of business to them. The enterprising people seeing the impos- sibility of using money in the slow productive business, use it in speculation ; and this runs into the gambling and stock-jobbing, describ- ed by the President of the University. The condition is in no degree owing to the volume of money, or on account of the material that it is made of; but is owing to the use that the owners of the money, that is, those who have it and do not owe it, make of It. If the gov- ernment should over issue paper money, while It is all legal tender, and will pay taxes and public revenues. It will only make the people the more willing to turn it Into property and labor, that produces property. And labor will only be the more sought after and encoura^^- 78 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. ed. But when there is another use made of money, namely, that of collecting tribute for the use of it, the controllers of the money break up all orderly business ; for no amount of money entering business, on promises to make frequent return movements to the lend- ers, with additional money, can support busi- ness. In such case, likewise, the money-hold- ers have the greatest possible inducement to have the volume of money reduced, as there- by all danger of competition among lenders is removed, and their capital increased also. That the holders of gold should make a great difference between it and the paper-money, would not check business, as long as the paper would perform the function of exchang- ing values in business affairs, and pay taxes and revenues of governmxent. This Professor White might have seen in the United States in 1864, when the difference between gold and paper money was greatest ; it had no tenden- cy to check business. The control of money as a capital to lend, did even then check the investment of the paper-money in real estate, excepting in leading cities that were stimula- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 79* ted at that time by the business of preparing army snpplies. As long as the people were able to get money that would pay taxes and business balances, as they were by the dis~ bursements of the government for labor and property during the war, and until those dis- bursements were exhausted among the people, business went on and increased. But as soon as the disbursements fell from the war scale, and the money was exhausted among the peo- ple, and business had to depend on money that was borrowed on promises to return to the lender with increase, the death-struggles of business began, and go on to be ended only by the transfer of^ all property to the money- lenders, and subjugation of the laboring and productive classes to them. There is no money in the United States now, nor has there been for the last thirty-five years, that the people were, not willing and anxious to take in business, or in exchange for most valuable labor or property. Why is it that the money will not be exchanged for this labor or property } The refusal brought the business trouble of 1857, ^^^<^ is breaking up 80 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. all business now. If there is any meaning in the statements attributed to Professor White, it is that the money-holders refuse to put it in business, or exchange it for labor or prop- erty, because it is inflated paper-money, and is not gold, or reduced to a gold standard. If the controllers of the money, and their aiders and abettors, were not smitten by that blindness that in all ages led those engag- ed in great public wrong to their utter over- throw, they would see the folly of their prac- tices and teachings, and that they are stand- inor over a volcano, with nothinor but the thin- nest possible crust under their feet. There is no truth taught on the subject of taking in- terest on money, that the writer knows of, but the neglected truth of the Word of God; and it is not strange that there should be some clamor for an increase of paper-money as the Professor says there was in France. For in the absence of true instruction, it would be the remedy first thought of, for business fam- ishing for money. That there is so little of such clamor in the United States, ought to admonish the money- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 81 holders that they have a different order of mind to deal with. Mind that will suffer, and wait, and investigate, until the foundation principles of money are reached ; and being found, will build there, and will clear away everything that would obstruct the building, or mar the effect. 82 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. CHAPTER XL MONTESQUIEU ON MONEY-LENDING. The business of lending money for interest has always been so influential among men, that it shaped or colored all learning and in- struction on the subject of money and civil laws. In the Divine Word alone is the truth re- tained on lending for interest, and the learned among men treat the Divine Truth on the subject as an antiquated and impractical idea or " counsel of religion." Montesquieu, in his work entitled " Spirit of Laws," says : " Specie is the sign of value. It is evident he who has occasion for this sien, ouc>'ht to pay for the use of it, as Vv^ell as anything else he has occasion for. All the difference is that other things may be either hired or bought ; RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 83 whilst money, which is the price of things, can only be hired and not bought." Here, in a note, he says : " We speak not of gold and silver considered as merchandise.^* And continues: "To lend money without in- terest, is certainly an action laudable and ex- trem.ely good ; but it is obvious that it is a counsel of religion, and not of civil law. In order that trade may be successfully carried on, it is necessary that a price be fixed on the use of specie ; but this should be very incon- siderable. If it be too high, the merchant who sees that it costs him more in interest than he can gain by commerce, will undertake nothine; if there is no consideration to be paid for the use of specie, nobody will lend it ; and here, too, the merchant will undertake nothing. I ^m mistaken when I say nobody will lend ; the affairs of society will ever make it necessary. Usury will be established, but Vv^ith all the disorders with which it has been constantly attended. The laws of Mahomet confounded usury with lending upon interest. Usury increases in Mahometan countries, in proportion to the severity of the prohibition. 84 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. The lender indemnifies himself for the dan- ger he undergoes of suffering the penalty. In those eastern countries, the greater part of the people are secure of nothing. There is hardly any proportion betwec n the actual pos- session of a sum, and the hopes of receiving it again after having lent it. Usury, then, must be raised in proportion to the danger of insolvency. " The greatness of maritime usury is found- ed on two things: the danger of the sea, which makes it proper that those who expose their specie, should not do it without consid- erable advantage ; and the ease with which the borrower, by means of commerce, speed- ily accomplishes a variety of great affairs. But usury with respect to land-men not being founded on either of these two reasons, is either prohibited by the legislators, or what is more rational, reduced to proper bounds." It is evident that if the members of society who have occasion to use money cannot buy it, that is, cannot get it in exchange for the things that it is the price of, but must hire the use of it, that is, must borrow it and pay it RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 85 back with additional money, It will be impos- sible for society to exist. If money is bor- rowed and to be paid back with interest, the need of money to pay back the borrowed money will be greater by the sum of the in- terest, than the need of society. And If the affairs of society, as the author says, will ever make it needful, the paying back would come in the way of the succeeding needs of society, and would increase the succeeding needs by the whole weight of the previous needs, in- creased by the interest on the borrowed money; a condition that could not be borne, and society would be destroyed by its inabili- ty to get the necessary money. The author is not speaking of the use of money in the affairs of society, that Is merely for the convenience of society, and which might be supplied by the use of something else, or might be dispensed with ; for, he says, he speaks not of gold and silver as articles of merchandise, but of money created by the law of the State. The need of money created by the law of the State, and by custom of society, is more than a mere convenience ; and the 86 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE" IN MONEY. need will disorganize society, If It Is not sup- plied. The author appears to have seen the dilernma the condition placed society in, and tried to excuse it by citing the failure of Ma- hometan laws to prohibit taking interest on money. He then gives two reasons for high interest on money to be engaged in maritime affairs, but says " usury with respect to land- men, not being founded on either of the rea- sons governing in the case of maritime usury^ is either prohibited by the legislators, or, what is more rational, reduced to proper bounds." If the principle he starts out with, that those who have occasion to use money ought to pay for the use of it, whilst they cannot buy the money itself, is founded on reason and the rights of the holders of the money, it is hard to see by what authority the legisla- tors would interfere to reduce the interest to proper bounds, or to prohibit it, for the bene- fit of land-men, or any other people. Again, if the failure of Mahomet to prevent interest by severe legislation against It, Is worth any- thing to prove that which he brought It up to prove, that is, the impractlcablllLy of prevent- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 8T ing Interest by severe legislation against it, why does he suggest to legislators to prohibit it, or, as more rational, to reduce it to an in- considerable quantity for the land-men ? It would naturally be as difficult to reduce interest to an inconsiderable quantity, as to prohibit It ; for when it was so small as to be inconsiderable, there would be no, or but little, opposition to taking it off altogether ; that is, to prohibit It. The learned author appears to have been dreadfully confused, by the ques- tion of Interest on money. If he could have consented to let the light of the Divine Truth rest upon the question as It Is In the Word of God, it would have enlightened his path so that he might have been able to travel in a consis- tent course. But when he started off with the intimation that that light was not sufficient to lead civil law, he might be expected to unset- tle the foundation of his edifice as he did. He started out to excuse and justify lending money for Interest. There is no foundation for reason in that direction, as his staggering shows. He was bold enough ; at the first bound he vault- ed Into the position that money made by the 88 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. government to be the sign of value, cannot be bought with the things that it is the sign of. He conveys the impression that the people have no right to expect money to circulate in that way, but must expect to borrow it, to be paid back with interest. From this irrational position, it could not be expected that he would advance rationally. Besides the error that the writer of the " Spirit of Laws " makes, in taking it for granted that the holders of money have a right to lend it for interest, there are two other errors that are very generally commit- ted, in considering the business of lendi^ng for interest. The hrst is, that the lenders of money are necessarily the main gainers in the operation ; and the second error is that the legislation that may be instituted to correct the evil, ought to be directed to the protec- tion of the borrowers, and for their benefit. The business of lending money for interest is a public injury ; and legislation to correct and prevent it, must be for the protection of the public, and the fines must inure to the government, the money-making power. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. O^ Montesquieu, In his " Spirit of Laws," quotes from Ulpian that " he pays least who pays latest," and says : " This decides the question whether interest be lawful ; that is, whether the •creditor can sell time, and the debtor pay for it." As a principle this is unsound, like all other things said in favor of the right to lend money for interest. The increased value of money at the time of the latest payment, may m.ake it the greatest and best, without any increase in the quantity of the money. Gold dollars iluctuate in value very much, when they are tested by labor and property, the things that test the value of money. Any person who lias been doing business in our country, in the years 1874 and 1875, knows that money, that is, gold, has appreciated nearly one hundred per cent, since that time, and is still very rap- idly appreciating; consequently a payment in gold now, would be fully twice as valuable as it would have been two years ago. The prin- ciple of the fluctuation of money as to value is shown by Professor Jevons, in his work en- titled " Money and the Mechanism of Ex- change." 90 RIGHTS OF '1 HE PEOPLE IN MONEY. In speaking of " The Standard Unit of Valnel' he says : " The expression standard unit of value, will indeed be almost certainly misunderstood as implying the existence of something of fixed value. As we have seen, however, (page 1 1) value merely expresses the essentially variable ratio in which two com- modities exchange, so that there is no reason to suppose that any substance does for two days together, retain the same value. All that a standard of value means is, that some uniform, unchangeable substance is chosen, in terms of which all ratios of exchange may be expressed and calculated, without any regard whatever to the feelings or mental phenomena which the commodities produce in men. For reasons already stated, one of the metals, gold, silver, or copper, has usually been con- sidered most suitable for constituting the standard substance." Lending money for interest is a wrong against every human right in worldly business ; and when authors, even the most learned and wise on other things, try to excuse or justify it, they lose their wisdom and talk foolishly. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 91 CHAPTER XII. BANKING AND CLEARING-HOUSE SYSTEM. To illustrate the result of business that is carried on under the now universal operation of money-lending and banking-, we will look at the operation as it progresses every day around us. We see that nearly all the money that is received in business is immediately deposited in bank. By this operation all the money that can be said to be in business is brought out of the pockets of the people and all other places, and deposited once, at least,, every ninety days. A great deal of it is de- posited over and over again during that time. The disbursements in business are nearly all made by cheques and drafts against the de- posits. These cheques and drafts rarely take up the money, but are entered to the credit of the persons to whom they are given ; and ^2 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. they carry as much of the deposits as they call for, to the c^redit of those persons. They again, by cheques or drafts, transfer the de- posits to those persons to whom they want to make payments, who a^^ain have them entered on the books of the banks that they do busi- ness with, to their credit, and the money becomes their deposits in those banks, or pays debts, as the case may be. Of all the money that is deposited in bank, there is a very small portion taken up in money again, in the way of making disbursements in business. As said before, the bulk of all such disbursements , are made by cheques or drafts against the -deposits ; and these cheques and drafts are balanced against each other, while the money to balance the account between the banks is sent to the banks that it is due to, by those that prove to be owing it. But of all the money that is gathered from the people by the operation of business, and which, as said before, in the course of about ninety days, takes all the money there is for business, there is but a small portion paid back to the people. On the contrary, from the day it enters the RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY, O,?- banks It becomes capital In them to be held to lend. And it never enters business again in exchange for labor and property, the only entry by which money can truly be said to be In business. But when It leaves the banks It is securely bound to return at a time set to suit the Interest of the banks, and to bring more money with It ; while the same money had previously been borrowed of them on pro- mises for Its return with increase, and is now owed many times over to them for itself. Thus, once In ninety days, or less time, by the operation of depositing the money In bank and by the use of cheques and drafts, the entire money used in business Is swept Into the banks, to be added again to the debt of the people, by their unavoidable borrowing of the money. Instead of getting It In their busi- ness, as they would If It was not for the business of money-lending. But this, hard as it Is, Is not all that the people have to encounter from money-lending. There are vast debts for borrowed money, controlled by private money-lenders, and on these debts there are large sums of money constantly 94 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. gathered and held for similar operations. From these facts of the daily working of the business of money-lending, it is seen that the impossible task is laid upon the people to borrow money and keep it in business and in the treasuries of the country, and also at short set times to return it all, many times increased, to the banks and money-lenders; or, as the alternative, to be ostracized from society. The mere operation of withholding the money from circulating in exchange for labor and property, and compelling people to borrow it on promise to return it with increase, in a very few years after the operation was extended over all the money, would break up business, and transfer the property to the money- lenders. But this, with a general system of depositing the money in banks, and disburs- ing by cheques and drafts in business, with the operation of the clearing-house, would enable the banks and money-lenders to absorb a world every fev/ years, if it would only be put into their mill. It is simply magnificent on account of its proportions. Lending money for interest must be extir- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 95 pated by law, and hereafter prevented under penalty of confiscation of all money engaged in it to the government. Then business can be revived, and business people m.ay unite for the purpose of clearing, if they choose. Pro- fessor Jevons claims that there is great ad- vantage in it, by saving the use of money in a very large portion of business operations. The advantage may be reaped by the people, without cultivating the evil feature that the Professor appears to value so highly, namely, that of lending the money for interest. The selfish control of money breaks business. People should consider this fact from the effect that it has upon their own business, if they cannot from any higher motive. If they do, they will see that a clearing-house, to absorb the money from business, cannot be allowed to exist. In the present condition of affairs, there is no possibility of a revival of business, or that there shall not be a greneral breaklne up of productive employments, and a rapid transfer of property to the money-lenders. The^less people try to do business upon the plan in vogue, the longer it will be possible 06 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. for any considerable portion of them to retain property in their own right. If it was possi- ble to revive business, to be carried on by borrowing money, as it would have to be done if carried on at all, and the effort was backed by all the property in the country, the money- lenders would take it all in a very few years. To show that the operation of depositing money in banks, and disbursing it by cheques and drafts, literally adds the money to the lending capital of the banks ; also to show that learned men appear to see nothing wrong in the effect on business and labor of holding money to lend, but, on the contrary, seem to think that it is a commendable operation, I quote from Professor Jevon's chapters on " Book Credit," and " Banking System." " Considerable economy of the precious metals arises, as we have seen, from passing about pieces of paper representing gold coin, instead of the coin itself But a far more potent source of economy, is what we may call the Cheque and Clearing System, where- by debts are not so much paid, as balanced off against each other. The germ of the method RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 97 is to be found in the ordinary practice of book credit. If two firms have frequent transac- tions with each other, alternately buying and selling, it would be an absurd waste of money to settle each debt immediately it arose, when, in a few days, a corresponding debt might arise in the opposite direction. Accordingly, it is the common practice of firms having re- ciprocal transactions, to debit and credit each other in their books with the debt arising out of each transaction, and only to make a cash payment when the balance happens to become inconveniently great. To represent the high- ly complex system of book credit which is organized by the bankers of a large kingdom, we shall have to employ a method of dlagram- atlc notation. I will therefore remark that the simplest case or type of book-credit, is repre- sented by the formula P Q. Each of the letters, P and Q, indicates a per- son or a firm, and the line Indicates the exist- ence of transactions between them. Only in special cases, however, will this direct balanc- ing of accounts, render the use of cash or of a 98 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. more complex system unnecessary. General- ly speaking, there will be a tendency for a surplus of goods to pass in one direction, so that money must pass in the opposite direc- tion. The manufacturer sells to the whole- sale dealer, the latter sells to the retailer, and the retailer to the consumer. By the inter- vention of the banker, however, the transac- tions of many different individuals, or even of many branches of trade, are brought to a focus, and a large proportion of payments can be balanced off against each other. SINGLE BANK SYSTEM. To obtain a clear notion of the way in which bankers help us to avoid the use of money as the medium of exchange, we must follow up the rise of the system from the sim- plest case to the complete development of the complex organization now existing in the United Kingdom. Let us imagine, in the first place, that there is an isolated town, having no appreciable dealings with other parts of the world, and possessing only a single bank, in which each inhabitant has deposited all his money. If any person, ^, then, wishes to RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 99 make a payment to b, he need not go to his banker, draw out coin, and carry it to <5, but may hand to <^ a cheque requiring the banker to pay the coin to b, if needed. But if b makes payments in the same way, he will not need to draw out any coin. It would be a mere for- mality for b to receive the coin due from a, and then pay it back over the counter to the credit of his account with the same banker. The payment is made by merely writing the sum of money to the debit oi as account, and to the credit of Us account. If b wishes to make another payment to c, a similar record in the bankers ledger will accomplish the business. However many other traders, d, e, etc., there may be, their mutual transactions may be settled in the same way, without their seeing a single coin. We represent this ele- mentary banking organization by the above diagram. Thus, it is obvious that P represents the 100 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. single banker, and a, b, c, d, e, his customers. The deposit banks of Amsterdam and Ham- burg form perfect illustrations of this arrange- ment. So long as we regard only the inter- nal transactions of a town, then a stationary amount of coin, lying untouched in the bank, will allov/ the whole to be accomplished. If the traders never require to make payments to a distance, the metallic money might be dispensed with altogether. But since any of the customers, a, b, c, etc., may want his money, the banker ought to keep at least as much as will meet possible demands." SYSTEM OF TWO BANKS. " As a second case, let us suppose that there is a town which is able to support two banks. \l /7 W // Some of the inhabitants keep their money In one bank, and some in the other, but all whom it is requisite to consider, have an account with one or the other. In the diagram, let P and Q be the two bankers, <2^, <5, c, d, being cus- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 101 tomers of P, and q, r, s, t, customers of O. Now, the mutual transactions of ^, b, c, d, will, as before, be balanced off in the books of P, and similarly with the customers of Q. But if a has to make a payment to q, the opera- tion becomes somewhat more complex. He draws a cheque upon P, and hands it to q, who may, of course, demand coin from P. Not wanting coin, he carries the check to his own banker, Q, and pays it in to his account, in place of coin. It is the banker, Q, who will now have to present the cheque upon P, and it might seem as if the use of coin would be ultimately required. There will be other per- sons, however, making payments in the town in the same manner, and the probability is very great that some of these will result in giving P cheques upon Q, and some in giving Q cheques upon P. The two bankers, then, will be in the position of the two traders, be- fore described, (p. 251) who have a running account. At the worst the payment to be made in coin, will be only the balance of what is due in opposite directions ; but as this bal- ance will probably tend in one direction one 102 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. day, and In the opposite direction the next day, the balance need only be paid when it assumes inconvenient proportions." COMPLEX BANK SYSTEM. " A large commercial town usually possesses several or many banks, each with its distinct body of customers. The mutual transactions of each body will, as before, be balanced off in the books of their common bank, but the larger part of the transactions will now be tross ones, resulting in a claim by one banker upon another. The probability is very great, indeed, that each banker will have to receive, as well as to pay, each day ; but it does not follow that he will pay to the same as those who are going to pay to him. The complex- ity of relations becomes considerable ; thus among fourteen banks there are — ^— or 91 dif- ferent pairs which may have mutual claims, and among fifty banks there would be no less than 1,225 pairs. The result is, that P might happen to have a considerable balance to pay to O, and yet might be going to receive about the same sum from R. or S. The actual car- rying about of coin, under such circumstances, RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. lOS would be absurd, because a manifest extension of the book-credit system at once meets the difficulty. The several banks need only agree to appoint, as it were, a bafikers bank, to hold a portion of the cash of each bank, and then the mutual indebtedness may be balanced off, just as when a bank acts for individuals. In the figure we see four banks, P, Q, R, S, each with its own body of customers, but brought into connection with each other by the bank- ers' bank, X. ^' P need not now send a clerk to present bundles of cheques upon O, R, and S, but can pay them into the central bank, X, where* after being placed to the credit of P and sorted out, they will be joined to similar par- cels of cheques received from Q, R, S, and finally presented at the banks upon which they are drawn. Thus all the payments made by cheques will be ejected without the use of 104 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. coin, just as if there were only a single bank in the town. What each bank has to pay each day, will usually be balanced pretty close- ly by what it has to receive. Such balance as remains will be paid by a transfer in the books of X, the bankers' bank. It is not precisely true that there is in every English town, a bankers' bank, which thus manages the pay- ments between banks. The accountant's part of the work is carried out by an institution called the Clearing-House, managed by a committee of bankers, and the Bank of Eng- land is employed to hold the deposits of the bankers, and make transfers which close the transactions of each day." It has been said that the effect of deposit- ing the money in bank, and using cheques and drafts in business, practically gives the money to the banks to be lending capital ; it may be added that the high interest charged soon enables the banks to turn the balance of all accounts in their favor, and the money becomes theirs, in fact. It is not possible to convey in detail the evils that are inflicted by the few upon the RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 105 many, by means of taking money out of the use that exists for it, in the business of society, and for which by law and custom of society it is made. For like drawing sap from a tree, the incision and gradual waste of the tree's life may be seen and expressed, but not the hung^ and thirst of the decaying tree and its branches, nor the efforts of the ebbing life to staunch the inexorable wound. The wreck of business among the people is easily seen, and may be described, if it was supposed to be useful to do more than call attention to the fact ; but what pen could describe the effect upon the minds of the people ; of the long years of struggling against fate, to save, firsts, their business and property; then their busi- ness and only a home ; then only one of these, to end at last with neither business nor a home, and only the inexorable law of govern- ment and society that demands the procuring and employment of money in worldly affairs, remains. Or, as the alternative, to sink out of society, and become a vagrant and pauper.. Though the bitter cup of merchandising in money has been forced upon the people with 106 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. a relentless hand, reflection must convince them that they have but tasted it over the brim ; that the cup is full, and that nothing but complete degradation and servitude will drain it. There is no stopping-place or mid- dle-ground. It must either be a right to get money in exchange for property or services, unrestricted by any right to make gain by merchandising in it, with the possibilities of general freedom and elevation of the masses of the people through honorable employments and cultivation, or it must be vassalage of business and the producing millions, and wide- spread pauperism. The contest is inaugurated ; it cannot be avoided; it must go on as it is going; busi- ness and labor to be more and m.ore oppres- sed and degraded, or the people must revert to first principles. Re-read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, and elect a Congress that will assert and maintain the rights of the whole people in money ; which is no less or other than their rights tp " life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness." RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY, 107 CHAPTER XIIL DEFENDING MONEY-LENDING. The arguments advanced in defense of money-lending, like those in defense of all other great wrongs, are unworthy of reason- ing men. To illustrate this we will cite the arguments that the writer has met with most frequently, in works and discussions on money- lending. It is, " that if there is no consider- ation to be paid for the use of money, nobody will lend it, and that, as a consequence, a great many could not get money to go into busi- ness. The final conclusions of the above condi- tions, must strike every one as being false and absurd. If the defenders of the evil had fol- lowed up the condition, that if there is no consideration to be paid for the use of money nobody will lend — which, in itself, is true 108 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. enough — with the same study and care that they manifest in their efforts to defend the money-lenders, they would have been able to picture a condition in the affairs of society unattended Vv^ith the disorders " with which," in the words of a noted writer, " usury must always be attended." But instead of this, they try to make it ap- pear, that if no gain can be made by lending money, nobody who had money, would part with it, and that it would be impossible for any person to get it. Now, it is very clear that such a condition of affairs would have ex- actly the opposite tendency. No one of right mind would hold money if it was bringing him nothing, but was wasting and being taxed away, any longer than he could help ; when^ by investing it in business and property, he could be making something out of it. If lend- ing money for interest was prohibited, it would not, as some seem, to think, interfere, in the least, vv^ith any one who could have done so before, engaging in any orderly business. The conditions under which money ever has been lent — and much more so now — with RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 109 a few exceptions, are such that any one who could borrow, could obtain the same amount and even more, if the money was, as it should be, only profitable to the holder as he parted with it in exchange for property, or produc- tive labor. For it is clear that under such a condition of affairs, the property that was before required for security could readily be converted Into money, as all kinds of property would be sought after for investment. This, also, would cause the regulation of the price of property In the only orderly way, that is, in accordance with the just law of supply and demand. The exceptions referred to above are indeed exceptions. They are those who, by good business qualifications and talent have obtained money to invest in business, through the confidence of friends. Now, again, it is evident that under the above condition of business affairs, such persons would be any- thing but sufferers from it. There would be a great demand for them to fill honorable positions, and on salaries, too, that would en- able them to become partners or Independent. And while they would be relieved from the 110 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. cares and dangers attending business done on borrowed capital, they would be free from the almost inevitable crash and partially-paid cred- itors that follow the attempt to pay back the money borrowed and invested in business. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. Ill CHAPTER XIV. IMMORAL EFFECTS OF MONEY-LENDING. The effect of money-lending does not ne- cessarily make men drunkards, thieves, or murderers ; but its effects upon the morals of the people are very bad. When people find their business breaking up, despite their most earnest efforts and frugality, and see upon all sides of them discouragements to the produc- ing classes, while the money-lenders are reap- ing a rich harvest, they are very apt to feel that the government, in making money, and making it the only legal sign of value and legal tender, and permitting it to be made merchandise of, is a hard master. The loss of respect for the laws, and the thought that they inflict injustice, and that by the injustice, pri- vation and want Is forced upon dear and de- pendent ones, are bad instructors of honesty il2 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. and morals. If the thoughts have so little scope as not to comprehend the injustice of the monetary laws, that leave the producing masses of the people to become the prey of the money-holders, while there is a conscious- ness of the increasing poverty of the produc- ers of wealth ; and of the idle luxury of the money-lenders, the declension to the conclu- sion that there is no such thing as justice, will become very easy. This, also, is a bad school for any of the humanizing virtues. While the uninstructed but industrious people are going through these sad experiences, there is nothing in the current literature touching the condi- tion of affairs, that has any tendency to strengthen in the mind the stricken principles of right, or to check a downward tendency. Conscious of having lived lives of severe in- dustry and rigid frugality, and that they and their class are sinking deeper and deeper into poverty, they are told that it is all owing to, extravagant living, and to too much produc- tion ; and that what is needed is to live more .economically, and to wait until the surplus production is worked off. Instead of giving RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 113 support to the wavering and doubting minds, hope is taken from them, and they are left to sink. The degradation of the masses of the people, as the result of the money being taken out of business and held to lend, is no new- thing ; it existed in all countries where the business prevailed. It reduced the industrious and frugal people of ancient Rome to pover- ty, and then to the degradation of receiving alms from the public treasuries and store- houses ; and it is rapidly making vast numbers of the people of the United States familiar with the same degradation. In midsummer of 1876, it is reported that fifteen hundred people received support from public charity in the city of Columbus, Ohio, besides the in- mates of the poor-house. In the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, of Thursday, July 27, 1876, under the head of " Bread Riot/' it is reported that, "In accordance with a call from some perturbed spirits, the workmen, who could conscientiously call themselves idle and starv- ing, met on the Esplanade yesterday morning, about eight o'clock, as a method of their re- sentment at the present condition of affairs." 8 114 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. Passing on we find that they went to the city building, where " the assembled toilers were informed that nothing could be done for them at the present. Making the best- of the re- fusal, they distributed themselves as if they were waiting, after the manner of the antique and noble Romans, to have elemosynary corn distributed to them." Instances of this kind are becoming pain- fully frequent, and the reports of the breaking up of the long established and useful business of the country are so common, that they have ceased to attract attention. To give further proof of the pitiable condition that the labor- ing people of the country are reduced to, we insert here from the New York Herald oi the 23d of August, 1876 : "Work or Bread. — Much interest Is felt by the idle workingmen of Newark, in the issue between the idle workingmen of the metrop- olis and the authorities, touching the question of supplying work. So it is in Elizabeth and other leading cities of the State. The work- ingmen of Elizabeth have addressed to the authorities a petition, which is as follows i • RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 1 15 * The undersigned, citizens of the city of Eliza- beth, and the most of us with families de- pendent upon us for support, earnestly and respectfully ask your honorable body to take some action that will provide us with work. Should the common council, In their wisdom, resolve In favor of some public improvements, the city authorities can give labor to many of our number, who are now not only out of work, but actually In want of the necessaries of life. Hoping our humble petition may be favorably received, we shall ever pray,' etc. Accompanying the petition was another from property-owners, urging that, in the interests of humanity, the requests of the workingmen be complied with." Can anybody doubt the demoralizing ten- dency of the wrecked, hopeless condition set- tling down upon the workingmen, the pro- ducers of the world's wealth, though they are } 116 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. CHAPTER XV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. The question relating to money, like every other question, when looked at from first prin- ciples, has just two sides to it ; one is the right side, and the other is the wTong side. Usage and changes may obscure the right, and make it difficult to arrive at conclu- sions unmixed with wrong, but in its first prin- ciples it is not so. When right and wrong have become mixed in any matter of inquiry there is no way to get a view of the truth, but to resolve the question into its original ele- ments, and study the elements in their own light. There has been an effort in this little book to bring up this elementary work and urge its importance, and also in some degree to perform the work of analyzing the questions relating to money. It is supposed that the RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 117 work performed so far Is much in the nature of quarrying blocks of stone that others will cut and polish for themselves ; but the work must go on. This question must be presented to everyone stripped of the covering of mys- tery with which, of late years, It is claimed by many to be surrounded. Mystery Is a very suspicious robe for anything that concerns the people. Anything that concerns the people to know Is not mysterious. It may be com- mon ; lying on the surface of material things and directly effecting the first thoughts of everyone, and therefore easily understood by everyone, as the questions concerning money are ; or It may be complex and require closer Investigation and higher points of observation, but If It afTects the human being It Is not mys- terious. The term when applied to questions affecting the people has nothing In it but the acknowledgment of Ignorance ; unless It Is a special coinage to cover up falsity and wrong, as Is certainly the only use there is for the term In questions connected with money. There is nothing wrong In using the term mystery, If It Is understood that It Is merely 118 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. offered as an acknowledgment of ignorance ; but if it is offered as an end or barrier to thought and investigation on an)/ subject affecting the people, it is wrong. Of all things that affect the affairs of human beings money is the most common and pervading, and it controls the worldly interest of every indivi- dual. Can anyone believe that if it was not taken out of its function and wrongfully applied to another there would be any mys- tery or even complexity of character or func- tion about it. If there was, that circumstance alone would prove it to be an enormity, and that it oupht not to exist ; for thino-s that are common, and that affect the life of all, are easily understood by all, even by those of ordinary information. What, then, is the meaning of the mystery that is thrown around the questions relating to money ? The source from which the claim of mystery comes may help us to understand why it is raised. If there was any truth in the application of the term ; if the subject was really complex and required, great scope of thought to understand it, the first, and, in fact, the only ones, likely RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 119 to be perplexed by the question would be the common people, those whose thoughts it is supposed take in but a very small circle. But they never speak of the mysteries of finance or money. The expression never originated with them. If they use it, it is a sure sign that they have been at a political meeting, and have heard candidates for office talk, or that they have been reading political platforms. The common people know that money is wonderfully simple, and that it simplifies everything that it comes in contact with. They know that it is as essential in their worldly affairs as the air is to their bodily life, and that death to business must be the result of depriving it of money, as surely as it is the result of depriving the body of air to breathe. Now, if a number of men should commence business, and, for power, dam up a stream, and thereby fill the air of a populous country with malaria, and one after another of the people were becoming sick and dying, there might be some talk of mystery, and it would be sure to originate with the operators of the unwhole- some business and their friends. If the suf- 120 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. fering people had no remedy, or, at leasts thought that they had none, they would suffer and die, but they would not talk about it as a mystery. They might lose respect for their government if it failed to give them relief ; and some of them, in the rebellious spirit of Job's wife, might think of cursing God and dying, but they would not stultify common reason and sense by calling it a mystery. The same is true of money. The common people know that under the laws of the government it is essential to their business, and that if it does not circulate in their business in ex~ change for that which they have to exchange for it, that is, in exchange for their labor and property, that their business must die. They may see the bankers and money-lenders hold- ing the money to lend, and refusing to part with it for anything but promises for its re- turn to them with increase, while the business all over the country is reeling to its fall from want of the money, and even feel that their own business is suffering, but they v/ill not call it a mystery until they have listened to the apologizers of the evil business of bank- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 121 ing and money-lending. These Invent a new use for the term, to excuse or conceal the eviL The common people may be made to think that there is no remedy, and they will quietly see their business broken up, and themselves, and families impoverished, and even pauper- ized ; but they will not call it a mystery, and it is well. The straight-forward common hon- esty and sense of the people who look at things and speak about them as they are, is the one thing that gives hope of the elevation of the race. It is now the duty of the peo- ple to look at this question of money, in the straight-forward light that it occupies in busi- ness affairs. In the business both of the eovernment and people, it is necessary to have one authoritative measure and standard of value and medium of exchange. Why is this necessary .^ It is neces- sary in order that values may be measured and exchano-ed in laro-e or small amounts, to suit every person's circumstances, and that there may be a medium of communicating the ser- vices of each member of society to all, and of all to each. Money is made to perform these 122 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. important functions in the affairs of the gov- ernment and people, and it does it perfectly and with the most exact justice and convene ience to all, when it circulates among the peo- ple, in exchange for their services and useful- ness. This usefulness for which money is ex- changed, may consist of services rendered or of property. The services and property are necessary to all in some form or other, and it might happen, owing to the common need of the services and property, that people would not justly and equitably exchange them for money, if custom and law did not make money necessary in business, to exchange values and to pay business balances, taxes, and public revenues. The legal character that is given to money, makes it a most equitable medium of performing the high offices just etiumera- ted, in the affairs of the government and the people. But how does it do It? Let us look at the operation. It does it because It is necessary In business for the people to get it to measure the value of everything, accord- ing to a law called the law of supply and de- mand, and pass it from one person to another RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 123 in exchange for the things valued, so that any one may get money at the correct value of his property or services, and by means of it be placed in a condition to procure the things that he may stand in need of. As money is made of gold and silver, or of paper in quan- tities agreeing in supply with gold and silver, it will be reasonably uniform and just, and will operate for every person alike. That is reasonable, and there is no mystery about it. But suppose the money is allowed to become private merchandise, and that the holders are allowed to make gain, by charging for the use of it, while by notes and promises to pay money, they hold it bound to return to them, out of the business that it v/as made for; how will that operate on the affairs of the people ? Let Congressmen answer that question. They will have to answer it reasonably, and show by the answer that they are ready to make laws that will do justice to all, or they must cease to be Coneressmen. In the mean- time it will be seen that such a condition would open the door, and by pecuniary in- ducement, unlimited in amount would invite 124 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. those who at the time might be in possession of the money, to perpetrate the most cruel wrong upon all other people. The efi'ect would be cruel beyond measure upon the pro- ducers ; it is the products of labor, and con- sequently labor, also, that are the principal subjects controlled by the money measure. Everything that operates to prevent or retard equitable and just exchange of money for property and labor, is borne directly, and to the remotest consequences, by the producers. Not only is all the interest paid by them, but, as has been shown before, all the consequen- ces of the waste of the time of the money in making return movements to the money-lend- ers, and the breaking of business connections effected by taking the money out of business to make the return, and from continually declin- ing values, and consequent discouragement of exchanging money for labor and property. In short, money-lending is robbery of the pro- ducing classes ; and it has nothing in itself to cure the evil it works, but goes on with In- creasing momentum till it Is prevented by lavv-; or, until it works revolution of governnipnt. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 125 The work of stopping, and hereafter pre- venting the great evil, is for the people. Jus- tice to all makes this work their duty. Al- though it Is nothing but the common principle of right and justice towards all, the argument in the present conditions will necessarily be addressed to the matter of protecting the ut- terly exposed rights and freedom of the pro- duclnp^ classes. The framers of the Constitution of the United States have made it easy work for the people to procure and maintain their rights in the money. For they provided in that im- portant instrument that " Congress shall have the right to coin money and to regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coins." No one, whose opinion will have any weight, will pre- tend that any other power, or that any person, can justly claim a right to put a value on money, by any rule not fixed and regulated by Congress ; or deny that Congress may, by fines and forfeitures and confiscations, main- tain its regulations of the value of money. All, therefore, that the people have to do, Is to unite in the election of a Congress that 136 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. will repeal all bank charters and privileges, that allow making merchandise of money ; and that will enact a law prohibiting the taking of interest or gain, on any forhi of promise to pay money, except the promises of the United States, with forfeiture to the United* States government of all money and property involv- ed in violating the law. This will cause the money to seek the channels of business for which it is made, a condition that will at once restore the broken business of the country, to be no more disturbed by panics. It will also restore to all of the people, rich and poor, their common rights in the money, and neither more nor less, a boon that the pro- ducers of the world's wealth have not enjoyed since the fall of Adam. After more than four years of active inter- change of thought, with people of various business and professions, it is believed that the people will be almost unanimous in favor of such action, as soon as there is presented anything like a reasonable statement of the general rights in money. It is hoped that this book may prove sufficient for the purpose, RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 12T and afford substantial footing to maintain the rights of the whole people, In this their most important concernment. The business of lending money for Interest, has no rational or just ground to stand upon, and It must go down ; though the arguments used against It may be only like rough, undressed stones from the quarry. It is not supposed it will be necessary to disturb party lines, as there will be a vast majority of both parties In favor of It. Those occupying positions of preferment in the par- ties, will not be likely to be the first to move in the matter. It would be strange if they did. Their places of preferment being given to them on old grounds. It Is not to be ex- pected that they will make the first movement on new questions. But the people cannot afford to wait for those who, on account of circumstances that have no relation to the question at issue, will move slowly In it. The tendency to adhere to established thought and practice, operates with peculiar force with those known as the learned. Their learning, acquired through years of application to 128 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. books and authorities, is not favorable ground lor thoughts that are new, and require the es- tablishing of new orders ; especially if it is to bring up the plain and unfashionable, and to disturb the influential. There is nothino- in o favor of this plain principle of justice to the laboring millions found in their learning, but every unreasonable thing on the other side ; and they will be most of all likely to let it alone. They will be slow to attack the prin- ciple of the common rights of the people in money, relieved of the right of private mer- chandise in it, when they come to consider it fairly, but it is not found in their books, and they must not be expected to take kindly to it at first. The public press was founded on different ideas, and it must not be looked to to lead off on this entirely new principle. But it also will not lift a type to oppose it. The work, then, is left entirely to the people. Their condition, as well as the condition of their de- scendants, depends upon their taking up the work, and performing it thoroughly. Organ- ize in your school districts, townships, coun- ties, and congressional districts ; and send RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 129 men to Congress to do the work. The learn- ed may attack the style of this book. They may also attack the way in which the people go about the work of accomplishing the re- form. And it will be well for all to remem- ber, that the evil they are about to reform is an old one ; and that those who are engaged in banking and money-lending, have only shown themselves wise in the things of mam- mon, by going into the business, and not wait- ing until others took the start of them. The people must make the laws of the government right on the subject of making gain on money, while it is held as private merchandise, before they ask the holders of it to let it go in ex- change for property, or in business, and they will find all the better class of the money- lenders will operate with them. TITLE OF THE BOOK. The rights of the people in money is the title of this little volume. The title was adopted as expressing the result that the book is written to promote. In the latter part of the year 1871 the writer was watching the currents of business, 130 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. and trying to trace their sources and tenden- cies, and he saw that the bankers and money- lenders were driving the money out of regular business into channels of speculation. That people were getting restive In regular busi- ness, and were seeking positions from which results could be reached quickly. The cause of this was discovered to be in tne fact that the money was controled by bankers and money-lenders, who compelled It to return periodically out of business to them- selves ; and that, as a result, all of what might be called the regular but slow-moving produc- tive business of the country was quite out of its reckoning and was getting into shoal water, where sailing was rough. So far, matters were seen pretty clearly, and also that it was a duty to work for a cure of the evil. That work was taken up at once, first in efforts to get those who were competent to bring it before the world by speaking and writ- ing, to engage in the work. Failing there, then in trying to get prominent officers of the gov- ernment and members of Congress, to take up the work of stopping merchandising in money. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 131 Not succeeding with men in office, the art of writing newspaper articles was tried, and always succeeded in getting hints that the articles were not needed. Everything else failing, it was determined to write a book. This little volume is the result. If it is at all important that the people should know their rights in money, a book to promote the object is needed. The publication of the title of the book developes the fact that there is a very general lack of thought and information on the subject of the common rights of the people in money. Intelligent men, candidates for Congress, discuss the question of finance as a question that capital, by which they mean money, and business, by which they mean trade, are interested in ; but without the least discernable thought that labor has any rights in money or finance until the labor is turned into money. They show the peo- ple truly that they have an interest in money ; that when they have gotten it for their labor they have an interest in the money having the highest possible value in it. That, in such case, it is their interest ]32 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. ■ that the money should be gold or be at par with gold. Labor may be said to produce or renew the wealth of the world every year. Money is made to measure the value of the production or labor, and by a fair and just exchange of money for it to make just return for the labor or production. The rights of labor in money are, that the exchange of money for labor, and for property, the product of labor, shall pro- ceed on fair and equal terms. That this fair and equal exchange may take place, it is manifest that the holders of the money must not be allowed to make gain out of it while they hold it back from such exchange ; nor while, by notes or promises to pay money, they hold it bound to return to themselves. If the hold- ers of the money are allowed to make gain out of it Vv^hile they refuse to exchange it for property or labor, it is evident that the ex- change of money for the produced wealth can- not go on till the price of the property or labor falls sufficiently to compensate for the charge on the money, and also to afford suf- ficient allowance for the unmeasurable dis- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 133 asters that merchandising in money is known to bring upon trade. The rights of labor in money just referred to, are the rights of labor performed, but If these rights are violated, it is evident that the effect will be projected with intensified evil upon the labor to be perform- ed. The increase of the evil comes from diminished employment as well as constantly falling prices of labor. Besides the Important rights in money referred to, the laborers have the rights of the money-holders in the money they get. They have the right that the money shall be a true and, as nearly as may be, an unvariable measure of value and medium of exchange. But this right of the producers of wealth is as one drop of water to a bucketfull when compared to their right that money shall enter business in exchange for labor or prop- erty, without gain to a holder, or charge for the use of It, while, by notes or promises to pay money it Is bound to return to a lender. The discussion of money or finance, as It Is con- ducted by statesmen and writers on political economy In this age, Involves questions mere- ly of money and trade. 134 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. The money-lender, claiming and exercising the right of merchandise in the money he holds, turns It into such channels as will realize for him the best profits byway of interest, and will allow him at short periods to recover possession of the money. Business, or trade in labor and property, finds itself unable to compete with the demands the money-lenders make or find for the money, and trade wants a change. Here the argument, not to say chaos, com- mences between trade and money. The money-lenders admit that trade, or business as it is called, cannot compete for the money, and they say the reason is, that everything is inflated by the superabundance of money is- sued during the war of the rebellion, and that the remedy for existing evils is to be found in a reduction of the prices of labor and resultant property to a gold standard. As might be expected, they ignore the rights of the people in money. Political economists are not slow to confirm their position, and claim a reduc- tion of the cost of production as the way to restore trade. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 135 Statesmen, liking the respectable company of learned writers and money-lenders, think they are about right, though some times, with a gentle inclination towards the people, ven- ture the remark that " the subject of money and finance is a very deep subject, a little too deep for them." But among them all, though the money is made to measure and transfer the wealth of the world from the producers of it to the consumers of it, no where is recog- nized the common rights of the producers in the money. With them all it is a question to be adjusted between the traders in labor and property and the money-holders. Though the rights of producers be still ignored, it will be impossible to adjust the contest between the traders and money-lenders on the terms the lenders do, and will always make for the money until they are controlled by govern- ment, as has been sufficiently shown in these pages. The rights of the producers that money shall cease to be an article of private merchandise, is so clear and important, and the way to secure the right through Congres- sional regulation of the value of money is so 136 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. safe and easy, that the subject is commended with confidence to the care of the producers, with the remarks that it is the producers who pay all the interest and charges on money, and not the traders in their labor, or in prop- erty, the products of their labor. The investigation of the subject that pre- ceded the writing of the rights of the people in money, convinced the writer, as stated else- where in the book, that the reform of the great evil the producers are suffering through bank- ing and money-lending must spring from the producers themselves ; but the entire ignoring of their rights in money was not fully realized till the publication of the title of the book caused it to appear. If they are not yet fully convinced of the necessity of vigorously com- mencing the work of reforming the evil, they soon will be, for the evil will not weaken or cure itself. They need not be discouraged because the learned do not lead off in the reform. Com- mon reflection, with the rough cast arguments they may find in this volume, will make them more than a match for any sophistry that may RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 13T be offered against their common rights in money. EXTRAVAGANT LIVING. The universally acknowledged disorder that is existing in the business affairs of the people of the United States, and which has existed in a most tangible form for a number of years, is generally accounted for by people in easy circumstances as the result of extravagant living. The cool manner in which well-off people account for their neighbors' adverse worldly circumstances as the result of extrav- agant living, while they themselves live daily at an expense that these same neighbors never venture upon, even for a holiday, would be a worthy subject of study for the curious. The subject would not be the less sugges- tive that these philosophers would generally be found to be holding money bound to re- turn out of business to them, with large in- crease, under forfeiture of five or six for one. The form that the disorders of the country is generally seen under, is that of uncon- sumed production — production that is not and cannot be bought and consumed ; and 138 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. from this cause factories and other sources of extensive production are compelled to stop or contract operations. These stoppages and contractions of productive employments tend to throw large numbers of the people out of work, and as a consequence the world is be- coming filled with idleness, dissipation and pauperism. Men with families to house, clothe and feed, go through the discouraging experience of finding themselves thrown out of employment, and through every effort they are capable of making, they sink deeper and deeper into poverty, till they are compelled to accept public charity, and become acknowl- edged paupers. Now, when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place: Eliphaz, the Temanite, and Bildad, the Shuhite, and Zop- har, the Naamathite ; for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him, and to comfort him." The record goes on to indicate that Jobs friends proved to be "miserable comforters;" but their words do not appear at very RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 139 great disadvantage, either as to reason or intention, when compared with the comforters who philosophically inform the poorly-housed, half-clothed and half-starved victims of the present derangement in business, "that they are, and have been, living too extravagantly." These comforters claim that the evil is the result of over-production, stimulated by infla- ted money, and extravagant living, stimulated into life by the same cause. Now, extrava- gant living means extravagant consumption. If there was any general extravagance in living the superabundant produce would rapidly dis- appear ; in fact, a redundancy of production would never appear in the home labor of an extravagant-living people, for the two very potent reasons : first, that the extravagant living would consume the production, and second, that extravagant livers never prove to be superabundant producers. Another phase of these men's philosophy is, that there are too many trying to live by speculation, to the neglect of regular, produc- tive employment. This would be a great evil, and no doubt it exists to an unhealthy de- 140 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. gree, and it results from the evil business of money-lending-, but the over-production which is said to be the cause of the stag-nation in business, certainly could not spring from peo- ple speculating, to the neglect of productive labor. It is very evident the Temanite, the Shuhite, and the Naamathite of the present time, are as much of failures, as their archi- types vi^ere in Job's time. I never borrowed money, and consequently I never paid any interest. These were the remarks made by an industrious day laborer, on hearing the title and some of the princi- ples of the book entitled " The Rights of the People in Money" discussed. The subject being taken up and examined, it was found that in the three years of 1868, 1869 and 1870, he had performed an average of two hundred and seventy days work for every year ; and that his average wages had been one dollar and seventy-five cents per day, which made of wages for every year, four hundred and sev- enty-two dollars and fifty eents. While in the years 1873, 1874 and 1875, by his greatest efforts to get employment, he was employed RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 141 one hundred and seventy days per year, at an average wages of one dollar and twenty-five cents per day, or two hundred and two dollars and fifty cents for every year ; a difference of two hundred and seventy dollars against every year of the last decade, or a difference of eight hundred and ten dollars in three years. By the best data furnished, it was thought that in the last decade, there had been an average saving in prices paid for articles of food and clothing consumed, of about twenty dollars for every year, or sixty dollars for the three years ; leaving a total loss in three years of seven hundred and fifty dollars, or just two hundred and fifty dollars per year, while he- admits that the year 1876, half gone, promises to be worse in results than any of the other years. This man is known to stand at the very head of that very large and useful class of men known as day laborers. Yet it is evident he is standing upon the very brink of pauper- ism, and unless the oppression is removed from the labor of the country, he must soon join that large and constantly increasing ]42 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. throng, that have been compelled to receive public support. The productive labor of the country pays all the interest and charges upon money, whether the laborers do, or do not, borrow ; for, as said before on this subject, those who borrow money for business, do not pay the interest. The world might be chal- lenged in vain to show any true reason for rejecting the conclusion that the day laborer instanced, paid a portion of all the interest collected upon the money of the country, that bore the same relation to the whole interest paid, that his labor bore to the whole labor of the country. The labor pays all the interest collected upon money. The portion that may be left of the products of the labor, for the use and benefit of the laborers, depends upon the cir- cumstances under which the labor may be performed. In the years 1868, 1869 and 1870, there was still some portion of the money that had been paid by the government to the people, for war services and material, passing into circulation. This money supported busi- ness through those years, and labor received RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 143 employment and reasonable support during that time. That money was exhausted by the year 1873, and the business of the country had to depend in the years 1873, 1874 and 1875, as it does now, continually upon money borrowed. Labor, under the first circumstan- ces, had a margin left, that it was possible for the laborer to live upon, but not to live ex- travagantly, as every person of sense knows; while it is not possible for the laborers, under the circumstances of the last decade of years named, nor at the present time, to live the lives of free citizens. It is impossible but that under the existing circumstances of labor and business, a very large portion of that useful class of laborers known as day laborers, will fall into a condition to require public support. In saying that the laborer pays all the in- terest that may be collected on money used in the business of a country, it is not intended to deny that circumstances may occasionally cause the consumers of the products of labor to bear a part of the burden ; such circum- stances as grow out of war, might cause it for a short time. But no circumstances will, for 144 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. any considerable time together, relieve the laborer from bearing the whole weight of the interest collected upon the money that may be used, as the measure of value and medium of exchange, whatever the interest may be. The bankers and money-lenders of the United States, are a much more onerous burden upon the people, than would be a large class of political aristocracy, sustained ^by revenues assessed upon the people. The burden of taxes and revenues collect- ed from the people, is borne by them several- ly, according to their ability, and though the collections be large, a political aristocracy re- turns the money to the people, for services, and property, the products of their labor. A political aristocracy, sustained by rents or revenues, collected by any just rule, would be a light burden upon the people, as compar- ed to the bankers and monfey-lenders of the United States. A political aristocracy con- trol no money but their rents and revenues, and this they return, as just stated, to the people, in a way that aids and stimulates labor ; whereas, the bankers and money-lend- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 145 ers, while they collect as largely from the peo- ple as a political aristocracy, they control the whole money in a way that cannot fail to break up business and labor, and continually lessen the ability of the people to pay. This book started with the declaration that the bankers and money-lenders are rapidly breaking up the business of the country, are taking' the property from the masses of the people, and reducing them to a condition of hopeless poverty and degradation. It is gen- erally admitted that the condition described is spreading rapidly over the people. The writer charges the unjust control of the money as a lending capital, with producing the con- dition. Learned writers on political economy and statesmen, charge it to over-production, extravagant living, and speculating, to the neglect of productive industry ; all these evils, as they say, resulting from inflated paper money. The writer is no advocate of inflated money, but denies that inflation, of itself, has any tendency to produce the existing condi- tion. He charges the political writers and statesmen with perpetrating egregious folly, 10 146 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. in ascribing the condition to over-production, extravagant living, and to the people specula- ting, to the neglect of productive labor ; and in claiming that these result, as a natural con- sequence, from inflated money. The writer is willing to admit that this hasty handling of the subject, cannot prove to be equal to its importance, but he confidently trusts the posi- tions he has taken, to the scrutiny of a dis- cerning public. QUESTIONS ANSWERED. Now that the neighbors know that the writer is getting out a book against lending money for interest, the question is often asked him, sometimes with apparent concern : How the people will get money } Sometimes the question is accompanied with remarks that direct the mind to the point of transition from the present condition, where it is expected the needed money may be borrowed, to the proposed order where the money would be expected only through business channels in exchange for property or services. At other times the question is very clearly directed to the difficulty that people without capital RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 147 would experience In going into business, If the business of lending money for Interest vv^as done away with. In reference to the first point, namely, how the people would be able to get money neces-- sary to pay taxes and carry on business, while the country would be In the transition state, we might remark, that while it would be very Important for a patient suffering from a car- buncle, appearing on the head, that the phy- sician called should understand the malady, and not mistake the swelling for a phrenolo- gical development of the neighboring organs of the mind, it might not be desirable that he should follow the exact order of remedy found in the books. It might be very impor- tant for the patient, that with a clear and comprehensive understanding of that parti- cular case, the physician should conform the treatment to the case. So it is with the pre- sent business malady of the world ; it is very important for the patient that the true nature of the disease should be understood by those who may be called to administer remedies. It is of the greatest moment that they should 148 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. have a clear comprehension of the disease, and of the constitution of the patient ; and the nature and effects of remedies applied to business diseases. But it is not necessary that they should find the exact form of remedy laid down in a book. It is very clear that they will have to bring in the aid of the surgeon, and amputate all the present authorized and unauthorized forms of making gain by making merchandise of money ; but the exact kind of stimulant that may be needed, if any, to keep up the vigor of the patient, during the operation, will be best understood and applied by the skillful surgeon at the time of the operation. It might prove to be right for the government when it was breaking up the present out- rageous system of money control, to issue small sums of its own paper money to the people, by loans, at the same rate of interest the government pays upon its bonds. These loans to be secured by the pledge of at least twice the value of unencumbered pro- ductive real estate ; and to be paid back in three equal parts, at three, six, and nine years. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 149 The issues to be limited to such amount as would agree with a gold standard of money. Thus gold might reasonably be expected to take the place of the paper money as it would be called in. But these things could be judged of best at the time. First, let the nature of that disease that is to-day filling the world with idleness, and its resulting dissipation, vice, and pauperism, be well understood, and we need not fear but that true remedies can be comprehended and applied to the curing of any and every phase of evil that the malady may develop. In answer to that form of the question that has reference to those who, without capital, might desire to borrow money to go into business, it may be suggested that going into business without capital is itself a disorder that is not to be encouraged. Per- sons that are qualified to carry on a regular business, would never undertake to do it on money borrowed on promises for the return of the money at set times to the lenders. They know that to effect a return of the money out of any regular business, at set 150 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. times, would break up the business. If those who desire the business of money-lending to be perpetuated as a means of enabling people without capital to go into business were un- derstood, it would be found that it was not business but speculation they want. They may be in a somewhat similar state of mind with poor people surrounded with slavery. Though it be the pregnant source of their poverty and degradation, they still sup- port it, it may be with the secret hope that some time they will own slaves. There may be in the mind of the advocate of the business of lending money for interest, a fond looking to a time in the future, a future so full of promise to some people, when they will be money-lenders. It is surely this, or specula- tion, that they see. It is not conceivable that people of ordinary intelligence would serious- ly entertain the supposition that any of the regular productive employments followed among men, could be sustained and carried on with money borrowed, and to be returned periodically to the lenders, with increase. It is stated on what appears to be true data, that RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 151 there are mortgages on real estate in the city of New York, to secure the payment of money to the amount of five hundred millions of dol- lars. It is not probable that the indebtedness by mortgages is more than half as much as the indebtedness on other securities owed by the people of the city of New York, including the city debt, and their equal portion of the state and county indebtedness. From this it would appear that the population of the city of New York owe fully fifteen hundred mil- lion dollars, exclusive of the share which they bear in the indebtedness of the United States government. There is no reason to suppose that the peo- ple of the city of New York owe any more than other portions of the people of the United States, and hence the conclusion is, that the people of the United States owe fully sixty billions of dollars, besides the debt that the United States government owes. Now this vast debt is owed to bankers and money-lend- ers, whose control of the indebtedness and the accruing interest, operates to turn all money out of, and from productive business, 152 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. only for short, disconnected periods as it may be borrowed of them, on promises for its re- turn to them with increase. If the interest upon this indebtedness amounts to an average rate of ten per cent, it amounts annually to about forty-eight hundred million dollars. Though there is not claimed perfect accuracy for the foregoing calculations, it is believed it is not too high, either as to the amount of the debt, or the rate of interest that is actually charged The debt has been created through and by means of controlling the money that the peo- ple are compelled to have in their business, and to pay their taxes, as a lending capital. It is not possible but that such control of the money of business, would result in involving the people in irredeemable debt, and in the final overthrow of business ; the transfer of the property to the money-controllers, and the degradation of labor. Nor is it possible that the evil will cure itself Now, if the physi- cians having the patient in charge, should mis- take the carbuncle for a diseased phrenologi- cal development ; to be cured, or neutralized^ RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 15S by cultivating the less vigorously developed organs, the imagination, for instance, to the point of believing that there is " nothing wrong, but a temporary loss of confidence," aided by *' a general extravagance of living, and over-production ;" that will work its owii remedy through depletion of the patient ; it may go hard with the world, now a very sick patient. To bring the true remedy for the business evils resting upon the world to notice, the writer has used every opportunity that came before him for over four years, and since he became fully satisfied as to the true nature of the malady. It was only after every other means of having it brought before the people failed, that he thought of writino- a book. The work has been oerformed in too much of a J. hurry, but if it brings the matter to the un- derstanding of the readers, as well as conver- sations appeared to do for the hearers, it will be entirely successful in bringing the people to a correct understanding of the evil, and the remedy, as far as it may get circulation and a reading. For I can say in truth, that expres- sions of sentiment by many hundreds of peo- 154 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. pie, after the subject was presented to them, showed a unanimity of understanding and favor of the common rights of the people in money as presented, that never was seen by the writer on any other subject. RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 155 CHAPTER XVI. POLITICAL PARTIES. Politicians do what they are promoted to do ; but they are the slowest of men to do, or to acknowledge the necessity of new things. This is as it should be. It leaves to the peo- ple to project and urge the advances they desire to be made. The present political par- ties were formed on the slavery question, as it existed in the United States before the rebellion. The parties presented the oppor- tunity to the people to take sides freely on the question ; while an overruling Providence protected the nation in its passage through the " Red Sea." The leaders of the parties are able to go no further. If they are not directed, they will not fail to make and seek dead Images to lead them, and to attract the attention of the people. The people must IfJt) RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. come forward now, not with offerings for the dead images, but with instruction on living questions. The Republican party, claiming to be a progressive party, ought to be able to make a forward movement easily ; and the Democratic party would naturally be willing to quit, or close the book of its dead past. But these rational movements will not be in- augurated by the leaders of the parties. The people must conie to the front, and instruct their politicians, not in general terms in vogue at the present time. It is the silliest talk — if it is no worse — to say that we must have a pure administration, a breaking up of rings, honesty in the offices ; and that these things must be secured by electing pure, honest, and candid men to office. It is folly for the peo- ple to indulge in such babbling. All men claim to want these things ; and it is the cheapest capital in the trade of parties and candidates, to claim to be the peculiar cham- pions of these virtues ; while the truth is, it is possible for but very few of the people to be acquainted with the candidates for office, and to know whether they are, or are not, honest RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 157 men. A politician or party that makes a charge of corruption and fraud, in general terms, and makes or implies promises of their own pre-eminent virtues, ought to be set aside as a dangerous character. It is a public wrong, that ought to receive the reprimand of public indignation, for a person to make or insinuate, in a general way, charges of fraud or corruption against public men. Any per- son of ordinary Information, if he is honest, will not do it. An honest person is slow, in very plain cases of wrong, to charge another with intentional dishonesty, much less to charge or insinuate it, on suspicion or rumor. The crime of slandering men in office is be- coming so general, that if it is not stopped, honorable men will cease to take office, and the people will be compelled to take the ser- vices in the public offices, of the dishonesty that they have been charging and looking for in the offices. The people must come forward now ; not to say that times are hard, and that they look to their parties to better them, but they must say exactly what they want done, and how they want it done. The evil of 158 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. money-lending has existed, to a greater or less extent, in all countries, and has degraded the many through poverty, and debauched the few- through wealth ; and it has assumed propor- tions in our country that challenge immediate attention. The money that has been received in an orderly way, that is, in exchange for labor and property, has been retired from bus- iness, and is held to lend. The need of it in business, and to pay taxes, has compelled peo- ple to borrow and to re-borrow it, and to pay, and promise to pay it back with interest, until a debt has accumulated against the producing classes that is overwhelming, and with the in- terest constantly augmenting, constitutes a sum that cannot be paid, but by the transfer of the property to the money-lender. IF ARBITRARY DISTINCTIONS IN SOCIETY ARE WRONG, then are all things wrong that lead to the for- mation of such distinctions. In the ages that "might assumed to make right," class was an inevitable condition among men. The estab- lisfiiing by government of noble classes, found- ed upon the display of some pre-eminent pub- RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 159 He virtue, thereby laying a foundation for the sentiment that virtue is noble, and that nobles were prominent public servants, was a great blessing to mankind. The founders of the government of the United States denied the principle that " might makes right," but claim- ed human rights, as an inalienable gift from the Creator. This principle they maintained through war, and bequeathed it in the Consti- tution, to the people of the United States. The people of the United States have, there- fore, a right, and it is their duty to attack and overthrow public wrongs, by the exercise of the riehts secured to them in the Constitution, when these wrongs have become of general concernment. The wrong of money-lending, at this time pressing with crushing weight upon the industrious millions, has descended, like nearly all other wrongs, through long ages. Although it has nothing but injustice and wrong in it, and wherever it has been practiced, it has marked its course with oppression, and fostered vice among its successful votaries ; yet it has always succeeded in making itself acceptable to 160 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. the learned and influential. In former ages, as may be seen in Montesquieu's " Spirit of Laws," where he speaks of money-lending among the Roman people, when the oppres- sion became unendurable, and before all spirit was crushed out of the people, they, through riot and violence, compelled their government to make some show of correcting the evil. But it was never attacked upon the true ground — that of its utter wrong against the rights ot all the people in money. That is, their right to meet the thing that societyand the gov- ernment declares to be money, in their worldly affairs, without any right in the holders to make gain on it, while they refuse to exchange it for labor and property, and hold it bound by notes and promises to pay, to be returned to themselves. Common sense teaches that if the government makes money, and makes it necessary to the people in their worldly affairs, to pay business balances and public revenues, and the holders of it are allowed to make gain, while they refuse to part with it in exchange for labor and property, they will break up the business of the masses of the RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 161 people, by means of the money, and take their property. But, plain as the principle is, from some cause or other, the oppression has been exercised through all ages ; while the utter injustice of taking interest for money, has been declared or referred to in no instance that the writer is acquainted with, outside of the Word of God. The suffering of the peo- ple, their struggles against money-lending, called capital, their degradation, the debauch- ery of the moneyed few, and from all these causes, the final overthrow of governments, are freely treated of in the pages of history. But it is left for the people of the United States, on their own behalf, under the clear sanction of the Word of God, and their rights under the Constitution, and as free and reason- ing men, to deny and overthrow the practice of private merchandising in money. As this treatise is written by a very plain person, for plain people, it is consistent to still further illustrate the principles of money by a re-statement of them, although the prin- ciples have been already stated several times under various forms and in various connec- li 162 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. tlons. Money is a necessity in business affairs, as a means of expressing and ex- changing values. Gold and silver are the most appropriate materials to make money of; as they are metals that are but little subject to rust ; and exist in such limited supply as would render the procuring of them no more remunerative than other useful em- ployments. Gold and silver may be said to be the natural foundation for money. When society and government make money on a gold and silver basis, and make it neces- sary to every member of society, by making it the only legal sign of value and legal ten- der in paying business balances and taxes, money becomes to everyone the most impor- tant material thing, and to get money becomes the most important question affecting the natural life. It is not the temporary use of money that becomes necessary to the people by the custom of society, and by the law of the government, but the money itself; for when they pay it out, the only way they, have of getting it back is to exchange services or property for it. The constantly recurring RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 163 need cannot be supplied by borrowing the money on promise to pay it back with increase. Money borrowed, to be paid back at times and with increase set to suit the gain of the lender, would not support the most economi- cal government that has ever been known to exist among civilized men ; and it will not support the individual members of society. Let government show an example of carry- ing on its affairs with borrowed money and cease to collect revenue, before it asks the people to do the like. When the holders of the money are allowed to make gain by charging for the use of it, and hold it bound to be returned to themselves — and they have extended the operation many times over the amount of the money in the country — it places the people very nearly in the condition that the government would occupy if it ceased to collect revenue and depended upon borrowing money to carry on its affairs. The private revenue or money, that is re- quired to support the affairs of the members of society, must be derived from their busi- ness in exchange for property or services. 164 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. But when the holders of the money refuse to let it circulate in exchange for labor and pro- perty, they cut off the revenue ; and it is impossible for the people to stand, as it would be for a government to survive with- out revenue. The circumstance that govern- ment collects revenue from the money-hold- ers, and pays it out to the people for prop- erty and services, and that the money- holders themselves pay out some money for property and labor, modifies the condition for the people, and enables them to continue the struggle for an existence longer than a govern- ment could without revenue. Though the end is postponed by these things it cannot be averted. Through increasing hardships for the producing classes, the business of money- lendinof will move on towards the final over- throw of business and free labor, and the absorption of all the property by the money- lenders. The proposition by the Greenback party, for the government to offer to the money- lenders government bonds bearing interest at the rate of 3.65 per cent, per annum, and to RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 165 return the money again on the bonds at the option of the holder, would be the boldest outrage upon the rights of the producing classes that could be devised. The mere matter of having the money where it would be kept safely in times of depressed business and shrinking prices, and returnable at the will of the holder, would cause all the money to disappear from circulation in a very short time. But to add to the inducement a rate of gain that is greater, no doubt than the average net profits of business, what possible inducement would remain to exchange money for labor or property ? That such a propo- sition finds advocates shows the bewildered condition of the people on the subject ; and shows the imperative necessity of reverting to first principles, and establishing the true bearings of the question. As already said, this work the people must do. Politicians and ■ he learned men of the world have their faces turned from it — a sure sign that the people and their interests have ceased to furnish im- pulses in the control of affairs. Let the prin- ciple be henceforth insisted upon, tliat money 166 RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY, shall be established on a gold and silver basis, and that the whole people have a right, and shall have the privilege, to meet money in business affairs, without any possible gain being made out of it by dealing in promises to pay money, excepting upon the bonds oi the United States. The proposition suggests a radical change — but it will be a just and healthy change, that will disturb no private or public right. It will stop the business of money-lending tor gain ; but no person can have a right to make gain by setting a value on money when the people choose to prevent it ; for the Consti- tution gives to Congress the right "to coin money and to regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin." It would prevent States from borrowing money, and from authorizing counties, cities, townships, and school-districts to borrow on their bonds, or bills of credit. But, under the Constitution, the States have no right to emit bills of credit ; and of course they cannot authorize counties, cities, town- ships, or school-districts to issue them. But they will suffer no inconvenience, for they can RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN MONEY. 167 accomplish all desirable measures through taxation, and will not thereby disturb the rights of the productive business of the country in the money. ERRATA Page 141, first line, read " sixty-two " instead of " seventy." Page 152, sixth line, read "sixty" instead of "forty- eight." ^ 11 f\ 80 H .*^" .' ^•^^•% ^°^:^^'> ./«-^i.% ^° ^o ^.^'^ /Jfe\ X.^ :Mm^ X.^"" ' ,*^ .^'\