with their increasing annual accumulations from the labor soil, will as surely impoverish, degrade, and enslave American society as the same causes have exhausted the manhood of England, as their possessions and capacity for absorption are greater.

"Our Constitution must be enlarged so as to embrace these monopolies and bring them into subjection to the people's interests, or they will root out the Constitution and establish an aristocracy upon the ruins of liberty and constitutional government."

It is affirmed, and will be clearly shown in these pages, that the condition so forcibly described above already exists. It is only the comparative sparseness of population that prevents the development of a system even worse than that of Irish landlordism; for had the territorial limits not been enlarged, a condition worse than European peasantry would have overtaken us long ago. These limits are reached, or nearly so; and as the land is rapidly going into a few hands, the power that monopoly gives will crush out the liberties of the people; for he who owns the land by the authority of our land laws owns and controls those who live upon it, provided they cannot get off, and the press of population will soon prevent them.

The value of land consists in its power to supply the demands of consumption, and a population to create such demand. Without population, land of the greatest fertility and with all the appurtenances of natural resources would be

totally valueless, and justice demands that they who create it should have and enjoy it; but under our laws of land tenure, that value goes to the monopolizers of the land without their adding anything to its value. If all who desire to occupy and use the land could do so, that value would go to them. Thus equality of conditions growing out of equality of rights would secure freedom and prosperity to the people.

The right to hold the land and secure a permanent title to it should be most carefully guarded, and should descend by equal inheritance by legal provisions. The law of primogeniture and entail are virtually in force, since the owner of land can devise, by gift or otherwise, his entire possessions to one person and secure perpetuity by corporate charter. The rights of future generations should be protected as well as the living.

Monopoly of land gives to the holders of it. the power to levy contributions upon the cultivators of it; which power is granted by usurped rights in direct violation of the law of justice. It is equally as unjust to demand tribute for the use of land as to lay a tribute on the personal service of another for private gain. Land is given for the use of all: it is the product of none; and as all need its products, all are equally entitled to the right to produce them.

CHAPTER X.

NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED).— FINANCE.

"The simplest and most perfect form of currency is that which represents nothing but transferable debt, and of which the material is of no intrinsic value, such as paper. It is only when states have reached a high degree of civilization that they adopt this perfect form; before they attain that, the material of it entirely consists of something which has an intrinsic value, such as gold or silver."- Macleod.

THE exchange of values is a necessity of civilized nations, and requires a medium of currency to effect such exchange. This medium is money. It is a token or representative of value based upon the wealth of the nation, and by the authority of the government declared a legal tender for all debts, public and private. The issue of such money and the control of its volume in circulation are natural rights, the free use and exercise of which are the indispensable requisites of republican government.

The question of finance is one of pressing and vital importance to the people of a free government. The principles involved in it and their application to the best uses of life must be clearly understood.

Finance is one of the chief factors in political economy, and largely governs the distribution of wealth equally, and thus serves its true purpose, or unequally, and thus overthrows republican government, as the people are wise or unwise. Equal distribution depends on equal exchange, which is the sole function of money. By it wealth is secured to the producers of it for their enjoyment and benefit, resulting in peace, plenty, and happiness. By unequal distribution, millionaires and paupers are made, monopolies built up to rob and oppress, thereby creating political inequalities, the legitimate outcome of which is the relation of rulers and ruled, master and slave.

Because of its vast importance, it has been controlled in the interest of the few who have. managed to secure its power to themselves. They have clothed it in mystery and woven around it such an intricate network of theories and speculations that the people despair of comprehending its nature and functions, thus securing to those few its control for their own benefit. Through the monstrous robbery of banking systems, millions upon millions have been drawn. from industry to enrich idleness; and the people tolerate this because they do not understand the means by which it is done.

Had the people fully understood this important subject, they would never have been cursed with a bonded debt; with banking corporations established for no other purpose than individual aggrandizement; with a restricted basis for money, enabling greedy and unscrupulous speculators to control its volume, and thus take advantage of the necessities of industry, to levy contributions upon it under the name of interest for the privilege of using it; with the stagnation of business and the ruin of many industrial enterprises; and many other evils consequent upon a false and defective monetary system, as the inevitable and calamitous results to the people.

As an instrument of exchange, it has no intrinsic value. It being only a legal power, there was no necessity of creating a debt, for money is simply a legal device for exchanging one commodity for another, or a service for a commodity, by which the holder of it can at any time or place within the jurisdiction of the government demand any commodity within the circle of exchange, or service seeking compensation.

Since money has for its sole and legitimate object and function the equal exchange of values, whereby equal distribution is effected, every wealth-producer could by such exchange retain and enjoy the full value of the wealth he pro