\^ '■'in - -■ A ! 8 Land Currency By Stephen Maybe 11 'j = — ■ ^ in UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES . — _ — _ [ •f'f^i<:^-2^'<:eNT^ ' A-BT^ier-Tf^E-ATise-'oM •TriE:-5UbJE:(^T- Of=- ^ 1r3"*W5 ^ I TErPhier/N • /^A/^VBlE^J-.• - AUTHOR - OP- -ClVlllZATfeM -ClYil]2-E-P -^ • • ii^®<^ L^NCTOM db Co.. Print, 628 Ci^r Si. • * > * » i> Jo , » > t » ' J -) - > , >'3 .%' ,,, .-- .VV.;.' 'Til , :* . , , LAND CURRENCY, t:r.EjPs_tise ON THK INIPORTANT SUBJKCT OF O TAX. BY STEPHKN ;IvIAYBEIvI>, AUTHOR OF "CIVILIZATION CIVILIZED." Ov «^ ?■ ■<> PUBLISHED AT 2(>5 CLARA STREET, San Francisco, Cal. » f • • • • • • • * < I • • • • • • - ♦ • • » • • • * • I • * ■ i_ ^ « • * •* • !•;••• •.• •. ^Entered according to Act of Ckjngress by Stephen Maybell, 1890. All right* reserved. a> CO i='K.H:F'jPLCH:. I hold that the question of Finance includes every other. That no question pertaining to society or individual can exclude it, but that all must finally come to the sum of its ways and means. Money is the medium of co-operation. A perfect money would make a perfect co-operation — an imperfect money an imperfect co- operation. Give a nation a just form of money and its institutions musf tend toward, and end in justice. A progressive form of money therefore includes all societary progression. An unjust institution cannot survive in a just state of Finance ; therefore, Finance reform includes all reforms, "ways and means.'''' Money is the current for the distribution of product. If it be honest form, society will be healthy ; if it be dishonest form, society will be diseased. For money is bookkeeping. If it be false, the bookkeeping will be false, and they who earn will have not what they earn. If it M be true the bookkeeping will be true, and they who earn will have what they earn. For under a false system of Finance, as under a false system of accounts, the producer of wealth may be marked as possessing nothing, and the non-producer as possessing all. Thus, all depends upon a true instrument of distribution that product may reach the deserving. Thus, the science of Finance is the science of Justice, and the only science of justice. I do not claim that land currency is the final of an utterly true form of money, but that by basing currency upon land we are closely approaching the true base of all values — namely, man ; for all value emanates from man, he imparts it to all things. The Romans brought splendid marbles from depopulated cities to Rome. These marbles were valueless where they were, but amid Rome's population were valuable . That population also removed and these marbles would again become valueless. All value, then, is the fiat of man — his proclamation unto himself. The closer man nears unto himself the closer he nears the truth. The further he depends exteriorally the more dependent, faithless, cowardly and brutal he falls. For divinity lieth inward and materiality lieth outward — within the cause, without the effect. The light is in the center of its rays. 27228 L IT. PREFACE. When we get land as a base we get nearer the total, and therefore nearer the truth, the center — for man, the source of value, is the true basis of all Thus land currency is a vast step in the right direction. Land currency would soon become a man currency, as flower becomes fruit. It is the next thing. It is the flower preceeding the fruit. It reverses the present situation. It nationalizes mortgages. The Republic becomes the mortgager and receives the interest. Now the Republic is the mortgagee and pays the interest. It fits into our present form of finance and fits into our future form of finance. It fits into mortgage and fits into the abolition of mort- gage. The future must fit into the present. Whatever is proposed as future that does not fit cannot be future. Growth depends upon harmony. We may re volute, but we must return to evolution and the law of similar-better. Like can only produce better-like, and by steps ascend to better-unlike.* Revolutions are but lightnings and light- nings' blast. They are effects, never causes. Thought is causation, and thinking evolutes. An oppressed nation can achieve more by one year's thinking than a century's fighting. The absence of thought is the presence of evil, and all evil lies in the people's thoughtlessness, I leave but small legacy to the world, but it is a great one. It is but one word, and the word is "Think." *A clipping from the editorial columns of the "Pacific Uniou_" from the pen of its brainy editor, J. W. Hines, is apropos: "One serious defect in the general teaching of schools of reform, is the habit of endeavoring to flx the attention of the people exclusively upon the end proposed, while the intermediate and suc- cessive steps by which tlaat end is reached are regarded with indifference, if not with entire neglect. Evolution, especially on the line of moral and social growth, usually, and perhaps universally, proceeds in an orderly and steady course, and no circumstance, however trivial in itself, can well be overlooked or dispensed with. liflHD CURI^EHCY. Reader, the important question herein presented for your earnest consideration is so fraught with conse- quence to you and to all you hold dear, that I ap- proach the task with a sense of its magnitude, thinkmg I may not present it as clearly as its vast importance necessitates. I would call the special attention of the business men of the community and the builders and manufact- urers of its wealth, to the subject herein presented, for nothing more closely touches their concern than that of Money. I hope that the great mass of the people will appreciate the importance of the science herein presented, for it governs their every action, since it depresses or elevates their condition, and conditions govern. But they who handle money as some handle tools, who understand what a mortgage means and realize the effects of interest, and its absence, and the presence of money in trade and production, will cer- tainly find in these pages matters designed to interest them. Yet amons; the hardest toilers here and there are many who have deep insight into the economics of society. I do not mean that noisy, bitter, vulgar class, whose philosophy never rises higher than coarse individ- ual vituperation, whoso reform is simply the deform of malice, but the grave and honest thinkers of the land to be found everywhere shaping and forming the wealth of civilization. Of such I also most especially ask in- 6 LAND CURRENCY. vestigation of this essay, for they form the great thought centers that electrify the lesser consciousness around them, and from their noble ranks spring the greatest of our land. To the farmer I would also most especially address these pages. To him whose task is the most laborious, whose effort is the basis of all effort, upon whose energy the entire fabric rests and therefore upon whose welfare the state depends as a dome upon its sustaining pillars. Therefore the more positively the farmer's success is assured, the more certain the prosperity of society itself is founded by the strengthening of that which supports it from center to periphery. Even as the farmer's effort is the basis underlying all other effort, so is the land which he tills the basis underlying all other values. And I hold it to be self- evident inasmuch as society depends upon agricult- ure, that land therefore is the base underlying all value and should form the base of the Government's currency for the exchange of all values, land being the primal factor, and of all values the total. Land everywhere forms the leading security upon which banks loan. Land, therefore, being the security behind the world's mortgages, is the primordial value back of, and upon which, the world's monetary trans- actions rest. The clearer we comprehend this simple fact the better we shall build our financial system. I shall not enter into a discussion of the seem- ingly abstruse, yet simple, problems of finance; but shall co^ifine these pages exclusively to that portion of its philosophy immediately concerned in the question of its national currency based on land. LAND CURRENCY. A GREAT QUESTION. The deep importance of this question can be esti- mated when we realize that the philosoph}^ of finance is the highest key in the scale of human association. That on its rational or irratioral adjustment de- pends the fate of empire. And by the wisdom or folly of its economy a nation must rise or fall, since it controls the condition physically, intellectually and morally of both citizen and state. As a nation rises from barbarism to civilization it takes on a condition of closer and closer interwoven de- pendence between its numerous members, until the wants of each become dependent upon the production of every other, thus necessitating a continual uni- versal exchange. This exchange necessitates the for- mation of an instrument known as Money. It is clearly obvious, then, that if this instrument be inadequate in the performance of its functions either through insuficiency of volume or injustice of operation, if it be not rational in its issue and just in its result, then, failing in its purpose, the interchange of products between the numerous members must cease, their general co-operation halt, their manufactures sink back upon agriculture, their agriculture sink back upon barbarism, till fallen columns in desert wastes mark the footsteps of the error. SILVER CERTIFICATES. There is in circulation a form of currency known as " Silver Certificates," the Government receiving silver bullion, storing it in its vaults and issuing to the depositors these certificates, denominating the amount deposited, which entitle the holder at any time to de- 8 LAND CURRENCY, mand and receive the bullion coined or otherwise. They are transferable and receivable for all public and private debts. They are therefore an honest currency and represent a real value held by the Government in trust for the holder. Although they are but paper, and contain no in- trinsic value (hardl}^) of themselves, they represent value. The holders never think or wish to exchange them for the heavy metal in the vault. For intelligence dis- likes the rather Indian fashion of finance of packing quantity and weight, and prefers the more civilized custom of simply holding a voucher. This at once annihilates the aboriginalistic chimera that a money must have length, breadth, thickness, weight, and an intrinsic value, and establishes the fact that a paper currency when based upon an actual value is the most superior, preferable and convenient form of money, saving the cost of smelting ores, mint- ing metals, loss through abrasion, and being restorable at cost of printing. Every virtue that applies to silver certificates applies equally to land certificates. They would have no intrinsic value, but would represent an actual value held in trust by the Government. Thus land certifi- cates, as silver certificates, would be an honest form of money. This, then, is the grand truth underlying the issue of silver certificates and it underlies the entire financial philosophy — namely, that a genuine currency can be issued by the Government upon an actual value held by it in trust, which demonstrates that a genuine currency can be issued by the GovBrnment based on LAND CURRENCY'. 9 land security, land being the most genuine of all securi- ties. Therefore, land currcnc}^ would take precedence over all monej^s, for representing superior value it would necessarily become the superior medium. The coining of land would go to the root of value for currency to measure outgrowth. It would reach to principal for rule. The root of a thing is the truth of a thing. Therein lies the primal factor. We have never reached the truth of finance. We never shall till we coin land. The coining of land values would be as great a measure as Lincoln's Bill of Emancipation, that led the march of the nation's battalions, through its subtle truth, but unsheaths the silent ballot. It would be a measure of greater shackle-breaking power, of further reaching enfranchisment. It would cut to the root of chronic poverty of millions, would touch the founda- tion of business stagnation, this mdustrial paralysis whose pinching povert}'' breeds this ugly ulcer, " Crime," rooted deep in our insufficient and incapable finance. Thus bad finance is a source of poverty, as poverty is a source of crime. For the Government to loan its currency upon mortgages upon land, at two per cent per annum, would, without revolution, but in accordance with the peace- ful processes of evolution, reverse the present situation. The many would hold the mortgages and interest would accrue unto them. Whereas now the fezv hold the mortgages and interest accrues unto \}[vq feiv. Agriculture and manufacture would have to pay on loans but two per cent, whereas they now pay from five to ten. The interest thus saved would be retained in 10 LAND CURRENCY. the channels of production and strengthen it. The interest paid would enter the channels of public ex- penditure and thus lessen or entirely abolish taxation. Every dollar loaned by the Government would de- crease the rate of taxation. And when issued to the present amount of national, state, municipal and private mortgages, the interest would surely abolish taxation. The agriculturist, manufacturer and builder, al- though paying the Government two per cent per annum, would discover that the two per cent so paid re- turned to them. Take, for example, a farmer laboring under a mortgage of ten per cent usury. The ten per cent he pays in no way benefits him. It exceeds his in- come, drains him and goes to swell another's power at the expense of his weakness. His increased poverty forces him to sell his product at the latter s dictation. He cannot delay his sales a day, an hour, a minute. He must sell at cost, even below cost! Nothing remains to pay the next year's ten per cent. A notice is served. Then comes the sheriff. The profits of the farm for years have been entered through interest as assets of the bank, and now through foreclosure enters the farm itself. But the nation loans its currency upon land. The scene changes. The farmer calls upon his Gov- ernment for a mortgage. The rate is two per cent — eight per cent less. 7 his eight per cent remains ivitJi his account. He now has something to drive the wolf from the door. He is not forced to sell through ruin, at ruin rates. The community also have currency to purchase. He finds purchasers, makes a margin on his sales. That is added on to the eight per cent the Gov- ernment mortgage has saved him. At the end of the LAND CURRENCY ll year, instead of being completely fleeced, he has wealth and plenty. But is this all ? No. He goes to the Court House to pay his taxes and finds that two per cent on the country's mortgages more than equals the cost of Government. That he has already paid his taxes. But is this all? No. What then else has he? He has his farm. NO TAX. We will proceed to show that currency loaned by Government on land mortgages at two per cent pays government tax. Also, that its interest not only pays tax, but saves the borrower several times the amount of tax by reduction of interest from ten to two. Also, that its interest after paying tax leaves a margin re- maining affording a generous fund for additional public improvement. In order to simplify matters as much as possible we take California as an example, and its illustration applies to the entire country The real actual valua- tion of lands are not to be had from the reports of officials. Their reports may afford a base for estimates, however, upon which to form a general idea. One way of estimating the values of a state is by dividing the country's total wealth by its number of inhabitants, and thus applying the result of per capita wealth to a state: Our total national wealth • $66,000,000,000 Our total population 66,000,000 Our per capita wealth 1,000 California population 1,500,000 California wealth 1,500,000,000 Basing California's land currency interest yield on this calculation, we would have the following result: 12 LAND CURRENCY. Half California values $750,000,000 Land currency rate .02 Interest for currency 15,000,000 Taxes paid 1 4,000,000 More than tax 1,000,000 But I hold that California has a larger average wealth and that her per capita is over $1,000, and that the following estimation is nearer the mark. Taking our recorded and estimating our unrecorded debt thereby, the sum of both will fall short of $500,000,000 indebtedness. This indebtedness is all directly or indirectly based on land values, for let crops fail, credit immediately responds and falls in ratio, revealing the fact that land product underlies all interest of every form. As mortgage demands two of land value to one of debt and about half the land is idented, this above $500,- 000,000 indebtedness therefore multiplied by four gives us the mortgageable value of our land on the basis indicated by our debts and presents the sum of $2,000,000,000, and thus the following table: Half real amount of California land values. . . .$1,000,000,000 Rate for land currency .02 Interest from land currency 20,000,000 California tax, 1888, paid 14,000,000 After paying tax $ 6,000,000 But the figures reveal not the full complete ad- vantage gained. They show that this two per cent on land currency pays the burden of taxation and also leaves a balance for more superior public improve- NOTICE ON PA(;E 13. For line — Taxes paid. . $14,000,000 Read — Interest received 20,000,000 LAND CURRENCY. 13 ment. But it does not show us the something else saved, by land currency, nor the total amount gained. Let us see : Interest of land values at seven per cent of above sum $70,000,000 Interest on same at two per cent 20,000,000 Interest saved $50,000,000 Taxed paid 14,000,000 * Total gain to people $70,000,000 If one-half the land value of California was mortgaged for two per cent at the Government Sub- Treasury or at a bureau designed for the purpose, and the Government received the interest thereof, all taxation would cease, while interest itself would be reduced to a nominal rate, allowing margin for projectors of indus- tries to successfully operate. This last item in itself is one of vast consequence. For the interest saved would be saved to individuals who actually employ labor, and therefore would be so much financial strength remaining with them, now taken from them, and leaving them in many cases bankrupt, throwing thousands of persons out of employment. Thus the farmer, builder, manufacturer and pro- jector would be relieved of the usurious burden which has pressed so heavily on their margins, until nothing has remained to them to sustain their energies. For heavy interest crushes manufacture and building as it crushes agriculture, while plenty of money at low interest awakes projection, employes industry and leaves wealth in the hands of they who produce. * If the entire amount of national, state and municipal interest on pub- lic mortgages were deducted from this tax, which would be deducted from it by land currency, the tax would be reduced considerably. 14 LAND CURRENCY. There are 6,000 takers and 60,000,000 makers. The takers now hold the mortgages, draw the interest thereof and thus take. Let tis 60,000,000 makers turn the tables upon the takers and reverse the system. Let us hold the mortgages and draiu the interest.^ Then we, the makers, will become the takers — the takers of our own product, for the process by which it has been taken will be reversed. The product will flow toward us, where formerly it flowed from us And this, too, without the change of a law, scarcely the making of a law, save a bureau where land is coined for currency. We have been digging down into the bowels of the earth after gold to get a value to coin. Here we have a value beneath our feet, more val- uable far than all the gold we have ever dug. Let us coin it. If anyone desires gold let him dig; but for the sake of humanity and humanity's progression, let us not stop our buildings, farms, workshops, and the ragged starve, waiting for enough of this saffron gleam to give us a medium to work with. Let us coin this that we are standing on — Old Mother Earth, herself. Her values, when coined, will relieve us of taxation, relieve us of usury, and abolish their unjust takes. *Sho'«{ng that interest's exploition dwarfs every other. We find by the Bank Commissioners' Semi-Aunual Statement of July 1, 1889, that the Califoraia commercial, saving, and private commercial banks have on hand land taken for debt amoianting to $3,681,387, which does not include the concealed foreclosure of the National Banks, as the column is vacant We also find the above banks have loans amounting to the sum of $169,683,651, drawing interest, which if added to unrecorded mortgages would swell the sum to an amount sufficient in volume whose interest if added to state, county and municipal debt interest, would cover the wages of California Labor. LAND CURRENCY. 15 THE FUTURE AND PRESENT MUST FIT. The "what is" and the "what should be" are divided by the chasm of '''howr To cross this chasm we must have a bridge, since we cannot fly. One end of this bridge must rest solidly upon the "what is," the other on the " what should be." Because we are opposed, and will not accept the " what is," that is no reason we should not affix the end of our bridge thereon, no reason that we should attempt to fix its end in the air or in the skies, as most progressionists propose, for should we so be able, we could not get up to its posi- tion to pass into the promised land. Therefore, let us observe that our bridge of reform is so placed that one end of it rests on the " what is," the other on the " what should be." Usury is, Justice should be. We will place our bridge therefore, one end resting on "Interest," the other reaching away from it to "Justice." We are then in harmony with both present and future. We must recognize and respect the present. We must learn how to build on it upwards. Land currency is the only proposition that does this. It upsets nothing. It silently melts the iceburg of lie. It is the sun! — Its rays shine for all, for even the usurer who would be reft of his usury would rise to better and nobler deeds than strangling human expression with his murder tsained per cent. The increased wealth and happiness of the human family would be shared by him. For whatever turns the wrong doer from his task blesses him greater that the victim whom it saves. ALL REFORMS IN IT. If the trades unionist desires his idea here it is. For land currency would stimulate industry to the de- ] 6 LAND CURRENCY. gree that capital would be looking for labor, whereas labor is now looking for capital. This would shorten hours and lengthen pay until the balance of right would be reached. For land currency is added capital. If the farm alliance member desires his idea, here it is. For land currency furnishes him with money, furnishes his buyers with money, saves him interest, saveshim from selling less than cost, and saves his farm. If the single taxist desires his idea, here it is, here all revenue rests on laud. Here is no tax. And if single tax is better than double tax, here is, better still, no tax at all. If the Greenbacker wants his idea, here it is. For land currency is Government issue direct to the peo- ple, for value — the value received is the interest paid. And the people who receive interest are never ragged, starved or crashed. As the nation went down paying interest, it would rise receiving it. If the Nationalist desires his idea, here it is. For money is the instrument of co-operation. Land cur- rency is a co-operative money. In land currency both nationalist and individualist find their true idea. True nationalism and true indivi- dualism are in harmony. Nationalism is against a part, governing a whole, and individualism is agaiast a whole govering a part therefore both are against cohesion and both are for co-operation, and co-opera- tion is not government, but a union of liberty. But such a union cannot exist save in inteligence and love, and until then we shall have government. Land currency reaches from Government up to co-operation, which is not Government, but union. So if the individualist and collectivest seek a plane of truth where seeming LAND CURRENCY. 17 difference is dispelled and they can move in common cause, here in land currency they find it. For land currency gives perfect freedom to individual action un- trammeled by the whole, and gives perfect freedom to the co-operative or collective action untrammeled by the part. ADVANTAGES. As its interest would flow to the Republic the peo- ple would share its profits with its borrowers and receive full advantage of increase of currency. While its borrowers would receive the benefits of low interest. Thus it would benefit both public and borrowers. Its interest would foster public improvements, erect public buildings, deepen harbors, build our navy, equip our service and perfect every national depart- ment. It would pay the national debt and prevent the creation of another. It would relieve money strin- gency, give impetus to developement, increase wages, and shorten hours. For by increasing developement it would increase demand for labor. Its double circulation would double production. Double production would double export. Thus it would draw through foreign sales a stream of gold and silver to our shore. By furnishing us with sufficient currency of our own, it would stop our foreign borrowing and bonding, and thus stop the stream of gold and silver now flow- ing, in the form of interest, from our shore. Thus stopping the flow from us and increasing the flow to- ward us, it would make our treasury and our people the richest in the world. It would be issued directly to the class who employ 18 LAND CURRENCY, and who project, whereas now we issue currency to a class who employ not, project not, nor do not, but pre- vent others from doing by usurious exactions. It would encourage sciences and fine arts. For money refines as poverty roughens. Money is not the root of evil, but its absence is. It is to get money that men do evil? Hereditary poverty breeds hereditary crime. From the famished womb of a nation's sickly want springs its thief, miser, glutton and usurer. Noble vegetation rises from rich soil and hungry creeplings from barren sustenance. Disaster would not follow, nor panic collapse its prosperity! For it could not depreciate. Being based upon security man}'' times its value the foundation of its structure would be broader than its superstructure. Thus builded as the pyramids that have withstood the conflict of ages, it would withstand every national emergency, every crisis. Would inevitably become the leading instrument of exchange, honored and re- cognized everywhere. It could not be overissued, as its issue could not get in excess of the land value, its base. The con- tinued prosperity resultant of increased circulation would enhance the value of land, and therefore broaden the foundational value. Thus its base would continue to widen. A national land currency, therefore, contains a full expression of the remedy for the evils we would avoid. With the issuance of it, a new regime would begin, a new power infuse the nation, a freed force would pulsate its veins with heat and light. Wealth- producing energies now suppressed, then liberated, would yield treasure unknown to industries, present LAND CURRENCY. 19 enforced idleness. Farmers, builders, and manufactures would avail themselves of its opportunity, safe from usury's foreclosure. The Shy lock would depart from our thoroughfares, the pawnbroker from our alleys. The sheriff would lay aside his writ and furl his flag, and the homes of the citizens be safe. As this currency entered the channel of employ- ment, mind and muscle would find occupation. The chronic money stringency being removed, the cause of depression would be abolished, leaving every avenue of useful effort open to the masses. INCREASE AND DECREASE OF MONEY. We cannot state the economy of currency too plainly, or even two minutely. With increase of currency comes advance in prices. Advances in prices are always to the interest of debtors, they who are in debt, they who are the party of the second part in the bond. Increase of currency therefore advances the interest of this class, and they form the masses. But reverse this; decrease currency, and you have opposite results. For decrease of currency results in decrease of prices, and decrease of prices is always in the interest of the creditor class — they who hold the debts, they who are the party of the first part in the bond, and they are but a small portion of the many. Decrease of currency therefore advances the interest of this small class, and brings ruin and foreclosure on the numerous former, seizes their property, waves the red flag above their auctioned homes and scatters their families upon the highway. Decrease currency and the public cannot buy. The producer cannot sell, raises less, employs less, 20 LAND CURRENCY. buys less, ships less to market, railroads suffer, and in turn cease building extensions, build and buy less, dis- charge labor and reduce expenses. Everywhere through the ramifications of society the same paralysis strikes. For they who cannot sell cannot employ, and they who cannot get employment cannot buy, and thus de- crease of currency describes the circle of social stagna- tion called " hard times," and produces a degree of hard times exactly the degree of a currency decrease. NOT GOLD OR SILVER ENOUGH. I am no prophet of evil, nor alarmist, nor one who believes the country on the verge. There is too much concentrated essence of evolution in the century for that. But I do believe, from evidence everywhere, from wretched homes and unseemly robes, from crowded penal institutions and rapidly spreading vice, from employment's difficulty, revealed to all save those who are closed to revelation — I do believe that some- thing must be done. Something besides the partial or entire remonetization of silver. For there is not silver enough to afford volume enough, whose stream can be broad enough, upon which to float the vast bulk of our commodities. There is neither gold nor silver enough for that. We must have an additional medium. And since we must^ let that medium be based on a bona fide value such as land presents. Therefore, for these reasons and for others yet to be presented in these pages, let us base our future currency upon a value ever broad, stable and secure. Let us originate an American form of finance and establish an intelligent precedent for the world to adopt. LAND CURRENCY. 21 BUSINESS INCREASE, AND GOLD AND SILVER INCREASE. Even were the entire output of silver coined, as it should be, its volume with that of gold combined would remain insufficient to keep pace with the volume of business increasement. For as business expands the volume of currency must expand in equal ratio or business must contract back into the limits of the currency. The world's gold output has been rapidly falling since 1870. The gold yield of the United States has fallen from $51,000,000 in 1878 to $31,000,000 in 1884. While the silver yield of the United States in 1888 but slightly exceeded $59,250,000, thus showing our total yield per annum of both metals to be but $90,250,000. While the yield of our gold and silver continues to decrease, the per cent of our business continues to en- large. And we are actually confining that which grows within that which dies while we make gold and silver the exclusive value for currency base. If we confine the business of the world to gold and silver as the only base for money, then the less the amount of these metals and the larger the amount of business, the fewer the number of persons controlling the business of the world, and no oppression, no tyranny, no robbery can equal such control. For my business is my expression, the expression of my being. Control that^ and I cannot express my- self. I must shrink back into inertia — cease being —death! We will now proceed to compare our gold and silver output and its amount available for coinage per annum : 22 LAND CURRENCY. Silver $ 59,250,000 Gold 31,000,000 Both 90,250,000 Used in arts 24,250,000 For coinage $ 65, 000,000 When we compare the above yearly amount possi- ble for coinage with the sum of our yearly increase of business, we can somewhat realize the disaster which must result from limiting the vast bulk of business in- crease to the narrow limits of gold and silver increase, and can somewhat realize the necessity of extending our coinage to other values, especially that of land. The recorded transactions of business passing through the clearing houses of the country, give a slight portion of the vast amount of our com- merce, and that portion which actuall}' handles less cash to its amount of business than anv other, since it is the co-operation of banks. For other departments have no such co-operation as "clearing houses." Agriculture and manufacture partake but little of the system as yet. While employes, goods sellers and thousands of other transactors have no such financial co-operation whatever, and their transactions must be dollar for dollar of cash and trade. Therefore the records of the clearing houses present but a small margin of actual business amount. The record, how- ever, will demonstrate the increase of business over gold and silver increase, and prove the necessity of ex- tending the base of our currency to other value. We give the total clearances of 1888 and 1889, and show the increase of the latter: LAND CURRENCY. 23 1889, total clearances $ 56,013,774,893 1888, total clearances 49,497,500,202 Year's business increase 6,516,274,691 Through the co-operative principle of clearing houses the necessary actual cash amounts to but seven per cent of transactions. But this seven per cent of transaction imist be present in actual currency to its full amount in order to do its ninety-three of credit. This seven per cent of the amount of business in- crease, therefore, also gives us the exact sum of cash increase necessary. It forms the reserve fund, as it were, of cash upon which its ninety-three of credit is based. And it must be remembered that this much actual cash is needed in this one department of transactions alone; that there are others also needing a certain per cent of cash to per cent of credit; others whose percentage of cash is many times larger, but whose transactions are unrecorded. And therefore, to avoid estimation, and give only records, we will but present the amount of the actual cash increase neces- eary to business increase of our clearing houses and determine results: Business increase $ 6,516,174,691 Seven per cent needed cash increase 456,132,228 Gold and silver increase 66,000,000, Deficit of gold and silver increase 390.132,228 Here is gold and silver weighed in the balance of commerce and found wanting. Their yield does not expand in ratio with business expansion. Cash must be found somewhere and somehow to meet this busi- ness growth. For if the needed business growth does 24 LAND CURRENCY. not meet its corresponding cash growth, then in propor- tion to the deficiency must the business growth be strangled and crushed back. We cannot meet this deficiency by the issurance of paper redeemable by gold and silver, as such paper merely repj^esents the gold ajtd silver whose yield we have given and adds nothing to them. And this most forcibly demonstrates the necessity of a land base. For the metallic base ties the rapid pace of our swelling trade to the creeping step of these metals' yield, which, like King Richard's night, "comes like an ugly witch limping slowly along." Then, shall we continue to harness this steed "Busi- ness," whose pace is seven, to this steed "Metal," whose pace is one ? It is easier to slow the swift than haste the slow, and for centuries the pace of man's expan- sion has been slowed by this curb of ignorance's vul- gar metallic superstition — in fact, idolatry. Our civilization's value has been chained to the value of our gold and -silver mines, doing no good to gold or silver^ but making hideous the faces of men. Break these chains, extend civilization to more expansive values, and civilization will expand to broader merits. The earth pressed by our feet is our natural base; let us coin it. But chis increase of business may be claimed to be spasmodic; it may be claimed that it slackens and falls back again to monotonous apathy. That apathy is its natural state. And so it seems to the majority. But should our business slacken or fall back? Does not continual increase of population necessitate continual increase of business? Should not increase of popula- tion and increase of business continue in common LAND CURRENCY. 25 ratio ever side by side? For if the necessary increase of business is checked and crushed back, must not the population's increase be also checked and crushed back? Tt must be, as certain as root must die with up- ward growth destroyed. A currency which checks business must therefore necessarily check population. For if population in- creases and business does not, then whatever per cent of population is devoid of occupation, exactly that per cent must become vagrant or criminal or choose the third alternative, " death," and that too by their own hand. The following clipping is to the point, and indicates the result of population increase exceeding business increase. NOTHING BUT MISERY AHEAD. At 524 Eddy street, yesterday morning, Fredrick A. Kilburn com- mitted suicide by taking poison. He could not get employment at his usual occupation of drygoods clerk, and being without money he saw nothing but misery ahead for himself, his wife and his one-year old baby. Deceased was a native of New Brunswick, and twenty- three years old. — .S. F. Examiner, July 6, iSgo. Thus we have panics and poorhouses, ruined homes and flourishing jails, farmers burning corn and colliers existmg on cobs — mendicants, malefactors, suicides and sundown. ECONOMY OF PANICS. It is claimed by some, that we do not need to ex- pand our currency in ratio with business. They say we handle the same dollar over and over again, that our business is chiefly credit and done on paper.* *The low per cent of cash to business of clearing houses in no manner applies to actual business. 26 LAND CURRENCY. We acknowledge that our business is chiefly credit and done on paper and promise. That, in our busi- ness, a dollar z'i- handled over and over again. We will show how much credit and how little cash we have for our credit; show how often each dollar has to be handled in order to transact a given amount of business, and show how much bankruptcy we must have to a given per cent of this heavy preponderance of credit: Credit is simply the absence of cash. It is to cash what quicksand is to solidity, what chance is to certain- ty. The more credit, the more quicksand. The more cash, the more certainty. Therefore the more the vol- ume of cash equals the volume of business, the more solvent the business; and the more the volume of cash unequals the volume of business, the more insol- vent the business. For if cash be demanded and can- not be had, the security is forced upon the market, to the debtor's loss. To all who are open to evidence, truth is self- evident. And it is self-evident that the less the pro rata of cash to the pro rata of business, the greater the pro rata of bankruptcy, and since the relations of our cash and our business are as follows, we can there- fore determine the pro rata of our bankruptcy at pres- ent. Our volume of transactions, recorded and unre- corded, and our volume of money, stand thus: Total business, per year $ 100,000,000,000 Total cash paper and metal 2,000,000,000 Percent of cash insolvency 50,000,000,000 Therefore a dollar invested in business transacted upon this basis has fifty chances of failure to one of LAND CURRENCY. 27 success, since there is a total of fifty of credit to one of cash. Consequently we fully agree with those who claim that our business is chiefly done upon credit-wholesale and slate-retail, though we recognize its disastrous re- sults. For if fifty men have a business each of one dollar per man, and there be but one dollar cash, this needed dollar must travel rapidly from manto man in order to liquidate in ninety days the indebtedness of the fifty. Or if not, then that portion of the fifty whose debts it has not canceled must fail. If the first individual retains the one dollar beyond the nintey days, or ap- propriates the amount entirely, then the remaining forty-nine must enter insolvency. This is witnessed over and over again in the failure of a single firm, drawing down after it house after house in the conta- gious ruin of fifty of business to one of cash. Thus panics occur through the deficiency of currency or the dependence of many upon one. The following table will show the ratio with which individual failure must be followed by community panic under the pres- ent ratio of business and cash. DUAL FAILURE. COMMUNITY PANIC $1 $49 $IO 490 $IOO 4900 $1000 49,000 $10,000 490,000 $IOC,O0O 4,900,000 $1,000,000 49,000,000 Thus if a single firm fail for $1,000,000, the wave of failure it has started must roll through the com- munity, striking down rich and poor, from banker to 28 LAND CURRENCY. laborer, taking in palace and cottage, until it amounts to its per cent of one to fifty. WATERING GOLD. Having for years suffered the consequences of con- fining fifty dollars of business to one dollar of metal, through the repeated tumbling down of this financial pyramid actually set upside down, thus: $50 OF BUSINESS. $1 OF METAL, And not perceiving the common-sense proj^osition of setting the pyramid right^ by having the base or value upon which our money is issued wider than its issue, thus : $1 OF BUSINESS. $50 OF LAND, We have come to the conclusion, since there is not enough of gold, to therefore allow a small amount of silver to be coined, so that by slightly widening the point, the pyramid may stand, thus : LAND CURRENCY 29 $50 OF liUrilNESS. $1.50 OF GOLD AND SILVER. But how have we concluded to widen the point of the pyramid? One would naturally suppose we would proceed to coin silver freely as gold, make it full legal tender as well as gold, and thus, by adding its addi- tional value to the point, somewhat widen it, thus: $50 rr BUSINESS. $3 OF GOLD AND SILVER. But no! Having learned that a pyramid will not stand on its point, we have actually attempted to widen the point by issuing a paper dollar redeemable by this gold dollar — imagining that a thing and its shadow forms two — that we have thus two dollars to balance our fifty of business. Thus, instead of adding additional value, we have believed that watering milk increases the amount of the original, and so have proceeded to water gold with paper. And though we have certainly increased the bulk of our currency by this aqua draft, or issuance of paper currency to be redeemed by gold, we have 30 LAND CURRENCY. o-iven no additional value to the base^ and therefore given no real additional volume to the currency. Not because the watering of gold presents a paper instru- ment of exchange, but because its paper represents a value already represented, it represents a value already counted, and which therefore cannot be represented or counted again. But if we have a paper currency that does represent additional value, a value not previously added, it then adds to the value of the base and thus really increases the volume of currency. But this ''redeemable by gold," this shadow or ghost money adds nothing what- ever to the base, and representing merely a value already represented, its millions and billions of dollars throughout the world are but sheer financial mirage. Having placed this shadow dollar along with its golden corporeal redeemer at the point of this re- versed pyramid of finance, in order to widen the point, and concluding that we have doubled the foundation, we have proceeded to sprout another and another dollar of the same atmospheric substance out of the same corporeal one, until our pyramid actually stands upon more shadows than dollars, and we have more promises than we have dollars to pay. These promisorial ghosts we have proceeded to loan to industry, thus equaling a landlord who not only charges rent for his house, but rent for its shadow and rent for its various variations of shadows. Money- less "business" fondly imagines it has dollars in the possession of these shadows. But lo! when two holders of this stuff simultaneously claim redemption, when two make two demands for the corporeal "one," it can redeem but one, and the remaining financial LAND CURRENCY. 31 prestidigitator beholds his mirage fade. They call this " panic," "Black Friday;" but whatever its name, its deadly dance is fringed with coffins, jails and in- sane asylums. Its pall is cast over whole communities, its crack of suicide-pistol is heard, its tears replace smiles, its famine takes the place of plenty ! Yet, not knowing that Land can be coined as well as Metal, the world continues to float its precious commerce upon this deadly sea. Europe's shadow money. Currency can only be actually increased by the coinage of actual value. Value may be coined directly or indirectly. Metals may be coined by stamps upon them, or the stamping of paper issued upon them. So land may be coined also by the stamping of paper issued upon it. If the value upon which the paper is issued be held by the Government, then every dollar of such currency issued under such conditions is actual money, since every dollar of such currency adds a dollar's actual value to the base. But another dollar issued upon this same value already issued, adds noth- ing to the base, and therefore adds nothing to the currency. Yet the cunning proprietors of the gold base hold to the contrary. They hold that a paper promise to pay a gold dollar, not only adds to the circulation, but that several of their promises to pay the same gold dollar adds to the gold dollar as often as the promises are multiplied. To illustrate this promisorial pneu- matical, paperial watering of metal, this addition with- out addition, this counting a thing and its shadow, this drawing interest upon worthless paper, we will cite the following graphic examples, which fully illustrate 32 LAND CURRENCY. the superiority of land as a base for currency, as it presents a double value behind every dollar issued: BANK OF SPAIN. Redeemable paper currency $ 140,000,000 Coin reserve to redeem it 38,000,000 Worthless $ 102,000,000 BANK OF RUSSIA. Redeemable paper currency $ 510,000,000 Coin reserve to redeem it 165,000,000 Woithless $ 345,000,000 AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BANKS. Redeemable paper currency $ 229 910,000 Coin reserve to redeem it 107,350,000 Worthless $ 122,560,000 ITALIAN BANKS. Redeemable paper currency $ 251,380,000 Coin reserve to redeem it 36,000,000 Worthless $ 215,380,000 BANK OF ENGLAND. Paper to be redeemed by gold $ 175,000,000 Gold reserve to redeem it 100,000,000 Worthless $75,000,000 But this over-watering gold and silver is a danger- ous game to the people whose industry is run upon it For if two men, Rothschild and Seligman. were to de- mand redemption of the paper they hold it would stop Europe's spindles, extinguish its furnace fires, close its shipyards and hold the bread from the mouths of millions. In fact, when we sum up not only the instances we have cited but the entire banking system of Europe. LAND CURRENCY. 33 we find it run upon irredeemable promise, having no security and depending merely upon confidence. The following is its total coin reserve and paper issue : Total paper issue of Europe $2,665,345,000 Total coin reserve to redeem it ^>336,383,o99 Worthless $1,328,962,000 About two of promise to one of pay. This startling arrangement of facts, collected from the banks them- selves, proves the entire rotteness and bankruptcy of European finance. Proves the absurdity of sprouting one form of money out of another. Proves the in- sufficiency of the metal as a base Proves that we must broaden the base of our currency by the addition of land value and thereby place two dollars of real value behind every dollar issued, in the place of empt}^ shadow. Thus the gold base for currency necessitates the issuance of paper representing an amount many times its base in order to expand sufficient for business, while a land base for currency issues paper to but fifty per cent of the value, and expands to necessary volume upon the same solvent ratio. But the evils of a gold base lie even deeper than its compulsory over-issue. It cannot expand in ratio to population or business, unless it expands on a worth- less, irredeemable, shadow currency. OUR NATIONAL BANK SYSTEM. To further demonstrate the virtue of coining land, we will now compare it with the coining of bonds, or the loaning of Government currency upon national debts, which currency presents an array of startling, if not ludicrous, facts. 34 LAND CURRENCY. As I write, the report of the honorable Secretary of the National Treasury lays before me. It contains some choice reading, and some very interesting infor- mation. On page 12, the Secretary informs us that the Government, during the year, loaned the National Thanks THE SUM OF $235,217,283. in currency known as National Barjk notes. The ques- tion arises to the most uninquiring mind: What did the Government receive for the loan of this currency?" The reply to this question is found on page 8 of the same document, wherein the Secretary again informs us that he received from the banks for the loan of this currency THE SUM OF $1,500,000 — a trifle over one-half per cent per annum. When we come to examine the transaction further, we find that the banks borrowed this currency from the people to again reloan it to them. And we are faced with the extraordinary spectacle of a people who loan their currency to a bank at one-half per cent, in order to borrow it back at ten. Why not have given the banks nme and a half per cent directly, without all this circumlocutionary, side- ways, left-handed double contortion ? We certainly, as well as Europe, have a wonderful and profoundly made system of currency. As the banks loaned this currency* mostly to the * The National Banks are not allowed by law to loan on land mortagage, but they skillfully keep within the law by loaning on notes, secured by land mortagage. In their reports, the column headed " Loans on Real Estate" is blank, Lading the uninitiated to suppose them innocent. Their LAND CURRENCY. 35 farming community at ten per cent, they recjeived therefore in INTEREST THAT YEAR $23,521,728. And when we deduct from that the one-half per cent the banks paid to the Government, we have the follow- ing table: The banks received in interest from the people $23,521,728 The banks paid interest to the people 1,500,000 Banks made by borrowing at Y^, and loaning back at 10 per cent $22,021,728 Thus it cost the people in 1888 twenty-two millions for the financial joke of loaning money in order to bor- row it back again. But the point of the joke can only be found in the pockets of the bankers. We will not give details what these banks made by this ridiculous arrangement from its inception up to the present, and we merely but cite this instance in order to photograph the system and present its inferi- ority to the issuance of currency upon land. One more point in regard to National Banks. Their currency is loaned by the Government upon the secur- ity of bonds deposited with the Treasurer. Can any one inform the author how a bond is better security than land ? Surely, if we can loan money on bonds, we can upon lands. The advantages of a land currency over this system of finance, known as National Bank currency, is there- fore plain. The National Banks are simply middlemen, through which the currency passes from the Govern- National Eeport of 1888 shows their total profit for that year $46,000,000, which amount would be saved by land currency, reducing our interest per year to that amount in this single item alone. 36 LAND CURRENCY. ment to the people. Land currency would pass directly from the Government to the people, thereby removing the middleman and his enormous profits. As the national bonds are paid, the currency loaned upon them decreases, and this decrease decreases the volume of money. This decrease must be substituted by some other form of currency, in order to equal the deficit and prevent its direful results. THE TURNING POINT. And here comes the turning point in our history. Shall we repeat the follies we have set forth, or shall we rise equal to the necessity of the age ? Shall we exercise a gleam of common sense and adopt a rational, genuine currency, honest, sound and solvent ? If we do, then to the complexion of land currency must we come. If not, then mothers " WEEP FOR YOUR CHILDREN." For there shall be storms ahead darker than ye have yet witnessed. For no civilization can prosper and thrive on this progress-curbing, liberty-crushing, pov- erty-spreading, crime-creating European system, now grinding the masses of Europe, and beneath which America now lies low in the grasp of a foreign usury. No proposition more far-reaching in effect, more oppor- tune to occasion, more completely in order with con- ditions, was ever presented for consideration. May they whose souls contain the patriot's spark help it forward. LAND CURRENCY REDEMPTION. As land is its security, land redeems land currency. The process of its redemption is simple as the currency LAND CURRENCY. 37 is sound. Being issued upon mortgage, its redemption merely consists in a return to the treasury of the amount loaned, upon which the interest ceases, the mortgage is canceled and the currency redeemed. "When we compare this simple process of redemption to that of other forms of redeemable currency, the advan- tages gained and dangers surmounted are not to be overlooked. For a currency to be redeemed by gold must end in disaster. If we cannot get the gold from circulation to redeem the paper, there is bankruptcy; and if we can and do redeem the paper, then the gold drawn from circulation produces stringency and panic. So we have bankruptcy either way. But, with redemp- tion of land currency, the land would be always pres- ent to redeem, and as amounts of the currency would be redeemed, other amounts would be issued, and the full volume of money thus continuously preserved. WOULD INCREASE LAND AND OTHER VALUES. Investors should all be in favor of land currency — First. Because it raises the value of every value. The coining of any value raises price, as it gives all wealth additional use. The extension of silver coinage this year has increased silver value 20 per cent by in- creasing its use 20 per cent, and will also increase all other values. Second. Because it lowers interest upon loans from six and ten to two per cent, leaving from four to eight per cent margin for profit. Third. Because its interest cancels taxation. Fourth. Because we can embark upon its mort- gage system safely and profitably, without danger of foreclosure. 272281 38 LAND CURRENCY. Fifth. Because we have a thriving community to invest upon, with plenty of genuine money. REAL AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. England is said to be, and is, the greatest maritime nation in the world. The United States ought to be. Why is England this, and why is the United States not? Because the former has been the financier and the lat- ter the pruducer. America, with her vast resources, has toiled. England, with her vast bank, has loaned. America has been attending to labor; England has been attending to money — money controls labor, therefore England controls America. When America turns her attention to money, and her statesmen understand it as the statesmen of the Old World, then America will not look to England for finance, but will control her own wealth. I am not opposed to England, but I am opposed to her Imperial form of Government running the Repub- lics of America. I am for a Republican form of money. I am opposed to Republican industry falling under the power of Monarchical capital. Here is a specimen straw from the press: An English syndicate has purchased the Port B'akeley lumber mill in Washington for $2,400,000. — Los Angeles Express. Here is another straw: The principal American shipyards are being negotiated for by a London agent. — N. V. Herald. Another straw : Thirty-three crystal glassworks are purchased by London capi- tal. — Morning Call. Here is another straw : LAND CURRENCY. 39 Arrangements bave been closed for the purchase of the leading Chicago, St. Louis and San Francisco breweries by an Enj^lish syndi- cate. — S. F. Chronicle. With land currency, America would not have to sell her industries to foreign capitalists. Behind Eno;lish progression, behind her shipping, behind her " Warspites" and her guns, lies coiled the mainspring of all her power — her great Bank of the World. That is the source of her wealth, the secret of her power. This bank is no part of the English people, but is situated among them, and fleeces them as closely as South American and North American peoples. It is the financial spider of the world, into whose huge web of mortgage the nations of the earth get entangled, and are sucked of their blood. If the victims struggle or resist the payment of her bonds, then her devil- ish stings are set at play, and shot and shell vomit murder upon their cities. Her ironclads are always ready to enforce her rights (bonds). As an illustration of how this mortgage devilfish of London works, we clip the following from the press of August 1, 1890 : THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC A RUIN ANARCHY REIGNING BLOODY CONFLICT RAGING THROUGH THE COUNTRY — THE ENOR- MOUS LOANS FLOATED ON THE LONDON MARKET. '*The present unhappy state of affairs in the Argentine Republic," said a well-informed banker yesterday, "is the natural result of try- ing to boom a country on borrowed money, and a desire to discount the future material prosperity of a country undeniably rich in unde- veloped resources. You know how it is with a borrower, whether a nation or an individual — it dulls the edge of husbandry as much in one case as it does in the other. " Of course we know that the immediate cause of the crash was the failure of the National Banks to pay the regular quarterly dividends. That was merely the result of all I have been telling you. The load 40 LAND CURRENCY. had become too great to bear, and something had to give way. What the outcome will be remains to be seen. "We know what kind of a creditor England is. She generally sees to it that her citizens get principal and interest, even if it re- quires a few steelclad ' VVarspites ' to sail into the harbors of the debtor country, just as a reminder. THE ENORMOUS INDEBTEDNESS. I saw a statement in the Examiner' s dispatch to the effect that the state national debt amounts to $336,341,442, while the provinces and city of Buenos Ayres owe in addition $213,683,252 and $24,- 044,752, respectively, making a total indebtedness of $574,069,446. " That is an enormous sum of money for a country to owe, with only a population of six millions and a quarter. Nearly $100 per capita you see. Our own public debt is only about $15 per capita, and we think it no trifling matter to owe in the neighborhood of $7 89, 000,000- "Then you must recollect that this debt bears a much higher rate of interest, averaging about 6 per cent, and the bonds, or cedulas, as they are called, which are in series beginning with A and going nearly through the alphabet, range all the way from 75 to 85 cents on the dollar. " The premium on gold has mounted higher and higher, until it reached 233, as you will see by glancing at this paper published at Buenos Ayres on the 21st of last month." — Exa?niner, August t^, 1890. Thus the world works and England mortgages. She is the pawnbroker, the Shylock of Nations, unto whom the people pledge their energies and wealth. America boasts of a certain "Declaration of Independence" of 1776. We rebelled then, because of a certain tax on tea. My countrymen, you may bray your bands, beat your drums, and flaunt your flags, but if you make less noise and think more, you will realize the patriotic duty you owe, you will realize that the real indepen- dence of your country from G-reat Britain has yet to be declared. [If the people of the Argentine Republic and of every other Re- LAND CURRENCY. 41 public would establish a Republican form of finance, such as the issuance of land currency, they would not have to negotiate foreign loans in monarchical banks; foreign monarchies would not and could not exploit them. And I hope this work may fall mto the hands of some of the many patriots of our sister Republics, that their people may read, appreciate and adopt this finance of liberty.] WHAT WOULD STOP AN OVER-ISSUE. Over-issue of land currency would be prevented by precisely the same circumstances now preventing wholesale and unlimited borrowing. For instance, why is it that persons who have security, do not im- mediately borrow the entire funds of our banks? Be- cause it would not pay. Because interest is in the way. Because the relation of interest to profit governs loans, and the borrower's profit must include and ex- ceed the interest on the loans, or the borrowing is checked. This prevents wholesale and unlimited borrowing, and this would apply to land currency at two per cent exactly as it now applies to any form of currency at any per cent. The increase of population presents an increase of business, and an increase of business presents an in- crease of profit. As profit must exist before interest, since profit pays interest, therefore population must increase for business to increase before loans can increase and their increased interest be paid. Therefore the in- crease or decrease of population is the increase or de- crease of loans. All profit must come from population. Population thus fixedly limits the increase of interest. Interest cannot go beyond population's profit, and there- fore land currency cannot be over-issued, for the in- terest of its loans cannot exceed the capability of its population to pay. The moment the interest of land 42 LAND CURRENCY. currency loans exceeds the business profit of the com- munity, further loans become unprofitable, therefore cease. Thus land currency would be fixedly ruled by the natural law of supply and demand and could not be over issued. [Therefore it would be as ridiculous to limit the loans of Land Currency as it would to limit the loans of our present banks. While there is possibility of profit the loans of our banks continue. When the profit of the loans ceases, the loans them- selves cease correspondingly. Why? Because interest must be paid by profits. It does not pay to build houses beyond the community necessity, or carry on manufacture or enterprise of any kind, even if you get the money at one-half per cent or at any fraction thereof. For, however small, the interest must be paid or the security be forfeited. Hence land currency need have no artificial limit, since the profit of business is its lata', to which it flows, with which in corresponding volume it continues to flow, and beyond whose limit it cannot go.] RELATIONS OF INTEREST AND PROFIT. Thus population's necessity and the pro rata in- crease of population would automatically issue land currency, and its volume could not pass beyond popu- lation's need. Loans at present never do pass beyond the pro rata increase of population. Nor can they even keep pace with its pro rata increase, which they certainly should do. For the reason that our present moneys are based upon metals, and the values of the metals are not ex- pandable in ratio with population. The values of metallic currencies are not broad enough. The gold and silver yield does not increase in ratio with population, therefore checks its loans and checks its business. The increase of gold and silver curren- cies drags behind our increase of business, continually LAND CURRENCY. 43 forcing interest ahead of profit, when its natural posi- tion is behind, thus steadily strangling business — busi- ness must necessarily fall behind, and far behind, the volume of population, throwing millions out of em- ployment. And since life will battle for the right to exist, the pro rata you deny will be the pro rata of your crime. The very reverse of this should be the rule if we wish our business to expand pro rata with population, and afford all an opportunity for legitimate occupation. Business profit should always be ahead of, and in ex- cess of, interest, and nothing should reverse this rule, save when business, becoming sufficient for population, itself reverses it, but only to again restore it when pop- ulation's increase demands additional loans for addi- tional business, to give additional employment. Population, business and money should all conform in increasements. If population expands a given per cent, then business should be allowed to expand ac- cordingly, and can be allowed by the inauguration of a form of money affording a sufficiency of base to ex- pand, corresponding with population. The interest of such a money would consequently not be in advance of profit, but be behind. Its loans would steadily continue in volume with business increase, presenting exactly a sufficiency of money for a sufficiency of busi- ness, to employ the increase of population ; but beyond which increase, as we have shown, it could not pass. AMOUNTS OF EXPANSION. The profits of a business are its growth. As its pro- fits are subtracted, its growth is subtracted. Inter- est subtracts from business profit, and the amount of 44 LAND CURRENCY. interest is the amount of the suppression of business growth. Ten per cent interest reduces the natural growth of a business ten per cent, as certain as ten from one hundred leaves ninety. If land currency charged "business" a per cent interest, and did not cancel taxation to that per cent, thus practically re- turning the per cent it took, then land currency would retard the growth of business exactly that per cent, or to whatever rate its interest charged. But as land currency's "two per cent" is not a subtraction, but merely a transaction, it leaves business therefore shorn of no w^ealth, strength or growth. Therefore to reduce interest is to enlarge business, or to allow it its natural growth. Hence, if under seven per cent our " clearing houses" show a business of 164,000,000,000, then under the practical or actual "no per cent" of land currency the seven per cent now subtracted from business would be retained, and our present growth of business would be to that ex- tent enlarged. Seven per cent of the above sum would give us $4,480,000,000, the amount which the seven per cent money toll now takes from our merchants, manufacturers, farmers and producers, and the amount to which in twelve months therefore our business and our wealth* would immediately expand under land currency. *I have above remarked that our business and our wealth would, etc.; I do not use these two words in connection meaniuglessly, for I discover that the exact figure of the one is the exact figure of the other; that if our wealth is $66,000,000,000, that the business of our clearing houses is $66,000,000,- 000, and more significant still, I find that the census report of our popula- tion is also $66,000,000, or exactly $1,000 per wealth, per business, per population. So the amounts of business and wealth are both in ratio to population, China has but $100 per capita wealth. I wish to see my country have $20,000 of wealth and business per capita, and that distributed LAND CURRENCY. 45 We have an army of 1,000,000 forced into idleness by scarcity of money raising interest above profit. This entire army would enter employment if money was plenty, and interest less than profit — if investment could make a margin. If this army was employed it would add at least its $1,000 per capita to our wealth, expanding our wealth $1,000,000,000. Whereas now we annually waste millions attempting to suppress life, because it attempts to take, outside of the law, that which we have stopped it from creating, inside of the law, by stupidity, by putting an unexpandable collar of gold around the growing throat of our young civilization. The expansion of our currency to its supply and demand volume, the reduction of interest from ten to two, and the abolition of tax payment, would expand the volume of our wealth, from careful examination of the premises, ten times. Our total wealth, therefore, now $64,000,000,000, would expand to $640,000,000,- 000, and every man, woman and child in the United States would be ten-fold richer than to-da}'-. In fact, the world itself from pole to pole would be benefited thereby, for good is contagious. Our poor little pale- face children of poverty would be fed, clothed and happy ; our desperate criminal element would turn to the love extended to them; our jails, our mad-houses and our bad-houses would be few indeed, for all that poor humanity wants is a chance to be good. Let us give it that chance. less in lumps than now. And I present a plan to do it, simple, plain and practicable — a plan that I have yet to see a person who cannot perceive its Bimplicity, who has the love of country enough at heart to examine — and certainly we all have that. 46 LAND CURRENCY. HOW MORE MONEY \VOULD BENEFIT US. What would expand our wealth merely by the issuance of more money? How would it expand? How can or does more money increase wealth? Is money wealth? No! money is not wealth, but the co-operative instrument by which human energy is allied, united, arranged and concerted to produce wealth, also to distribute wealth. It is therefore both instrument of production and distribution. And exactly as it is lessened in vol- ume, exactly are the people unemployed, and exactly as the people are unemployed, exactly is the volume of wealth lessened, and exactly as the volume of wealth is lessened, then exactly is lessened that portion of wealth which, if produced, the people would have enjoyed. Thus, if money is scarce, many are idle, and wages are low; if many are idle, wealth is scarce, and living is high. So that the scarcity of money lowers wages and raises cost of living, since that which lessens the employment of men must necessarily lessen the pro? duction of that which supports them. Let us examine this closely. We have said that if money is scarce in- terest is relatively high — that profit pays interest. If profit pays interest, the higher the interest the less the profit, and if money be scarce enough, the interest will be high enough to allow profit nothing after paying interest. If no profit remain after paying interest, there is no more building, no more manufacturing, no more farming, no more investment or operation. Money scarcity renders them unprofitable, and the wealth, which would have been created has no existence. Thus scarcity of money lowers wages through scarcity of work. Thus scarcity of money raises cost of living LAND CURRENCY 47 through scarcity of wealth. Reverse this, and make money plenty. Then money is cheap and interest is low, The lower the interest the more remaining for profit. Then business pays, building pays, manufacturing pays, farming pays. Labor is in demand, consequently wages raise. Hence with plenty of money we have plenty of wealth, the many being employed. Hence wealth or cost of living is cheap, and wages which created the wealth are high. Hence the axiom: Money plenty, wages high, living cheap; money scarce, wages low, living dear. A banker's query. A banker inquires if land currency would not, after it had expanded values, be loaned on these ex- pansions, and as these loans expanded the expansion further loans would then be loaned on the expansions of the expansions, and so on and so forth into eternity. We have stated that land currency, like any other currency loaned on a value, would have to pay its interest, and therefore the amount of its loans would not depend upon the amount of the expanded security, but upon the certainty of profit, as profit would have to pay the interest. No one does now, and no one would, under any circumstances, borrow money beyond possibility of investment and pay two per cent. If they did under land currency, foreclosure would check the folly and as certainly check the fantastic idea of this banker. Certainly, the expansion of values would be pro rata to the issuance of land currency; but as "interest and profit" limit the volume of currency, the expansion of values could not get in excess of that which expanded them, and thus land currency's ex- pansion of values would have limit. 48 LAND CURRENCY. [But why all this dread of increase of values, of increase of money, of increase of wealth? Surely, there seems to be more fear that times may be too good than too bad. In California's early days, what made times then so good and men so noble ? Nothing but plenty of money. All that earth needs to make it a heaven is a true form of money. We have a false one, and it is a hell.] STEADY RATE OF INTEREST AND NO FLUCTUATION. Its steady rate of interest and no fluctuation would be no small item in land currency's favor. Its steady rate, fixed by law, and only lowered or raised by national enactment, would have the advantage of making business investment less of a lottery and more of a certainty. For if your business is carried upon a loan arranged when the rates are ten per cent, and mine is carried upon a loan arranged when the rates are five per cent, I can as certainly undersell joii and ex- pand my business until it overshadows yours as a plant can grow and overshadow its neighbor which re- ceives less sunlight. Thus land currency having a steady, fixed rate, no one's business would be either favored or crippled by the fluctuation of interest, which would be the same, alike, January or December. FOR THE POOR AS WELL AS THE RICH. Our Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal. They may be created so, but cannot stay so, when one person can borrow capital at four per cent and another must pay ten; when a large loan is at more favorable terms than a small loan. But Government land currency rate would be the same to all. It would present the same rate to the great and to the less alike. And thus, in zls economy at least, all men and women too would be LAND CURRENCY. 49 free and equal. So long as the large borrower can se- cure better terms than the small, the rich must grow richer and the poor poorer, for the weak weakened cannot long stand against the strong strengthened. And thus land currency, presenting the same smiling face to the great and to the less, would be just. WOULD GIVE EMPLOYMENT. Land currency would be a currency whose nature would bring about continual improvements and em- ployment of labor. With land currency you could not afford to do nothing but watch some poor fellow who wished to improve, and then lend it to him at a round rate, large enough to absorb the entire profits on his improvements, and finally his improvements as well. For the party being able to borrow money from the Government at such low inter- est, and you being unable to make usury upon him, would have to use your money in improvements, and thus yourself give einployment. Thus it would turn the usurer into an employer, and that which now sup- presses employment it would make a creator of employ- ment. This would certainly bless the home of the toiler, and probably save the soul of the usurer. PROPERTY NOT SAFE UNDER THE PRESENT SYSTEM. Your property which you have toiled a lifetime for is not safe if the community is suffering for money. Property is one thing, but cash is another. True, your property may bring cash, and your property may be large and your debt small; yet, as small as it may be, if the cash cannot be had, if the community be suf- fering from money famine, your property cuts no fig- 50 LAND CURRENCY, iwe^ and its value must shrink within the premium of the cash and disappear within the small amount of your debt. Study this subtle alchemy of finance, and you will learn how twenty dollars of property is swallowed by one dollar of cash. No one's earnings, no one's possessions are safe if money is scarce, or in the con- trol of a ring. UNIMPROVED LANDHOLDING DISCOURAGED. There are two kinds of philosophy : the philosophy of Fear and the philosophy of Favor. The philosophy of Fear is that of Tax, Tariffs, Takes and Clubs. The philosophy of Favor is the reverse of all these, and offers freedom and vantage to virtue. Men do not act through compulsion, but through profit. Force fails and favor wins. We do not propose to tax, tariff, take, club, or indianize the unimproved landowner into doing right. We propose to make it profitable for him to do right; to do better by him than he is doing by himself. We propose to give the landholder a currency free from usury, which will relieve his im- provements from tariffs, taxes and takes. To give him a currency whose rent will not exceed the profits of his improvements, and allow him no excuse to not improve. To make it pay to do right. If you sat to dine, and a person appropriated half your meal, it would be simply a tax, tariff, take, or steal. If two trade knives and a third charges a blade to allow the trade, that would be called " interest," and would also be a take, tariff, tax, or steal. Land currency would effervesce this oblig- ing individual. We propose to give the land improver a currency which would not only remove this middle- man into the past, but also that other ancient party of LAND CURRENCY. 51 the first part, the •' taz collector." Men do wrong be- cause society makes it unprofitable to do right. Land currency makes the right profitable. It touches the heart through the pocket; allows a man to follow his nobler instincts. Society has reversed the truth. Wrong is only wrong because it is the greatest loss. Society endeavors to make "right" the greatest loss. Right should be profitable at all times anywhere and in anything. Land currency would tend to make it so. The sole reason underlying land possession is sim- ply profit. If money rent is more than improvement rent, or interest more than profit, then land lies un- improved. Land currency would not /br^^ landhold- ers to improve, but would present two sources (^i profit to im.prove. First. Cheap money — making profit on improve- ments more than cost. Second. Abolishing tax on improvements. Land currency would also remove from the land- owner a power of evil — the power to not improve with his money, but to loan it at usurous rates and cripple the improvements of others. Money zuould thus have to impi ove or have no profit. To-day, money can make more by absorbing im- provements than it can make by projecting. When it is more profitable to build and employ than to rob and destroy, then we will build and employ. When a small piece of improved land is more profitable than a laro-e unimproved piece, when the improved yields profit, and the unimproved yields no profit, then there will be very few people owning the moon, or the air, or the sky, or unimproved land. 52 LAND CURRENCY. UNIMPROVED LANDHOLDING DESTROYED. Exactly as the taxes of a county are applied to its own expense and not to other counties, so the receipts through interest from land currency would be credited on the Land Currency Bureau's books to the county paying it. The national apportionment of the county would be deducted by the bureau, and the balance given the county, to be ap- plied to its state and county costs. The revenue of land currency, therefore, would remain with the community whose land loans created it, to relieve from tax the very lands whose improvements caused it. Thus a community whose land remained un- improved would be forced to tax its land for Govern- ment cost, while another, whose land improvements increased, would have less and less necessity to tax. There would be few holders of unimproved lands who would prefer to pay tax, than to pay none, by profitable improvements, possible through land currency. I hardly think there would be any consid- erable number; but in case there remained such, the effect of land currency would make it exceedingly cold for them. For if the people of a county dis- covered that their neighbors in an adjoining county were relieved of taxation through land improvement, and that they still bear the burden of tax, through their holders of large tracts of land refusing to im- prove or allowing others to, then they, too, would de- mand that land bear the burden of taxation in some way, and they would resort to the lesser in order to inaugurate the greater — they would immediately place a ''single tax' upon such lands, by which LAND CURRENCY. e53 ''single tax'' they would compel folly to disgorge and give way to the greater truth of No Tax. But the " single tax'' would avail men naught if, after this disgorgement of large unimproved land hold- ings, the poor landowners coming into possession merely found, after building their homes, buying their stock, implements, seed and provender, that money rent can absorb the product of the landed as completely as land rent can shear the landless. And here it is that land currency steps in and proclaims the greater truth, and not only rests all costs on land, but places a premium on improvement and a burden on unim- provement, abolishing at once the burdens of tax and usury. FIRST NATIONAL LAND CURRENCY LEAGUE. ($^ ORGANIZED ^^S) Sai) Frapci^co, Cali^orpia, Au^u^b 21, 1890- OFFICEKS— Peesidekt, Baron McComb; Vice-Peesident, T. E. Thornton; Tkeasueek, S. H. Depuy; Seceetaky, Mark Maybell; Executive Committee— Chaieman, Stephen Maybell; Dr. A. D. Fonchy, W. P. Grace, A. Manzer, J. C. Green, T. E. Thornton. A. Printer, Edward Collins, Gus Eommel, W. M. Laugton, I. Larsen, Miss Lena Barbara Wahl, Miss Eva Levy. PLATFORM. National land currency proclaims a no-tax system, by the Government charging a necessary and just price for use of currency loaned on land, and the ap- plication of revenue thus derived to Government cost. We hold that no special commodity has a divine right to coinage or investment of special privilege, to the exclusion of another equally as adaptable. And that land value stands pre-eminently the fittest value to be coined. We hold that a currency can be issued by Govern- ment upon land held as security equally as well as upon metal held as security. Therefore the Land Currency League of America pro- poses to substitute for taxation a revenue to be de- rived from interest charged by the nation for the use of its exchange stamp affixed to land currency, pre- senting the great issue to the people of NO TAX. As the cost of Government would be borne by the cost of currency, and as the cost of currency would be LAND CURRENCY LEAGUE. 55 nominal, investments would have generous margin; whereas, now usury leaves no margin, but absorbs profit and plant as well. As the cost of this currency would apply to taxation, its cost would be practically returned to investments, and thus abolish taxation as well as usury. As it would circulate through every department of industry, its advantages and prosperity would flow to the employer and employed — would open up channels of occupation to moneyless millions, and place our nation upon a higher plane of happiness, wealth and progress. [Signed] Baron McComb, President. CALL. The first National Land Currency League calls for or- ganization upon the great issue set forth in its platform. It is a keynote such as never reform had before. It is in harmony with present ideas, and violates no cher- ished relations. It is popular, yet radical. It requires but a simple enactment, and needs neither nullification nor alteration of laws. Its harmonious, uncomplicated, and intensely practical proposition meets unanimous indorsement. It needs but action as well as indorse- ment to make its truth a mighty issue, overshadowing idle opposition. Let every one, who perceives its light^ act. Organize leagues of from five to five thou- sand members wherever you may be. Thought must have action or it remains but thought. Each one owes a duty to self and to country — here is that duty set forth. 56 LAND CURRENCY LEAGUE. Let the women of America also take up this zuork as well as men. Poverty bears more sore and cruel upon her than upon man. She feels keener and receives worse. Here, then, is her cause also. Stephen Maybell, Chairman Executive Committee N. L. C. L. Headquarters, 265 Clara St., San Francisco, Cal. #*t5^V I A#BGBK«F8R#TH1NKE:RS ^ ^ lYILIZATION rvi IVILIZED Nationalization Publishing Company, Puhlishers, 265 Clara Street, San Francisco, California, U. S. A. For sale everywhere, by all dealers. Paper, 50c; Cloth, $1.00; Leather, $3.50. TESTIMONIALS. "Never so long in reading hook before. As I said, 'Simply Immense ! ! '" — George Fran- cis Train, Tremont House, Boston. "A marvelous and almost matchless book." — Miss Lizzie Bennett, Metaphysician, Mills' Mills, N. Y. "A very, very, remarkable book," — Rev. W. J. Colville, in his lecture delivered in Meta 'Wish I could put a copy in every library. I consider it the best and clearest, most inspired work on the subject that has appeared. It paves the way for the grand march of the com- ing century. It is so advanced that its author must not expect to escape persecution." — Prof. Isaac B. Rumford, Whethng, Wtst Va, "Maybell is a clear and forcible writer. The ph>sical Hall, San Francisco, upon the book i book will be p-ized."— H. N. Mapquand, Ed. itself. "Bi-rkeley Advocate," Berkeley, Cal. "I congratulate you in having written one of the best of books." — Lizzie Denton Baker, Author of "Psychometry," Lower Lake, Cal. 'This admirable book written by Stephen Maybell, is on our table. We consider it the best thing of the age, and should be read by every man, woman and child in the world." — P. M. miim^mi'm%i\^'^ 'l¥n^f^' c^ai Valley, West Va. ^.p "'^ ~ ^«^iA LOS ANGELES '^ LIBRARY "Language is inadequate to express our thanks to Maybell. We wish it was in our power to so impress our readers with the importance of their reading this graph'c and admirably written work, so that they would urge their neighbors to do the same, until it has been read by every intelligent human being in the world." — Lee Crandall, Ed, "National View," Washington D. C. 613 Maybell - M45 1 Land cur- rency^ — wov h niC'Q r" \r SOI ITH^R^1 RFGIONAl LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 593 782 6 «« Ha 613 M45 1 DEMCO LIBRARY SUPPLIES