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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN
AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
AND FOOD POLICY

African Farmers,
Value Chains and
Agricultural Development
An Economic and Institutional Perspective

Alan de Brauw
Erwin Bulte
Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics
and Food Policy

Series Editor
Christopher Barrett, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Agricultural and food policy lies at the heart of many pressing soci-
etal issues today and economic analysis occupies a privileged place in
contemporary policy debates. The global food price crises of 2008 and
2010 underscored the mounting challenge of meeting rapidly increasing
food demand in the face of increasingly scarce land and water resources.
The twin scourges of poverty and hunger quickly resurfaced as high-
level policy concerns, partly because of food price riots and mounting
insurgencies fomented by contestation over rural resources. Meanwhile,
agriculture’s heavy footprint on natural resources motivates heated envi-
ronmental debates about climate change, water and land use, biodi-
versity conservation and chemical pollution. Agricultural technological
change, especially associated with the introduction of genetically modi-
fied organisms, also introduces unprecedented questions surrounding
intellectual property rights and consumer preferences regarding credence
(i.e., unobservable by consumers) characteristics. Similar new agricultural
commodity consumer behavior issues have emerged around issues such
as local foods, organic agriculture and fair trade, even motivating broader
social movements. Public health issues related to obesity, food safety, and
zoonotic diseases such as avian or swine flu also have roots deep in agricul-
tural and food policy. And agriculture has become inextricably linked to
energy policy through biofuels production. Meanwhile, the agricultural
and food economy is changing rapidly throughout the world, marked
by continued consolidation at both farm production and retail distribu-
tion levels, elongating value chains, expanding international trade, and
growing reliance on immigrant labor and information and communi-
cations technologies. In summary, a vast range of topics of widespread
popular and scholarly interest revolve around agricultural and food policy
and economics. The extensive list of prospective authors, titles and topics
offers a partial, illustrative listing. Thus a series of topical volumes,
featuring cutting-edge economic analysis by leading scholars has consider-
able prospect for both attracting attention and garnering sales. This series
will feature leading global experts writing accessible summaries of the best
current economics and related research on topics of widespread interest
to both scholarly and lay audiences.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14651
 Alan de Brauw · Erwin Bulte

African Farmers, Value

Chains
and Agricultural
Development
An Economic and Institutional Perspective
Alan de Brauw Erwin Bulte
International Food Policy Wageningen University and Research
Research Institute Wageningen, The Netherlands
Washington, DC, USA

ISSN 2662-3889 ISSN 2662-3897 (electronic)

Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy
ISBN 978-3-030-88692-9 ISBN 978-3-030-88693-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88693-6

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
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the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
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Cover image: © 2014 by Alan de Brauw

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Acknowledgments

We have many people to thank for intellectual contributions to our under-

standing of agricultural value chains in general, especially members of the
CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets, and
members of the Inclusive and Efficient Value Chains team. We thank
Frank Place and Nick Minot for their support through the formulating
and writing process. We also want to thank Kate Ambler, Tanguy Bernard,
Antoine Bouet, Luciana Delgado, Katrina Kosec, Berber Kramer, and
Marc Schut for contributing boxes to our manuscript.
Our knowledge of African value chains has been greatly enhanced
by colleagues all over the continent, including Khalid Bomba, Wycliff
Kumwenda, Bernardino Munhaua, Gerson Daniel, Macadou Gueye, and
Papa Assane Diop. We must also thank some of our further colleagues
who have helped shape our thinking about agricultural value chains or
issues surrounding them, including Gashaw Abate, Jenny Aker, Chris
Barrett, Karen Brooks, Shaun Ferris, Vivian Hoffmann, Cees Leeuwis,
Bart Minten, Tom Reardon, Johan Swinnen, and Maximo Torero. Finally,
we thank Laura Leavens for their research assistance on several chapters.

v
 Contents

1 African Smallholders and Their Market Environment 1

1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Transaction Costs: The Elephant in the Room 4
1.3 The Weakest Shoulders and the Heaviest Burden 8
1.4 Value Chain Development 10
1.5 Policies and Interventions 13
1.6 What This Book Tries to Do (and Does not Do) 15
References 19
2 African Agricultural Value Chains: A Brief Historical
Overview 21
2.1 Introduction 21
2.2 Precolonial Farming 23
2.3 The Scramble for Africa 24
2.4 Extraction and Growth During Colonial Times 27
2.5 Taxing Farmers: African Agriculture After
Decolonization 30
2.6 From Taxation to Protection 33
2.7 Conclusions 36
References 36
3 Economic Theory and Value Chain Governance 39
3.1 Introduction 39
3.2 How Value Chains Are Governed 40

vii
viii CONTENTS

3.3 Development and Value Chains 46

3.4 Formal and Informal Governance of Value Chains 47
3.5 Relational Contracting in More Detail 50
3.6 Policies, Projects, and Value Chain Performance:
Competition and Insurance 53
3.7 Discussion and Conclusions 54
Appendix: A Formal Model of Relational Contracting
Between a Trader and a Farmer 55
References 58
4 The Evolution of Agricultural Value Chains in Africa 59
4.1 Introduction 59
4.2 Types of Value Chains 60
4.3 Value Chain Services 62
4.4 Factors Shaping the Transition from Traditional
to Complex Value Chains 64
4.4.1 Consequences of Income Growth, Inequality,
and Urbanization 66
4.5 Contract Farming 68
4.6 Value Chain Finance 71
4.7 The Role of Imported Food in African Markets 73
4.8 Closing Words 76
References 77
5 Smallholders and Markets 83
5.1 Introduction 83
5.2 Factor Markets 85
5.3 Input Markets 90
5.4 Output Markets 95
5.5 Smallholder Households 100
5.6 Discussion and Conclusions 104
References 105
6 Product Quality and Certification 109
6.1 Producers, Purchases, and Certifying Quality 110
6.1.1 The Role of Trust in the Value Chain 112
6.2 Types of Certification 114
6.2.1 Quality Certification of Grains 116
6.2.2 Potential Unintended Consequences
of Certification 120
 CONTENTS ix

6.3 Impacts of Certification on Smallholder Livelihoods 121

6.3.1 Vertical Integration and Outcomes 123
6.4 Summary 124
References 125
7 Storage and Post-harvest Losses 129
7.1 Introduction 129
7.2 Food Storage in Africa 130
7.2.1 Storing Perishables 135
7.3 Post-Harvest Losses 136
7.3.1 Post-Harvest Losses in Perishables 142
7.3.2 Hidden Challenges: Aflatoxins 143
7.4 How Can Improved Storage Work for the Poor? 144
7.4.1 Warehouse Receipts 146
7.4.2 Storage and Commodity Exchanges 147
7.5 Conclusion 148
References 149
8 Silver Bullets? 155
8.1 Foreign Direct Investment and Farm Consolidation 156
8.2 Input Subsidy Programs 158
8.3 Innovation Platforms 162
8.4 Producer Organizations 168
8.5 ICT and Mobile Phones 174
8.5.1 The Benefits of ICT 176
8.5.2 The Impacts of ICTs on Rural Africa 178
8.6 Blockchain in Agriculture: Can It Lead to Growth? 181
8.7 Conclusion 183
References 183
9 Structural Transformation 2.0: The Rocky Road
Ahead… 189
9.1 Will Structural Transformation 1.0 Occur in Africa? 189
9.2 Approach 1: Bundling Interventions 194
9.3 Approach 2: Farm Consolidation 196
9.3.1 The Inverse Relationship Between Farm Size
and Productivity 198
9.3.2 Hub and Spoke Systems? 200
9.4 Approach 3: Infrastructure Investments 201
9.4.1 Technology Infrastructure 204
x CONTENTS

9.5 Approach 4: Boosting Demand and Improving

Regional Trade 204
9.6 Closing Words 206
References 208

Index 213
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Transaction costs and maize trading in a village 7

Fig. 1.2 Schematic of an agricultural value chain 11
Fig. 4.1 Aggregate indexed value of agricultural imports
and exports, African countries, 2000–2018 (2014–2016 =
100) 73
Fig. 4.2 Comparison between COMTRADE data and CILSS data
of intraregional trade of 70 agricultural products—US$
mlns 74
Fig. 6.1 Positive correlation between price of certification
and willingness to pay, Ethiopian wheat farmers 118
Fig. 7.1 Monthly price patterns from the month of primary harvest,
selected African markets, 2005–2017 131
Fig. 7.2 Maize prices in four markets in Zambézia, Mozambique,
2006–2008 134
Fig. 7.3 Causes of food losses across the value chain 141
Fig. 8.1 Social network analysis of stakeholder influence, knowledge
exchange and collaborative networks in Burundi, Rwanda,
and DR Congo informing whether innovation platforms
can add value (Hermans et al., 2017) 165
Fig. 8.2 Number of cell phone subscribers per 100 population,
by income category, 1990–2018 175

xi
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 Determinants of value chain governance 43

Table 3.2 Informal value chain governance mechanisms 48
Table 4.1 The three stages of agricultural value chain transformation 60
Table 4.2 Further constraints that lead to changes in value chain
services as agricultural value chains evolve 62
Table 4.3 Example of farmers participating in traditional,
transitional, and complex value chains, Central Malawi,
2016 64
Table 7.1 Examples of survey-based measures of post-harvest losses
in Africa 138
Table 7.2 Examples of more detailed measures of post-harvest
losses in Africa, PIM methodology 139
Table 7.3 Survey-based estimates of post-harvest losses in vegetables 142

xiii
 CHAPTER 1

African Smallholders and Their Market

Environment

1.1 Introduction
African smallholders, like small and large farmers throughout the world,
exchange their products on markets, linking them to the rest of the
world. This book is about those exchange relations, and how outcomes
from those exchange relations can be improved to reduce poverty and
food insecurity. In most African countries, the majority of the farmers
are smallholders and the bulk of agricultural production is produced by
smallholders, so it makes sense to focus our analysis on them. Poverty
in rural areas remains a persistent problem and production patterns
are often unsustainable—depleting soils and destroying natural habitat.
Transforming smallholder farming in Africa therefore has the potential
to bring multiple sustainable development—goals (SDGs) within reach
simultaneously—those related to poverty, food security, and sustainable
use of natural resources.
This book aims to describe how smallholders manage their plots
and then engage with markets to obtain inputs and sell outputs. Not
surprisingly, issues involving farm management and market exchange are
closely related. Efficient production typically requires the use of purchased

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2021
A. de Brauw and E. Bulte, African Farmers, Value Chains
and Agricultural Development, Palgrave Studies
in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88693-6_1
2 A. DE BRAUW AND E. BULTE

inputs, and production incentives are at least partly based on expecta-

tions of prices that can be received on output markets. Helping farmers
become more productive often requires fixing market imperfections,
rather than transferring new knowledge or production techniques. We
highlight the interdependencies between production and markets, paying
special attention to the organization of agricultural value chains. Trans-
forming African farming first and foremost requires improving agricultural
value chain performance.
We start from the premise that smallholders may be poor and rela-
tively unproductive, but they tend to be rational and operate efficiently
in a difficult production context—a context riddled with market fail-
ures and policy failures. Smallholders have a deep understanding of local
production conditions, and often have developed practices that carefully
balance multiple objectives. Apparent deviations from economically effi-
cient behavior make sense in light of missing markets for credit, insurance,
labor, land, and/or food. For example, the majority of smallholders
produce both for their own consumption and for the market, and their
production decisions balance productivity and risk, while respecting labor
constraints during peak periods in the season. These constraints yield
outcomes sharply different from those based on the maximization of
expected profits.
None of this argument implies that smallholders are necessarily satis-
fied with their occupation or livelihoods. Many are “entrepreneurs” by
default rather than choice, and could certainly prefer to do something
else. They may aspire for their children to become something other than
a smallholder farmer, and their children may share those aspirations.
Moreover, none of this argument implies the organization of African
farming is efficient from a macro perspective, or that the overall alloca-
tion of production factors across African economies is somehow optimal.
The agricultural sector offers employment to the majority of the African
population, yet agricultural income as a share of total GDP is rela-
tively low––the share of employment in agriculture is much higher than
the share of value added derived from agriculture. In developing coun-
tries generally, value added per worker in the non-agricultural sector is
more than twice as high as in agriculture (Gollin et al., 2014). This
concept is known as the “agricultural productivity gap.” Quite simply,
if workers were reallocated from the agricultural to any non-agricultural
sector, labor productivity would increase.
 1 AFRICAN SMALLHOLDERS AND THEIR MARKET ENVIRONMENT 3

However, the ability of the manufacturing sector to absorb large

numbers of rural workers appears limited. One important aim for policy-
makers should therefore be to increase productivity in African agriculture,
rather than to abandon the enterprise. Large productivity gains are within
reach if value chains were organized differently, and with the right set of
supportive policies in place. Such gains would turn farming into a more
remunerative activity and make the African countryside a more pleasant
place to live.
This book details the relationship between smallholder farmers and
agricultural value chains, and explores ways that agricultural markets can
evolve to help catalyze structural economic transformation in Africa—a
process we refer to as “Structural Transformation 2.0”. Old school struc-
tural transformation, as occurred in developed countries and as currently
happening in much of Asia, is unlikely to occur spontaneously in Africa.
Instead, policies and markets should be reformed to ignite such a process.
We regard transaction costs, broadly defined, as the main impediment to
the development of African farming. However, reducing those transaction
costs is not simple. Production must increase at the farm level (which is
not the same as saying that farm size should increase), trading and trans-
port costs need to be reduced, and governments should invest in the
development of specific markets and information flows. A key lesson is
that relaxing constraints in a piecemeal fashion, one-at-a-time, is unlikely
to do a lot of good. Multiple constraints hold back smallholder farming
and addressing them simultaneously is more to be effective at increasing
productivity.
This book is not about the organization or impact of international
value chains for high-value agricultural commodities such as cocoa, coffee,
or horticultural crops (flowers, fruits, and vegetables). Such books exist.
We focus on the great majority of African farmers who are currently not
engaged in such high-value chains, and who produce food crops for their
family and for domestic markets. However, the development of inter-
national high-value chains offers some valuable lessons and insights for
reforming domestic markets. For that reason, we discuss them occasion-
ally. While writing this book we imagined small farmers who, among other
crops, trade surplus cereals on local markets. We hope and expect that
many of the insights spill over to other domestic value chains.
4 A. DE BRAUW AND E. BULTE

1.2 Transaction Costs: The Elephant in the Room

Most African farmers use their own labor to cultivate the small plots they
farm. They use little fertilizer, and hardly any herbicides or pesticides.
Some farmers use improved seed varieties, but many use seeds of landrace
varieties either saved from the previous year’s crop or received from one
of their neighbors. They lack access to credit from a bank or microfinance
institution, and are not insured against the many perils that threaten their
crops. They cannot write contracts with other parties that can be exter-
nally enforced. Economists define markets as (virtual) places where buyers
and sellers meet, price discovery happens, and an infrastructure and set of
institutions exists to facilitate the transfer of property rights from one
person to another. By and large, such markets are expensive to access for
African farmers.
If farmers struggle to access formal markets for production factors
(e.g., labor and capital), inputs (fertilizer and seed) and their output (say,
wheat and maize), then should we think of them as autonomous units
operating under conditions of autarky? For the vast majority of farmers,
the answer is “no.” If formal markets fail—which will be made more
precise below—then informal arrangements pop up. The main difference
between formal markets and informal institutions governing the allocation
of goods and services is whether the exchange is supported by third-party
enforcement in case of non-compliance or not. The potential for enforce-
ment affects the range of issues that can be agreed upon between seller
and buyer (“completeness of the contract”). Compliance with informal
arrangements is not due to the fear of punishment by a formal system,
such as the judicial, in the case of transgression. Instead, compliance
follows from fear of losing one’s reputation or severing the relationship
with the other party.
Social relationships are crucial for most humans, but they take on addi-
tional meaning in a context where markets fail. Farmers swap seeds with
their neighbors because they cannot afford to buy seed at the agro-dealer
(or input dealer). They informally pool their labor to take on particularly
demanding or urgent tasks because hired labor is not available. Farmers
promise to sell their crop, at a discount, to a specific trader in exchange for
receiving an advance payment now, or perhaps access to a specific input.
Uninsured farmers in village or family networks voluntarily “pool” their
risk and share costs if disaster strikes for one or a subset of them. Informal
 1 AFRICAN SMALLHOLDERS AND THEIR MARKET ENVIRONMENT 5

arrangements supported by reciprocity, reputations, or ongoing collabora-

tion are vital for smallholders. But they typically accomplish less than what
well-functioning markets could accomplish, and the cost of participating
in these arrangements can be high. So, one might ask the question: Why
don’t markets take care of the allocation of goods and services in rural
Africa?
Transaction costs are the most important reason why African agri-
cultural markets fail. To explain how transaction costs affect markets, it
is convenient to first imagine a textbook economic model of a market
without transaction costs.1 Markets bring together sellers and buyers of
a specific good. Sellers and buyers each know how much they value the
good, and so a market “price” will emerge at a value for the good at which
every buyer who values it at or above that price will buy it, and an equal
amount of the good will be sold by sellers willing to accept the price.
The price then encompasses all this information, capturing the scarcity of
the good being traded at present and potentially in the future (of course,
the good could also be a service). Markets enable people to consume
things they do not produce themselves, so they can specialize in the
production of goods and services that they can efficiently produce. The
opposite allocation mechanism is centralized planning, in which a planner
decides how to allocate goods based on the relative scarcity of goods as
measured or perceived by that planner. Every time central planning has
been attempted, it has failed.
Yet economies cannot only rely on markets. An economic system
attempting to do so fails to provide public goods, fails to price in
negative or positive externalities associated with some goods, and fails
to address issues of market power in specific markets that also reduce
welfare. Economics textbooks argue in favor of government interven-
tion to address these concerns. What is at stake in this book, however,
is a simpler concept––transaction costs may cause markets to fail or be
absent altogether. Economists distinguish between three types of trans-
action costs: (i) the cost of finding trading partners and learning about
the (required) quality of products, or search costs; (ii) negotiation costs;
and (iii) the cost of following up after the transaction occurs—delivery
costs, and potentially enforcement costs. Trading is expensive if informa-
tion is not available; farmers may not know the prices at which crops are

1 We are also assuming away externalities here for the time being.
6 A. DE BRAUW AND E. BULTE

traded on other markets, and traders may not know what volumes might
be available in specific places. Information can also be asymmetrically
distributed; for example, product quality can depend upon characteristics
not readily observed by the buyer. Moreover, in many contexts traders or
other buyers may have market power on their side of the market, changing
terms of trade for farmers. Crops are by definition bulky, and transport
costs can be quite high if moving them from the farm to where they need
to be sold has to take place on long, poorly built roads, if trade involves
the risk of quality loss and spoilage, or if there is no recourse to inde-
pendent arbiters to settle disputes between buyers and sellers. All these
conditions are relevant for the context we consider in this book.
Transaction costs may, in fact, be so high that they exceed any poten-
tial gains from trade. Markets fail when economic actors cannot come
together to make efficiency-enhancing trades. When an economy cannot
access outside markets for a good, that good is a “nontradable” for that
economy and the economy is “closed” for that good. Nontradability
can occur at different levels: nations are closed economies if there is no
international trade with other countries, villages are closed economies
if there are no opportunities to exchange goods and services with the
world beyond the village border, and households are closed economies
if they cannot trade on (local) markets. Any of the transaction costs
discussed above can lead to such market failures, as can issues related to
seasonal liquidity constraints that hinder investment, or issues related to
uninsurable risks that farmers might need to take for production.
Conceptually the outcome is identical across the three levels. When
“open economies” exchange “tradables” with the outside world, prices
reflect international or inter-village scarcity and are set exogenously.
Local producers and consumers adjust their production and consumption
decisions in light of given prices. Prices of nontradables are instead deter-
mined endogenously, reflecting the local economy’s supply and demand.
These prices vary from country to country or village to village. At the
country (or even city) level, meals at restaurants and haircuts, for example,
are more expensive in high income areas than they are in low income
areas. When there is no trade between villages, goods and services that
are scarce (and expensive) in one place could be abundant (and cheap)
somewhere else. This outcome is inefficient: aggregate welfare would be
greater if trade would occur and equalize prices, producers would produce
at the same marginal cost and the marginal rate of substitution would be
equal for consumers.
 1 AFRICAN SMALLHOLDERS AND THEIR MARKET ENVIRONMENT 7

Nontradability is also relevant at the household level. If households do

not trade a good, we say that households put a shadow price on the good.
The shadow price reflects the value of the good for that household, which
varies from one household to the next. Shadow prices must occur within
a price band. They are lower than the market price plus transaction costs
(else households would buy on the market), and higher than the market
price minus transaction costs (else they would sell). Nontradables certainly
exist at the household level, but presumably, most things that households
produce—and certainly agricultural products—could be turned into trad-
ables if transaction costs were lower. Alas, lowering transaction costs is no
easy task.
Again turning to the textbook case, market prices set by demand and
supply determine what buyers pay and sellers receive. But the costs for
the buyer obtaining the good are higher than the market price, and gains
for the seller of supplying the good are lower than the market price that
she receives. Both parties also had to incur transaction costs to engage
in the deal. Transaction costs drive a wedge between what buyers pay for
accessing a good (or service) and what sellers receive. The market fails
if this wedge is sufficiently wide—goods are nontradables and economies
are “closed.” This statement is made more precise in Fig. 1.1, for the case
of a village.
The left panel of Fig. 1.1 introduces local supply (S v ) and demand (D v )
in a village. In the absence of trade with the outside world, an equilibrium
price P v and associated quantity level Q 1 emerge from trade. Suppose

Fig. 1.1 Transaction costs and maize trading in a village

8 A. DE BRAUW AND E. BULTE

the existence of a nearby urban center where regionally produced maize

is traded and sold at a price P r (>P v ). If local producers could sell their
maize at a price P r they would increase their supply from Q 1 to Q 2 , and
producer supply would increase by the area A + B. Consumers would
have to pay more for the maize they purchase, and lose consumer surplus,
represented by the trapezoidal area A between P v and P r , and the demand
curve D v . The net welfare gain for the entire village from engaging in the
regional maize market, summing the gains for producers Y and losses for
consumers, is therefore given by area B.
We would tell a very similar story about how regional trade increases
village-level welfare if the regional maize price were below the village-level
price (not drawn). In that case, consumers would gain and producers
would lose, but welfare at the aggregate level would also unambiguously
go up. This is a deep truth—engaging in trade may have winners and
losers, but there are net gains when aggregating over consumers and
producers.
However, these potential gains from trade cannot be seized in the
village economy depicted in Fig. 1.1. The transaction costs here could
include costs associated with searching for a trading partner, negotiating
between farmers and traders who may have good reason not to trust one
another, and costs associated with hauling maize from the village to the
urban center (or vice versa). The per-unit transaction costs are assumed
to equal share t of the per-unit maize value, so transaction costs per unit
of maize sold are tP r and the per-unit net receipt for the maize farmer
is only (1 − t)Pr . As drawn in the figure, (1 − t)Pr < Pv so the farmer is
better off selling his crop to a co-villager at the lower village price P v .
Obviously the co-villager is also better off by buying from his neighbor;
if he would turn to the urban market instead he would have to pay the
sum of the urban price P r and the consumer-level transaction costs (not
shown); as the regional price is already higher, it would clearly be more
expensive to buy on the regional market than the local market. Conse-
quently, the village is closed for maize and maize is a nontradable for the
village economy.

1.3 The Weakest Shoulders

and the Heaviest Burden
A fundamental insight that returns throughout this book is as follows. If
the village-level price is higher than the regional price minus the per-unit
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
"Until international co-operation among leading nations for
the coinage of silver can be secured, we favor the rigid
maintenance of the existing gold standard as essential to the
preservation of our national credit, the redemption of our
public pledges, and the keeping inviolate of our country's
honor. We insist that all our paper currency shall be kept at
a parity with gold. The democratic party is the party of hard
money, and is opposed to legal-tender paper money as a part of
our permanent financial system; and we therefore favor the
gradual retirement and cancellation of all United States notes
and treasury notes, under such legislative provisions as will
prevent undue contraction. We demand that the national credit
shall be resolutely maintained at all times and under all
circumstances. "

This resolution was rejected by 626 votes against 303. Another

resolution from the same source, commending "the honesty,
economy, courage and fidelity" of the "democratic national
administration" of President Cleveland, was voted down by 564
to 357. Resolutions to protect existing contracts against a
change of monetary standard, and to provide for a suspension
of silver free coinage, at the ratio of 16 to 1, after trial
for one year, if it failed to maintain parity between silver
and gold, were similarly voted down. The declarations then
adopted, for the "platform" of the party, were as follows:

"We, the Democrats of the United States, in National

Convention assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those
great essential principles of justice and liberty upon which
our institutions are founded, and which the Democratic party
has advocated from Jefferson's time to our own—freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, the
preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens
before the law, and the faithful observance of constitutional
limitations.
"During all these years the Democratic party has resisted the
tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of
governmental power, and steadfastly maintained the integrity
of the dual scheme of government established by the founders
of this Republic of republics. Under its guidance and
teachings the great principle of local self-government has
found its best expression in the maintenance of the rights of
the States and in its assertion of the necessity of confining
the General Government to the exercise of the powers granted
by the Constitution of the United States.

"Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all

others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the
Federal Constitution names silver and gold together as the
money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage
law passed by Congress under the Constitution made the silver
dollar the monetary unit, and admitted gold to free coinage at
a ratio based upon the silver-dollar unit.

"We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without

the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted
in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the
prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase
in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and
private; the enrichment of the money-lending class at home and
abroad; prostration of industry and impoverishment of the
people.

"We are unalterably opposed to gold monometallism, which has

locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the
paralysis of hard times. Gold monometallism is a British
policy, and its adoption has brought other nations into
financial servitude to London. It is not only un-American but
anti-American, and it can be fastened on the United States
only by the stifling of that spirit and love of liberty which
proclaimed our political independence in 1776 and won it in
the war of the Revolution.
 "We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and
silver at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one, without
waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand
that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender,
equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, and we
favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the
demonetization of any kind of legal-tender money by private
contract.

"We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to

the holders of the obligations of the United States the option
reserved by law to the Government of redeeming such
obligations in either silver coin or gold coin.

"We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of

the United States in time of peace, and condemn the
trafficking with banking syndicates which, in exchange for
bonds and at an enormous profit to themselves, supply the
Federal Treasury with gold to maintain the policy of gold
monometallism.

{567}

"Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and
President Jackson declared that this power could not be
delegated to corporations or individuals. We therefore demand
that the power to issue notes to circulate as money be taken
from the National banks, and that all paper money shall be
issued directly by the Treasury Department, be redeemable in
coin, and receivable for all debts, public and private.

"We hold that the tariff duties should be levied for purposes
of revenue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate
equally throughout the country and not discriminate between
class or section, and that taxation should be limited by the
needs of the Government honestly and economically
administered.

"We denounce, as disturbing to business, the Republican threat

to restore the:McKinley law, which has been twice condemned by
the people in national elections, and which, enacted under the
false plea of protection to home industry, proved a prolific
breeder of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the
expense of the many, restricted trade, and deprived the
producers of the great American staples of access to their
natural markets. Until the money question is settled we are
opposed to any agitation for further changes in our tariff
laws, except such as are necessary to make the deficit in
revenue caused by the adverse decision of the Supreme Court on
the income tax.

"There would be no deficit in the revenue but for the

annulment by the Supreme Court of a law passed by a Democratic
Congress in strict pursuance of the uniform decisions of that
court for nearly 100 years, that court having sustained
constitutional objections to its enactment which had been
overruled by the ablest judges who have ever sat on that
bench. We declare that it is the duty of Congress to use all
the constitutional power which remains after that decision, or
which may come by its reversal by the court, as it may
hereafter be constituted, so that the burdens of taxation may
be equally and impartially laid, to the end that wealth may
bear its due proportion of the expenses of the Government.

"We hold that the most efficient way to protect American labor
is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to
compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the
home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly
reduced by a vicious monetary system, which depresses the
prices of their products below the cost of production, and
thus deprives them of the means of purchasing the products of
our home manufacture.
"We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from the
people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations of
recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high,
while the labor that pays them is unemployed, and the products
of the people's toil are depressed in price till they no
longer repay the cost of production. We demand a return to
that simplicity and economy which best befit a Democratic
Government and a reduction in the number of useless offices,
the salaries of which drain the substance of the people.

"We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in

local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United
States and a crime against free institutions, and we
especially object to government by injunction as a new and
highly dangerous form of oppression, by which Federal judges,
in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens,
become at once legislators, judges, and executioners, and we
approve the bill passed at the last session of the United
States Senate, and now pending in the House, relative to
contempts in Federal courts, and providing for trials by jury
in certain cases of contempt.

"No discrimination should be indulged by the Government of the

United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of
the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pass the Pacific
Railroad funding bill, and denounce the effort of the present
Republican Congress to enact a similar measure.

"Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we

heartily endorse the rule of the present Commissioner of
Pensions that no names shall be arbitrarily dropped from the
pension roll, and the fact of an enlistment and service should
be deemed conclusive evidence against disease or disability
before enlistment.

"We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic

struggle for liberty and independence.
"We are opposed to life tenure in the public service. We favor
appointments based upon merit, fixed terms of office, and such
an administration of the civil-service laws as will afford
equal opportunities to all citizens of ascertained fitness.

"We declare it to be the unwritten law of this Republic,

established by custom and usage of 100 years, and sanctioned
by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who
founded and have maintained our Government, that no man should
be eligible for a third term of the Presidential office.

"The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our

leading railroad systems, and formation of trusts and pools
require a stricter control by the Federal Government of those
arteries of commerce. ''We demand the enlargement of the
powers of the Inter-state Commerce Commission, and such
restrictions and guarantees in the control of railroads as
will protect the people from robbery and oppression.

"We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico and

Arizona into the Union as States, and we favor the early
admission of all the Territories giving the necessary
population and resources to entitle them to Statehood; and
while they remain Territories we hold that the officials
appointed to administer the government of any Territory,
together with the District of Columbia and Alaska, should be
bona fide residents of the Territory or District in which
their duties are to be performed. The Democratic party
believes in home rule, and that all public lands of the United
States should be appropriated to the establishment of free
homes for American citizens.

"We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a

Delegate in Congress, and that the general land and timber
laws of the United States be extended to said Territory.
 "The Federal Government should care for and improve the
Mississippi River and other great waterways of the Republic so
as to secure for the interior people easy and cheap
transportation to tidewater. When any waterway of the Republic
is of sufficient importance to demand aid of the Government,
such aid should be extended upon a definite plan of continuous
work until permanent improvement is secured.

{568}

"Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of

its success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration
of principles and purposes to the considerate judgment of the
American people. We invite the support of all citizens who
approve them, and who desire to have them made effective
through legislation for the relief of the people and the
restoration of the country's prosperity."

In the course of the debate upon the silver question, a speech

of impassioned eloquence was made by William J. Bryan, of
Nebraska, who had represented his district in Congress for two
terms, 1891-1894, and who was rising to prominence among the
leaders of the free-silver Democracy of the west. The speech
excited an enthusiasm and an admiration which led to the
nomination of Mr. Bryan for the presidency. That unexpected
choice was reached after four ballots, in each of which the
votes for the Nebraska orator rose steadily in number. At the
fifth ballot they had passed the requisite two-thirds, and his
nomination was declared to be unanimous, though protests were
made. The entire delegation from New York and many delegates
from New England and New Jersey cast no votes, refusing to
take any part in the nomination of a candidate on the platform
laid down. The chosen candidate for Vice President was Arthur
Sewall, of Maine.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.

The National Silver Party.
The considerable body of Republicans who desired an unlimited
free coinage of silver, and were prepared to quit their party
on that issue, had made efforts to persuade the Democratic
convention at Chicago to accept their leader, Senator Teller,
of Colorado, for its presidential candidate. Failing in that,
they assembled a convention of delegates at St. Louis, July
22-24, and, under the name of the "National Silver Party,"
took the alternative method of uniting the free-silver
Republican vote with that of the free-silver Democracy, by
accepting the Democratic nominations as their own. William J.
Bryan and Arthur Sewall were duly nominated for President and
Vice President, and a "platform" set forth as follows:

"The National Silver Party in Convention assembled hereby

adopts the following declaration of principles:

"First. The paramount issue at this time in the United States

is indisputably the money question. It is between the gold
standard, gold bonds, and bank currency on the one side and
the bimetallic standard, no bonds, and Government currency on
the other.

"On this issue we declare ourselves to be in favor of a

distinctively American financial system. We are unalterably
opposed to the single gold standard, and demand the immediate
return to the constitutional standard of gold and silver, by
the restoration by this Government, independently of any
foreign power, of the unrestricted coinage of both gold and
silver into standard money at the ratio of sixteen to one, and
upon terms of exact equality, as they existed prior to 1873;
the silver coin to be a full legal tender equally with gold
for all debts and dues, private and public, and we favor such
legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization
of any kind of legal-tender money by private contract.

"We hold that the power to control and regulate a paper

currency is inseparable from the power to coin money, and
hence that all currency intended to circulate as money should
be issued, and its volume controlled by the General Government
only, and should be legal tender.

"We are unalterably opposed to the issue by the United States

of interest-bearing bonds in time of peace, and we denounce as
a blunder worse than a crime the present Treasury policy,
concurred in by a Republican House, of plunging the country in
debt by hundreds of millions in the vain attempt to maintain
the gold standard by borrowing gold, and we demand the payment
of all coin obligations of the United States as provided by
existing laws, in either gold or silver coin, at the option of
the Government and not at the option of the creditor.

"The demonetization of silver in 1873 enormously increased the

demand for gold, enhancing its purchasing power and lowering
all prices measured by that standard; and since that unjust
and indefensible act the prices of American products have
fallen upon an average nearly fifty per cent., carrying down
with them proportionately the money value of all other forms
of property. Such fall of prices has destroyed the profits of
legitimate industry, injuring the producer for the benefit of
the non-producer, increasing the burden of the debtor,
swelling the gains of the creditor, paralyzing the productive
energies of the American people, relegating to idleness vast
numbers of willing workers, sending the shadows of despair
into the home of the honest toiler, filling the land with
tramps and paupers, and building up colossal fortunes at the
money centres.

"In the effort to maintain the gold standard the country has,
within the last two years, in a time of profound peace and
plenty, been loaded down with $262,000,000 of additional
interest-bearing debt, under such circumstances as to allow a
syndicate of native and foreign bankers to realize a net
profit of millions on a single deal.
 "It stands confessed that the gold standard can only be upheld
by so depleting our paper currency as to force the prices of
our product below the European and even below the Asiatic
level to enable us to sell in foreign markets, thus
aggravating the very evils our people so bitterly complain of,
degrading American labor, and striking at the foundations of
our civilization itself.

"The advocates of the gold standard persistently claim that

the cause of our distress is over-production; that we have
produced so much that it has made us poor—which implies that
the true remedy is to close the factory, abandon the farm, and
throw a multitude of people out of employment, a doctrine that
leaves us unnerved and disheartened, and absolutely without
hope for the future.

"We affirm it to be unquestioned that there can be no such

economic paradox as over-production, and at the same time tens
of thousands of our fellow-citizens remaining half-clothed and
half-fed, and who are piteously clamoring for the common
necessities of life.

{569}

"Second. That over and above all other questions of policy we

are in favor of restoring to the people of the United States
the time-honored money of the Constitution—gold and silver,
not one, but both—the money of Washington and Hamilton and
Jefferson and Monroe and Jackson and Lincoln, to the end that
the American people may receive honest pay for an honest
product; that the American debtor may pay his just obligations
in an honest standard, and not in a standard that has depreciated
100 per cent. above all the great staples of our country, and
to the end further that the standard countries may be deprived
of the unjust advantage they now enjoy in the difference in
exchange between gold and silver—an advantage which tariff
 legislation alone cannot overcome.

"We therefore confidently appeal to the people of the United

States to leave in abeyance for the moment all other
questions, however important and even momentous they may
appear, to sunder, if need be, all former party ties and
affiliations, and unite in one supreme effort to free
themselves and their children from the domination of the money
power—a power more destructive than any which has ever been
fastened upon the civilized men of any race or in any age, and
upon the consummation of our desires and efforts we invoke the
gracious favor of Divine Providence.

"Inasmuch as the patriotic majority of the Chicago convention

embodied in the financial plank of its platform the principles
enunciated in the platform of the American Bimetallic party,
promulgated at Washington, D. C., January 22, 1896, and herein
reiterated, which is not only the paramount but the only real
issue in the pending campaign, therefore, recognizing that
their nominees embody these patriotic principles, we recommend
that this convention nominate William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, for
President, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine, for Vice President."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.

People's or Populist Party Platform and Nominations.

The People's Party, more commonly called the Populist Party,

held its national convention at St. Louis on the 22d-25th of
July, simultaneously with that of the National Silver Party,
and with strong influences urging it to act on the same line.
One section of the party strove to bring about a complete
endorsement of the Democratic nominations made at Chicago.
Another section, styled the "Middle-of-the-Road" Populists,
opposed any coalition with other parties; while a third wished
to nominate Bryan, with a Populist candidate for Vice
President, looking to an arrangement with the Democratic
organization for a fusion of electoral tickets in various
States. The idea of the latter prevailed, and William J. Bryan
was nominated for President, with Thomas E. Watson, of
Georgia, for Vice President. The People's Party had little
disagreement with the Chicago declarations of the Democratic
Party, and none at all on financial questions, concerning
which its doctrines were set forth in the following platform:

"The People's Party, assembled in National Convention,

reaffirms its allegiance to the principles declared by the
founders of the Republic, and also to the fundamental
principles of just government as enunciated in the platform of
the party in 1892.

"We recognize that through the connivance of the present and

preceding administrations the country has reached a crisis in
its National life, as predicted in our declaration of four
years ago, and that prompt and patriotic action is the supreme
duty of the hour.

"We realize that while we have political independence, our

financial and industrial independence is yet to be attained by
restoring to our country the constitutional control and
exercise of the functions necessary to a people's government,
which functions have been basely surrendered by our public
servants to corporations and monopolies. The influence of
European money-changers has been more potent in shaping
legislation than the voice of the American people. Executive
power and patronage have been used to corrupt our legislatures
and defeat the will of the people, and plutocracy has been
enthroned upon the ruins of democracy. To restore the
government intended by the fathers, and for the welfare and
prosperity of this and future generations, we demand the
establishment of an economic and financial system which shall
make us masters of our own affairs and independent of European
control, by the adoption of the following declaration of
principles:
"We demand a National money, safe and sound, issued by the
general government only, without the intervention of banks of
issue, to be a full legal tender for an debts, public and
private, and a just, equitable, and efficient means of
distribution direct to the people and through the lawful
disbursements of the Government.

"We demand the free and unrestricted coinage of silver and

gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one, without
waiting for the consent of foreign nations.

"We demand that the volume of circulating medium be speedily

increased to an amount sufficient to meet the demands of the
business population of this country and to restore the just
level of prices of labor and production.

"We denounce the sale of bonds and the increase of the public
interest-bearing bond debt made by the present administration
as unnecessary and without authority of law, and we demand
that no more bonds be issued except by specific act of
Congress.

"We demand such legislation as will prevent the demonetization

of the lawful money of the United States by private contract.

"We demand that the Government, in payment of its obligations,

shall use its option as to the kind of lawful money in which
they are to be paid, and we denounce the present and preceding
administrations for surrendering this option to the holders of
government obligations.

"We demand a graduated income tax, to the end that aggregated

wealth shall bear its just proportion of taxation, and we
denounce the recent decision of the Supreme Court relative to
the income-tax law as a misinterpretation of the Constitution
and an invasion of the rightful powers of Congress over the
subject of taxation.
 "We demand that postal savings banks be established by the
Government for the safe deposit of the savings of the people
and to facilitate exchange.

"Transportation being a means of exchange and a public

necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads
in the interest of the people and on non-partisan basis, to
the end that all may be accorded the same treatment in
transportation, and that the tyranny and political power now
exercised by the great railroad corporations, which result in
the impairment if not the destruction of the political rights
and personal liberties of the citizens, may be destroyed. Such
ownership is to be accomplished gradually, in a manner
consistent with sound public policy.

{570}

"The interest of the United States in the public highways

built with public moneys and the proceeds of extensive grants
of land to the Pacific railroads should never be alienated,
mortgaged, or sold, but guarded and protected for the general
welfare as provided by the laws organizing such railroads. The
foreclosure of existing liens of the United States on these
roads should at once follow default in the payment of the debt
of the companies, and at the foreclosure sales of said roads
the Government should purchase the same if it becomes
necessary to protect its interests therein, or if they can be
purchased at a reasonable price; and the Government should
operate said railroads as public highways for the benefit of
the whole and not in the interest of the few, under suitable
provisions for protection of life and property, giving to all
transportation interests and privileges and equal rates for
fares and freight.

"We denounce the present infamous schemes for refunding those

debts and demand that the laws now applicable thereto be
executed and administered according to their true intent and
spirit.

"The telegraph, like the post-office system, being a necessity

for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by
the Government in the interest of the people.

"The true policy demands that the National and State

legislation shall be such as will ultimately enable every
prudent and industrious citizen to secure a home, and
therefore the land should not be monopolized for speculative
purposes.

"All land now held by railroads and other corporations in

excess of their actual needs should by lawful means be
reclaimed by the Government and held for actual settlers only,
and private land monopoly, as well as alien ownership, should
be prohibited.

"We condemn the frauds by which the land grant to the Pacific
Railroad Companies have, through the connivance of the
Interior Department, robbed multitudes of bona fide settlers
of their homes and miners of their claims, and we demand
legislation by Congress which will enforce the exemption of
mineral land from such grants after as well as before patent.

"We demand that bona fide settlers on all public lands be

granted free homes, as provided in the National homestead law,
and that no exception be made in the case of Indian
reservations when opened for settlement, and that all lands
not now patented come under this demand.

"We favor a system of direct legislation through the

initiative and referendum under proper constitutional
safeguards.

"We demand the election of President, Vice-President, and

United States Senators by a direct vote of the people.

"We tender to the patriotic people of Cuba our deepest

sympathy in their heroic struggle for political freedom and
independence, and we believe the time has come when the United
States, the great Republic of the world, should recognize that
Cuba is and of right ought to be a free and independent State.

"We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of

Columbia and the early admission of the Territories as States.

"All public salaries should be made to correspond to the price

of labor and its products.

"In times of great industrial depression idle labor should be

employed on public works as far as practicable.

"The arbitrary course of the courts in assuming to imprison

citizens for indirect contempt and ruling by injunction should
be prevented by proper legislation.

"We favor just pensions for our disabled Union soldiers.

"Believing that the elective franchise and untrammelled ballot

are essential to a government of, for, and by the people, the
People's Party condemn the wholesale system of
disfranchisement adopted in some States as unrepublican and
undemocratic, and we declare it to be the duty of the several
State legislatures to take such action as will secure a full,
free, and fair ballot and an honest count.

"While the foregoing propositions constitute the platform upon

which our party stands, and for the vindication of which its
organization will be maintained, we recognize that the great
and pressing issue of the pending campaign, upon which the
present Presidential election will turn, is the financial
question, and upon this great and specific issue between the
 parties we cordially invite the aid and co-operation of all
organizations and citizens agreeing with us upon this vital
question."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.

National Democratic Platform and Nominations.

An extensive revolt in the Democratic Party against the

declarations and the action of the party convention at Chicago
had been quickly made manifest, and steps were soon taken
towards giving it an organized form. These led to the
assembling of a convention of delegates at Indianapolis, on
the 2d and 3d of September, which, in the name of the
"National Democratic Party," repudiated the platform and the
candidates put forward at Chicago, and branded them as false
to the historic party name which they assumed. General John M.
Palmer, of Illinois, was put in nomination for President, and
General Simon Bolivar Buckner, of Kentucky, for Vice
President, of the United States, and a declaration of
Democratic principles adopted, the fundamental passages of
which are quoted in the following:

"This convention has assembled to uphold the principles upon

which depend the honor and welfare of the American people, in
order that democrats throughout the Union may unite their
patriotic efforts to avert disaster from their country and
ruin from their party.

"The democratic party is pledged to equal and exact justice to

all men of every creed and condition; to the largest freedom
of the individual consistent with good government; to the
preservation of the federal government in its constitutional
vigor, and to the support of the states in all their just
rights; to economy in the public expenditures; to the
maintenance of the public faith and sound money; and it is
opposed to paternalism and all class legislation. The
declarations of the Chicago convention attack individual
 freedom, the right of private contract, the independence of
the judiciary, and the authority of the president to enforce
federal laws. They advocate a reckless attempt to increase the
price of silver by legislation, to the debasement of our
monetary standard; and threaten unlimited issues of paper
money by the government.
{571}
They abandon for republican allies the democratic cause of
tariff reform, to court favor of protectionists to their
fiscal heresy. In view of these and other grave departures
from democratic principles, we cannot support the candidates
of that convention, nor be bound by its acts. The democratic
party has survived defeats, but could not survive a victory
won in behalf of the doctrine and policy proclaimed in its
name at Chicago.

"The conditions, however, which made possible such utterances

from a national convention, are the direct result of class
legislation by the republican party. It still proclaims, as it
has for years, the power and duty of government to raise and
maintain prices by law, and it proposes no remedy for existing
evils except oppressive and unjust taxation. … The demand of
the republican party for an increase in tariff taxation has
its pretext in the deficiency of the revenue, which has its
causes in the stagnation of trade and reduced consumption, due
entirely to the loss of confidence that has followed the
populist threat of free coinage and depreciation of our money,
and the republican practice of extravagant appropriations beyond
the needs of good government. We arraign and condemn the
populistic conventions of Chicago and St. Louis for their
cooperation with the republican party in creating these
conditions, which are pleaded in justification of a heavy
increase of the burdens of the people by a further resort to
protection. We therefore denounce protection and its ally,
free coinage of silver, as schemes for the personal profit of
a few at the expense of the masses; and oppose the two parties
which stand for these schemes as hostile to the people of the
republic, whose food and shelter, comfort and prosperity are
attacked by higher taxes and depreciated money. In fine, we
reaffirm the historic democratic doctrine of tariff for
revenue only. …

"The experience of mankind has shown that, by reason of their

natural qualities, gold is the necessary money of the large
affairs of commerce and business, while silver is conveniently
adapted to minor transactions, and the most beneficial use of
both together can be insured only by the adoption of the
former as a standard of monetary measure, and the maintenance
of silver at a parity with gold by its limited coinage under
suitable safeguards of law. Thus the largest possible
employment of both metals is gained with a value universally
accepted throughout the world, which constitutes the only
practical bimetallic currency, assuring the most stable
standard, and especially the best and safest money for all who
earn their livelihood by labor or the produce of husbandry. They
cannot suffer when paid in the best money known to man, but
are the peculiar and most defenceless victims of a debased and
fluctuating currency, which offers continual profits to the
money changer at their cost.

"Realizing these truths demonstrated by long and public

inconvenience and loss, the democratic party, in the interests
of the masses and of equal justice to all, practically
established by the legislation of 1834 and 1853 the gold
standard of monetary measurement, and likewise entirely
divorced the government from banking and currency issues. To
this long-established democratic policy we adhere, and insist
upon the maintenance of the gold standard, and of the parity
therewith of every dollar issued by the government, and are
firmly opposed to the free and unlimited coinage of silver and
to the compulsory purchase of silver bullion. But we denounce
also the further maintenance of the present costly patchwork
system of national paper currency as a constant source of
injury and peril. We assert the necessity of such intelligent
 currency reform as will confine the government to its
legitimate functions, completely separated from the banking
business, and afford to all sections of our country uniform,
safe, and elastic bank currency under governmental
supervision, measured in volume by the needs of business.

"The fidelity, patriotism, and courage with which President

Cleveland has fulfilled his great public trust, the high
character of his administration, its wisdom and energy in the
maintenance of civil order and the enforcement of the laws,
its equal regard for the rights of every class and every
section, its firm and dignified conduct of foreign affairs,
and its sturdy persistence in upholding the credit and honor
of the nation are fully recognized by the democratic party,
and will secure to him a place in history beside the fathers
of the republic. We also commend the administration for the
great progress made in the reform of the public service, and
we indorse its effort to extend the merit system still
further. We demand that no backward step be taken, but that
the reform be supported and advanced until the un-democratic
spoils system of appointments be eradicated."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1896.

Prohibition Platform and Nominations.

The Prohibition Party had been the first to open the

presidential campaign with candidates placed in the field. Its
national convention was held at Pittsburg, on the 27th and
28th of May, and its nominees for President and Vice President
were Joshua Levering, of Maryland, and Hale Johnson, of
Illinois. But a split in the convention occurred on attempts
made to graft free-silver and kindred doctrines on the
one-issue platform which the majority of the party desired.
Except in a single particular, the latter prevailed. The
platform adopted was as follows:

"The Prohibition Party, in national convention assembled,