g manhood avoid this sin and
its death knell is sounded.

3. Present conditions stimulate an interest in this question. The
unequal distribution of the vast wealth now being produced: the
earnings of the many turned into the coffers of a few; the struggles
between the employers and their employees; organized labor and
combinations of wealth; lead to a closer study of this and allied
economic questions than they have ever received before. The solution
of these questions will expose the fraud of usury.

4. The patriotic spirit has not decayed in our people and rulers. They
are as strongly attached to our free, popular institutions as were the
patriots of '76. There is alarm at the tendency to slip away from the
early traditions, at the centralization of power, at class
legislation. The influence of usury is so strong to promote a favored
class and to concentrate power, that it must be resisted as an enemy
to our republican institutions. It gradually undermined and then
destroyed the republic of Venice, and it is now doing its first work
with us. It must soon emerge from its cover. Then our people will
arouse with their patriotic fervor and fell it with one blow, and then
bury it with the other enemies of the government that have from time
to time arisen.

5. In the studies in sociology there is now a strong current toward
Socialism. There is a desire to preserve the individual's interests
and yet a stronger disposition to merge him in the general welfare.

There is a conviction that the privileges of individuals have been
unduly guarded while the rights of the public were neglected, that the
rights of individuals have received an excess of protection while the
welfare of the great mass of the people has been sacrificed. The
present problem of the student of sociology is, How can the rights of
individuals be adjusted, yet so as to maintain the superior interests
of all the people? This can be accomplished largely, if not
completely, by the abolition of usury.

Let the Government receive on deposit the surplus wealth of the
individuals for safe keeping and subject to their orders. Let the
Postal Savings Bank be established. The Government is the best
possible security. The certificates of deposit would be as good as
Government bonds. They could take the place of the National Bank
currency. The Postal Department now transfers money and in a manner
receives deposits and issues postal notes.

These deposits as they acc