"That is true," said Norrena. "In the west, the people had one great advantage over the east, plenty of land. But it was the organization of equity in the west that flooded this eastern financial center with money, not as interest, but because the western people were using less money and paying debts. This made times better for the eastern workmen. Both the western and eastern co-operators were working on the same principles. They were all accumulating funds to purchase land, and just in proportion as the people acquired control over business they had more influence on legislation, and the power of money was correspondingly decreased." "So it seems," I said, "that your business organization did at last get into politics!" "Yes," said Norrena, "it did get into politics as a business influence and what may seem strange to you, its object was to prevent the repeal of laws which had been enacted in the interest of the money monopolists. These shrewd financiers, raised a great outcry against combinations among producers to increase the price of products by using interchangeable certificates of deposit instead of money, in the transaction of business. The people were using the same methods for the improvement of their own financial condition that had been used so successfully by monopolists for their impoverishment, and the Patrons demanded that all the laws that had been enacted in favor of monopoly should remain on the statute books. They further demanded that all debts should be payable in legal tender money at the option of the debtor." "I should have thought," I said, "that the people would be glad to welcome the repeal of laws from which they had suffered so much." "There was a time when they would," said Norrena, "but not after they had adjusted their business relations to the operation of monopoly laws. Their debts were legally payable in money, and as the purchasing power of money was continually decreasing, it was to their interest to pay in money, and when all their debts were paid and the people refused any longer to take money for their products, the money kings who owned these vaults and their hoards of gold had to go in search of food. Many found homes in the co-operative communities and became valuable citizens, while a larger number had taken the alarm and emigrated to the Old World, only to meet a worse fate a little later on, for in the less enlightened parts of the world, the Reign of Gold wound up in a Reign of Terror."