Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/494

474 which is proud of calling itself the most progressive state of the world, is seriously debating the question whether new issues of irredeemable paper money shall not be resorted to in order to promote the prosperity of the Nation; and such an almost incredible proposition is supported by arguments which will make the civilized world stare if they ever become widely known beyond these precincts.

It has actually been asserted in this body that the precious metals can no longer remain the standard of value in any country. Why? Because the aggregate quantity and value of the precious metals in existence do not equal in value the aggregate amount of all the products of industry and agriculture; an idea just as original and as luminous as it would be to say that a yard-stick cannot remain a standard measure of length because a yard-stick is not as long as a roll of cloth or of carpet whose length is to be ascertained, or because all the existing yard-sticks in the world put together would not have the same length as all the objects whose length is to be measured.

We have been gravely told that conclusive proof of the insufficiency of the amount of currency in this country is furnished by the fact that England and France have a larger volume of currency than we have, and that there are many people in the country who cannot get all the loans and all the discounts which they desire. We have heard it asserted that an irredeemable currency must be a good thing after all, because there are three countries in Europe—Austria, Russia and Italy—whose economic development has been somewhat rapid of late, while those countries have an irredeemable paper currency. Nobody who knows anything about those countries can be ignorant of the fact that the sudden development referred to has been brought about by great and beneficent