Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/495

Rh changes in their political and social organization, setting free and putting to work all the productive forces of society, and that the leading statesmen of those countries are day and night racking their brains to find means by which to get rid of that curse of an irredeemable paper money, which is here represented as the very source of prosperity. And I would say to the Senator from Indiana, [Mr. ] who advanced that proposition here, that if he should hold up to those leading statesmen their irredeemable currency as an element of progress, they would receive the assertion with a melancholy smile of derision.

We have been assured here that a sufficient issue of irredeemable paper money will make money as easy in Georgia as it is in England; and that the rates of interest will go down as the quantity of irredeemable currency increases. It has been asserted, in an endless variation of forms, that currency and capital are materially the same thing. But the very climax is reached when we are told that such doctrines, a hundred times exploded as hollow fallacies by the experience of centuries, are in reality the most progressive ideas of this age; that this is the age of railroads and of telegraphs; that society is transformed; and that the notion of the precious metals remaining the standard of value and a medium of exchange is one of those obsolete doctrines which only old fogies will adhere to.

Sir, let us examine a little into the progressive character of these ideas. Here in my hand I hold an edition of Marco Polo's Travels, showing that this progressive idea prevailed in China many centuries ago; and I think it will be instructive to the Senate to learn how much of this progress of ideas lies already behind us.

Marco Polo tells the following story:

Now that I have told you in detail of the splendor of this city of the Emperor's, I shall proceed to tell you of the mint