Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/500

480 insufficient supply of currency in this land to fill the legitimate requirements of the business of the country. No other reason is given; and upon that ground the American people are to be put through the same experience which has cost ourselves and other nations who have tried it, so dearly, and a gratuitous repetition of which will be justly looked upon by every sensible man in the world as little short of an act of madness.

The assumption that the volume of our currency falls short of the actual requirements of the legitimate business of the country forms the basis and the only basis of all the arguments that are made here in favor of expansion. Is that assumption correct? I deny its correctness. In the first speech I made on this subject I stated a principle which furnishes a test. I said, assuming that the people have confidence in the Government, issuing an irredeemable currency, that currency will not necessarily depreciate or stand at a discount as to gold, as long as it simply supersedes and does not exceed in volume the gold and silver, and the bank currency based upon gold and silver, which would suffice to transact the business of that country; but, the condition of confidence remaining the same, the irredeemable currency will depreciate, will be at a discount as to gold, as soon as its volume exceeds that quantity. When such depreciation steadily continues under the same conditions of confidence, it is a sure sign that the volume of currency is in excess of the real requirements of the legitimate business of the country. I asked this question: if our currency were insufficient, would it have been possible for the general prices of commodities to remain so long at the high inflation point at which they have stood for years? If really the amount of currency were so insufficient as to impede the necessary transactions of the business of the country, is it not certain that the gold in the country, which is now hiding itself,