Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/511

Rh will not only not help them, but aggravate the evils of which they are complaining. I would not consent to give them poison, even if they asked me for it.

Senators from the South say their people need more currency. No, sir; there is another thing they need. There is another and far greater difficulty. They need more capital; and they indulge in a most fatal delusion if they think that the trick of watering their currency can supply them with that capital. There are some most obvious causes at the bottom of their difficulties. The people of the South have gone through a wasteful war, which has consumed and destroyed a very large proportion of their wealth, and thus their capital has dwindled away. The waste has been increased in some of the Southern States since the war by very bad government; and finally our tariff and the influences of an irredeemable currency have produced upon them the same depressing effect produced by the same influences everywhere upon the agricultural interest. Thus the people of the South have to make up for a very large deficit, and that deficit cannot be covered by paper promises to pay. If they want to regain their former wealth they must adopt the same methods by which wealth is created elsewhere; they must produce more, much more than they spend, and they must carefully husband and gradually accumulate their surplus earnings. That is the way to create wealth and capital available for future production. It is a somewhat slow and painful process, but it is the only process that will be really effective. This applies more or less to the people of the whole country. It is a hard fact. But sincerely as I deplore the misfortunes and embarrassments of the Southern people, I cannot refrain from saying that they lose very precious time, and waste their energies and their ingenuity if they look to any artificial contrivance for their salvation. They seem to