Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/542

522 Mr. . The Senator will not represent me fairly. I said that the people of Europe sent their money here after they had invested all they could profitably at home. They send it for profit. I say that the people in the immediate neighborhood in a single city would lend their money more readily to their neighbors than they would to others at a distance; and he knows that a man living in St. Louis to-day would rather lend money at a less interest to people in St. Louis than he would to a man in Pennsylvania of whom he knew nothing. But the Senator beats me in words, and I give up.

Mr. . I think it is indeed useless to quarrel about trifles.

Mr. . I have too much respect for you to quarrel with you.

Mr. . I wish to recall to my friend's mind a fact that is known to me, and no doubt known to him, that on account of the uncertainty of the value of our paper money, its constant appreciation and depreciation, nine-tenths, perhaps ninety-nine one-hundredths, of all the loans now made in Europe to this country, both principal and interest, are required to be paid in gold.

Mr. . It is a fact as notorious as sunlight; and therefore I express my surprise that so old a financier as the Senator from Pennsylvania should question it in the least.

But now, sir, to return from this digression; and I hope no Senator can have so grossly misconstrued me as to believe that I ever thought of questioning the honesty of the American character, for I have it more at heart than those who advocate the inflation of the currency. I will now say a word about the general law governing the rate of interest.

The rate of interest—and I desire to impress this especially on those of my Southern friends who the other