Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/554

534 For their own as well as their country's good, I entreat Senators on the opposite side to stop and consider well before they irrevocably associate their names with a policy which stands already condemned by the universal experience of civilized mankind, and a new trial of which in this country would not only bring disaster and ruin upon us, but cast shame upon the American name. Yes sir; I say it would cast shame upon the American name, for the American people will in the eyes of the world most seriously impair their credit for intelligence, to speak of nothing else, if, with open eyes, with all the warnings of history before them, they repeat a blunder which, as often as it has been made, has always resulted in private misfortune and in National disgrace.

Now, Mr. President, I am done. I said at the outset that the object of my remarks would be to show that those who advocate inflation seriously mistake the nature of the difficulties they want to provide against, and that the remedies they propose will not only not cure but will aggravate the evil. That is what I have attempted to do; nothing more. Let me hope that my remarks will not be entirely without influence upon the vote of the Senate touching the proposition before us. The other branches of this great subject—and I know there are many which I have not even alluded to—I will leave for further discussion when we shall have a matured bill before us embracing our whole financial system.