Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/221

Rh after them at a respectful distance. Meantime, the lease of the dwelling of our worthy laborer has expired, and he wants to renew it. The landlord demands a much higher rent. “Higher rent!” exclaims the laborer; “am I not fleeced enough already?” “Cannot help it,” says the landlord; “gold and general prices have gone up so much, and our money is worth so little, that I must have higher rent to get along myself. You must pay or move.” The laborer has to submit, but resolves to emancipate himself with “the people's money” from the greedy tyranny of the bloated landlord. He has something like two or three hundred dollars of old savings, in the savings-bank, and makes up his mind to build a home for himself and his family, the simplest kind of a little wooden house of two or three rooms and a kitchen, on a cheap little lot in the outskirts. Formerly his reserve of money would have gone far toward accomplishing that end, but, upon inquiry as to the present prices of ground and building material, he finds that, since “the people's money” has been issued in abundance, his own money will not go half as far as formerly toward giving him a home. In other words, about half of the purchasing power of the real value of his savings has disappeared. But, determined to escape from the tyranny of the landlord, he resolves to try whether he cannot, in addition to his own, borrow money enough to accomplish his purpose, for, of course, “the people's money” must be easy to obtain at low interest, being “the people's money.” He applies to a money-lender for a couple of hundred at low interest, on two or three years time, to be secured by mortgage on the house and lot. “Low interest and three years time!” exclaims the money lender. “My dear man, you do not understand the period. Since more and more greenbacks are issued the value of the dollar decreases rapidly, and if I lend you money now on three years time, how do I know what that