Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/223

Rh currency equal to the wants of trade” requires the issue of larger and larger quantities of “the people's money,” for the wants of trade, instead of being satisfied, demand more with every new issue. The prices of the necessaries of life rise higher and higher as the value of the paper money goes down and down. The speculators and gamblers of the country do a roaring business. Prosperity develops to such a point that a bushel of coal costs twenty dollars, and a jackknife its weight in greenbacks. The worthy laborer's deposit in the savings-bank, once sufficient to build a little house, will no longer buy a decent pair of boots, and as the rise of the prices of necessaries always runs far ahead of the rise of his wages, he has been rather consuming what he had than laying up new savings.

Finally the inevitable crash approaches. The prudent rich man has anticipated its coming and taken his precautions. He can do so, for he had the knowledge and the means. But the poor man is the victim of his necessities. To take precautions is not possible for him. He is swept along by the tide. A feeling of distrust creeps over the business community. One day our worthy laborer goes to his place of work as usual. “I am sorry,” says the employer who sniffs the breeze,—“there is an overstocked market and a downward tendency; I am obliged to take in sail. I have but little work for you at low wages, or no work at all.” At last the shipwreck is complete. The rich man is in the lifeboat, the poor man in the breakers. And nothing to float him.

About that time I hope Governor Allen and General Gary will come along and repeat their speeches about “the people's money.” What will then the poor laborer say in response? “Talk to me about your people's money! It is the gambler's money, the bloodsucker's money, the sharper's money, the devil's money!” And it may then perhaps be wise for Governor Allen and General Gary