Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/462

436 week or of the month to the other? Every sensible man who in the least understands his own interests will answer, instinctively: “Give us the first—the money of stable value; the money that will not cheat us, so that we may know what we have.” And that instinct is natural and right. It would seem especially natural at a moment when, after a long and painful period of depression, we see at last a glimmer of daylight again, and begin to hope that with industry and prudent management we shall work ourselves up once more to a reasonable degree of comfort and prosperity.

Why will you prefer the money of stable value? We hear much talk about the necessity of confidence as one of the most necessary prerequisites of a revival of business, and justly so. Now, the most essential element of that general confidence which is so necessary is confidence in the money you handle. “When I earn ten dollars,” says the workingman, “as the wages of my labor, I want to know that I can take that money to the baker, or the butcher, or the shoemaker, or the clothier, and that it will buy so much of bread, or meat, or shoes, or clothes, not only to-day, but a month hence. And when I have saved some money and put it in a savings bank to be used at some future time, I want to know that when I take it out again for use, be it a month or a year, or five years hence, it will not have materially decreased in value, but have about the same purchasing power which it now has.” That is sensible. “When I have sold a lot of goods on time, one, two or three months,” says the merchant, “I want to know that the money coming in after that time has not meanwhile depreciated, so as to deprive me of my profit, or even to involve me in a loss. I must have money of stable value, for it is the only kind I can base safe business calculations upon in buying and selling.” Sensible again. “When I make a contract,” says the builder,