Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-10-14
The Return to a Specie Basis.

My fellow-citizens, all sane men agree
that, of the great problem which Expresses.
us, there is but one ultimate solution. It
is the return to a specie basis. Whatever
other schemes may be devised, they do not
even pretend to have permanent, final
settlement of the question in view. The,
resumption of specie payments is the only
rational one, for no other system will re-
move current values from the reach of the
arbitrary power of Government; no other
can give TO current values that stability
without which no safe business calcula-
tons can be made; no other can restore
that confidence which is the first preredul-
site OF a new period of prosperity. But
the resumption of specie payments is also
the only possible solution. 1t must at last
come. Even the inflationiSts, while wild
| ly seeking to throw difficulties in its way,
still admit that, finally, it must come. 1t
is as inevitable as fate. Is it not the part
of prudent men, then, to move resolutely
and with untlagging frmness in the direc--
| ton OF an end SO desirable and also so in
evitable?
shall certainly not attempt to deceive,
| you by denying that when country is
once cursed with an irredeemable paper
money the resumption of specie payments
out of a cancer, it is an unpleasant and
difficult operation. But, if health is to be.
restored, the cancer must be cut out. 1t
is one of those evils which cannot be
cured without pain, and cannot be permit
ted to linger without peril. Delay will
only prolong the suffering and increase
the danger
This is neither the time nor the place
for discussion of the different methods
to bring on resumption. What we have
/ at present to do is to stem a mischievous
movement which threatens to make it i'm
| possible. But any of these methods, even
the most painful, will be far less so than
continuance Of the present diseased condi--
ton OF uncertainty and distruSt which
wastes the working energies of the people
IN desolate stagnation and, like dry rot,
eats up our prosperity. And surely, even
the Severest cramp to which resumption
may subject the economic body will be
nothing compared with the universal dis
aster, ruin and disgrace with which the
madness of initiation would inevitably
overWhelm US.
Indeed, is there any choice? We shall
have a resumption of specie payment; if
not by careful method, embodied in
Well-considered legislation, then surely in
another way. Then we shall drift on I'M
til our present system bears its legitimate
fruit; until by destructive CONFUSION our
paper money is swept out of existence,
and suddenly finding ourselves without
any currency, except what little specie
there is left in the country, we commence
business again on a very small scale
The least reflection will certainly con-
vince you that, whatever our financial
policy may be, whether there be much or
little money, he who wants to get it must
earn it. The capitalist will gain it by
profitable investments the trader by buy
ing and selling, the farmer by raising
crops, the laborer by the work of his hand
Nobody will get it for nothing. But if,
under all circumstances, you must gain it
by hard work, must you not see that it is
manifestly for your interest to have money
the value of which is certain? Must itnot
be clear to you that, while the capitalist
may operate with money of changing
value to his advantage, you with money
whose may uwindie IN your na1dsG 10
less and less, and, maybe, to finally moth
ing, must always be the losers in the
game? Are there not many among you
who remember that in times of wildcat
banks, in working for such money, they
worked not untrequently for nothing?
And does it not occur to you that, if the
initiation scheme prevails, the same thing
may, nay, surely will, happen to you also?
For do not indulge in any delusion about
it; the gambling in which an irredeemable
currency, a paper money Of ever-changing
value, is the principal element is not
game for the laboring man, the poor man,
to play. In that game only those win who
deal.-FrOm Ex-senator Sclturz' Recent
Speech at Cincinnati.