Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-11-11
Hon. Carl Schurz on the Effects of
"M0re Money"

Can that be 1.-the peoples money"
whose value in the peoples hands is apt
to vanish into nothing and is sure to van
ish into nothing if much more of it is
issued?
A paper money of ever changing value
as the principal element is not game for
the laboring man, the poor man, to play
In that game only those win who deal.
Who does not know when the crisis in
1878 came that work stopped and wages
went down a good while before the cost OF
living did? And who had to lose the diff
ference? The laboring man
OF ali agencies which human ingenuity
can invent there is none that so insidious
ly robs human labor of its earnings and
makes the fortunes of the poor man the
football of the rich as a currency of fiuct-
uating value.
Who will deny that when the deprecia-
ton of such currency drives up prices
the laboring mans wages rise last and
least? Who will deny that when the bub-
bles of paper speculation burst the labor
ing mans earnings are cut down first and
lowest? Is our country an exception to
the rule?
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 !?
Let me tell the laboring men that they
have no more heartless enemies than
those pretended friends who, with artful
catch-Words playing upon their credulity,
seek to make them believe that they pos
sess the secret of alchemy with which to
create wealth out of nothing, and with
that nothing to make those happy who
serve their purposes. If their schemes,
unfortunately, should prevail, then the
time will surely come for their poor VIC
TINS to curse the day when they fooIishIy
followed such treacherous counsel, and
curse the men who administered it.
Suppose they succeed in their scheme;
suppose, by initiation, the specializing fever
be revived, and they not only get rid OF
their liabilities, but make millions of
profit on their gambling enterprises, who
will lose the millions they gain? Who
will pay the cost? Not the victims alone,
who are foolish enough to take the specu-
lating enterprises off their hands and
then are caught by the final crash inevita-
bly, to come. Such victims would, per
haps, deserve their fate No, the cost
would be paid by the laboring men of the
country, whom the depreciation of the
currency would plumber of the difference
between the rise of the prices of necessa-
ries and the rise of wages. The cost
would be paid by the industrious and fru-
gal, whose deposited savings would be
robbed of their value; by the pensioners,
the disabled soldiers, the widows and
orphans of the slain, whose slender in
comes would be despoiled Of their power
to buy bread; by every honest man in the
land, who would suffer in the game of
over reaching which the inflated currency
would bring with it.