The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-09-26

point, you set your officers to watching
more particularly. When the wal
ended we had a debt of $2,4O00OO 200
on our shoulders, upon which we were
| paying Z 3-10 per cent. interest. Our
taxes were raised to nearly $5O0000,-
900 in time of profound peace. Our
currency was worth so or 70 cents on
the dollar.
How many wise man shook his head
at the close of the war and said. "The
people can never pay that debt" Why
we have got third of It paid off al
ready. That interest which you paid,
that is reduced from $140,00O,00O to
$95,000,000. We no longer pay 7.3O
per cent interest. We can get all the
money we want at 4 per cent. What
does that mean for you and I? Those
| who borrow money know that when the
Government pays per cent. it will cost
them II and Is per cent, and when the
| Government pays and 4 it will go
| down for us, and so, as the credit of the
Government grows better, your credit
and mine grows better. We are all tiep
together.
Very well; we are down to per cent.
on interest, and now as to the currency.
1t was a currency worth sixty cents on
the dollar on one day, but it did not
stick at that price. You never could
tell on Monday what it would be on
Saturday. Who lose by tickle stand
ard of value? Always the laborer and
producer. Why? Simply because the
middle-man, being businessman, I'M
derstands that the standard of value is
likely to go up or to go down to his dis
advantage; therefore, when he sell he
does it having reference to the fact that
the standard of value may change, and
consequently he charges enough to
make himself safe, and the consumer
bears the loss. That is tickle standard
of value. [Applause.]
Now, my friends, how do you see it
to-day? The currency has been goin
up, up, up, until it is 994. It is as I'M
changeable as Lake Erie. It does not
go down at all. It is steady. It is no
longer a yardstick that is one foot in
March, three feet in May, and six in
y lAIJs LU 10 UlICC lG6U jill Uu0 U1Iu0
Tremendous applause
Now, my friends, that is the cur
rency? AS to our balance of trade be-
fore the panic, the balance of trade was
against us $1O0000,000 a year. That is
to say, we bought abroad that much
more than we sold abroad. How is it
to-day? We are selling more produce
than ever before in our history more
corn, more wheat We have even gone
so far as to take watches made at Elgin,
Ill.-made in New England and carry
them right over to the foot of the Alps
where the people have been making
watches for 300 years, and selling the
watches to those people.
Now, my friends, as said before, we
are selling $207, 100000 year abroad
more than we are buying abroad. How
does that operate? Like every man
who sells more than he buys He is
getting rich. So it is with the United
States. You, each of you, are getting
out of the panic, and nothing but our
own unwisdom will get us into it again
What do we want? We want conf
dence. Don't encourage your Legisla-
ture or your Congress to legislate too
much. It was a favorite maxim with
Jefferson that the world was governed
too much. Too much legislation on
financial subjects is the bane of our
times.
My friends, let us all hold up our
hands in favor of letting well enough
alone and standing firmly by our pres
ent constitutional currency that destroys
no man.