The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-10-15
WHAT IS MONEY :?
Speech Of Robert q. IngersOll ut
Rockford, Ill.
Facts for the People---Promises Will
Never Pay Debts or Coin
Money.

NOFSA 10y OOpeS Va WIN
Money.
1t is no exaggeration to say that Col.
lngersoll il the most consummate pOpu-
lar orator in this broad land. In discus
sing public questions he exhibits the
fortunate tact of making his illustrations
40 clear and 30 forcible that the most
ordinary intellect can realize thair full
weight. His speech to the people of
Rockford, on Tuesday last, was one of the
most mastery ever delivered by this ex-
traordinary man.
His review of the financial and cur
rency questions, and the advantages
which people of all classes will gain by
retaining the Republican policy in
preference to what the Democrats offer,
could not be excelled. His illustration
of the meanness and dishonor of de-
based or irredeemable currency issued
by the United States must strike into
every mans understanding when he re-
marked, that, when our currency was
twenty per cent. below par in gold, an
American himself felt, Mt least in foreign
lands, twenty per cent below par; and
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he felt himself to be ut par in any part of
the world. And when our four per cent.
bonds are selling at II premium of ten it
gives moral eXaltation to the true man,
II just pride that he belongs to nation
whose credit is 80 transccndant that its
low interest bonds are bearing premium
in countries thousands of miles from his
own.
Ingersoll's scathing denunciation of
the debased silver dollar, which polite
ians foistedupon the country iss grand,
sOheroic, and so statesmanlike that we
feel joy in publishing the following
memorable words:
am in favor Of having that ~ mOncy which
no human being can create. believe in gold
and silver. ! believe in silver because that il
one of the great productions of our country,
and when you add use to thing you add u
value to that thing, and want silver money
but want Il silver dollar big enough to be
worth u gold dollar, II you have TO make It three
feet in diameter.
Col. lngersoll, in the following graphic
sketch, shows 80 clearly the distinction
between promises and money that every
voter should cut it out, paste it in his
hat near his brains, aud he will never be
misled by any financial delusion at
tempted to be imposed upon HIM by the
leaders of the Democratic or Grecnback
parties:
Now then, my friends, II you want free
speech, il you want an honest ballot, il you
want the revenues of the country collected, vote
| the Republican ticket. Then there il another
! thing we want. we want good money, We want
| honest money. / know there have been great
! many theories on money, and | never knew n
| p1n Int hol ~ a himself Whn hnI
u scheme to make somebody else rich. Laugh
| ter. These theories were produced, of course,
! by the circumstances We vent through-thcw war.
We had, as they say, plenty of money; that Is to
say, we had no money; plenty of promises, but
no money; plenty of notes, but no cash; and
while we were sailing on II credit We sailed well,
and AZ long AZ / can buy all want on credit
my family shall not suffer. lLaughtcr.l We
were going into debt, and M u rule il il an OK
cecdingly prosperous time III Il mans life when
lac il getting into debt. Laughter. Az rule
| it il an exceedingly hard time WI On he IL paying
this debt. lI.aughter.l Millions and millions
of promises were issued. The result was that
prices went up just III proportion as the value
of the promises went down, and that
was ut the expense Of the creditor class.
Expansion is always ut the expense Of
creditors, aud when the wheel of fortune takes
u turn, and contraction comes, that il always ut
the expense of the debtor. At the same time
! people claimed absolute Justice would be done;
| but the trouble IL, creditors do not mean the
same. The very man who was IL creditor, and
at whose expense the initiation came. when con-
| traction comes may be n debtor, and so suffer
both ways. We had vast and splendid schemes
for the future. We began to buy lots twenty
miles from Chicago, lots that the frogs had
held undsputed sway over since the morning
stars sang together. On paper we laid this land
out into squares, avenues and boulevards, and
were selling what cost 80 an acre for 30 u
| foot and ssh1 n foot and all inf once III 1874 the
q ash came, and all these lots resumed. lGreat
laughter.l A fellow who had bought on credit,
paying two-thirds down. found that the lots
would not pay the other third. Laughter. ]
| Hundreds Of thousands Of men were ruined.
and they said, ''What we want Ii another in
fation; we want more money" and ! never
| heard one that was caught speaking on the sub
ject who did not say. IF there ever comes
another imitation You may shoot me-" Laugh
ter. When contraction came certain men were
left with the bags to hold, and they were the
men who got up new financial theories, and
do not blame them. lLaughter.l II is precise
ly the same NJ it is in a chance of cards, where
men have been playing poker all night. do
not believe there is a man here that will under
stand this campaign. tLaughter.l Along to-
wards morning the fellow who IL ahead has got
to go home, his wife il not very well. The
other fellow, who is behind, says mo; nobody
but coward will jump the game; let us get
another candle, and We will have another deali
and 50 1t was that the greenback theory started.
We want another deal. We have been left
high and dry in the brush, miles from the
| channels. IL water can only come once more
if we do not float Oft will be our fault.
No man can imagine. all the languages of the
world cannot express, what the people Of the
United States suffered from 1873 to 1879. Men
who considered themselves mllionalres found
that they were beggars; men living in palaces,
supposng they had enough to give sunshine to
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enough to have all they loved in aftluence and
comfort suddenly found that they were mendi-
cants with bonds, stocks, mortgages, all turned
to ashes in their aged, trembling hands. The
chimneys grew cold, the fires in furnaces went
out, the poor families were turned adrift, and
the highways of the United States were crowd
ed with tramps. Into the home of the
poor crept the serpent of temptation, and whis-
pcrcd in the ear of poverty the terrible word
'.rcpudiation." want to tell YOU that you can
not conceive OF what the American people suf-
fered as they staggered over tho desert of bank
ruptcy from 1873 to 1879. We are too near now
to know how grand we were. The poor me-
chanc said "No;" the ruined manufactures
said "No;" the once millionaire said NO." we
will settle fair, we will agree to pay whether we
ever pay or not, and we will never soil the
American name with the infamous word "repu-
diatlon" Arc you not glad? What IL the
talk? Are you not glad that our flag Is GOV.
cred all over with financial honois2 The stars
shine and CLEAN now because they represent an
hoLest nation. They said during that time,
1--WE must have more paper" and the Repnb.
lican party said: 81 at us pay what we have"
Nothing liz ever ma |, bv rascality ! do not
want il understood that we are nation of coin
clippers. | want honest dollars; honest dollars
will make honest people: that IL to say, honest
people will make an honest dollar every time.
only want money that il q product of nature.
Now listen: No civilized nation no barbarouS
nation. no tribe however ignorant, ever used
anything as money that man could make They
had always used for money production Of ma
turc. Some may say, "liaye not some unciyil-
lied tribes used beads for money, something
that civilized people could makG?" Yes; but u
savage tribe could not make the beads. The
savage tribe supposed them to be product
either of nature or of something else that
they could not initiate. Nothing has
ever been considered money among any
people on this globe that those people could
make. What IL grccnback? The greenback'
are PROMISE not money. lGreat laughter
and applause. The greenbacks are the nations
note not money. You cannot make fiat dol
lar any more than you can make fiat store
You can make promise, and that promise may
be made by such a splendid man TINT II vii
pass among all who know him ~ dollar; but
7 Il il not dollar. You might as well tell mt
that u bill-of-fare il dinner. Laughter.
The grccnback IL only good now because you
can get gold for 1t. If you could not got gold
/, for II it would not BIO worth any more than .
l ticket for dinner after the fellow who ISSUED
! the ticket had quit keeping the hotel. dollar
. must be made of something that Nature hai
produced. When l die, II have n dollar left
] want il TO BIO good one. | do not wan
. q dollar that will turn into ashes In the han(