Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-10-06

! people on this globe that those people could
make. What is a greenback? The greenbacks
are promise, not money. [Great 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 that it will
| pass among all who know hi as dollar; but
1t Is not dollar. You might well tell me
tina That bill-of-fare is dinner. Laughter
Ihe greenback Is only good now because you
can get gold for 1T. Ii you could not get gold
for 1t it would not be worth any more than a
ticket for dinner after the fellow who issued
the ticket had quit keeping the hotel. dollar
must be made of something that Nature has
produced. When 1 die, if [ have dollar left,
I want it to be good one. l do not want
q dollar that will turn into ashes in the hand
OF widowhood or in the possession of the
orphan Take coin of the Roman empire-a
little piece of gold-and it is just as good to-
day as though julius Caesar stood at the head
OF the Roman legions. 1 do not wish to trust
the wealth of the country to every blast of
public opinion. | want money as solid as the
earth On which we stand, as bright as the stars
that shine above us. [Applause.l Now, then,
we have had such good luck with our notes; we
had so much to eat and drink and wear that
some Greenback gentleman said: "Why not
keep it up"
L want to pay debt to the Greenback party
endeavOr to do equal and exact justice and
believe to-day that if it had not been for the
Greenback party we could not have resumed,
and / will tell you why. The Greenbackers
went into every schOolhouse i'll tbs state, except
the southern states, where they would not al
low them to speal-they went onto every stump
and they told the people: "'The greenback is
the best money the world has ever SEEM" They
talked and argued until millions of the people
began to despise the look of silver; they abso-
lutely hated the color of gold; they said after
all the talk, "The greenback is the money of
civilization" Finally, when we said: 1--WE will
resume, " the Greenback party had gotten the
people In such state of mind, had got them
so in love with the greenback that they did not
ask for gold. If they had asked for gold we
would not have had enough. Laughter and
applause SO to-day L want to thank the
Greenback party for what they have done; but
allow me to say in this connection that the day
OF your usefulness Is past. Loud applause
Thousands of men on our side gave wrong
definitions of money, and that helped to mis-
Lead thousands OF people. They said, money
is q measure of value;" they said, "money is a
device to facilitate exchanges" WE'LL that is
calculated to mislead anybody. The Green
baohers said, IF it is only device to facilitate
exchanges, why is not paper device just as
good as a gold device? ?" ["Good." You
could not answer it; nobody could answer it.
The trouble is that the first statement is I'M
true. Money is not ga device to facilitate ex,
changes" but the coming of money is q device
" IdtIuldto oACudlls5eS. n6COllGCU the WO1O,
"coining." The only reason that coming was
necessary was the government had to tell how
much there was, else every man had to carry
pair of scales and be a chemist SO the
coming of money is ga device to facilitate ex-
changes" but the money itself is gold and
silver, the product of Nature herself Zap
plause.I
Then they said, ''Money measures value as
half-Dushel measures corn. or as yard-stick
measures cloth" That is not SO. If it had
been SO the Greenbackers would have been
right, because if "mOney measures value as a
half-bushel or as a yardstick," of course it
makes no difference whether half bushel or q
yardstlck is made of gold, silver, or paper: but
the statement is not true. Money does not
measure values as haf-bushel OF as a yard
stick, and why? The half-bushel does not
measure value; the yardsticll does not measure
value. The yardstick measures length, not
valve; it measures lace worth 5000 yard pre-
clsely as it does cent tape, and you know it.
A half-bushel does not measure value; it meas
ures quantity; and the half-bushel would meas
ure gold, anc diamonds, and pearls, precisely as
1T does oats and corn. Applause There is
another trouble about it. The reason it does
not make any difference whether yardstlck or
half-hushel. or gold or silver, or paper, is that
you do not buy the half-bushel or the yardstick.
The man who owned the half-bushel at the COM
mencement of the trade keeps it after the trade
Is over. The gentleman in possession of the
yardstick before the purchase IS made keeps the
yardstick after the purchase is done. If it were
SO with money, then it would not make any diff
ference. Laughter Now, then, my friends
if there is a solitary Greenbacker here now in
the Democratic party, that once belonged to the
Republican party, l ask him to come out
[Cries of ''Hear," ''Hear."l L ask him to
admit that we are to-day a prosperous nation
L ask him to admit that to-day we have got
money enough. [ want him to admit that an
amount of money does not make prosperity, but
nrOSDer1tV makes | want him admit
that when the country is prosperous then every
man trusts his neighbor. but if you buy pound
of sugar on credit you initiate the currency. 1t
you give your note for horse, then you initiate
the currency; if you give mortgage or deed
of trust, you initiate the currency; and every fell
low that says ''Charge it, initiates the cur
rency. Laughter, and voice, "That's so."]
SO that In times of prosperity-that is to say,
that in times of general confidence we have all
the money we want. Suppose you should go to
man that owned ferry boat, and there had
been no rain for six months, and the river was
entirely dry, and the feny-boat was upon the
sand, with seams gaping open like our aver
age Democrat hearing speech that he does not
understand might say in that connection
speech about the constitution laughter and ap-
plause1 and suppose you should ask that man,
'How is business?" and he should say, ''Dull;'
and suppose you tell him, ''Now what you want
is more boats" [Laughter.l He would be apt
to answer, 81 can get along with this one if I
had little more water" [Great laughter.l I
want every man to think, and get that heresy
out Ct his head, that government can make
money; and will ask each one this question:
and have never seen any man who could an
swer it-nOw, honor bright, if the government
can make money why should it collect taxes?
Just think about that. Ia voice. Who does
make the money?''l Sir, Nature makes all the
gold and all the silver, and the Nation coins the
gold and coins the silver SO that each man who
sees it may know what it is worth. Applause
That is what understand by money, and all
paper that takes the place OF money is simply
promise to pay that money. la voice, "That
is all."] You cannot make money by resolving
[laughterl; you cannot make money byL aw any
more than you can make oats and corn by res
olution in political meeting. Laughter.
Lord. Lord, wish you could [Great laugh
ter I wish this government could make money.
What rich nation we would be. Laughter
If the government can make money why does
it collect taxes? Why should the sun borrow
candle? Laughter and applause.] Here is a
poor man working upon bis farm the whole