The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-11
EPIGRAM AND IMAGERY
HOW ROBERT G. INGERsOLL sWAYED
THOUSANDS At CHICAGO.
Points from an Eloquent Speech I'm
Behalf of Candidate Mckinley
and an Honest Dollar.

Col Robert G. Ingersoll delivered a not
able address to twelve thousand people in
a big tent at Chicago. last Thursday night.
over ten thousand people were turned
away. His vast audience was enraptured
and so intense was the interest that the
click of a typewriter on the platform could
be heard at the entrance to the tent. Some
of his eloquent sentences are given below:
What is money? In the first place, mon
ey is the product of nature money is a
part of nature. No man ever made ere
ated money. ] I is beyond the power of Leg
islatures and Congresses. 1t is beyond the
power of the human race. Money is not
made. 1t has to be found. Now, remember
that. Money is not something that man can
create. 1t is something that man must
find. 1t is a part OF nature. And what elSeE
Money is some thing that does not have to
be redeemed. Money is the redeemer. Any
tning mat has to be bolstered up with the
promise OF an individual or IL nation is not
money. Greenbacks are not money. They
arc promises to pay money. A national
bank bill is not money. il "a promise to
pay money. Nothing that government
can print, no matter what picture it may
put upon it, no matter what words-'In
God We Trust-it is not money it is sim
ply promise to pay. And yet, there are
thousands and thousands of people who be-
lieve that d nation can create money. A
nation can no more create money by law
than it create corn and wheat and bar
ley by law. And a promise to pay money
is no nearer money than d bill of fare is
dinner.
ty-three and twenty-five one-hundredths
grains of pure gold make one dollar. That
IS the money to-day of the United States
That is the money to-day of the civilized
world. Twenty-three and twenty-five one
hundredths grains of pure gold make a
pure and honest dollar. All, but you say,
Cannot you make dollars out of silver?
out of silver, you have got to put dol
lars worth of silver in a silver dollar. Ii
YOU make money out of something else you
have got to put a dollars worth of some
thing else into the dollar. 1t takes a dol
lars worth of paper to make a paper dollar.
1T takes a dollars worth Of iron to make an
iron dollar, and 1T takes a dollars worth of
silver to make 9. silver dollar.
GOLD IS ALWAYS GOOD.
1T does not make any difference who
issues good money. 1t is just good when
Lazarus issues it as when David issues it.
No matter whether the government is
bankrupt that coins it the money is just as
good. A piece of gold coined by the Ro-
mans $500 years ago is just good to-day
though julius Caesar rode at the head
of the legions Since that time darkness
has fallen over the Roman empire and the
empire has passed into oblivion, but the
gold coined shines brightly now as in
homes palmieSt days. That is good money.
But when you issue a bill or note you
want some good person behind it. Money
that is money needs no guafantor; needs
hacker; it is always good. No matter
how many nations go down to dust, good
money remains forever the same. Now
then you know what dollar is
What else. is money!. You see this is
is a commodity. Wheat and corn are COM
modities. SO. is money. The popularity
about money being that it is exchangeable
for all commodities. But it is commodity,
nothing more, nothing less. When a man
he buys dollar in gold and the dollar in
gold buys the wheat Both are commodi-
ties and a commodity, is something that
cannot be manufactured by law. We want
a little sense.
There was time when this govern
ment issued greenbacks people called
them money, and still We were getting in
debt. We had magnificent times. But
more greenbacks. We had good times
% M us KeeP it up But the day of
ment comes. and when that comes hard
who buys farm on credit; buys a wagon
on a credit; piano on credit; sends John
and Mary to school on credit And all at
once they say want pay. Why he
says, gentlemen never had better times
in the world than when was giving these
and if you only had the philanthropy to
take them from me would be happy still
have to be paid in money and how are you
going to get your money? Primarily you
how are you going. to get it? You have got
to swap your labor, your muscle. your
d 5of t monaY Is
good. Good money is always at par never
at a premium and never at discount
When people buy good money with bad
money they say the good money is at a. pre-
MUM That is not so. The bad money is
at a discount. That is what is the matter.
Good money is always at par; and yet, We
have running for the presidency on
three platforms, with two wee prestoe 1i
Well, as a gentleman told me to-day, law
Is often the creature of money, but mon
ey never was and never will be the creature
OF law. If you can make money by law.
why shouldn't we be rich? If a hundred
people should settle on an island ana form
a government and elect a legislature they
could make laws, and if money IS the
creature Of law there Is no reason C wny
Britain. Law is inexhaustble and IL you
turn it into money, no nation has an
excuse for being poor.
GOVERNMENT CREATES NOTHING.
There is another thing: If the govern
rlent can make money by law-and would
like to have some good Bryan man answer
the question~-if the government can make
money by law why should the government
collect taxes? Let us be honest. Here is a
poor man with a little yoke of cattle Gull
tiyatng forty acres of stony ground, work
ing like a slave in the heat of summer,
in the cold blasts of winter. and the gov
erument makes him pay $40 taxes When,
according to these gentlemen, he could Is
bill and give the fellow with the cattle
rest. Is it possible for the mind to con-
cetve anything more absurd tnan that the
government create money!
Let me tell you why The government
creates nothing. The government does not
SNPpOIt the pSOplts tllC ItOoP40 AeN'S
port the government The governments Is a
pauper. It raises no corn, no wheat, olss no
gold. We give a part of what we create
by our intelligence. by our strength, and
the government produces nothlng-neVer
did and never will We cannot depend on
the government for bread. We have to feed
the government. Withdraw our support,
and where would the gentlemen, the ofn-
Gals be? What would become of your
Presidents and your Congresses We're 1t not
for The taxes paid By the people? We-aud
remember it-have to support the govern
nlent. Government cannot support us. and
the idea that the government can create
money. in politics. in finance, is just as ap-
surd as the doctrine of perpetual motion IS
in mechanics just as idotic as the phiIos-
opher's stone; just absurd IS the foun-
tain of eternal youth: just az idiotic as
the transmutation of metals. and any man
capable OF believing that money can be Gre
ated by law is incapable of reasoning on
any subject whatever.
'tAh INF they saw What makes gold val