Year: 1875

agree mat, oi the great problem
which Expresses US, there is but one
ultimate solution. 1t is the return to
a specie basis. Whatever otner
schemes may be devised, they do not
even pretend to have permanent,
final settlement OF the question in
view. The resumption Of specie
payments is the only rational one,
for no other system will remove cur
rent values from the reach ef the ar.
bitrary power OF Government; no
other can give to current values that
stability without which no safe bust
ness calculat ons can be made; no
other can restore that confidence
which is the first prerequisite of =
new period of prosperity. But the
resumption of specie payments is al
SO the only possible solution. 1t must
at last come. Even the inAationists,
wild wildly seeking to throw difficult
ties in its way, still admit that, finally
it must come. 1t is as inevitable as
fate. 1t is not the part Of prudent
men, then, to move resolutely and
with unfagging irmness in the di-
rection Of an end so desirable and
also inevitable?


l shall certainly not attempt to de-
ceive you by denying that when .
country is once cursed with m irre-
deemable paper money the resump.
tion of specie payments is not an
easy process. Like the cutting out
of cancer, it is an unpleasant and
difficult operation. But, If health 10
to be restored, the cancer must be
cut out. 1t is one of those evils
which cannot be cured without pain.
and cannot be permitted to linger
without peril. Delay will only pro-
long the suffering and increase the
danger.


This is neither the time nor the
place for discussion Of the differ.
en-, methods to bring on resumption.
What we have at present to do is to
stem mischievous movement which
threatens to make it impossible. But
any of these methods, even the
most painful, will be far less so than
a continuance Of the present diseased
condition of uncertainty and distrust.
which wastes the working energies
of the people in desolate stagnation
and, like dry rot, eats up our pros
perity. And surely, even the seve-
rest cramp to which resumption may
subject the economic body will be
nothing compared with the universal
disaster, ruin and disgrace with
which the madness Of imitation would
inevitably overwhelm us.


Indeed, is there any choice? We
shall have a resumption of specie
payment; if not by careful method,
embodied in well-considered legisla-
tion, then surely in another way. Then
we shall drift on until our present
system bears its legitimate fruit ;until
by destructive convulsion our paper
money is swept out Of existence, and,
suddenly finding ourselves without
any currency, except what little spe-
Gle is left in the country, we COM
mence business again on very small
scale.


The least reflection will certainly
convince you that, whatever our fnan-
cial policy may be, whether there be
much or little money, he who wants
to get it must earn it. The capital
ist will gain it by profitable invest
ments, the trader by buying and sell
ling, the farmer by raising crops, the
laborer by the work of his hand. No
body will get it TO. nothing. But if,
under all circumstances, you must
gain it by hard work, must you not
see that it is manifestly for you inte-
rest to have money the value ofwhich
is certain? Must it not be clear to
you that, while the capitalist may
operate with money Of changing
value to his advantage, you, with
money whose value may dwindle in
your hands TO less aud less, and, may
be, to finally nothing. must always be
the losers in the game? Are there
not many among you who remember
that in times Of wildcat banks, in
working for such money, they worked
not unfrequently for nothing? And
does it not occur to you that, if the
imitation scheme prevails. the same
thing may, nay. surely will, happen
to you also? For do not indulge in
any delusion about it; the gambling
in which an irredeemable currency, .
paper money of ever changing value,
is the principal element, is not game
for the laboring man, the poor man, to
play. In that game only those win
who deal.-Er-Senator Shutrz' Re.
cent Speech at Cincinnati.