Sidney Myers 
 
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 Speech before +be 
 lUioois s+ote gnaoge 
 
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 in 2016 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
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UBJ- ,RV 
 OF THE 
 
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 \ 
 
 SPEECH OF S YDNEY M YERS, ESQ., 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 TT,T.T~r^OTS STJYTEI 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FATBONS OF HUSBANDBY, 
 
 AT 
 
 oiiA3Sd:i>u??^iC3-aNr, laLi^iUNrois, 3 Deo-.14, 187S. 
 
 Mr. President^ Patrons and Matrons 
 of the Blinois State Grange: 
 
 Organization is a universa,! index of 
 development. In nature, from the 
 oyster to the man, we see a contin- 
 ued gradation of organization and de- 
 velopment, until it reaches the highest 
 stage— man, made in the image of God, 
 with full understanding and power of 
 direction. Individuals, separate, have 
 power, doubtless; but separated, they 
 are, as it were, plates. When united un- 
 der proper circumstances, and placed in 
 proper juxtaposition, they become a vol- 
 taic pile, capable of generating power 
 that may 
 
 CONVULSE A CONTINENT, 
 
 nay, a world. It is gratifying to 
 see that the people of the United 
 States are organizing themselves. It 
 is gratifying to see that while] all oth- 
 er classes of society (that great co-opera- 
 tive organization of which we are all 
 members,) have organized themselves so 
 as to co-operate, and wield their power, 
 their united will and understanding, 
 in a concentrative manner, the great 
 yeomanry of the United States of 
 America, our farmers, have progressed 
 so far in organization in order that they 
 may, by unity of action, by unity of their 
 intellect and their judgment, by the uni- 
 ty of that knowledge which they pos- 
 sess bring to bear upon public opinion 
 their just proportion of influence and 
 weight. And I am gratified, too, to see 
 that the farmers’ organizations have the 
 independence to reserve to themselves 
 'he liberty of pulling in their latch string, 
 m m shoving it out, as they have 
 
 done this evening to the general public. 
 
 My theme to night is 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 It is, perhaps, a dry subject. Bread and 
 butter is a dry subject, and bread without 
 butter is dryer, and not enough bread is 
 dryer still(applause). Tnere are too many 
 men in this country to-day that are not 
 earning their bread and butter, and when 
 we come to consider the subject of finance 
 one of its principal features is to ascer- 
 tain by what means it may be brought 
 within the reach of every man and wo- 
 man in the United States to earn an hon- 
 est living, that it may be said that any 
 one who is willing to work may find 
 work, and just compensation for that 
 work. 
 
 FINANCE DISCUSSED ABROAD. 
 
 The discussion of the subject of finan- 
 ce, the interested and the active discus- 
 sion of the subject of finance, is not con- 
 fined to this country; and even here it 
 has scarcely begun. This interesting 
 subject is being discussed in all civil- 
 ized countries, and, in no country, as far 
 as my observation enables me to judge, 
 is there a system which is entirely sat- 
 isfactory. Meetings are being held by the 
 boards of trade in every part of England, 
 Scotland and Ireland. Delegates have 
 recently been appointed to attend a 
 representative meeting of all the 
 boards of trade in the united king- 
 dom of Great Britian and Ireland for 
 the purpose of petitioning the British 
 Government to appoint a parlament- 
 ary commission to examine into the con- 
 dition of British finance, and to ascer - 
 tain whether it is not practicable to hav ^ 
 
5 
 
 speech of Sydney Myers, Esq., 
 
 a system of finance changed by which 
 the price of money, varies as it does now, 
 from two and one-half per cent, per an- 
 num, up to ten per cent, or more within 
 short periods. The manufacturers say 
 we often go into the market and pur- 
 chase our raw material when money is 
 worth only 2^ per cent, per annum. 
 When interest is low, prices are high; we 
 purchase our raw muterial at a high 
 price; “we engage in its manufacture; 
 it may take us six months before we are 
 prepared to turn out a finished article 
 ready for the market: and when we are 
 prepared to turn out the finished article 
 we may find the rates of interest double, 
 treble or quadruple,” money scarce 
 and prices low. It has frequently 
 been the case that the rate of interest 
 in England has raised from two and 
 one-half per cent, to 7 and 8 per cent, 
 within sixty days— and that recently— 
 and the rate has gone as high as 12 per 
 cent. The British merchants and manu- 
 facturers say to the government, “we 
 cannot stand this. It turns us from be- 
 ing legitimate business men, engaged by 
 our labor in adding to the value of raw 
 material by changing its form into things 
 of use and enjoyment, looking to the re- 
 turn for our labor, in receiving an ade- 
 quate price in the market— it turns us 
 from that business to that of mere spec- 
 ulators. We find that many of us will get 
 rich faster, apparently, by selling short 
 what we have not got, or buying long 
 more than we can pay for without 
 a rise, rather than manufacture.” 
 [Applause.] Let “some one else do the 
 work and we will guess and see if we 
 cannot make a profit by guessing.” 
 
 Such is too much the condition all 
 over the world; and it is one of the most 
 important problems that can employ the 
 attention of an industrious, enterprising 
 people, a civilized people, to ascertain 
 what is the present financial condition, 
 what are the objections to the present 
 condition, and what are the possible 
 remedies. 
 
 THE VENETIAN SYSTEM. 
 
 Seven hundred and four years ago, 
 Venice, the queen of the Adriatic, 
 then mistress of the commercial v/orld, 
 was carrying on a war with the em- 
 peror of the East and with Greece. The 
 Republic needed money; the Republic 
 called upon its citizens to bring in their 
 gold and their silver into the proper de^ 
 partment of the treasury of the state; 
 each brought in his gold and his silver, 
 not only from motives of patriotism, but 
 because the council of Ten, who were ac- 
 customed to seeing that their orders 
 were obeyed, had commanded that eve- 
 ry citizen should contribute means to 
 the State according to his ability. Gold 
 and silver were brought to the treasury, 
 
 and as each man passed in nis gold and 
 silver he received credit [on the books of 
 the nation for that amount, as you would 
 receive credit on the books of the mer- 
 chant when you sell and deliver the pro- 
 ducts of your farms or at the bank when 
 you make your deposit. Each re- 
 ceived credit on the books of the nation, 
 and Venice agreed to pay interest at the 
 rate of four per cent, per annum in coin 
 upon every man’s balance in the treasu- 
 ry. No checks or circulating notes were 
 used; nothing was received, except as a 
 permanent investment, to go into the 
 hands of the government, and to be ex- 
 pended in their foreign wars. Soon one 
 of those men creditors of the nation died, 
 perhaps leaving five children. The 
 question arose : “This book credit is to 
 his account, is in his name.” The ad- 
 ministrators desired to divide this es- 
 tate. There were five heirs. , Applica- 
 tion was made to the proper authori- 
 ties. Cannot this one account be divid- 
 ed into five accounts, and this account 
 be closed by having the gross amount 
 credited in proportion to each of the 
 five heirs. That was approved. The 
 sume principle was applied in divid- 
 ing the assets of bankrupts. For even 
 in Venice there were some bankruptcies, 
 but not so many as we have in the civil- 
 ized countries of these later ‘days, when 
 bankruptcy, sometime during a busi- 
 ness life, is the general rule, and im- 
 munity from bankruptcy is the except- 
 ion. Perhaps some of you are not awmre 
 that in 1840 the collector of the port of 
 Boston was ipvestigatingthe 
 
 SUBJECT OF BANKKUPTCY, 
 
 and he found that in the city of New 
 York there was but one wealthy man 
 who had retired after passing through a 
 business life, who had never suspended 
 payment or failed; that in Boston not 
 over three merchants in a hundred re- 
 tired from their business in their old age 
 with means enough to bury them, and 
 leave their families provided for even 
 after failure; that the average was 
 the same in Philadelphia, or more 
 startling, and much the same even in 
 Cincinnati, then a comparatively new 
 place. I say that even in Venice there 
 might occasionally be failures, because 
 there must be men who, under the most 
 favorable circumstances, had not the 
 skill, the prudence, or the ability to 
 carry on the business which might grow 
 on their hands. So that there were 
 occasionally men in Venice who failed 
 in business, and it was necessary thal 
 their assets should be divided among ther 
 creditors. Hence the republic of Venice' 
 ^permitted the assignee in bankruptcy to 
 cause a transfer from th account of tin 
 insolvent mercliaiit on the books, i< 
 each of his creditors in proportioii to th 
 
Before the lllmois Btate Grange. 8 
 
 amount due, and gradually from this 
 grew up a system by which one owing 
 you a thousand dollars, and having five 
 thousand dollars of credit with the na- 
 tion, would ask you in that city to step 
 into a gondola and go down to the bank, 
 as it soon got to be called, and would 
 trajisfer to you from his account of per- 
 haps, $ 5 , 000 — $ 1 , 000 , The interest would 
 begin to run to y#ur account the daj" of 
 the transfer; and when they figured up 
 his interest there would be a thousand 
 dollars out of his principal on the day 
 that he made the transfer to you. For 
 nearly six hundred years in the great city 
 of Venice, business was conducted in this 
 way without a panic, without a financial 
 crisis, without a suspension. 
 
 CRISIS. 
 
 What does a crisis mean? A crisis, 
 financial, means a stoppage of all busi- 
 ness, in order that men may settle, and 
 the only way that a commercial people 
 can settle is to in ter- change and 
 cancel indebtednes. It is only the 
 smaller business transactions, com 
 paritively speaking, that are settled 
 with currency, yet currency is the basis 
 of all commercial transactions,* and not 
 a bale of cotton, not a wagon load of 
 grain, no stock or other farm product 
 caij^be transferred by the producer to 
 the consumer without the aid of 
 currency. A crisis means a stop- 
 page of manufactures, the throwing of 
 men and women out of employment, 
 the suffering of their families for want 
 of bread and shelter; it means that 
 corn shall be burned upon the farms be- 
 cause the machinery by which its owner- 
 ship is exchanged is temporarily ob- 
 structed and inoperative; it means that 
 the farmer shall want boots and shoes, 
 and clothing, though he has corn, and 
 meat, and butter, and the materials for 
 bread to give for them, while the opera- 
 tives in the manufacturing establish- 
 ments, or that should be in the manu- 
 facturing establishments, who might be 
 making boots and shoes and clothing for 
 the farmer, are idle, unemployed, as they 
 are, to a great extent to-day in this 
 country. It is a lamentable truth that 
 while the operative should be suffering 
 for bread, the farmer is using his corn 
 for fuel. Under the financial system in- 
 augurated by the Venetians the credits in 
 the Treasury of Venice became so valu- 
 able that those who had balances there 
 were offered thirty per cent premium in 
 gold. For centuries the premium was 
 thirty per cent in gold upon this mere 
 paper book account. In time it was 
 found that the debt of Venice was 
 too small to furnish the exchange of 
 that wealthy city, and in order 
 to obviate that‘ difficulty, Venice 
 said, “We cannot run into debt 
 
 •0004R.^ 
 
 any more, we have no wars to carry 
 on, our public works are complete, our 
 income is sufficient from the ordinary 
 revenue to pay current expenses, but 
 this is a commercial city: we listen to 
 the cry that comes up from the people; 
 it is the office of government to look to 
 the welfare of the people, because the 
 government is the people’s servant and 
 creature.” [Applause]. And the Council 
 of Ten considered the matter when the 
 cry came up from the jieople, and they 
 said, “We will use our intelligence; we 
 will use our good judgement, though we 
 have no precedents,” (as we have to-day) 
 “we have no precedent, but 
 
 WE WILL MAKE PRECEDENTS 
 
 that the world may follow,” (and that 
 the world has followed successfully.) 
 They said, “Here is a branch office es- 
 tablished ; bring in your gold and silver ; 
 you shall have credit on the books here 
 for your coin, but not any interest. Ven- 
 ice pays interest only upon what it used 
 of your means to expend in war or for 
 the public good. This branch bank of 
 Venice is for your convenience. Bring 
 in your coin, we will melt it, we will 
 assay it, we will cast it into bars or into 
 coin; it shall rest here in the bank; and 
 whenever you wish to make a payment 
 you can transfer this deposit of 
 coin instead of government debt;” and 
 this brought the government debt to 
 twenty per cent premium instead' of 
 thirty. But the merchants preferred the 
 government debt to the coin deposited, 
 and there was that difference of twenty 
 per cent between the tv/o and in favor of 
 government debt bearing four per cent 
 interest. This illustrates a fact that 
 there can be and has been a circulating 
 medium other than coin worth more than 
 coin. 
 
 THERE WAS ANOTHER NATION. 
 
 Fourteen years ago it needed horses for 
 its cavalry, mules for its trains, clothing 
 to uniform its men, iron to cast into can- 
 non and to forge into armor plates for 
 its ships ; it needed the life blood of your 
 sons to maintain the institutions which 
 have been handed down to us as a sacred 
 trust by our fathers. It needed no 
 money, but it thought it did. It went 
 to Wall street, and the banks soon sus- 
 pended. They had nothing but paper 
 promises to offer the government. But it 
 did not want paper promises, its own 
 promises were better ; it wanted those ar- 
 ticles that I have named, and with great, 
 good judgment, with wonderful wisdom 
 recognized the fact that the government 
 might give its bonds for what it wanted; 
 that the people would come up as the 
 people of Venice did, not with their gold, 
 though they were willing to offer gold 
 like any other commodity, and did offer 
 
4 
 
 Speech of Sydney Myers, Esq., 
 
 it, but those things that were nec- 
 tissary to earry on a war to preserve 
 the life of what is yet to be the great re- 
 public. And what did the whole people 
 through their agent, the government, give 
 to the people individually? What did 
 it give to the merchant for the cloth, 
 to the manufacturer for the improved 
 rifles and bayonets, the accoutremente, 
 to the farmers for forage, for trains, and 
 for cavalry horses? What did itgive for 
 the blood of yo ur sons? That is what they 
 gave (exhibiting a greenback). 
 
 GREENBACKS. 
 
 That is one of the very things 
 that it gave. None of these green- 
 backs have been issued since the war 
 closed, except duplicates to replace 
 worn out originals. That dollar green- 
 back was one of those that it gave for 
 those things, and 
 
 WHAT IS A GREENBACK? 
 
 We cannot blame those men who are 
 trying to understand a British system of 
 iihance, which is not understandable, 
 if they do not understand our sys- 
 tem. When so respectable a house as 
 G. P. Putnam & Sons,of New York, issues 
 a book of reference, in which the defini- 
 tion of greenbacks, is given as United 
 States notes, or “ national bank notes.” 
 ( See World’s Progress, 1873, page 
 67.) Legal tender notes of the govern- 
 ment, are alone known as greenbacks. 
 Are greenback clubs established for the 
 purpose of advocating the perpetuation 
 of the national bank notes specially? I 
 don’t think any greenback club under- 
 stands it in that way. The greenback is 
 the legal tender obligation issued by the 
 government of the United States direct, 
 without the intervention of any one 
 but its own immediate servants. Tlds 
 greenback reads: “The United States 
 will pay the bearer one dollar.” That 
 obligation was issued for clothing and 
 munitions of war, and the wages, the 
 pittance received by your boys. That is 
 an obligation to-day unredeemed. I am 
 
 f etting on dangerous ground, am I not? 
 
 think not; unredeemed and partially 
 repudiated! When you took that green- 
 back for your farm products, for the 
 products of your manufacturing estab- 
 lishments, there was an endorsement on 
 the back of it which has been surrepti- 
 tiously erased. 
 
 THE FIRST STEP TOWARD REPUDIATION. 
 
 There was an endorsement on the 
 back of it providing that it was convert- 
 ible, at the pleasure of the holder, into 
 a six per cent, gold bearing bond of the 
 United States; and when the law was 
 repealed— an unwarranted, unjust thing 
 — violating the contract which you 
 entered into when you delivered that 
 forage, when vou delivered those horses. 
 
 when you delivered the transportation 
 trains, the contract then was that you 
 might convert this into six percent, gold 
 bearing bonds, that are now worth a high 
 premium over gold in all the markets of 
 the world; and then the United States 
 government passed an act saying, that 
 after a certain day, not four months, 
 I think, after the passage of the act, 
 all of those greenbacks outstanding, 
 all not brought in for redemption at 
 that time should no longer be con- 
 vertible into the six per cent, bonds, 
 thereby making them irredeemable. It 
 was redeemable before; it was re- 
 deemable in bonds worth more than 
 gold. That is what makes it irredeema- 
 ble. And there was another condition 
 to this contract— you cannot honestly 
 change a contract without the consent 
 of both parties. There was another 
 feature in the contract providing 
 that, as in the bank deparment of 
 Venice, if one merchant took another 
 down to the bank and said, “I owe you 
 one thousand marks, I am ready to pay 
 you in this wise,” Venice says, “that if 
 an individual citizen of Venice ‘turns 
 out’ what the government of Venice 
 owes him, it shall be a good settlement 
 of private indebtedness, and I propose 
 to turn you out a thousand marks by 
 transferring it from my credit to yours.” 
 That was a legal tender. This is a legal 
 tender to-day. This (exhibiting a green- 
 back) represents one share of the two 
 thousand million shares of debt incurred 
 by the United States government, an 
 artificial man created by the men that 
 were made in God’s image, the people, 
 and so far as it exists to-day, lives and 
 moves and has its being in its creator, 
 the people. They said, as in the case of 
 Venice, “to transfer government in- 
 debtedness was a good settlement 
 of a debt, that the transfer 
 would be a good payment, and 
 would be a legal tender, as this was 
 a great and extensive country, and 
 every one could not go to a single office 
 as in Venice, with those evidences of 
 debt, convertible at the pleasure of the 
 holder into six per cent, gold bearing 
 bonds, legal tender between citizens, 
 that the transfer of one of those notes 
 should be the transfer of the national 
 debt to the amount designated upon the 
 note, that the transfer could be made by 
 the delivery of this greenbak represent- 
 ative of debt, and so the business has 
 been carried on.” 
 
 THE SECOND PROPOSED STEP IN REPUDIATION 
 
 Treat every one with respect. Thank 
 God we still have a right— how long it 
 may continue I know not — but we still 
 have a right to criticize the acts and i)i’o- 
 posals of our servants, [applause.) It 
 is pro])cr that when t ))0 chief magistrate 
 
5 
 
 Before the Illinois State Grange. 
 
 of the nation in hia official capacity 
 announces to the le^^isiative branch of 
 the government what he conceives to be 
 for the good of the people whose will it is 
 supposed to manifest, that such papers 
 should be treated with respect, they 
 should be carefully read by every citizen. 
 I don’t know that I can carry out my own 
 suggestion of reading the president’s 
 message to night, but he says “I com- 
 mend to your attention, your earnest 
 consideration, first: the repeal of so 
 much of the legal tender act as makes 
 those notes receivable for debts con- 
 tracted after a date to be fixed in the act 
 itself, say not later than the 1st of Janu- 
 ary 1877.” Gen. Grant is a great man, a 
 great soldier; whether he is a great 
 statesman we all have the same oppor- 
 tunity of judging; but from my stand- 
 point T don’t think, he is a great finan- 
 cier. No. [Applause.] I don’t think 
 he is a great jurist. Now, I am not going 
 into politics. But, gentlemen, remem- 
 ber that if you are not already slaves, 
 that you have a right to talk about the 
 acts and proposals of your servants. 
 
 1 did not come here to make a political 
 speech, but I am exercising the right of 
 an American citizan to consider the ef- 
 fect of the various clauses in the mes- 
 sage of the President; and if that is ob- 
 jectionable I will stop. [Cries of “go 
 on!” “go on!”] I say that it takes two to 
 make a bargain ; and I say this : that the 
 act proposed to be passed for 
 the purpose of preventing the 
 legal tender notes now outstanding, 
 from being used as a legal tender, is the 
 second act of repudiation. [Applause.] 
 The first act was, wffiat i educed the nom- 
 inal value of the greenback below gold. 
 If the greenback had been always con- 
 vertable into six per cent, bonds it 
 would have disappeared long ago. They 
 would have been owned by English 
 agents, converted into six per cent, 
 bonds, and carried across the water 
 where the ordinary rate on such in- 
 vestments as that does not exceed three 
 per cent. Greenbacks would have disap- 
 peared long ago, and it may be a good 
 thing that this partial act of repudiation 
 occurred. It has preserved to the Amer- 
 ican people of this day what I conceive 
 to be a great advance in finance. Yen- 
 ice introduced the system and practiced 
 it successfully for nearly six hundred 
 years, that the national debt should fur- 
 nish the circulating medium among its 
 citizens; and to-day we, like Venice, we 
 “inflationists,” propose to return to the 
 old system of Venice, so far as we can, by 
 adapting it to our present circumstan- 
 ces, [applause,] a system during the 
 operation of which, for nearly six hun- 
 dred years there was no panic and no fi- 
 nancial crisis; a system under which the 
 
 paper money, consisting of book acc- 
 ount, went to a premium of thirty per 
 cent, over gold coin ; and branches had 
 to be started in order to receive the 
 gold coin, and then only reduced the 
 premium ten per cent, leaving the gov- 
 ernment debt shares standing at twenty 
 per cent, premium, and it stood so for 
 centuries. And so the great mistress of 
 the commmercial world, who commanded 
 the commerce of the east, thus car- 
 ried on its business until one of Napo- 
 leon’s marshals went into Venice and 
 seized the books. That is what he got; 
 he got books ; the government debt was 
 beyond reach, and only the account 
 of what Venice owed to certain of 
 its citizens was seized. But Venice 
 was in some degree, at least, what 
 may be compared to immorality. 
 That city was occupied; its dwel- 
 lings were occupied; its -treasures that 
 were found, were confiscated; but Venice 
 still lives; and Venice, when the wave of 
 war had passed over, stood up again, and 
 paid its debt Florence carried out the 
 same system as the branch of the bank 
 of Venice, with a government loan de- 
 partment, and was prosperous, and Flor- 
 ence for a long time was the commer- 
 cial metropolis of Italy. Genoa had the 
 same system and the same experience. 
 The bank of Amsterdam exists to day. 
 It has no promise out without something 
 equivalent behind it, and therefore they 
 are 
 
 NEVER AFRAID OF A RUN, 
 
 and they never suspend. The bank of 
 Hamburg is to-day carried on on the 
 same principle, of having the things 
 promised behind their promise, and it 
 was only 181 years ago, that the king of 
 England was “ hard *up,” and some mer- 
 chants got together and said “ if you 
 will give us the privilege of issuing all 
 the paper promises we please and have 
 the monopoly of so doing within 
 London and a circuit of sixty- 
 
 five miles, we will len'd you 
 
 £1,200,000 in coin. And it was so 
 arranged, and up to 1844 tl^e 
 
 BANK OF ENGL ADD 
 
 issued all the promises it chose 
 to issue, and the only wayto know 
 whether it had any coin was to 
 try by presenting the notes; and 
 the people tried, and three years af- 
 ter the Bank of England was born it sus- 
 pended specie payment. I want to be 
 accurate; I want to give the dates. I 
 think I said that the Bank of England 
 was established 181 years ago. It was in 
 1694. I said that it suspended specie pay- 
 ment in three years ; it suspended in 1697, 
 just three years afterwards. It 
 
 SUSPENDND AT VARIOUS TIMES, 
 
 but it suspended in 1797, and remained 
 
^ Speech of Sydney Myevs, Esq., 
 
 suspended officially, and for the most 
 time practically from 1797 to 1823— twenty 
 six years, though during the last three 
 years it did pay some coin when it 
 felt like it and had it to spare. It was a 
 matter of option, the law permitting 
 it to suspend until 1823. parliament 
 repealed the Eesumption Act eleven 
 times, and finally the bankjresumed specie 
 payments, and in 1825, two years af- 
 ter officially resuming, it suspended 
 specie payments again, and like an- 
 other blind Sampson, tore down the 
 columns of the temple of British com- 
 merce, and scattered devastation and 
 ruin throughout the land, among the 
 people, among the women, and among 
 the helpless children. How did it tear 
 down the cemmerce? By trying to avoid 
 suspension, by contracting the currency, 
 by breaking the merchants in forcing 
 them suddenly to pay their loans. It did 
 not suspend in 1839 ; but it went to Baring 
 Brothers, bankers, private capitalists, 
 and asked them to save the credit of 
 the great Bank of lEngiand and the Brit- 
 ish nation. Baring Brothers gave them 
 what some call a Kiting bill. They 
 drew on their Paris correspondent 
 for £3,000,000. The Paris correspondent 
 accepted the bill, and the Bank of France 
 cashed it, thus saving the Bank of Eng- 
 land. In 1847, three years after the Act of 
 1844 was passed, under which the bank is 
 now acting it “squatted” when only 
 £1,994,000 in coin was left in the vaults. 
 In 1857— understand every one of those 
 dates indicates 
 
 A FINANCIAL OBI3IS, 
 
 a stoppage of all commerce and business, 
 a breaking up of the merchants and man- 
 ufacturers, and great distress among the 
 peeple— in 1857 the crisis reduced their 
 cash to £1,462,000. In 1847 and 1857 and 
 again in 1866, the time of the great Over- 
 land and Gurney panic, then they had 
 only £3,000,000 left, and in each of 
 those cases which have occurred since 
 1844, and the passage of the “ Bank Act,” 
 the government has stepped in to relieve 
 the bank, and has said: 
 
 “ THE ACT OF 1844 
 
 is suspended.” And what does it mean 
 when it says that the Act of 1844 is sus- 
 pended? Previous to the Act of 1844 the 
 Bank of England was allowed to issue 
 to any amount their promissory notes, 
 called bank notes, without restriction 
 of any kind. I will not be unfain They 
 had some capital paid in, but it was prin- 
 cipally, if not wholly, invested in govern- 
 ment debts, that is, the government owed 
 them. There were no bonds for it; there 
 were no consols for it. It was a book 
 account, and it was understood that that 
 debt should stand, and never be de- 
 manded by the Bank of England as long 
 as it exercised tfie privileges of its 
 
 charter— the issue of those notes, and 
 the exclusive issue, and the monopoiy 
 of the issue in London and the circuit of 
 sixty - five miles. The Bank Act of 
 1844 authorized Fiduciary issues to 
 the amount of £15,000,000, but if the 
 Bank issued any more than £15,000,000, 
 then it must have in its issue department 
 —for the bank was separated into issue 
 and discount departments by the Act of 
 1844— dollar for dollar, pound for pound in 
 coin, either silver or gold, the proportions 
 being fixed by law. It must have sil- 
 ver or gold for all over £15,000,000 
 sterling, but for the £15,000,000 ster- 
 ling it need not have any gold or sil- 
 ver. This issue was called fiduciary. 
 At these periods, in 1847, 1857 and 1866. the 
 Act by which they -were limited to £15,- 
 000,000 of issue without gold behind it 
 was suspended, and they were permitted 
 to issue to any amount, the same as they 
 were before the Act was passed. At the 
 date I have before me tiie banks of 
 Ireland had £7,000,000 circulation; the 
 bank of Scotland £5,000,000 ; and the coun- 
 try banks, what is called country banks, 
 had enough more,witli that of Ireland and 
 Scotland and the £25,000,000 circulation 
 of the Bank of England (£15,000,000 fidu- 
 ciary unsecured, and £10,000,000 with gold 
 behind it) to make £43,000,000 circulation, 
 £30,000,000 of which is “Fiduciarv.” Now 
 the banks of Scotland and the banks of 
 Ireland by the Act of 1845, whereas pre- 
 viously they had been allowed to issue 
 notes to any extent— as George Smith 
 used to issue them up there in Chicago, 
 (and he understood .the way of doing 
 business on the Scotch plan, he was a 
 Scotchman and a good banker too,though 
 his system was bad, and a bad system 
 well managed is better than a good sys- 
 tem managed by ignorant men that don t 
 know their business); the Scotch have 
 well managed their bad system, much 
 better than the English have— I say that 
 what the Scotch, Irish, and private and 
 joint stock banks had in circulation up 
 to 1845, the average being taken for four 
 weeks previous to the act going into 
 force, that amount of circulation they 
 were allowed to continue to issue with- 
 out any restriction whatever, but over 
 and above that the banks of Ireland 
 and Scotland, and the private banks were 
 to keep pound for pound in coin behind 
 the excessive issues which are called the 
 covered issues, and the other is calied the 
 uncovered or fiduciary issue. ' Previous 
 to the Act of 1844, anybody could issue 
 as many notes as he chose; there \yas 
 no law prohibiting anybody from issuing 
 notes to circulate as bank notes in the 
 place of money if the people would take 
 them, and all those that were issuing and 
 had notes in circulation at that time, 
 1844-6, are to-day permitted to continue 
 their issues— fiduciary issues — in the 
 
Before the lUinois State Grdngt, f 
 
 same way. But, I repeat, wishing to make 
 myself thoroughly understood, over and 
 above what they had out for an average 
 of four weeks previous to the passage of 
 the Act of 1845, they must nave gold 
 behind it. and for this amount only. 
 That is the English system, the British 
 system. It is generally understood in 
 this country that under the English sys- 
 tem every bank note has a gold dollar be- 
 hind it. This is a grave error. There are 
 £43,000,000 of notes in circulation, and 
 only £13,000,000 in gold to redeem them 
 with. This for all of Great Britain and 
 Ireland. They had at a recent date forty- 
 three millions of circulating notes, thirty 
 millions of which was fiduciary, with 
 thirteen millions of coin to redeem forty- 
 three ‘millions of notes. The conse- 
 quence is that they can not redeem 
 forty-three millions of notes with thir- 
 teen millions of coin; and whenever the 
 demand is made, (and the demand is made 
 on an average interval of from five to 
 ten years in England), they suspend and 
 proQuee a financial crisis. I presume I 
 have said enough with regard to the 
 English system. All those that are inter- 
 ested in the subject should read the re- 
 cent English works upon the subject, 
 and they will find that I h§,ve not mis- 
 etate'd anything; and if they will look in 
 the Chicago Inter Ocean, this morning, 
 Dec. 14, they will find that though 
 Prof. Bonamy Price of Oxford, 
 England, kindly criticised an ad- 
 dress like the one I am making to you 
 to-night (almost entirely without notes, 
 and depending on memory), yet you see 
 that I have been able, I think, to sustain 
 all the positions that I took in that ad- 
 dress by quoting from Professor Bon- 
 amy Price’s own latest work. I merely 
 say this to impress upon you the fact 
 that I am not making wild assertions. 
 This is a matter that I am deeply inter- 
 ested in. I feel the importance of the sub- 
 ject. I feel that there is no satisfactory 
 system of finance in the world, and that 
 here in the United States, growing out 
 of our war experience, we have the 
 germs of what with some modifications 
 may be easily made, almost a perfect 
 system. 
 
 BOND REDEMPTION, 
 
 If you will make the greenback to-day 
 -convertible into a bond bearing six per 
 cent, interest, it will command more than 
 a dollar in gold. U. S. 6 per cent, bonds 
 are worth in London 112 in gold to-day. 
 If you will make the greenbacks in cir- 
 culation to-day convertible into a bond 
 bearing five per cent, gold interest, you 
 will make them worth more than par in 
 gold, because five hundred millions of 
 those five per cent, bonds have been sold 
 abroad for over par in gold within the 
 last two years. If you would make the 
 
 greenbacks convertible to-day into a five 
 per cent gold bearing bond, the capital- 
 ists of Europe would send over whatever 
 they could gather up to take your green- 
 backs, take them to the treasury of the 
 United States and convert them into 
 gold bearing bonds, and take them 
 abroad, as they have taken the balance 
 of them, and so^ more completely place 
 us in the condition of Ireland, sending 
 our yearly rent abroad across the water 
 to our non-resident landlords or propri- 
 etors. The foreign owners of our bonds 
 draw rent from every farm and every 
 factory, but don’t spend their income 
 here, and that is one of the influences at 
 work to keep us in poverty. Our bonds 
 should be owned at home. 
 
 THREE PER CENT. INTERCONVERTIBLE BONDS. 
 
 Make your greenbacks convertible 
 into a bond bearing three per cent, 
 gold interest, and you place them on a 
 par, at least, with the the British con- 
 sol which bears three per cent, gold 
 interest; and if our whole debt of 
 two thousand millions was placed at 
 the same rate that the British debt is 
 placed at, three per cent, interest, it 
 would only take sixty millions of dollars 
 a year to pay all the interest on our 
 national debt, while we are collecting 
 now every year, and even in these harci 
 times, not to speak of Internal rev- 
 enue and other sources of income, at 
 our custom houses more than one hun- 
 dred and thirty millions a year gold; 
 more than twice as much as it would cost 
 to pay the interest on our national debt 
 at three per cent, gold, which is the rate 
 at which the government of England 
 places its immense debt. We have been 
 to school, some of us. They used to call 
 it 
 
 THE RULE OF THREE 
 
 when we went to school : now they call it 
 simple proportion (laughter), sim- 
 ple proportion, and now if any 
 of you remember about the rule 
 of three, we will make the pro- 
 portion we are after-— as three per cent, 
 gold interest upon a British consol is to 
 ninety-four gold in London, its price to- 
 day so is three per cent, gold interest on 
 an American interconvertible bond to 
 ninety-four gold in London its price to- 
 day. That is fair, is it not? You have 
 that common factor of gold, that is the 
 reason I put gold in there. I want a 
 common factor by which we can measure 
 the value of our bonds as compared with 
 the value of the bonds and the currency 
 of any other nation. That is what I call a 
 
 SPECIE BASIS. 
 
 That is to say, a three per cent, inter- 
 convertible bond or certificate would be 
 worth 94 gold in London. We don’t want 
 it to be at par in London. If it was worth 
 
S Speech oj Sydney Myenf, Esq.f 
 
 pur in London they -would have, them all 
 away from us. VVe don’t want them at 
 par in London, but we have a little 
 point in connection with these plans to 
 make them worth par in the United 
 States, though they may not be worth 
 par inffjondon, to make them worth more 
 here than they are abroad' by their being 
 convertible at the pleasure of the holder 
 into (exhibiting the greenbacks) these 
 little non-interest bearing bonds, which 
 are yet, thank God. legal tender for the 
 payment of individual indebtedness (ap- 
 plause), and which we would make con- 
 vertible into our own three per cent, 
 bonds or certificates. Therefore: 
 
 PROVIDE BY ACT OF CONGRESS, 
 
 For the convertibility and revertibility of United 
 States legal-tender notes and gold-bearing certificates at sub- 
 treasuries or designated depositories in aU the recognized 
 financial centers (see section. 31 National Bank Act), in 
 sums of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or multiples thereof, 
 at the pleasure of the holder; certificates to be revertable at 
 pleasure into legal-tender notes, at places of issue, to bear 
 gold interest at the rate of one dollar ($1.00) per day on ten 
 thousand dollars (equal to aboitt three per cent, per annum. 
 If dies non and the day of presentation for reversion bo ex- 
 cluded) i these certificates to be available for all the purposes 
 for which three per cent, certificates were available (see Act 
 March 2, 1807). 
 
 Said United States notes, temporarily retired to remain in 
 the sub-treasuiy or depository, where received, until demand 
 on presentation of certificates issued at said sub-treasury or 
 depository, from each of which reports of expansion and 
 contraction shall be forwarded daily to the United States 
 Treasury, both by mail and by telegraph, and said reports 
 shall be open to the inspection of representatives of the 
 press. 
 
 You want specie basis. There 
 is a specie basis in this plan. Do you 
 weigh your hay by piling on fifty-six 
 pound iron weights until you balance 
 down the ton of hay with a ton of iron? 
 Do you weigh those cars at the railroad 
 stations by piling enough iron on the 
 other side^of the scale to equal the weight 
 of the car? You gave that up long ago and 
 introduced the Fairbank’s scale for mea- 
 suring weights. Now we propose to intro- 
 duce the Fair-bank’s scale principle for 
 measuring values, and the interest— the 
 littlo'pea on the end of th£ steel-yard, will 
 weigh so accurately that a sixpence will 
 turn the scale, every time (applause). I 
 am one of your inflationists. I am a rag- 
 money man, but I do not know any place 
 on the civilized world to-day where they 
 are not using rag-money; and the ques- 
 tion is whether it shall be 
 
 THE people’s RAG MONEY, 
 or whether it shall be the rag- money 
 furnished by a class and rented to the 
 people at a high rate. The rag babyl— 
 some of them are filled with saw dust; 
 but let us have an honest rag baby, that 
 is, good paper rags all the way through 
 (laughter and applause). Now we have 
 talked about the English rag-baby 
 let us talk about our nearest neighbor, 
 
 THE CANADIAN RAG BABY. 
 
 The banks of Canada furnish the 
 
 largest i>art of the circulating medium, 
 but the Canadians are getting to have 
 their eyes open. Our Kaiiuck ueighbors 
 have an issue of ten millions of green- 
 backs over there — te7i millions of green^ 
 backs, or dominion notes— and if any of 
 you have traveled through Canada much 
 you have handled them, and know that 
 you could not at this distance (showing 
 his greenback) tell them from one of our 
 rag babies. Ten millions of greenbacks 
 issued by the Canadian government. It 
 is true; I want to be fair about it; they 
 have got two millions of gold. Half of 
 it is in Toronto, and the other half of it 
 is in Montreal. They keep one million 
 in Montreal and one million in Toronto 
 to redeem the ten millions of greenbacks 
 with (laughter), and then they tell these 
 banks “You must keep one-fifth of your 
 reserve in our Dominion greenbacks. 
 I am not so sure of the details, and I am 
 going to reserve the right to look up 
 authorities at my leisure on this, but if 
 I am not mistaken, last fall there was a 
 little financial flurry over in Canada. It 
 did not come out very plainly what was 
 the matter, but from what the newspapers 
 said, I take it that there was a heavy ex- 
 port of gold, just the same as there was 
 from California immediately before the 
 Bank of. California died for want of 
 financial breath, and they were be- 
 ginning to breathe hard, and the 
 atmosphere, financially, was thin in 
 Canada on account of the amount 
 of “specie” drawn to England — the 
 amount of gold. The specie basis was 
 being cut away from under rho bottom, 
 and they wanted to' play sharp on 
 the Doniinion government; so they 
 sent in, through somebody else, I sup- 
 pose— no, I presume it was all done 
 fairly, and the Canadian banks had 
 the right to demand gold on the prom- 
 ise of the government to pay coin. 
 The government had two millions of 
 coin, and the banks thought they might, 
 as well have it. They could not ship thei 
 government notes abroad — and that is 
 the beauty of them — so they called on 
 the agents of government at Montreal 
 and Toronto to shell out the coin ; and 
 the agents telegraphed up to Ottawa to 
 the Minister of Finance, as they call him 
 there— that the gold was running out, and 
 the greenbacks were comiiig.in ; so he tel- 
 egraphed down to the proper agents ot 
 government, who deposit Custom House 
 money, and revenue money with some 
 of the banks, to draw their checks od 
 the banks, for the. government de 
 posits. Well, the deposits amounted to 
 a good deal more than the Dominion 
 notes held bv the banks ; and the banks 
 said, “ If yoii will let up, we will, ano 
 we will get our notes in by squeezing 
 the merchants and compelling them t/ 
 
Before t)ie Illinois State Grange. y 
 
 pay their notes/* Hence recent reports 
 of commercial failures in Canada, 
 .pliaughter and applause.] 
 
 That is the way I understand it. I don’t 
 mean to say it is so, because they have 
 not told me, and I don’t believe they 
 will, but I suspect it. [Laughter.] Now 
 they have fractional currency there, but 
 they have not the inter- convertible 
 idea. But our fractional currency is in- 
 ter-convertible with greenbacks, and 
 hence our fractional currency is never 
 either redundant or deficient. Lately, 
 however, the Solons at Washington have 
 
 f ot into the notion that we, the people, 
 o not want our fractional currency any 
 more ; that we want silver. The people 
 never found that out. They must have 
 got it down at Washington, via New York. 
 Wall street is, to a great degree, sim- 
 ply an agency, a foreign agency. The 
 interests of New York are more thor- 
 oughly identified with Europe, whose 
 factor it is, than with the interior of 
 this great country, for which they 
 furnish an entrepot. The American 
 people] have all left Wall street. [Great 
 apifiause.] Now that place down there is 
 very near Washington, and they have one 
 of the lightning trains running to carry 
 the New York papers into Pennsylvania 
 and squelch all the local dailies. New 
 Yorkers run down so quickly from New 
 ^York to Washington on the lightning 
 strain that they are in the lobby of Con- 
 fess almost all the time. They take 
 jbreakfast in New York, spend the day in 
 .-the lobby, and get back to New York to 
 dinner. You are so far away you cannot 
 look out for western interests, and I am 
 afraid you don’t send men down there 
 that are posted. Why don’t you send 
 ijsomebody down there that is “posted” re- 
 [liregarding American interests? (Laugh- 
 ter.) The bullionists manage that 
 :hing down there and they are try- 
 ' ng to do away with that system of 
 Tactional currency, because it is such 
 .1 splendid illustration of the practibility 
 ;)f the inter-convertible bond, Now the 
 ^ssue authorized (of fractional currency) 
 vas fifty million dollars, and there never 
 vas any inflation . There never was anv 
 mfiation of fractional currency, for the 
 people never took any more than they 
 wanted to use, (laughter) and the highest 
 hey ever took out, and that ever was 
 '^as forty- three millions of dollars, 
 hhey had a chance to get seven mil- 
 Lons more if they had any greenbacks 
 '0 give for them, and wanted them. 
 k.nybo^ can go to the sub-traasury and 
 ay. Here is a five dollar greenback: 
 ive me five dollars in fractional curren- 
 there “shells” it right 
 ut. .Well, if you are doing a grocery 
 usiness, or keeping a pea-nut stand, or 
 omething of that kind, and get all small 
 •actional currency and you take it right 
 
 to the sub - treasury and say, “I have 
 too much fractional currency, give me a 
 five dollar greenback and they take it in 
 and give you greenbacks. That is the in- 
 ter-convertible idea. There it is, a per- 
 fect illustration of it. At works beautiful- 
 ly, and what do we want of silver? We 
 can make our change with fractional cur- 
 rency. What is the use of tinkering with 
 a machine when it is running well. Is 
 that the way you do with your watch? 
 (Laughter.) If you want your watch 
 tinkered with you get a watch maker to 
 tinker with it ; you don’t get a blacksmith, 
 (applause.) We want honest money; we 
 want a currency that is absolutely con- 
 vertible at all times into something that 
 is equivalent to specie, and better than 
 specie, and that never can give out. (great 
 applause.) For myself, I am in favor of 
 
 SPECIE BASIS, NOT SPECIE REDEMPTION. 
 
 Specie redemption is impracticable; it 
 has been thoroughly tested and proved 
 by many generations of able financiers, 
 that you cannot redeem one hundred dol- 
 lars unless you have one hundred dollars 
 to redeem with. (Applause.) And we 
 dont want to walk around in that same 
 old track, like a blind horse in a bark- 
 mill. (Laughter.)^ And we have tried it 
 often enough. We don’t want to resume 
 it any more. 
 
 SUMNER ON FINANCE. 
 
 We have had suspensions of specie 
 payments, general financial crises, and 
 commercial and industrial collapses, in 
 this country, ten timfes during the last 
 fitty-nine years, and :if all financial wis- 
 dom has been exhausted, as Professor 
 Sumner, of Yale College intimates in 
 his history of American Currency, we 
 are badly off. What would Prof. Sumner 
 have said to James Watt or Prof. Morse? 
 Would he have told them that there is 
 nothing new to be discovered? He don’t 
 tell those Englishmen what is the difler- 
 ence between a greenback and a national 
 bank note. He don’t tell anything about 
 the system the New York Clearing House 
 adopts in times of panic, and which, with 
 some naodifleations, will be a great ad- 
 vance in finance — a means of quietly 
 swapping off indebtedness without dis- 
 turbing business. 
 
 Prof. Sumner does not describe the 
 three per cent, certificate which were 
 issued to the amount of eighty millions, 
 and worked beautifully in giving elas- 
 ticity to our currency, and how the law was 
 ignorantly repealed which authorized 
 the issue of three per cent, certificates, 
 authorizing greenbacks to be taken to 
 the sub-treasury and three per cent, cer- 
 tificates taken out, and then the three 
 per cent, certificates returned and the 
 interest paid up to the time they were 
 returned and greenbacks taken out for 
 their face. This is the system which we 
 
10 
 
 ^^-peech of Sydney Myers, Esq., 
 
 now propose to Restore, perfect, and ex* 
 tend— a system thoroughl}^ tested and 
 proved to be good. He says nothing about 
 that law or its repeal. He does not say any 
 thing about the fact that after its repeal, 
 the last element of elasticity having been 
 taken from our financial system, that it 
 became necessary for the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, on his own responsibility 
 and without authority of law to go to 
 New York and lend five millions of dol- 
 lars to the banks of that city after the 
 Chicago fire, in order to prevent a gen- 
 eral financial and commercial crash 
 in the country. He says nothing with 
 regard to the fact that after the Boston 
 fire the same thing was done by the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury to prevent a cri- 
 sis. He tells nothing of our fractional 
 currency in his history of American cur- 
 rency. Is not his history like the play of 
 Hamlet with Hamlet left out? It is not 
 strange that there should be so much 
 ignorance upon the subject of finance 
 when writers who are college professors 
 and professed scientists dogmatise upon 
 it by making false and arbitrary de- 
 ductions froni insufficient facts. 
 
 SAFETY VAX.VE AND GAUGE. 
 
 Now, if you have a nice city that you don’t want 
 to iiave bivrned up, you establish water-works, don’t you ? 
 and you try to provide a reserve of water — a reservoir 
 Bomewhere so that in case of a big fii'e like the Chicago or 
 Boston fire, you need not call in the secretary of the 
 treasury to come all the way from Washington and fur- 
 nish water 
 
 TO PUX.OUT THE FUtE, 
 
 as he did as to the financial features of the case after the Bos- 
 ton and the Chicago fire, and to some extent in the pan- 
 ic of 1873, after long labor at the Fifth Avenue Hotel of 
 New York where the moust^ was brought forth, but 
 not imtil too late to prevent the crisis in 1873, from the 
 effects of which you are now suffering. I kiv, let there be 
 a financial reservoir ; restore that forty-four miUions to the 
 treasmy that Secretary McCulloch retired, or keep in the 
 treasury those millions of greenbacks that have been r etired 
 during the last nine months and a half, to be burned in t he 
 treasury building at Washington. Restore forty miUions of 
 greenbacks to the reserve where they cannot be reached ex- 
 cept under the provisions of such a law as is suggested, and 
 in that law recognize the fact that this is a great country, 
 great in extent, great In commerce, great in manufactures, 
 great in agriculture and great in having a people who are 
 capable of understanding as to their interest, and are om- 
 nipotent, humanly speaking, to command. [Applause.] 
 Enact such a law as this: 
 
 [FtxiBiEiTY. Safety Valve to relieve extraordinary pres- 
 sure, and to relieve the Secretary of tlio Treasury from on- 
 erous and undue responsibility, and a Gauge to measure 
 the actual demand for more cnrrency.] 
 
 1. To permit any holder of ten tlrousand dollars, or mul- 
 tiples thereof, in any of the Gold-bearing Bonds of the Unit- 
 ed States, to retire the same temporarily, at the Snb-Trotis- 
 urics or designated depositories in New York, San Francisco, 
 New Orleans or Chicago, under regulations to bo made by 
 the Secretary of the Treasury, and receive an amount of 
 
 United States legal-tender notes equal to the face of saui 
 bonds temporarily retired; and upon presentation of alike 
 sum in United States notes at the place where said bonds 
 were temporarily retired, to receive the said bonds, or their 
 equivilent in kind, less the Interest which ‘>nai/ have accrued 
 during the time that the said bonds were temporarily retired. 
 
 And provide, further, that the Secretary of the Treasury 
 be required to hold in reserve United States legal-tender 
 notes to the amoimt of forty millions of dollars (.$40,000,000) 
 to be used for the purpose of temporarily retiriirg United 
 States bond.s as aforesaid, but the said notes shall not be us- 
 ed for any other purpose, nor shall the whole amount of the 
 United States legal-tender notes, including those which may 
 at any time be held in the United States Treasury, sub 
 treasuries and depositories, exceed four hundred millions of 
 dollars ($400,000,000), until expressly authorized by law, 
 
 The financial centre of this country is near the centre 
 of its population, not at the port at which it receives 
 a few goods from a foreign country, and from w’hich 
 it ships a small percentage of its surplu.s products. Provide 
 that forty millions of dollars shall be accessable at New Or- 
 leans, San Francisco, Chicago or New York, in this wise : 
 that any person, white, black or Chinese, who shall come to 
 any one of the sub-treasuries in either of these four cities 
 with United States government bonds, four, five or six per 
 cent, bonds, in round sums so that it wont make too much 
 labor, too much account keeping, and have the right to say 
 'to the agent of the government, here are ten thousand 
 dollars, say, of your five per cent, gold bearing bonds. Cuj 
 rency is so scarce that I am willing to take your non-inter 
 est bearing bonds, called green backs, and forego the inter 
 est on these bonds until I bring these green-backs back and 
 replace them in the reserve, and that is a good trade fo> 
 the government, as it will save five per cent, on so much debt 
 I am not going with my bonds that bear five per cent. goU 
 interest to get green-backs which don’t bear any interest un 
 less I am going to pay them out and put the currency into th' 
 uuancial circulation of the country and thereby benefit tht' 
 v/hole community; and therefore ]ust as soon as times ar 
 easier, and the man I lent these green-backs to comes back 
 and says, “ I am ready to pay that note;” I take th<‘ green 
 backs and I carry them back to the sub- treasurer, and 
 Bay “you may give me my bonds, 1 will take the interest o: 
 them henceforth for a while ; you may cut off the cupons fo 
 as long m they have been in your hands.’" Now that is : 
 gauge to measure the actual demand for more ciurency. I 
 you have a steam-engine, how do you know how muc 
 w-ater is in the boiler T You try the gauge and then yo 
 will know; you don't guess; you don’t want to travel with av 
 engineer who . guesses how much water is in the boiler 
 and how much more or less is required ; I don’t want t 
 travel with any such engineer as that; I want to travo 
 with an engineer who has a gauge to his boiler and know 
 how much water be has by actual test. Now this is you 
 currency gauge, for if during a long period much of the 
 forty millions is out, it will show that the iKmpIo wb 
 have relieved the demand for more currency are sacriflein 
 individually their five per cent.interest to the general goo-i 
 which is doing more than their share, and therofoi-e it ind 
 cates that the country can absorb more currency withoi 
 
 inflation. [Applause.] * u „ 
 
 In the Cornish mines they had a boy to handle tl 
 
 throttle valve of their steam engine. The Secretary of t) 
 TreaBui"y is comparable to that Cornish boy. According 
 his judgment when ho thinks he wants nwe steam, . 
 
Before the Illinois State Grange. 
 
 n 
 
 t-ijons the valve and the piston goes up, and he says “well, 
 after a little I guess I will let her go down.” (Applause.) 
 And he does it all by hand. There was ano:>her steam engine 
 ' attended by a boy. He would open the throttle valve and let 
 on more steam. The steam would go in under the piston and 
 lift it up, and then he would turn another littlo cock that 
 ‘ would let in cold water that would condense the steam, and 
 : down would go the piston, then he would handle a lever and 
 I it would go up and then turn the little cock that would let the 
 water in, and down she w'ould go. That is the way they 
 
 ■ pumped the Cornish mines with the old engine of Savery, 
 before Watt. They had a shiftless kind of a boy, 
 and that thing kept going up and down, and this 
 ■thing kept going up and down, and the boy said; 
 why could not that working beam open and shut 
 
 ■ that throttle valve ? So he got some rope and tied 
 it fast to the throttle valve and to the lever of the 
 condenser cock fastened them to the working beam, and the 
 thing went first rate and worked itself, and the boy went off 
 and played marbles. His master came along and said, 
 
 , “what are you doing here playing marbles, why don’t you 
 run the machine?” and says he “Don’t the machine nm it- 
 self well enough ? it runs itself better than I can run it.” 
 6o will the financial machine proposed run itself better than 
 anybody can run it. When we get it in operation the Secre- 
 tary can leave the working beam to open and shut the valves, 
 and he may also go and— play marbles. [Laughter and 
 ■applause.] 
 
 We are building a little financial engine now, and we 
 will see how another part of it will run. Next, suppose 
 that I am engaged in the business of pork-packing. I don’t 
 want to buy pork in mid-summer; I don’t want to pack 
 pork in July; I want to come down here to Champaign 
 about this time in the year, (December.) I want to buy 
 ray pork In packing season. Now say I have one hundred 
 thou-sand dollars to invest in pork: when the proper season 
 ; arrives. I have .$100,000 in gi-eenbacks for which I 
 
 I have no present use, I take them to the sub- 
 treasury of the United States and I say there are one 
 hundred thousand dollars of irredeemable green- 
 backs. Why don’t the government do something with 
 them? Why don’t they make our currency as good as 
 gold ? I don’t want to buy hogs with these greenbaolcs in 
 ■July, and I step right over to the sub-treasurer and say, 
 “ what can you do with those things !” and he says “ Con- 
 gres.s passed a law this last winter authorizing me to give 
 you three per cent, interest, gold-bearing bonds for 
 these.” “ Yes, but they will be tied up; I don’t know that 
 
 I I can sell the bonds when I want to buy hogs in the Au- 
 tumn.” “ Well that is all right.” “ Howi ” “ Why, they 
 are intcrconvertable bonds, or certificates, interconvertable 
 certificates We call them interconvertable certificates so 
 las to distinguish them from the long bonds which Gen. 
 Clrant proposes, three sixty-five long bonds which will go to 
 England and stay there. [Laughter.] There is a wide dif- 
 ference between the 3-65 long bonds proposed by President 
 
 ■ Glrant in his recent message to congress and the 3-65 inter- 
 .mnvertable bonds. He (the sub treasurer)says it is inter- 
 jonvertable. What does that mean ? It means this : You 
 ihall have your green-backs converted into interest-bearing 
 ibligations of the government now when you don’t want 
 , o use them as currency. The government owes you the 
 i mount represented by the green-backs. It issued them 
 or munitions of war, rations, forage and blood; it owes 
 ■his debt. The government does not o.are to make sacrifices 
 
 t ■o pay the debt when the people do not ask payment. The 
 Jnited States will give you interest on this portion of its 
 Icbt whenever you ask it, and congress has passed a law 
 I o that effect. They have also realized the fact that it is 
 ill debt; that they ought to pay interest on it the same as 
 •uy other debt. Yon are a creditor of the goverement. 
 rhe government owes you one hundred thousand dollars, 
 ffou are the financial successor of those who furnished 
 he munitions of war or served as soldiers or sailors. You 
 nay firing the one hundred thousand dollars of green-backs 
 n here. Here are your certificates, three per cent, interest- 
 learing i^ertificates. I take them and put them in my pocket. 
 
 , keep them imtil cold weather, and when I want co buy farm 
 roductsthen I step right down to the sub-treasurer and say; 
 
 ,, ‘Let me have those green-baclss ; here are your certifi- 
 ates,” and the sub-treasurer turns me out my one hiuidred 
 boiisand dollars in green-backs and interest from the time 
 , put them in the sub-treasury, \mtil I take them out; not 
 iterest on them but on the debt which tliey represent. 
 ”00 Government gave me another forin of obligation, and 
 
 I take my green-backs in exchange for my certificaics 
 Now I go into the country, and bring back farm 
 products and prepare them for the consumer and 
 sell them and towards mid-summer, . I get my 
 currency back. I get my one hundred thousand dollars 
 greenbacks again; go to the sub-treasurer, get the certificate 
 put it in my pocket; then in the faU reconvert it into green- 
 backs, buy and pack h^s with it. That is what we call elastic 
 currency. [Applause:^ It contracts when you don’t want 
 it, and it expands when you do want it. [Applause 
 and laughter.] Qvi fa-cii per allum, fadtper se. 
 
 ELA.STICITY DON’T MEAN STBETCH. 
 
 It means spring, and spring goes both ways; that 
 is what we 3-65 rag-baby men are after. If I 
 am not -talking good sense don’t believe me ; but if the 
 next man who comes along here to talk to you on this subject, 
 does not talk good sense, don’t you believe him. If a man 
 comes and tells you that he is talking financial science and it 
 is so deep and so wide that you cannot touch the bottom or 
 get across it, tell him that common sense is a systematic 
 arrangement of facts and con’ect conclusions therefrom ; 
 that science is uncommonly good common sense and that 
 anything that is contrai-y to common sense is not scientific. 
 [Applause.] The trouble with the Englishmen is this. 
 They are-trying to understand a system that is not under- 
 Btaiidible, They are trying to tinker up and preserve a 
 machine that is outgrown and unworkable, and our 
 people should all know this; when they do they will no 
 more than pf re-introducing it into this country think they 
 would of importing London fogs. 
 
 The discussion of the financial question in this country 
 is for the perfection of a system that has so far grown 
 out of our war experiences, and that we have got so far 
 advanced in in spite of our main strength and stupidness 
 in tryng to surpress it. 
 
 Co m mon sense is a systematic arrangement of facts. We must 
 get all the facte in. I was talking about one hundred thousand 
 dollars that I got back for my pork after it was packed. I 
 said I took it right over to the sub-treasury, and the gov- 
 ernment gave me certificates for it, because it was a 
 debt. Now there are black -backs mixed up with 
 this new lot of green-backs; when I get it back 
 I take it over to the sub-ti-easury and I say to the repre- 
 sentative of the United States: “ Sir, I wish to have three 
 per cent, certificates of ten thousand dollars each for these 
 one hxmdred thousand dollars.” He looks it over and says: 
 “ I cannot do that.” “ Why 1” says I, “ you did it for me 
 last year.”’ “ Oh yes, I did something of that kind for you 
 last year, but you had the green-backs pure and simple, no 
 mixture; this iaa mixed article; we don’t take in that kind 
 of mixture here. We will assort it for you and 
 take in what belo.ugs to us. What shall I do with 
 the black-backs [National bank notes.] There 
 
 is a redemption bureau in Washington; you have to 
 send them down by express and they will send you back 
 green-backs for them.” “ Well, yes.” Now, the farther I 
 live off from the bureau, the more it costs me in 
 money and in time. Because New York is the 
 great financial center; the law is made to suit New 
 York not Minnesota. Do you see that point ? The center 
 of redemption is away in a corner of the country. It is 
 worse for those people that live far away. It takes more 
 time and express charges to send your National Bank notes 
 to Washington for redemption than it does if you had a bu- 
 reau in each one of the sixteen cities, the way it was origi 
 nally arranged in the national banking system — Milwau- 
 kee}, St. Louis and so on. That was amended in favor of 
 tlie Ea.st. 
 
 “ V/E DON’T miCE THIS ACTIVE UEDE.MPTION,” 
 eay the National banks. 
 
 “The green-hacks used to be the same as national bank 
 notes, and now the government is making them intercon- 
 vertible with three per cent, certificates. I don’t like it.” 
 “Because it makes them worth more than the national biuik 
 note, and the national bank notes are not convertible, and 
 so we have to redeem them ; we have to keep a large line 
 of greenbacks at Washington aU the while. Then they begin 
 to think why would it not be a good plan for us bo use those 
 8-65 bonds. "What is the use of our keeping bonds to secure 
 circulating notes all the time.whilc we can sell our bonds at & 
 premium. While the law pennite it, send the notes dovra 
 as fast as Hioy come into Washington and when they get to. 
 the redemption agent turn them right into the department 
 and havo them turn out a bond; and if they turn out a boivl. 
 
12 
 
 Speech of Sydney Myers, Esq. 
 
 tell them to biim up the notes. You burn green-backs 
 now; then you will burn bank notes, and we will reduce our 
 circulation. Oh, yes; here is the new law: 
 
 V. Permit any national bank (without necessarily reduc- 
 ing its capital, or surrendering any of its franchises) to re 
 duoe its circulation and withdraw its securities pro rata, un- 
 til its circulation shall not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,- 
 000 ). 
 
 “Any national bank may reduce its circulation without 
 abandoning any of its franchises until it shall not exceed 
 $5,000,” and now w^e will get all our bonds from Washing- 
 ton, but five thousand dollars ; we will retire aU our circu- 
 lation but five thousand dollars, and we will use the inter- 
 convertible bond and not be bothered any more with that 
 redemption business, because actually the circulation don’t 
 pay us much. To be honest the circulation of national banks 
 when you come to make the green-back convertible into 
 three per cent, certificates wont pay. Start lively redemptions 
 on them scattered, as they are, all over the United States. It 
 won’t pay them much. But wait and get the green-backs 
 out of the way — establish the fact that the people 
 of this country have already pronounced what kind 
 of money we are going to have in the future — that is a 
 quotation, recollect it ? Establish that fact, and when you 
 have got the gaeen-backs out of the way, and when you 
 have got out of the way that very worthy and respectable 
 cla&s of citizens who at this time owm and control, for the 
 most part, the national banks, who, when the government 
 wanted everything and did not know where to sell their 
 bonds, and when those 
 
 FOREIGN CAPITALISTS TURNED THE COLD SHOULDER 
 and said they did not know “ how that cat was 
 going to jump,” said in their patriotism, in this town, 
 perhaps, and in other towns all over the country, “,we uill 
 put in our means, and we will buy government bonds and 
 we will start a national bank here.” When the w'hiskey ring 
 class get these men out of the way that are stockholders, 
 to-day, in the national bank system, and when they get in a 
 class of men that know how to start a bank of a million 
 capital without a cent, then they will amend the law so 
 that it win pay to have a circulation. If the people of this 
 cx)untry haven’t any better sense than to let everything 
 go by the board, and to allow themselves to be handled by 
 the whisky ring class, who will get hold of the national 
 bank franchises, who will traffic in your financial atmos- 
 phere, as your city company does here with its gas, if this 
 happens, the greenbacks will aU be burned, and all the cir- 
 culating medium will be furnished in the shape of national 
 bank notes, which will soon become like Illinois and Wis- 
 consin “stumptail ” currency. [Applause.] 
 
 THE QUESTION IS NOT BETWEEN GOLD AND PAPER OUB- 
 1U5NCY. 
 
 It is between a paper currency issued directly by the people’s 
 agent and made redeemable in government bonds, and a 
 paper currency issued by a class, and theoretically redeem- 
 able in gold, but practically redeemable in nothing. For 
 when demand is made for coin in redemption, suspension 
 and panic ahvays ensue. Moreover, the national bank sys- 
 tem, if perpetuated, will become an instrument of tyn-any 
 in the hands oE eveiy dominant party. There is only oiir. 
 national bank; what you call national banks are only 
 branches: they are nm by the “Bank Examiner,” who 
 receives his orders, from the central office at Washington. 
 He knc>ws evei-y business man’s business, and may haod.le 
 every busi)\ess man’s purse strings. [Applause,] 
 
 Now I want to be consistent, and I want to say 
 nothing upon the platform that I cannot answ’or 
 in the’ face of the world. We want, not only money 
 of the realm, that is good to the sherifi:, but we want 
 that Scriptural kind of 
 
 MONEY THAT IS “ CURRENT WITH THE MERCHANTS” 
 who are not compelled to sell; we hot only want 
 money of the realm, but we want current money, money that 
 will go from hand to hand, and money that no man, if he 
 keep it over night will g?t stuck with. Wo want money that, 
 passing Ifom hand to hand in commerce, when the tide rises, 
 when business is active, will come out, opt when busi- 
 ness slackcms, and there are not so many purchases and sales, 
 will flovr away out ol circulation, that it will be solid- 
 ified, as v/ator is solified into ice, by being convertible into 
 ihe bond; and when that motion, which is in science another 
 word for heat, when that activity of commerce is sufficiently 
 ihtonw) that tl'-ft ice of the bond should molt Into the water 
 r f the cwTcncy— cuiTont money, money that when I recoivo 
 
 it, I know that 1 will receive for it an equivalent equal to 
 what I gave for it. We want steadiness in value, and in or- 
 der to have steadiness in the value of the cuirency, we must 
 have elasticy in its volume, and that is effected by the inter- 
 convertible certificate. I have spoken of 
 GOLD FOR INTEREST. 
 
 I say gold for interest because the price of gold is 
 to-day the recognized standard of values through- 
 out the world. But I say let the interest on the 
 inter -convertible bond bo paid in gold or legal tender 
 small bonds, at the option of the holder of the certifi- 
 cate. Let all interest on inter-convertible bonds be paid by 
 check on Washington, and when the man brings in his inter- 
 convertible bonds, for redemption, die will find just as much 
 money, just as many greenbacks in there as there are certifi- 
 cates. W^hen they issue a -certificate at a sub-treasury they 
 must keep the green-backs in their ovm possession, not let 
 them go into the old fallacy of paying out seventy-five per 
 cent., and keeping only twenty five per cent, to redeem with. 
 
 Now what is that thing payable in, exhibiting the 
 greenback? MTien you come to talk of paymetU, 
 
 A MAN CANNOT PAY HIS DEBT IN HIS OWN PROMISES 
 
 Promises do not pay, though they may renew and 
 extend debt. Premises may be taken with the con- 
 sent of the holders of the outstanding obligation in lieu, and 
 are often prefered to payment. You cannot go to the store 
 keeper, however, and say, “well, I am going to pay now;, 
 give me a piece of paper.” Y’ou write a note without 
 interest, you hand it to him, and says I am going home 
 to my family, and feel my debts are paid.” But that note 
 does not pay the debt. And when Mr. Chase sat 
 down, with his pen, in the darkest time of the war, and 
 wrote out, “The United States will pay one dollar,” what 
 did he, mean? He meant just exactly what a dollar was 
 when he wrote that first greenback, and that is what it 
 means to-day, gentlemen. And you don’t want to do any- 
 thing that is not right. If it comes to a payment 
 — what was a dollar according to the definition by the laws 
 of the United States when it was issued is a dollor now. 
 
 BUT WE DO NOT WANT THEM PAID. 
 
 We want them for a currency to circulate among 
 our people; non-interest-bearing, but convertible in 
 to interest-bearing obligations whenever we wish to present 
 them, at convenient places ; and we want to strike out the 
 words “will pay,” and say in the place of them “indebted 
 to.” That cannot be done without the consent of the holder; 
 bnt let Congress pass an act providing that any liolder of 
 greenbacks may take them to the sub-treasury and get three 
 per cent, gold bearing certificates, provided he will permit 
 them to erase the words “will pay,” and put instead “is in- 
 debted to,” then we will all do it, and that will be a fair 
 bargain. There will be no repudiation about that, becaufse 
 we do not want the greenbacks paid; we only want them 
 made intro-convertible with interestbearing obligations ot 
 the government. 
 
 WHENEVER YOU GET CLEAR OF THE GREENBACKS, 
 whenever you decide that it is the will of the peoiile that 
 banks, and corporations shall furnish all the circulation of 
 the country, then I say that you have got a hand upon your 
 financial throat, and 
 
 THERE IS ONLY ONE BANK IN THE UNITED STATES TO-DAT. 
 
 I tell you there is only one bank in the United States to-day 
 and that is the National Bank. The President of the Unit 
 ed States is the president of that hank; the secretary of the 
 treasury is the vice president of that bank; the Bank Coinp 
 troller is the cashier of that bank, and the so-called bank Ex 
 aminer for every district is the manager of th^ branches in 
 his district. People are playing bank presidents; they 
 are playing bank directors; they think they are bank 
 presidon'ta; they think they are bank directors; .(hoy 
 are simply sn pern tuner ios. The bank examiner runs the 
 branch banks in all these cities and towns. Yon gid 
 the machinery in the hands of politicians — 1 say 
 politicians I don’t care wlmt party is in power; bu^ 
 yon let them, by controlling this financial machine, hav.: 
 a hand on the throat of every oomnmnity as largo as this it 
 all over this land, n hand that managos every pnrso-stnng 
 and don’t you open your heads about opposition or change, 
 and don’t you talk your political Bcntimonte uuless you tall; 
 withtyoiu' wife, in a whisper, with the door shut. 1 thank 
 yon, gentlemen and ladies, for your attontiou. [Appla'is 
 and a vote of tiiauks 1 
 

 
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Pressboard 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gaylord Bros. Inc. 
 Makers 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 PAT. JAN 21, 1908