20 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of anarchy and the destruction of all the interests at work in 

 building up this country. As nothing can give employment 

 to labor but capital, it is the first step toward easy times 

 when capital begins to accumulate, as it was the first step 

 toward hard times when the destruction of capital began. 

 How did the panic come ? Unnumbered millions of capital 

 were destroyed by the war, by the great fires in Boston 

 and Chicago, by railroad speculations. The destruction, for 

 a time, went on at a tremendous scale, until the capital of 

 the country was exhausted ; then, of course, the panic came. 

 Capital and its relations are so evenly balanced, that any dis- 

 turbance of them anywhere — in this country, in Europe, ay, 

 in China — would affect every man, woman, and child on the 

 face of the earth. 



When bankrupts settle with their creditors for thirty and 

 fifty cents on the dollar, who pays the rest of the amount ? — 

 :for it has got to be paid, just as any debt of nature is paid. 

 'Why, you and I pay it : that is the truth. All debts are 

 •paid in full, must be paid in full, by somebody. If the bank- 

 rupt compromises, he only shifts the burden upon our shoul- 

 ders. Now the fact is, better times are coming. We have 

 been saving up our capital ; and, the more we get, the more 

 opportunity there will be to employ labor. But there is this 

 drawback ; and the idea may, certainly can, ruin the bright- 

 est prospects of a revival of business industry. Suppose you 

 have never so much capital, and 3-ou dare not invest it, but 

 lock it up, and keep it out of sight, what good will it do 

 you ? That is the evil. 



Lack of confidence on the part of the capitalists will ruin 

 every plan looking toward a brighter future. That is where 

 the danger is to-day. Merchants and capitalists have no 

 confidence in the investment of capital. The thing which, 

 ;more than all other influences, has brought about this fatal 

 want of confidence is our currency. We have been destroy- 

 ing confidence in the working-power of money because we 

 have been destroying confidence in the value of money. We 

 have undertaken to say that Congress is possessed of a sort of 

 omnipotence, — nothing to do but to issue its "fiat," as they 

 call it, and Congress can make something out of nothing. 

 We have saved from our foreign trade two hundred and fifty 

 million dollars. This is an instance of how our capital is 



