64 ILLmOIS STATE DAIEYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



At the close of Gen. Parsons' address, Dr. John M. 

 Gregory entertained tlie audience for about one hour and 

 a half. Below we give the substau' e of his lecture, which 

 was well received by the audience. 



DR. JOHN M. GREGORY'S ADDRESS IN BRIEF. * 



In referring to the hard times, he said that they existed not only in 

 this country but in others, and the best political economists claimed that it 

 was of longer duration than ever before tnown. A noted Englishman 

 gave the cause of hard times as being over-expending and over-consuming. 

 From this he proceeded to argufe that over-consumption was indeed the 

 cause of hard times ; that while the net production of the country was 

 about $500,000,000, of that sum about $3.50 was saved out of each $100. 

 We spent from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000, and burned it in gun-powder ; 

 states, counties, towns and school districts plunged into debt. In Southern 

 Illinois the farms were heavily mortgaged, and the owners had to send the 

 interest annually to New England. Much was said about the credit system, 

 but man could not live without credit ; if he did not buy things on credit 

 he expected that cheese and corn would command the same price next week 

 as they did this. Germany was having the worst of the financial crisis, 

 although she had free trade and French money, yet some of her citizens 

 jocosely remarked that they wanted to go to war and be compelled to pay 

 a heavy indemnity, thereby hoping that when they came out of the war 

 they would be as well off as France. There is little or no revival in man- 

 ufactures in this county. The improvements made in the past one hun- 

 dred and fifty years, such as railroads, steamboats, cotton-gins, power looms, 

 the telegraph, both on land and sea, the various countries transmit letters of 

 credit from one to another, received a passing notice from him, to show the 

 progress made by man. There is no limit to the power of machinery that 

 is being made. The work of the millions has passed into the hands of the 

 few, and they are not done yet ; by and by, perhaps one machine will be 

 invented which will superintend all other machines. The time is not far 

 distant when the sunshine will be used for heating our houses and driving 

 our engines, and some say that the sunshine in fair weather will be gather- 

 ed up for use in the stormy, cloudy weather. 



The Convention now adjourned to meet at the Court 

 House to-morrow, at 9 a. m. 



