Wisconsin State Agricultural Society . 
249 
and it is by virtue of that labor represented in the gold that it has 
the power to become an exchange medium. 
I may take this paper, which I decline to call money, and have 
my pocket full of it. It is good enough while law sustains 
it and does not multiply it. If our Government could multi¬ 
ply it at will, no power on earth could sustain it; that is to 
say, no possible legislation in this country can restore the paper 
dollar to the value of the gold dollar; this is beyond all legislation. 
The very moment I take this paper money and go out of this 
country, it ceases to have value. It would absolute^ have no 
value, were I not able to dispose of it in another country, in the 
hope that it would travel back here; while gold has value every¬ 
where. Therefore, its power rests on the fact that it is itself a com¬ 
modity, that it cannot be secured without labor, that it represents 
so much labor in the market, The mark of the dollar on the face 
of the gold piece is simply a convenience indicating the weight of 
that piece of gold and no more. 
In the matter of exchange, we have sought for greater conveni¬ 
ence, starting with oxen and camels, going to gold as bullion and 
then putting on it the coin stamp. When did it cease to be a 
commodity and. become money ? At no step. The camel was a 
commodity at the beginning and so was the gold. That is what 
makes honest gold pass, because it is a commodity. That is what 
makes it money. The whole difference between honest and dishon¬ 
est currency, is that honest currency is a commodity, that it stands 
for so much human labor and so much value. 
Now, in the West we are discontented with the high rate of in¬ 
terest. And there are two reasons for the high rate, first we have 
but little capital and, second, we have large profits. If we had 
more capital it would be seeking investment; and if it sought you 
for an investment, it would come to you for terms. But we have 
too little, we are too anxious. We want more capital, and that is 
the reason we have to pay so much for it. And the reason we want 
it is because we are doing so well, and not because we are doing so 
poorly. 
Take Wisconsin for the last thirty years, and I appeal to you, 
gentlemen, who have been here for thirty years, take the square 
miles represented in Wisconsin, and what other equal number of 
square miles on the globe have reaped such profits or can show 
