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her vaults; and the truth is they cannot redeem one dollar of it be¬ 
yond their deposits. But it is the faith they have in that govern¬ 
ment and not the gold that is behind that keeps the currency of 
the bank good. Every man who has got a greenback in his pocket 
feels perfectly safe. It is not because there is gold behind it, for 
there is not five cents of gold in the vaults of the Treasury of the 
United States to-day, to redeem our greenbacks with. 
President Bascom. If we were to fix the rate of interest as the 
gentleman proposes, suppose we should fix it at five per cent., 
though I do not see why it should not be two or one per cent. If 
you undertake to fix the price of wheat, why not fix it at twenty 
cents ? 
Secretary Field. I would have the Government fix the rate of 
interest below what can be shown to be the average profit annually 
accumulating from the legitimate productive industries of the coun¬ 
try. And it is not good argument to say that because you regulate 
the value of money, yon have the right to fix the price of wheat or 
other commodity—one is property, the other the representative 
only. 
President Bascom. Gentlemen, that is exactly where interest 
stands to-day, because men borrow in view of those profits, and 
they borrow in order to make those profits. And although A. B. 
and C. fail, a sharp man goes in and uses his money so as to realize 
those profits. 
It is to suppose us to be all fools, to suppose we take money 
at a higher rate of interest on the whole than we can realize 
again in the use of it. We don’t do that; we are not bound to have 
money to carry on business, because we are not bound to carry on 
business, and for us to carry on business when we are all losing 
by it, is to demonstrate that we are all fools and nothing short of 
it. We borrow because we can use money to advantage to our¬ 
selves. And we have used it in Wisconsin, as I have said, for ten 
per cent, and have come out with these fruits of thirty years labor 
and accumulation instead of exhaustion. We have more than paid 
for that capital, and are where we are to-day because of the fact 
that we took it at that rate, and that profits have been the very 
things that have determined the price of money. 
But I say if the gentleman undertakes to step in and say what 
the rate of interest shall be, he may just as well say one percent, as 
