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that I did not call for his paper, and that he said he was not ready 
to read it? 
Mr. Robbins. I had a paper, but not one that I dare read before 
this convention. I said in that paper that you could no more tell 
the cost of transporting a bushel of wheat from Madison to Mil¬ 
waukee than you could the cost of raising a bushel of wheat. And 
I stand here now, and defy any man to tell me how much it costs 
to transport one ton of grain, or coal, or anything else, from Mil¬ 
waukee to Madison. I say Mr. S. S. Merrill himself can’t do it. I 
defy any expert to tell what it casts to transport one ton of freight 
from one point to another. 
You pretend to say that you shall have seven per cent, interest, and 
no more. And if you have the right to say that, you have the 
right to say one per cent. If you have the right to say I shall 
transport a ton of grain for one cent a mile, you have the right to 
say I shall transport it for nothing. 
I have been putting money into railroads but I haven’t made 
anything and my note is out now for $18,000, put into a railroad 
since your last convention: I knew your disposition then, but still 
I had part of my money in it and I must go on. I don’t believe 
that any corporation has any soul. 
President Stilson. Neither has consolidated capital. 
Mr. Robbins. I am now going to talk about interest. I cannot 
get a dollar of money without I pay 10 per cent, interest, and my 
note is out for $18,000 and I am paying 10 per cent, on it. Now 
the-road I built, was built for $21,000 a mile, all by days work, and 
if money had been at seven per cent, we could have built it for $16,000 
a mile. Now I am interested not to have interest come down to seven 
per cent., or not until I can fulfil my contract. 
Secretary Field. The President of the University has denied 
that we should ever fix the rate of interest. He says the rate 
should be exactly what a man can obtain for his money. Now let 
us come right down to the bottom of this question, and start right 
at the foundation. What do we want money for? We want it 
simply to exchange with ease and facility the property of the coun¬ 
try. That’s all that it is good for. It need not, as I said yesterday, 
be made of a material of intrinsic value. If it is manufactured 
or made out of that particular material which is a commodity in 
and of itself when not used as money, very well, but it need not 
