Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
269 
necessarily be made out of that material which has any real intrin¬ 
sic value. 
I wish to say right here ; that it is of just as much importance, 
and I deem it of more importance, that the rate of interest should 
be fixed, unchanging and unvarying, as that the yard-stick should 
remain just three feet in length, or the bushel measure of unchang¬ 
ing size. Now the way interest rises and lowers by the manipula¬ 
tions of stock gamblers and speculators, is that to-day money is 
worth ten per cent., to-morrow fifteen per cent., and next day six 
per cent, possibly, and so on; no stability, but continued fluctua¬ 
tion and uncertainty. President Bascom stated yesterday that a 
gold basis was a long established custom of all ages, and that the 
fixing of the rate of interest so as to be unvarying would be an in¬ 
novation. I grant that is true. But we are living in an age when 
I want to see innovations. Was it not an innovation when we es- 
stablished this republican form of government ? Wasn’t it an in¬ 
novation when we ran railroads all through this country for the 
benefft of all the people ? 
Was’nt it an innovation when we introduced machinery through 
all this broad land ? Certainly, and blessed innovations they were. 
It will be an innovation, I grant, if we can have a strictly metallic 
currency, a dollar in paper for one of gold and silver with which to 
redeem, or paper money, pure and simple, based upon the faith and 
credit of the government, with a rate of interest fixed by congress, 
and as low as the increased wealth arising from the productive in¬ 
dustries of the nation. But, sir, this would be one of the best in¬ 
novations ever made, in this or any other country, and a blessing- 
such as no people in this or any other age ever witnessed. Presi¬ 
dent Bascom says “the history of the world is against the gentle¬ 
man’s ideas.'’ I grant it; and this fact the more clearly confirms 
me in the opinion heretofore expressed, that capital has always 
ruled the world. But this is no argument. Because wrongs have 
existed ever since man existed does not make them right, and be¬ 
cause money, by unjust and wicked laws has drawn to itself, by 
interest, enormous accumulations, until the property is rapidly ac¬ 
cumulating in the hands of the few, it is no reason why it will con¬ 
tinue to do so for all coming time, when the people fully compre¬ 
hend its evil and injustice. 
I doubt whether it could be established to-day, or shown in a 
