274 
Annual Re pout of the 
The President further says, in substance, that it is extortion to 
say that he shall have but 5 per cent., when he can get 10, as 
much so as it would be to say that a farmer shall have but fifty 
cents per bushel for his wheat when the market price is one dollar. 
The fallacy in the gentleman’s argument is that money is mer¬ 
chandise, like wheat, &c. Wheat is property, but money is not; 
the material of which it is made may be, but it is simply a measure 
by which we are to justly measure the wheat and other property. 
The gentleman’s theory of “ supply and demand” regulation of 
money would not allow the regulation of tariffs on railroads, or tolls 
on mills, bridges, or other public corporations, when in fact the 
control of money is of a thousand times more importance than them 
all, because it and labor combined are the main-springs or motive- 
powers for bettering the condition of mankind, and increasing the 
wealth of the world. It is not so much the kind of money I care 
about, as that the quantity shall be equal to the requirements of 
business, with interest so low that the industries shall be profitable, 
furnishing the farmer, mechanic and common laborer with all 
the comforts and some of the luxuries of life, thus more equally 
distributing the profits or net earnings of labor and capital. 
One other point, and I am done. President Bascorn says that 
under our theory money would be so plenty that every boy in the 
streets would have his pockets full, and empty it all out for a stick 
of candy; that every man could make all the paper money he wanted, 
get all he needed without work. Now, sir, when the learned gen¬ 
tleman uses such language as that, he is cornered; he is driven to 
the wall: No man knows better than President Bascorn that no 
man can get a dollar of the money issued by the Government, 
whether it be gold or paper, without first giving to that Govern¬ 
ment labor or commodities in exchange, and he must work for it, 
or give something valuable which labor has produced. 
