Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
431 
the Bank of England nor any ring there or here could disturb our 
currency by a corner in gold or greenbacks. We should be beyond 
such interference. 
Third—In time, capitalists will invest in such bonds, since, in 
conformity to their present theories, these bonds will at last be paid 
in gold. 
Fourth—We develop our new country by having money abund¬ 
ant at 4 per cent, interest, and can thus compete with any nation 
without a protective tariff. 
Why cannot we now compete with Scotland in ship-building, or 
with the Welch in making rails? Not because of our rate of 
wages or our high tariff. These are not the only causes. Thomas 
Brassey, the largest employer of labor, perhaps, in this century, 
proves (see his life) that it is cheaper to build railways in Asia and 
Hungar}% by carrying there English workmen, at fifty cents a day, 
than by employing natives on the spot at only ten cents a day. It 
is not the rate of wages alone that cripples our manufacturers and 
our western development. It is because our dead capital—lands, 
buildings and machinery—is worth here 10 and 12 per cent. 
Abroad it is worth on an average 4 per cent, and we work at a con¬ 
stant disadvantage of from 6 to 7 per cent, year by year. 
It is not England’s cheap labor that enables her to undersell us. 
It is her cheap machinery begotten of cheap money. 
In Holland since 1790 interest has been from 2 to 5 per cent. 
Four thousand million of British consols give 3 or 3^ per cent. The 
Bank of England divides less than 4 per cent. Four or at most five 
per cent, may be fairly called the common interest in England. Bage- 
says: “Interest in England is not 5 per cent, on the average.” 
If the nation lent money at 4 per cent, every man who owned a 
bond or any improved land could get it at that rate; others would 
obtain it at second hand of capitalists, who, taking it of govern¬ 
ment, would let it out at an advance. But competition would keep 
that advance small. Where there was no extra risk money could 
be always had for less than 6 per cent, or even five probably. 
Give our eastern manufacturers and our western landholders 
money at 4 or 5 per cent., and we can then defy the competition of 
the world. Keep your revenue tariff to pay the debt. Abolish its 
protective element at once. I waive entirely, so far as our home 
currency is concerned, all abortive attempts to keep a gold basis. 
