192 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
.and others are making a fundimental mistake in considering our 
present currency like that of old mixed bank currency, founded 
on promises to pay in gold. The people know very well that 
there is not gold enough in the United States to be a basis of the 
currency we have, and the currency we need. Yet, that they 
consider the currency perfectly sound, is evident from the fact 
that during the late panic, instead of trying to get rid of it, they 
hoarded it. The basis of our currency is not gold, but the 
nation’s honor, guaranteed by the national loyalty and the general 
interests of its members. 
The people value it because it will buy and pay for anything 
they wish to purchase in the union. They value it because our 
highest courts have decided that it is lawful money for the pay¬ 
ment of all debts. The reason why farmers have to take gold 
prices for their produce, while they have to give from 25 to 50 
per cent more for all they buy, is not on account of the deprecia¬ 
tion of the currency, but on account of its appreciation and 
scarcity, and on account of the tariff, which taxes the goods sent 
in exchange for our products from foreign markets where they are 
sold. Farmers ought to know that if it were not for the tariffs, 
manufactured goods here would have to compete with those from 
abroad—as our products must. 
There is no protection on what the farmer produces; he has not 
only to compete with those engaged in his occupation in our 
country, but also with the low priced labor in Europe, after 
paying freights on his products for 4500 miles to reach foreign 
markets. 
When the people get to understand how they have been com¬ 
pelled to pay tribute to the capitalists, and how the capitalists 
have controlled the legislation of this country by bribery and 
corruption, and by munificent gifts to men whom they expected 
to work in their interest, when in power; when the toiling mill¬ 
ions get thoroughly aroused to a sense of the way they have been 
controlled, and swindled by the capitalists, through national legisla¬ 
tion, the driving out of the ancient money changers from the 
Temple, will be a mild affair in comparison to the kicks and cuffs 
they will receive from an outraged people. 
Taxation is a subject that farmers are interested in, and one 
