218 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
It has its rise, usually, in some such cause as the autumnal call for 
money to move the crops with which we are so familiar. We remem¬ 
ber the pressure that was brought to bear upon Secretary Richard¬ 
son, in 1873, to issue the forty-four million reserve, so-called, and 
had there been any form of law by which a larger amount could 
have been called out, it unquestionably would have been, and might, 
perhaps, have deferred the panic of 1873 a little longer only to 
have made it more severe and far-reaching in its effects, if that were 
possible. If at a time of unusual demand for money there exists 
machinery which can readily increase the supply, it will surely be 
set at work. Extended operations commence. The grain specula¬ 
tor begins buying for a rise; the merchant gives speculatives orders 
to the manufacturer, who increases his production, and they all 
become borrowers. The feeling spreads rapidly through every de¬ 
partment of trade. Times are flush and men cease to be particular 
about a trifle of interest so that the} r seem to be making money by 
paying it. All during the ascending period of speculation this 
condition of things continues; and when the tide begins to show 
signs of turning, it increases in intensity; those who are holding- 
unwilling as men always are to accept the first loss—become more 
and more importunate in their demands until the recoil and the dis¬ 
aster comes. Long before this the government would be called 
upon for the last dollar which it held on call—and it would be a for¬ 
tunate thing indeed if it stopped there. So long as inflation was 
running its mischievous career, the nerveless grasp of the intercon¬ 
vertible bond plan would be wholly relaxed. In the period of ex¬ 
haustion which would follow the reaction, it might re-absorb some 
of the redundant currency. Under its workings there would be 
certain depreciation—there would be endless fluctuations of value— 
but of control or adaptation in any real sense, there would be none. 
Adaptability to the legitimate demands of trade, does not mean 
that everybody shall have all the money that their credit, strained 
to the uttermost, would secure. One of the most beneficent feat¬ 
ures of the specie standard is, that under it, adaptability is confined 
within certain limits—the craziest mania for speculation can not 
increase the supply of currency indefinitely—and while this is the 
case, people cannot lay out an indefinite amount of money in all 
kinds of commodities at once. Excessive investment in one direc¬ 
tion involves curtailment in another; and though at such times 
