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Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
on the other side. It was but a short time ago I saw in one of the 
newspapers of the east, that an honorable Senator rose in his seat 
in Congress, and likened the interconvertible-greenback scheme to 
the government taking a horse of a farmer in the autumn, when 
he had no use for it, taking good care of it through the winter, 
and returning him fat and sleek to the farmer in the spring. How, 
that undoubtedly provoked a smile from those honorable and dig¬ 
nified members of Congress. It was a very good joke, but the ap¬ 
plication was bad. 
It seems to me if the government has a few thousand horses 
they have no use for, if any gentleman chooses to take one hun¬ 
dred or more of these horses and keep them for the government 
through the winter and even the summer, for six months, twelve 
months, or two, or three years, and return them to the government 
without any charge for keeping, and just as good horses as they 
were before, that the government ought to be thankful for it, ought 
to consider it a favor. How, if the government has bonds of indebt¬ 
edness to the amount of millions, and are paying interest upon them, 
and any gentleman choose to say to that government, if you will 
take these bonds bearing interest and give me greenbacks, non¬ 
bearing interest bonds, it is certainly a favorable exchange for the 
government; and if he chooses to use these greenbacks for a period 
of six months, ten months, or a year, longer or shorter as he may 
desire, and return them to the government when he don’t want to 
use them any longer, and take bonds again, the government is the 
gainer. I look at it in that light, hence, I am in favor of 
this interconvertable scheme. It saves the government just 
that much interest for the length of time you or I, or any other 
person take those greenbacks, and hold them, and upon which the 
government pays no interest. As I said this afternoon, I think in¬ 
terest is the great point in this financial question. Capital to-day 
is earning eight, ten or twelve, and often-times fifteen per cent., 
while the labor and industry of this country, is not earning to ex¬ 
ceed three. Can we expect a country like the United States to pros¬ 
per; can we expect the people engaged in the various avenues of 
industry throughout this broad land to prosper, when capital and 
labor combined can not earn more than three per cent., and capital 
that is borrowed is absolutely earning ten. It is impossible. My 
idea of this interest question may be very radical; I think it is. 
