270 Wisconsin - State Agricultural Society. 
to seventy-five cents. I have taken two banks from each of those 
States, and the highest that that money was worth, in this market, 
at that time, for which you traded off your beef and pork, was 
seventy-five cents, and some of that money was not worth hut five 
cents. The average of all those banks was worth twenty cents on 
the dollar and no more. Was that based on gold? Gentlemen 
would rise here and say that that money was based on State stocks. 
But what were State stocks based upon? They were based upon 
gold. Still it was not worth but twenty cents on the dollar. Some 
of the productive industries of this country, or all combined, lost 
the other eighty cents. I guarantee the banks did’nt lose 
much. When you did’nt want gold you could get it; when 
you did } r ou couldn’t get it. They are not going to let gold 
go out of their pockets. When this war began, Secretary Chase 
called on the bankers for gold to carry on the war. They 
said not one dollar in gold. They would lend their credit, 
but the gold crept away like a thief in the night; it was not to be 
seen. Secretary Chase said they did’nt want private credit, it was 
gold they wanted. The government supplied their credit; they is¬ 
sued these little bonds called greenbacks; bonds of credit of this 
great government, and they have been circulating ever since, and I 
trust to God they will circulate while I live. 
Mr. Sellers: If Uncle Sam makes these greenbacks, and all his 
boys and all his girls sanction it, why do you want to pay them in 
ten or fifty years? 
Secretary Field: I think by that time they won’t want anything 
else for money. 
Mr. Sellers: Uncle Sam takes a paper dyed green, and puts a 
stamp on it, and sa}^s it is worth a dollar, and the boys and girls 
say it is worth a dollar. What do they want them paid for? Why 
do you want them paid in ten or fifty years? 
Secretary Field: Simply to satisfy the people of this country 
until they more fully comprehend this currency question. 
Mr. Sellers: I went over to Canada a little while ago, and one of 
my nephews gave me a two-dollar gold piece. I had it in my pocket 
for over two months, and showed it to several people; they didn’t 
want to look at it. I asked them if they wanted to give me ten 
per cent, for it; they said greenbacks were just as good. I brought 
