W. I. Hood

“ No people in a great emergency ever found a faithful ally in gold. It is the most cowardly and treacherous of all metals. It makes no treaty it does not break; it has no friend it does not sooner or later betray. In times of panic and calamity, shipwreck and disaster, it becomes the agent and minister of ruin. No nation ever fought a great war by the aid of gold. In the crisis of the greatest peril it becomes an enemy more potent than the foe in the field.... ”

“ They know no god but money, and with money they have corrupted the world. They are of no service to either God or man, and yet they demand that both man and God bow before their will.”
He showed how hundreds of millions of dollars had been stolen from depositors in the banks of the United States by suspension and failure, the result of the most dishonest, the most unsafe system of banking known to the world. “The American banker laughs when asked for security; takes all the money he can get; breaks up at pleasure, and mocks the grief of the poor depositors.” ”

“ Money in shrinking volume becomes the paramount object of commerce instead of the beneficent instrument. Instead of mobilizing industry, it poisons and dries up its life currents. It is the fruitful source of political and social disturbance. It foments strife between labor and other forms of capital, while itself, hidden away, gorges on both. It rewards close-fisted lenders and filches from and bankrupts enterprising producers. An increasing value of money and falling prices have been and are more fruitful of human misery than war, pestilence or famine ”

“ It comes from the cold, phlegmatic marble heart of avarice—avarice that seeks to paralyze labor, increase the burden of debt, and fill the land with destitution and suffering to gratify the lust for gold—avarice surrounded by every comfort that wealth can command, and rich enough to satisfy every want save that which refuses to be satisfied without the suffocation and strangulation of all the labor of the land. ”

“ But, good people, my heart swells with joy when I tell you that sitting by my side, carried here in the arms of admiration, is a man who has set out to relieve the people of Ohio from such slavery—who has introduced in the legislature a bill which will come up for a third reading to-morrow, and which will relieve the poor of many of such hardships as poor Betsy and Jobe Gaskins had to bear—a bill, if you please, that will make it easier for us and our children to buy and pay for a home. ”

“ Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed to-night one of the most wonderful plays ever presented to an intelligent public—wonderful in the fact that it is so true to life that nearly every one in the vast audience knows some near or dear one who is only Betsy or Jobe Gaskins under another name; wonderful in the fact that this proud nation of the United States, after an existence of over one hundred 263years, should have a system of laws that works such terrible hardships on her citizens, and then claim to be civilized or advanced ”

“ Why is it that representatives forget the interests of their own section and stand up here as the advocates of the gold-brokers and money-lenders and sharks, the same class of men whose tables Christ turned over, and whom he lashed out of the temple at Jerusalem?... Carry out the theory of the contractionists, and what must be the inevitable result? Every enterprise and industry must be dwarfed in like proportion. The busy hum of the spindle will cease its sound in many a mill which now gives employment to hundreds of active hands and supplies the comforts of life to many a happy home. ”

“ Under these conditions, with our money system on a proper basis, and with trusts and monopolies obliterated, as they soon would be, we would need no labor unions to maintain the wage scale. Labor would no longer crouch at the feet of its creature, Wealth, and strikes would be a thing of the barbarous past. On the other hand, the workingman of the city cannot prosper so long as the farmer is not prosperous.
Again, if one day’s labor will produce two and one-half or three bushels of wheat, and each bushel is of the value of one dollar, then a day’s labor will be worth $2.50 or $3.00. ”

“ Her homes are happy, her streets crowded with passing trains loaded with goods; all her mills hurrying night and day to get even with her demand upon them. Labor walks rejoicing and capital sleeps easy, fat with its gains. What magician has done this? Paper money. Like the rest of the nations, she ran to its protection during the stress and strain of her German war. Unlike and wiser than the rest of us, she has not hurried back to coin. ”

“ If money were suddenly annihilated from all business affairs there would be a general suspension of business all over the country. It is the duty of statesmen to furnish the means, if possible, to find out the way by which the Creator’s design for the highest advance of civilization is to be obtained. Want, discomfort and misery are not necessarily the heritage of the industrious and provident man. So far as I can ascertain, no government has ever attempted to furnish an adequate supply of money or establish any standard by which its want could be ascertained. ”

“ The subject of money is discussed in the cold, calm light of pure science. Congressmen, irrespective of party, may study its pages with profit. There is in it a world of enlightenment to our lawmakers who are unbought and conscientious. To the people of the United States, whether borrowers or lenders of money, it is instructive; to the high school lad, studying political economy and currency, it is a liberal education. ”

“ The problem which now presses most persistently for immediate solution is that of money. The crying need of the hour is to provide work for the unemployed. Tinkering with the tariff will not do this, because you cannot make a people prosperous by taxation. You can set the wheels of industry in motion, however, by putting money in circulation.
And what is money?
Money is the public credit, stamped or imprinted upon, or represented by, metal, paper, or any other convenient substance recognized by law or usage, and employed as a medium of exchange and a measure of values. ”

“ There is much talk that a memorial be erected to Betsy Gaskins—not to perpetuate the memory of her hardships, but to ever keep the people in mind of the fact that every liberty or right we enjoy has cost much suffering, distress and woe, and, further, that every advance toward a perfect state of human society as taught by Jesus Christ has been in spite of selfish and ignorant wealth, and never by its aid. ”

“ No man has a natural right to dispose of property after death, nor has one person a natural right to inherit property from another. As Blackstone says: “There is no foundation in nature or in natural law why the son should have the right to exclude his fellow creatures from a determinate spot of land because his father did so before him, or why the occupier of a particular field or of a jewel, when lying on his death-bed, and no longer able to maintain possession, should be able to tell the rest of the world which of them should enjoy it after him.” ”

“ Laughlin showed the usual gold-bug worship of British finance in this:
“In the Bank of England the first moment of stringency the rate of discount is raised. That has the effect of preventing all unnecessary loans. The borrower who has good collateral will get the money if he is willing to pay an increased rate. Our system is such that we can loan until we come to the legal limit; and is deficient in that respect, as we cannot loan at a greater discount because of the iniquitous action of the usury laws. You can help a customer by increasing the rate. ”

“ When this grows to such an extent as to require all or most of the money in the country to pay the interest on debts, then commerce slackens and there is little or no money among the people except as loaned out by the banks and others whose business it is to loan money. They are dealing in the blood of commerce, and when they take it from the arteries of commerce there is commercial sickness and distress. ”

“ There never could be a better money. It is good for its face the world over. In that uttermost end of the earth, China or Japan, the United States legal-tender note is good for its face value, and, whatever changes are made, that part of our currency should remain intact. Should the current of Congressional events occasion a show of hands in the Republican party on this question, no doubt an overwhelming majority would say, as did the Democratic caucus, let the greenbacks alone. ”

“ He showed how, at six per cent. interest, all the wealth of the nation may pass into the hands of the money-lenders every sixteen years, and leave of the annual increase only enough to support the great mass of the people with a meager living. He showed how the bankers had conspired together to rob the nation in time of peril; how they had robbed the business men, robbed the masses, robbed everybody by their contraction of the currency and their thieving, unjust laws. ”

“ The money speculators of England, backed by cupidity and ignorance on this side, were its real instigators. There was every reason in the world why England should desire the demonetization of silver here. She is a creditor nation, and her capitalists hold vast amounts in government and other securities abroad. From this country alone the capitalists of Great Britain derive each year more than five hundred millions of dollars for interest on their investments, all of which is paid in gold or its equivalent. ”

“ To issue, foster and maintain, by all possible means, bonds and other interest-bearing obligations, as the most convenient means of transferring to the few the product of the industry of the many.
To maintain these humbugs, they use learned language, like doctors writing prescriptions in Latin. All the expert handlers of money, stocks, etc., hate nothing so much as that which is best for the other classes, viz., steady values. Their delight is in ups and downs; and then, if speculators, their effort is to be on the winning side. With brokers, every change is profitable. ”

“ Instead of constant and ruthless contraction, instead of constant appreciation of money and depreciation of property, we will have expansion to the extent of at least $2,000,000 a month, and under its influence the exchangeable value of commodities, including labor, will soon begin to rise, thus inviting investments, infusing life into the dead industries of the country, and quickening the pulsations of trade in all its departments. ”

“ This is why thoughtful men see in any issue of legal-tender notes the way to inevitable destruction.”
Robert G. Ingersoll: “We have passed through a period of wonderful and unprecedented inflation. For years every kind of business has been pressed to the very sky line. A wave of wealth swept over the United States. Tatters became garments and garments became robes. Walls were covered with pictures, floors with carpets, and for the first time in the history of the world the poor tasted all the luxuries of wealth. But monopoly changed that paradise into hell by creating a money famine.” ”

“ Whenever it becomes apparent that prices are rising and money falling in value in consequence of an increase in its volume, the greatest activity takes place in exchange and productive enterprises. Every one becomes anxious to share in the advantages of a rising market, and the inducement to hoard gold is taken away; its circulation becomes exceedingly active; labor comes into great demand and at remunerative wages. ”

“ Whenever a people are qualified for self-government no power on earth can prevent them from exercising that right. The American people have been too busy “making money” to study their real economic needs, and the result is that irresponsible demagogues have made laws which have plunged the nation into almost hopeless debt, paralyzed its business and impoverished most of the people. ”

“ He showed how a tax on money always fell on the borrower in the way of increased interest; how, if we take taxes from money and give the people a safe place to deposit, thousands of dollars, now kept out of circulation and hidden in the homes of the people, would come out and be used in the channels of trade to the benefit of all. He then appealed to the legislators to be men and patriots, and to spurn with contempt the influence of the lobbying money-lenders and corruptionists. ”

“ Doing business in a corporate name not only paralyzes individual effort, but leads to a concentration of capital—the great evil of our time. The remedy for this growing state of things would be to restrict the formation of corporations to such as are formed for public purposes, or such as the public have an interest in. Seventy-eight per cent. of the great fortunes of the United States are said to be derived from permanent monopoly privileges which ought never to have been granted. ”

“ I dreamed that Congressman Richer had demanded his money, and you had to raise the whole amount of the mortgage or lose our home. I thought you and me went down to town and went to every bank to try to borrow the money with which to pay the mortgage. I thought every place we went we was told that they was not makin any loans now, that there was a money panic and they had decided not to make any more loans for some time. ”

“ While the Trenholms, the Russell Sages, the Pearsalls, the Fahnenstocks and the Seligmans wrangle over the efforts of the people to secure a sufficient supply of ‘current money,’ more labor power will go to waste than will represent the value of the capital of all the banks in the city of New York many times over.”
Peter Cooper: “Contraction in finance is not the same as economy in private life. Contraction in the finances of a country means a stoppage of a certain amount of the industry and exchanges, by reason of the contraction of the credit by which these are sustained. ”

“ Usury kills off the enterprising members of a community by bankrupting them, and leaves only the very rich and the very poor; but every dollar the employers of labor pay to the lenders of money has to come eventually out of the pockets of the laborers. Usury is therefore the cause of the first aristocracy, and out of this grow all the other aristocracies. Inquire where the money came from that now oppresses mankind, in the shape of great corporations, combinations, etc., and in nine cases out of ten you will trace it back to the fountain of interest on money loaned. ”