“I can see the people of our Western States, who are producers, reduced to the condition of serfs to pay interest on public and private debts to the money sharks of Wall Street, New York, and of Threadneedle Street in London, England. And this will be accomplished by withdrawing the treasury notes from circulation, and destroying them until the banks can control the entire volume of money.... It was the contraction and increased want of currency, and not a superabundance, which produced the necessity for running in debt. “Falling prices and misery and destruction are inseparable companions. The disasters of the dark ages were caused by decreasing money and falling prices. With the increase of money labor and industry gain new life. “I can see benefit only to the money-holders and those who receive interest and have fixed incomes. I can see, as a result of this legislation, our business operations crippled and wages for labor reduced to a mere pittance. I can see the beautiful prairies of my own State and of the great West, which are blooming as gardens, with cheerful homes rising like white towers along the pathway of improvement, again sinking back to idleness. I can see mortgage fiends at their hellish work. I can see the hopes of the industrious farmers blasted as they burn corn for fuel, because its price will not pay the cost of transportation and dividends on millions of dollars of fictitious railway stocks and bonds.” _Preston B. Plumb_ (Senate, April, 1880): “The contraction of the currency by 5 per cent. of its volume means the depreciation of the property of the country three billions of dollars.” _The Chicago Tribune_ (1878): “Straight along for four and a half years the dollar has grown dearer and larger, the debts heavier and harder to pay, and the value of property has withered; business has been done at a continual loss. Real estate—lands, lots and improvements, the foundation of all wealth—has gone down year after year in value, while the mortgages have devoured it, wiping out equities and all that had been paid thereon, and annihilating multitudes of fortunes.” _President Grant_ (message, 1870): “Immediate resumption, if practicable, is not desirable. It would compel the debtor class to pay beyond their contracts the premium on gold at the date of their purchase and would bring bankruptcy and ruin to thousands.” Message of 1873: “The experience of the present panic has proven that the currency of the country, based as it is upon its credit, is the best that has ever been devised. “To increase our exports, sufficient currency is required to keep all the industries of the country employed. Without this, national as well as individual bankruptcy must ensue.... “Prices keep pace with the volume of money.”