Let me explain this principle a little more fully so that we will all get it so thoroughly fixed in our minds that we shall not forget, or overlook it, as we go on. A farmer, however wealthy in lands and prosperous he may be, even though he may be worth half a million, or a million dollars, should not have demand obligations outstanding for any considerable amount because his resources are in lands or fixed investments. If he borrows to enable him to produce his crops, he should make his notes come due when he can meet them with the money he receives from the sale of his crops, and the balance, or his profits, will go to pay the interest on the mortgage, and possibly reduce it. So a township, a city, county, or state has no personal property worth considering to meet demand obligations. It has no liquid property of any kind, in fact, nor any resources whatever, except its power to tax the property within its jurisdiction; and therefore, if it needs money, it may borrow to meet expenses; but it will make its notes come due when the taxes come in, precisely as the farmer times his notes' maturity with the sale of his crops. If a municipality has no demand obligations, and its bonded debt is low, it can borrow on its bonds at a low rate of interest. But if its demand obligations are enormous in proportion to its ready cash, high rates of interest, and possibly even bankruptcy, will always be staring it in the face. Granting or assuming that the United States Government has no power to issue legal tender, or fiat money, which is the greatest peril and most unmitigated curse that ever hung over any country, the United States Treasury is in precisely the same position, or situation, that the farmer is, whose property is in land; that the township, the city, the county and the state is in, and should always keep itself in a position where, in case of war, or any other great emergency, it could use its credit to the best possible advantage to itself; that is, to us, the people who must pay the taxes to liquidate whatever debt it may incur. MR. FARMER: I for one want to thank you for this explanation, for I have always had a sneaking idea that the United States Government owned everything, and was, as we say, the richest Government on earth, when it could not possibly mean anything except that the people who constitute the nation are the richest people on earth. Of course the Government doesn't own anything worth speaking of, and cannot take any property, without due process of law, that is, either through the process of taxation or through condemnation proceedings, for public uses. It is perfectly plain to me now that the United States Government is no more fitted to carry on the banking business than Lorrain township, where I live, nor this city, this county, nor this state, except that it operates on a bigger scale, that's all. Do you know that's as clear as a pike staff to me now.