The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
History
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
The other day I had a conversation with one of the principal gentlemen
upon that side, and I told him, "Whenever you can successfully palm off
on a man a bill of fare for a dinner, I shall believe in your doctrine;
and when I can satisfy the pangs of hunger by reading a cook-book, I
shall join your party." Only that is money which stands for labor. Only
that is money which will buy, on the average, in all other directions
the result of the same labor expended in its production. As a matter
of fact, there is money enough in the country to transact the business.
Never before in the history of our Government was money so cheap; that
is to say, was interest so low; never. There is plenty of money, and we
could borrow all we wished had we the collaterals. We could borrow
all we wish if there was some business in which we could embark that
promised a sure and reasonable return. If we should come to a man who
kept a ferry, and find his boat on a sandbar and the river dry, what
would he think of us should we tell him he had not enough boat? He would
probably reply that he had plenty of boat, but not enough water. We have
plenty of money, but not enough business. The reason we have not enough
business is, we have not enough confidence, and the reason we have not
confidence is because the market is slowly falling, and the reason it is
slowly falling is that things have not yet quite resumed; that we have
not quite touched the absolute bedrock of valuation. Another reason is
because those that left the cultivation of the soil have not yet all
returned, and they are living, some upon their wits, some upon their
relatives, some upon charity, and some upon crime.
The next question is: Suppose the Government should issue a thousand
millions of fiat money, how would it regulate the value thereof? Every
creditor could be forced to take it, but nobody else. If a man was in
debt one dollar for a bushel of wheat, he could compel the creditor to
take the fiat money; but if he wished to buy the wheat, then the owner
could say, "I will take one dollar in gold or fifty dollars in fiat
money, or I will not sell it for fiat money at any price." What will
Congress do then? In order to make this fiat money good it will have to
fix the price of every conceivable commodity; the price of painting
a picture, of trying a lawsuit, of chiseling a statue, the price of a
day's work; in short, the price of every conceivable thing. This even
will not be sufficient. It will be necessary, then, to provide by
law that the prices fixed shall be received, and that no man shall be
allowed to give more for anything than the price fixed by Congress.
Now, I do not believe that any Congress has sufficient wisdom to tell
beforehand what will be the relative value of all the products of labor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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