The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
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The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
And yet these gentlemen say that our money is too good. They might as
well say the air is too pure; they might as well say the soil is too
rich. How can money be too good? Mr. Bryan says that it is so good,
people hoard it; and let me tell him they always will. Mr. Bryan wants
money so poor that everybody will be anxious to spend it. He wants money
so poor that the rich will not have it. Then he thinks the poor can get
it. We are willing to toil for good money. Good money means the comforts
and luxuries of life. Real money is always good. Paper promises and
silver substitutes may be poor; words and pictures may be cheap and may
fade to worthlessness--but gold shines on.
In Chicago, many years ago, there was an old colored man at the Grand
Pacific. I met him one morning, and he looked very sad, and I said to
him, "Uncle, what is the matter?" "Well," he said, "my wife ran away
last night. Pretty good looking woman; a good deal younger than I am;
but she has run off." And he says: "Colonel, I want to give you my idea
about marriage. If a man wants to marry a woman and have a good time,
and be satisfied and secure in his mind, he wants to marry some woman
that no other man on God's earth would have."
That is the kind of money these gentlemen want in the United States.
Cheap money. Do you know that the words cheap money are a contradiction
in terms? Cheap money is always discounted when people find out that it
is cheap. We want good money, and I do not care how much we get. But we
want good money. Men are willing to toil for good money; willing to
work in the mines; willing to work in the heat and glare of the furnace;
willing to go to the top of the mast on the wild sea; willing to work
in tenements; women are willing to sew with their eyes filled with tears
for the sake of good money. And if anything is to be paid in good money,
labor is that thing. If any man is entitled to pure gold, it is the man
who labors. Let the big fellows take cheap money. Let the men living
next the soil be paid in gold. But I want the money of this country as
good as that of any other country.
When our money is below par we feel below par. I want our money, no
matter how it is payable, to have the gold behind it. That is the money
I want in the United States.
I want to teach the people of the world that a Democracy is honest. I
want to teach the people of the world that America is not only capable
of self-government, but that it has the self-denial, the courage, the
honor, to pay its debts to the last farthing.
Mr. Bryan tells the farmers who are in debt that they want cheap money.
What for? To pay their debts. And he thinks that is a compliment to the
tillers of the soil. The statement is an insult to the farmers, and the
farmers of Maine and Vermont have answered him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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