The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII.: InterviewsIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII.: Interviews
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
_Answer_. So far as machinery--so far as the practical is concerned,
it is not equal to ours in Philadelphia; in art it is incomparably
beyond it. I was very much gratified to find so much evidence in
favor of my theory that the golden age in art is in front of us;
that mankind has been advancing, that we did not come from a perfect
pair and immediately commence to degenerate. The modern painters
and sculptors are far better and grander than the ancient. I think
we excel in fine arts as much as we do in agricultural implements.
Nothing pleased me more than the painting from Holland, because
they idealized and rendered holy the ordinary avocations of life.
They paint cottages with sweet mothers and children; they paint
homes. They are not much on Ariadnes and Venuses, but they paint
good women.
_Question_. What did you think of the American display?
_Answer_. Our part of the Exposition is good, but nothing to what
is should and might have been, but we bring home nearly as many
medals as we took things. We lead the world in machinery and in
ingenious inventions, and some of our paintings were excellent.
_Question_. Colonel, crossing the Atlantic back to America, what
do you think of the Greenback movement?
_Answer_. In regard to the Greenback party, in the first place,
I am not a believer in miracles. I do not believe that something
can be made out of nothing. The Government, in my judgment, cannot
create money; the Government can give its note, like an individual,
and the prospect of its being paid determines its value. We have
already substantially resumed. Every piece of property that has
been shrinking has simply been resuming. We expended during the
war--not for the useful, but for the useless, not to build up, but
to destroy--at least one thousand million dollars. The Government
was an enormous purchaser; when the war ceased the industries of
the country lost their greatest customer. As a consequence there
was a surplus of production, and consequently a surplus of labor.
At last we have gotten back, and the country since the war has
produced over and above the cost of production, something near the
amount that was lost during the war. Our exports are about two
hundred million dollars more than our imports, and this is a healthy
sign. There are, however, five or six hundred thousand men,
probably, out of employment; as prosperity increases this number
will decrease. I am in favor of the Government doing something to
ameliorate the condition of these men. I would like to see
constructed the Northern and Southern Pacific railroads; this would
give employment at once to many thousands, and homes after awhile
to millions. All the signs of the times to me are good. The
wretched bankrupt law, at last, is wiped from the statute books,
and honest people in a short time can get plenty of credit. This
law should have been repealed years before it was. It would have
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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