It is months from the date of production to
the date of realization. Interest upon capital must be charged, and
risk of fluctuation in the value of that which is to be received in
payment added. Hence high prices, acting as a protection to the foreign
producer, who receives nothing in exchange for the products of his skill
and labor except a currency good, at a stable value, the world over.
It seems to me that nothing is clearer than that the greater part of
the burden of existing prostration, for the want of a sound financial
system, falls upon the working man, who must after all produce the
wealth, and the salaried man, who superintends and conducts business.
The burden falls upon them in two ways--by the deprivation of employment
and by the decreased purchasing power of their salaries. It is the duty
of Congress to devise the method of correcting the evils which are
acknowledged to exist, and not mine. But I will venture to suggest two
or three things which seem to me as absolutely necessary to a return to
specie payments, the first great requisite in a return to prosperity.
The legal-tender clause to the law authorizing the issue of currency
by the National Government should be repealed, to take effect as to
all contracts entered into after a day fixed in the repealing act--not
to apply, however, to payments of salaries by Government, or for other
expenditures now provided by law to be paid in currency, in the interval
pending between repeal and final resumption.
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