wise to exclude from contemplation and investigation the causes which produced them. They are facts, which we as a people, cannot disregard, and we can only hope to improve our present condition by a study of their causes. In December, 1892, we had the same currency and practically the same volume of currency that we have now. It aggregated in 1892, $2,372,599,501; in 1893, $2,323,000,000; in 1894, $2,323,- 442,362; and in December, 1895, $2,194,000,230. The per capita of money, too, has been practically the same during this whole period. The quality of the money has been identical—all kept equal to gold. There is nothing connected with our money, therefore, to account for this sudden and aggravated industrial change. Whatever is lobe deprecated in our financial system, it must everywhere be admitted that our money has been absolutely good and has brought neither loss nor inconvenience to its holders. A depreciated currency has not -existed to further vex the troubled business situation. GOOD MONEY NEVER MADE TIMES HARD. It is a mere pretense to attribute the hard times to the fact that jail our currency is on a gold basis. Good money never made times hard. Those who assert that our present industrial and financial depression is the result of the gold standard, have not read American history aright, or been careful students of the events of recent years'. We never had greater prosperity in this country, in every field of employment and industry, than in the busy years from 1880 to 1892, during all of which time this country was on a gold basis and employed more gold money in its fiscal and business operations than ever before. We had, too, a protective tariff under which ample revenues were collected for 4he Government and an accumulating surplus which was constantly applied to the payment of the public debt. Let us hold fast to that which we know is good. It is not more money we want; what we want is to put the money we already have at work. When money is employed, men are employed. Both have always been steadily and remuneratively ■•engaged during all the years of protective tariff legislation. When those who have money lack confidence in the stability of values and investments, they will not part with their money. Business is stagnated —the life-blood of trade is checked and congested. We can not restore public confidence by an act which would revolutionize all values, or an act which entails a deficiency in the public revenues. We can not inspire confidence by advocating repudiation or practicing dishonesty. We can not restore confidence either to the Treasury or to the people ■without a change in our present tariff legislation. THE TARIFF OF 1894. The only measure of a general nature that affected the Treasury and the employments of our people, passed by the Fifty-Third Congress, was the general Tariff Act, which did not receive the approval of the Presi- -dent. Whatever virtues may be claimed for that Act there is confessedly one which it does not possess. It lacks the essential virtue of its creation—the raising of revenue sufficient to supply the needs of the ■Government. It has at no time provided enough revenue for such needs, but it has caused a constant deficiency in the Treasury and a steady depletion in the earnings of labor and land. It has contributed to swell 11
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