pH83 >^ I ^MMMm. -WITH- ..SHAVE'S BROTHER-^fN^LAW. <^^ 4 .% A TALK WITH SHAVE'S BROTHER-IN-LAW s Preliminary Note by the Editor. , ["Shave's Brother-in-La\v" is well known to every frequenter of ****** 's and *****'»• At one or the other of those favorite resorts of our first men of fashion and talent he is almost daily to be met with, at the hour of greatest concourse. I "know little more about him than that he is a per.son m singular, though not eccen- tric, character, (for between singular ami eccentric there is a great difference, ) and that he is undoubtedly a man of ability. I am ignorant of his profession, if he has any, and of all his business affairs; but as I never heard of his borrow- ing money from his acquaintances, I presume he has a regular income suffi- ciently ample to render him comfortable. He is well informed on all the topics which engage the greatest share of the attention of the general public, and is well read in the best English literature. Being gifted with a fair degree of fluency of speech and a pleasing manner of delivery, and having besides an abundance of good humor and fun in his composition, he is an agreeable part- ner in conversation. His talk is rendered the more entertaining by its markexl originality. J^ven what he brings forward that he has ac((uired at second hand, ,he seems first to work over in his mind, so that when he gives it out it appears to be, in a measure, new. The principal ideas in all his more noticeable obser- vations are such as he alone has himself excogitated. He is, of course, always addressed by his surname, but, queerly enough, he is rarely .spoken of except a.s "Shaye's brother-in-law"— the Shaye whose brother-in-law he is, or is re- puted to be, being our noted politician of that name, now member of Con- gress for the th District. A few evenings ago I met "Shaye's brother-in- law" at the Club, in street, and as the oi)i)ortunity wa.s tavorable, purposely drew him out upon the subject of the present hard tinus, for I had been sometime desiring to hear his views upon that topic. The .short-baud writer of the Club being in attendance and at leisure. I begged him to take down the conversation, which he consented to do. It is in that way that 1 came by what is here presented to the public. Thinking that what had inter- ested me would interest others, I obtained my friend's permission to have the (conversation published. It should be rather called his iaJl; for my share in it was but insignificant. From the point at which the r('])ovt«T took it, it proceeded a.s follows :] He. A plague of the hard times I I wish we were but well rid of them ! Instead of bettering they ap])(,'ar to be continu- ally worsening. The rock bottom, or bottom rock, which, in — 4- the apprehension of many sagacious people, we have from the first been bound to reach as a necessary first step towards im- provement, seems to sink before us as we descend. To all ap- pearance 'tis a bottomless abyss in which we are sinking ; .or if it have any bottom at all, we are not likely to touch it un- til the country has been thoroughly ruined. /. Tliat is truly an ultra pessimistic view of the situation. Do you think the case past help ? or to put tlie ([uestion in a little dilferent way, is the evil of these hard times such a one as must be left to cure itself? He. Bad as the case is, I think help is to be had for it. I. Where is this possible help to be looked for? He. We mu.st look to ourselves for it. If we make the right* effort to get it, Heaven will send it This evil under which we are groaning, this difficulty, this distress, this embarass- ment, this obstruction, this stagnation, this paralysis, all this, in short, which we call the hard times, while it presents itself on every hand as a terribly real objective fact, has the chief roots pf its continuance in our subject! veness. The panic (that's the name by which we know it best, and we are now, more than ever, having the genuine thing), is prolonging its prevalence upon the support which it obtains in the delusions of our minds, and in our defect of courage. 1. For one thing, you would then recommend "bracing up?" He. Aye, that would T. We are permitting and encourag- ing our disorder to overcome us, by succumbing to it. We are behaving much as would a man who, being attacked by some acute disease which a resolute opposition would enable him to subdue and throw off, should immediately take to his bed, make his will, send for his doctor — but merely to dismiss him again as likely to do no good — and refusing all medicine, resign himself witli deliberate desperation to the anticipation of a speedy dissolution. If a man in that case would order his horse, go himself to his physician for treatment, or throwing "physic to the dogs," take air and exercise with a resolute determination to get well, his chances of recovery would be infinitely nmltiplied. Do you remenilter IJodin in "The Wandering Jew," who "underwent and overcame" a violent attack of the Asiatic Cholera by the simple force of an invincible resolve to live* /. I remember him well ; his "I mmt and will live" belongs in the category of the true sublime, and his example, al- though it occurs in the domain of fiction, is a first rate illus- 4 V — 5— tration of the use of stubbornly resisting disastrous fates, and in general, of stout heartedness, or pluck, under depressing cir- cumstances. But — you speak of making the right effort ; in what direction would you have the effort made? Do you pro- pose any sort of National Legislation as a remedial measure? He. Not if you mean such legislation as we have already had too much of—legislation provoking sensible j)eople to wish the politicians at the devil with their schemes. Take the Silver Bill for instance. The legislation attempted in that is, in my humble opinion, a piece of mischievous tom-foolery, if not worse. What need to disturb the silver question at all at this time? Perhaps it was a great outrage to pass the act of 1873, which left silver a legal tender to the amount of five dollars. But, after all, any act under which silver is a legal tender for any amount, practically answers to make it a legal tender to an in- definite amount. If there had been nothing said about the matter, the government might have gone on coining silver and the country would easily have carried a hundred or a hund- dred and fifty millions of silver money, or perhaps more, es- sentially at par. It is nonsense to talk about demonetizing silver. Silver has been in use in the world for money for probably more than four thousand years, and it cannot be thrust out of use for that purpose by the trumpery enactments of the Legislature of any country. It will always pass every- where for what it is worth in the world's markets, and it can- not be made to pass anywhere for any length of time, by any legislation of any country, for either less, or more. And, not- withstanding all the fuss that is now being made by the agi- tation of the subject, I venture to affirm that there is scarcely a creditor in the country who would not be willing and glad, to receive payment from his debtor to-day in silver at par, whatever the amount of the debt, unless he has a special con- tract for gold, and not a single doubt of his debtor's solvency. What I would be in favor of is, firstly, that the government should immediately announce its readiness to receive for all debts to the government, customs included, either gold or greenbacks, or national bank notes at par; this would make resumption easy for the banks — in fact, it would be resumi)tion accomplished. And, secondly, that Congress should drop all action on the silver question, which would give us as much silver currency as we want, without leaving us in danger of being flooded by it, to the exclusion of gold But this is beside the point. The effort I would have made is one to disabuse the public mind of certain prevailing hurt- — 6— fill miscoDceptioiis of the condition of things, of the nature of the adversity which oppresses the country, and consequently of the kind of remedies to be sought for and adopted. I. And wliat are those misconceptions, and what are the heresies which embody them? He. The chief of them is that which, representing the hard times, to have resulted directly from our extravagance, our fast living and luxury, our overproduction, our excessive im- portations and the like, holds up a rigid economy (it would be better to call it a mean parsimony), in the administration of j)ublic, and private business as the most natural atid most ap- propriate method of making them better. Tliat this })erni- cious error prevails is, perliaps, principally due to those pesti- lent demagogues who, tliinking the cry of economy, economy, retrenchment, reduction, &c., a popular and taking cry and Ciitchword among penurious petty tradesmen, parsimonious small farmers, and hard fisted payers of taxes on city property, have kept it up to the infinite damage of business and the in- definite postponement of a turn for the better in the tide of affairs. This they have done by procuring through their persistent clamor the false ideas thus piomulgated, to be acted upon in our munieipal, state, nnd national administrations of the pub- lic business, and by thus causing an example to b(> set for, and encouragement to be given to the adoption of the same mista- ken policy in private business. /. These remarks convince me that you hold the same opinions as I do, upon the origin of our trouldes. He. Suppose you state your o})inions uj)on that subject. /. What is s(i glibly charged upon the people as extrava- gance, luxury, and fast living, as it had been something crim- inal, was not matter of fault a1 all. It was the natural, pro})- er, and unavoidable resujt of the enormous increase of the vol- ume of the money of the country, made necessary by the wants of the government while engaged in suppressing tJje rebellion. The first, and entirely logical effect of that iji- crease was to advance the price of every commodity which it is the use of money to j)urchase. The money could not other- wise have bedn taken care of. What .'should people have done witli tliree or four thousand millidus of money, or more, all thi'own u[>on them during the space of three or four years, had the iirii'cs of merchandise, and of real estate reanained what they were at the beginning of the war ? Where could so much treasure have been deposited with safety, not to say / protit? The trutli is, that the only place where the vast sum could be banked, and was banked, was in the enhanced price of every sort of })ro})erty but money. For example, I may say thftt in every article which before the war was worth |;l.OOO, and during the war became worth $2 000, there was banked $1 000 of the government issues. The rapid rise in prices begat the greatest activity in business. The merchant bought and sold on i\ continually rising market, and got rich. To supply and replenish the merchants stock, which quick and abundant sales fast exhausted, manufactures were stimulated to an unwonted degree, and speculation became rife on every hand. The wages of labor advanced with equal pace, and as the artisan and the clerk, and the day laborer got higher pay the}^ spent more money. But there is nothing to show that the thrifty and economical were not as thrifty and economical then, as they were before, or as they are now, or ever will be. They got more and they lived better as their incomes were en- larged, and it was their largely increased expenditure that sup- ported the largely increased business of the country. He. T assent to all you say. Will you not go on ? /. A little farther. In one way or another by the building of public works, as railroads, on a large scale, for example, the prosperity, or what seemed to be the prosperity of the nation, was kept up for years after the close of the war. At length the tendency to expansion, which then refused control^ as the tendency to contraction does now, resulted in a stringent money market, — a pretty sure sign that business was being overdone. At last occurred the failure of Jay Cook & Co, which however, had no more significance than that it was the last feather which proverbially breaks the camels back. This failure pricked the bubble of speculation, and that col- lapse ensued under whose still continued crush we are to-day suflering. Then commenced that process of constriction, of contraction, of retrenchment, of reduction, of sparing, saving, and pinching — of economy, in short, (as that term is usually understood,) which has pushed us to our present extremity of distress. Like the glacier, which as it slowly moves down- ward along its destined path, jmshes out of its way every object which it encounters, or crushes it into the earth, or grinds it to }>ov.der, f^o the adversity which we are now ex- periencing is .'^wee])ing away what remains of our former ])rosperity and destroying it. Its track lies over our business interests, and it is crushing and })ulverizing them with the force of annihilation. — 8— He. Can anybody in his senses suppose that this process of contraction can continue indefinitely, without at last com- pletely strangling business, and bankrupting, or im})Overish- ing the majority of our business men, our merchants, me- chanics, manufacturers, and capitalists generally ? It is easy to see how it is going. As men are discharged from employ- ment, as wages are cut down, as private expenditures are re- trenched, so business is curtailed, so house rents fall, so real estate declines in price, so the numbei of tramps, paupers, and dependents upon private assistance increases, so the rate of interest on money lent is diminished, so the deposits in banks that draw no interest at all arc doubled, and redoub- led, so the numbers of failures are multiplied, and so, in fine, distrust, and doubt, and gloomy forebodings of the future abound more and more. Nobody is willing to do anything, to risk anything in any new enterprise, because everybody is expecting to see things come to worse, and the longer it lasts, the worse it will get. What we want is a counter-revul- sion, an upward shove, — something to turn the popular cur- rent of opinion and feeling the other way— something to in- spire hope and courage, and confidence. I. That's what everybody says. What good does it do to say it? He. We must ex])and again, — inflate, — but /. Not the volume of the currency? He. No ; but the price of labor. The inflationists who clamor for more greenbacks are as mad wrong, in my o])in- ion, as the economists, but just now they are not doing near so nmch harm. /. Inflate the price of labor? Would not that be entirely impracticable? Or but, no. You certainly do not favor strikes ? He. Not in general, and never wlu-n the employers ])rop- erty is seized and held by the striker in violation of the owners' rights of possession and management. /. You do not think that the em})loyers of the country • could be induced voluntarily to raise the pay of their em- ployees in any considcrabk- nund)er of instances? You do not think the mnnufacturor is going to })ay the operative higher wages just out of liand, and of free will and accord in cases where, as in many, there arc three operatives wanting places for every two that have got places? With all defer- ence to your wisdom and knowledge, a proi)osition that they sltould do so, or to ask tlicm to do so, would be looked upon — 9- by most persons as sheer nonsense, as idle impertinence, as anything but business. He. Let us look at this matter from a higher stand-point, and take a broader survey. What was it, did you say, that supported the large business of the country during and for years after the war? Was it not chiefly the large expendi- tures of the employed classes, the mechanic, the day laborer, the railroad man, the factory operative, the clerk, the book- keeper, the commercial traveler, the farmers' hired man, the working men, in short, of all descriptions, callings, and pro- fessions? Was it not their large expenditures, — large because their pay was ample, that supported the enormous business of those times? What supports the business of every civilized country in the world, but the spendings of the poor and mid- dle classes of the people ? In this country where there is one man who spends ten thousand doHars a year, there are likely three hundred men who spend each, on an average, one thou- sand dollars a year. There you have three hundred thou- sand dollars yearly expenditure, against ten thousand dollars. So then, we see that the wages of the laboring class, the earn- ings of the men and women in employment, constitute the business field of the country, the market of the manufacturer and the merchant ; that unless the laborer is emj^loyed and well paid, business must languish ; that every blow struck at the price of labor to reduce it, is a direct and damaging blow at every other material interest of the country, and that in order to restore prosperity, and revive business, no means more effectual, or better adapted to that end could be employed, than an arbitrar}' increase of the price of labor. If it be replied to this that employees and especially manufac- turers, and railroad companies, are now paying higher wages than their business will warrant, I answer promj)tly, I do not doubt it. Nevertheless, I as promptly affirm that their busi- ness never will be any better until they do {)ay higher wages, and will continue to grow less and less profitable, and less in amount, as long as they continue to reduce the pay of their men. And I further aver that a combination of all the great employing companies and firms in the country arV)itrarily to advance the wages of their o[)eratives fifteen or twenty per cent, would prove an (.'xcellent stroke of policy, for it would soon display its effects in a large increase of business and in an increased want of, and demand for laborers, and workmen of all descriptions. Why? Because the 15 or 20 percent, advance would at once be laid out in paying debts to, and in —10— buying new "supplios from the merchant, — the merchant find- ing more call for his wares would order fresh stocks from the maimfacturer. Both seeing tlieir business improving would take heart of grace, and things would soon move once more in an upward direction. On the other hand, any one with half an eye can perceive what would be the consecjuence of a gradual, and peisistent reduction of the price of labor to the last extreme. Suppose, for example, it were cut down to the East Indian standard,— to an average of say 20 cents a day,— _ what would become of our business? What would become of the price of property? To what rate would house rents fall ? How many merchants and manufacturers in everv ten we now have, and require, could wc then support ? When we come to that point where the daily wages of the day laborer will only be sufficient to enable him to buy a tincupful of mush for himself and each of his family for the daily fare of each, what rate of interest will money bring, do you suppose, and how long would it be before three-fourths of the cash cai)ital of the country would be transfered to other quarters of the globe in search of better investments? Now we as a people, are pursuing a course, which if followed long enough, will bring ns to just that point, — no man can deny it. (lod forbid our coming much nearer to it! for a near approach to it would inevitably bring u})un us, and justly too, far greater civil calamities than any we have yet experienced. The strikes in which various classes of working men engaged last year, and in whicli those men have shown their keen sense of the impolicy and injustice, because needlessness of the whole- sale reduction of their pay, ought to be a warning to us. The workingmen have an understanding of the matter entirely correct, or if not an understanding, then an instinctive appre- hension marvellously right, and their strikes arc not to be attributed upon the {tart of the grent majority of those engaged in them, either to ignorance or to a desire to make trouble, or to insatiate greed, or to agrarianism, or to lawlessness. / All this sounds well. Your arguments convince me of the truth of your main conclusions, but how would you go to work to give effect to your ideas? He. It would be useless to expect any man to start the movement T have suggested, single-handed. Unless the movement should be a large one, as one made, for instance, by the combined railroad com])anies of the country, or the combined representatives of some of our greatest manufactu- ring interests, it would fail. It is also desirable that working- —11- men should not strike, or violently set themselves directly against their employers. What is wanted is to put an end to the present course of contraction, to cure the prevailing pop- ular frenzy which clamors ceaselessly, and senselessly for economy. This can be done best, I think, by an attack upon that false principle over the backs and shoulders of the poli- ticians, by an attack upon tliose politicians who are trying to make capital among the ignorant by keeping up the cries of retrenchment, reduction, economy, &c. I would like to see all the employed men of the country, irrespective of party, all the men that Mork for daily or monthly wages, or on yearly salaries, combine to memorialize Congress upon this project, I would be glad to see them calling the attention of Congress to the exigencies of the times, in addresses signed by tens of thousands of voters, in addresses setting forth the opinion that the course of so called economy which heretofore for some years has been zealously pursued in the administration of the affairs of the general government, ought to be re- nounced, and abandoned as unwise, and impolitic, because unnecessary, and damaging ;— setting forth the opinion that this, of all times, is the last in which the Government should step forward to increase the public distress by reducing the army and navy, and by discharging clerks and other officers and employees out of the national service ; — setting forth the opinion that which it is not expected nor desired that the government offices should be converted into alms houses, nor their occupants made {pensioners U[)on the ])ublic charity, yet that at the present time, it is both entirely proper and greatly to be desired that Congress should interven? +br the relief of the people by putting forth its hands to tu: 'le tide of false and pernicious opinion ui)on public policv ..iiich is bearing the business interests of the country to destruction, and that Congress can constilntionally and rightfully so intervene by providing to enlist !"),()()() or 20,000 more men into the na- tional army; by providing to build necessary permanent for- tifications upon our coasts, at an expense of ten or twenty millions of dollars, or more; by providing to lay out money freely in the various national navy yards, to build national vessels of war, and in various cities of the country to erect necessary government buildings; — setting forth the opinion that it is the especial duty of government in times like these to take particular notice of the interests of the people, and to exert itself to ])r()tect and promote those interests, and to use the national treasure for that purpose, in all sucli ways and —12— manners as lie within the restrictions and limitations of the Federal Constitution ; — settint^ forth the opinion that the burden of national taxation is not oppressive at present to any citizen, or not to any large number of citizens, and that it is a mischievous misrepresentation, and false, and perni- cious cry of demagogues, to say that it is ; — setting forth the opinion that the taxes levied by stamps on bank -checks and on cigars and liquors can well enough be afforded by those who require those articles ; — setting forth the opinion that as this generation has furnished all the blood which the late civil war made it necessary to shed, and raised and paid more than half the money which was required to carry on and end that war, it is not only not unreasonable, but wholly right and proper to ask Congress to lay out money liberally for national works and purposes to the end and intent of giving an upward impulse to general business: not by the spending of the money itself so much as by setting a good and much needed examjde ; — not so much by giving employment to a few hundred or thousand workmen, as by arresting the atten- tion of the people, giving a new turn to their thoughts, and renewing in them their hope and trust of the future, by show- ing that the government is hopeful and trustful of the future, and willing to risk something upon it. I. That would work if done upon a large enough scale. The suffering interests of the country are rife for such a movement. The party that goes in first for it will come out ahead of all its competitors in the race for popular favor. He. 1 would like to see this done, and also to see the same citizens aad voters begin this year by setting themselves like a rock against all politicians of all grades everywhere, who will not come out openly and al)jure that pseudo-economy which demagogues are forcing the country to practice. Let the working men and business men of the Union everywhere, give the politicians to understand plainly that the wind of popu- larity is hauling to another quarter; that the people no longer stand in need of the services of economists in their City Coun- cils, their State Legislatures, their Federal Congress, nor in any other offices, but want, and are determined to have men for their representatives, and executives, who entertain more liberal views, who jire better capable of understanding the con- dition of the country, and know that the government was made to serve the country, and not tlie country to serve the government, and who will not giudge to see the National Government s{)end two or three liundred millions of dollars, —13— if need be, to right things up, and set them going in the di- rection towards prosperity. This is the string to pull, I am satisfied. /. Yes, and I, too. If the workingmen of the country, and, with them, the business men of the country, will take hold of it, and give it a long and resolute pull, I would not be afraid to guarantee their success. Personal ambition governs everybody at last, and this movement would at length compel every interest of the country to join it. Concluding Note by the Editor. [Our conversation cr.nie rather abruptly to an end with the foregoing sen- tence. Some gentlemen j ust then coming in, we broke off, and it was high time, as the rejiorter was giving signs of weariness. In looking over the text to pre- pare it for the press I have thought it proper to add the following few observa- tions : 1. The statistics of failures to the latest date exhibit nothing to warrant the belief that we are near the end of our financial embarrassments and distresses, but rather prove what was affirmed in the course of the "talk," that the longer the trouble lasts the worse it gets. 2. It seems quite as ridiculous to allow such an evil as that which is afflict- ing us to continue indefinitely, without an earnest effort to put a stop to it by a violent resistance, or a stroke in the opijosite direction, as it would to let a fire continue to burn in a city without trying to put it out. A conflagration of buildings is an evil which will cure itself in time, but not till everything has been burned up within its reach, 3. If our National Government could, by spending e\en two or three hund- red millions of dollars in the way suggested herein, succeed in arresting the present do\vnward course of things, and give them the upward turn which ev- eY-ybody longs to see, it would be a cheap pun^hase of prosperity. 4. Why should not the (Jovernment make the experiment? The expendi- tures would all be for lawful and useful purposes, for strictly coustitutional . purposes. 5. Whose is the Government, and what is it for? And if it were necessary, in order to enable the Government to lay out so much money for the main pur- pose and intent aforesaid, to suspend further payment for some years of the public debt, except of the interest on the same, what generation of citizens is better entitled to ask such suspension and postponenu-nt of payment of the public debt, than this? 6. Lastly: The experinumt, if surc( ssful, would ;u;c.ompliHh the pacifu'ation and mutual reconciliation of the representatives of all the various views of pub- lic policy, which are now contending in Congress and before the i)eople, each for the upper hand. With a turn of the tide sufficient to begin to bring out the idle, unemployed and hidden money of the country for free investment in —14— business, we should cease to hear both the elamor of the Greenbackers, and that of the advocates of the Silver Bill. We would also hear no more, for a long time to come, of railroad strikes, and other strikes. All these jmrties would be pacified, because satisfied. A return of general prosperity would shut their mouths effectually, and the land would have rest.] ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS. These three sentences contain the explanation of what is now going on in the country, viz: "One extreme follows another." "The reaction is e<|ual to the action." The pendulum swings as far to the left hand, as it does to the right. When the crash came in September. 1H78, there was not money enough in the country to meet the demand for money ; in other words, to do the business peo- ple wished to do. It wns the stringency of the money market which brought on the crisis. The cry of the Inflationi.sts I'or more money, if it had prevailed upon the (lOvernment to increa.'. ])rcvailed to postpone the catastro]ihe a little longer. Now, since the crash of 1H7:{, we have been going in the opposite direction, viz: of contraction, for more than four years. With what result? Why, there is to- day mudi more money than the ])eople know what do with, much more money than is, or can be profitably invested. It is desirable that so much business should be done in tht counti-y as to bring into recjuisition all the money in the country at a fair rate of interest. To advance the Avages of labor would bring with it an advance in the pric-es of everything else, and ought to do so. To make it cost more to do the business of the country, would give relief to the country, even though nol)ody made a greater profit on liis business. To reduce wages to what they were before the war, would make it nect-ssary to reduce the cost of living in tlie same projior- tion. The capitalist who is in favor of that, is in favor of reducing the vahie of his real estate in just the same ])roportion. It is not desirable that the price of real estate should be so greatly reduced, since taxes must continue the same in amount as before the panic, to the extent to which taxes must be raised to defray the interest on funded municipal debts. The decline of the value of the real estate whicli must be charged with a certain and invariable yearly sum to defray sucli interest, is e(iuiv:dent to a large incrca.se in the percentage of the tax, and still further damaging to the pric»' of the jtroperty, which ought to be estimat«'d from its annual cl<'ar rental. .\ general ad\ance of the wages of la- bor, if courageously made and stuck to for a few ujonths, could searc»'ly fail to produce, practically, the effect wbieb the (Jreenback i>arty is aiming at. The increa.se, as well a."< the sum increa.sed. would most of it lie laid out at once with the merchants ; the effj-ct, whieli would Ik» \ery encouraging, would ex- tend in\mediately to the manufacturer, and the u])ward tendency of things would be reached, which is so much desired. The railroad interest of the coun- try could inaugurate such a movement suece.ssfully. for that interest is a mo- —15— nopoly, and can arlntravih' fix charges for the transportation of freight and pa.sscngers, within wide limits, and could thus protect i tself against loss in making the movement. The principle upon which such a movement would proceed is that which is expressed in the following proverbs : There is that scattereth and yet that increaseth ; and there is that withhold- eth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. — I'rov. xi : 24. 25. TO THE PUBLIC. A form of a Memorial and Petition to Congress, pursuant of the views and suggestions contained in the brochure entitled, "A Talk with Shaye's Brother- in-I.aA^•,'' occupies the next following pages. Jt is appended for the use of those who wish to make use of it. Fellow Avorkmeu of the printers' craft, and fel- low toilers of cAery craft, if it seems to you a reasonable thing that we should appeal to Congress according to the tenor of that form, the opportunity is be- fore us. Let us improve it immediately. If anybody can suggest a better method of relief, let him do it. So far, none of the doctors of any party has succeeded in doing anything for the patient, except to make him worse. To me there seems nothing improper in «s, and no single firm or company, can be expected to advance the rate of wages, single-handed, at the present time, nor to put more men into emi»loynient than the business of each will warrant. We therefore look t'lr^i to you, our re[)re.senfatives in tlie Congress of the Unittd .States, to take such an initiatory step in that dii-ection, as will .serve -19- for the example and the encouragement of the representative's of the great business interests of the community at large. We feel that this generation, which has borne the toils, losses and hardships of the great civil strife of the years from 1861 to 1865, has a right to ask and expect the government to come forward, in this time of our calamity, with some practical measure of relief. We hold that our troubles have arisen more from a change in our ideas than any change in our circumstances. We have precisely the same country as before the panic, contain- ing just as many equally fertile acres, just as many towns, cities and villages, just as many railroads, telegraphs, postof- fices, highways, rivers, lakes, canals, and other means of com- merce and facilities of business, and just the same intelligent enterprising and industrious people. We have actually lost no material wealth M^hatever, but are ruining ourselves through the prevalence of false ideas of good policy. What we want is a revulsion of opinion, and our government is the proper agent to give the start to that revulsion, by opening a way for the employment of labor. We, therefore, your petitioners, do humbly pray you to pro- vide, by the passage of a bill or bills drawn for that purpose, to enlist several thousand more men into the army and navy of the United States ; to provide to lay out money to the ex- tent of some millions of dollars in the erection of expensive and durable fortifications, lighthouses, and life-saving stations, upon our coast at various points; and to provide, further, for laying out several millions of dollars in improvement of the navigation of the Mississippi river and its principal tributa- taries ; and to jirovide, further, for the lading out of several millions of dollars in the improvement of the harbors on the great chain of Northern Lakes ; and to lay out money to the ex- tent of some millions of dollars in the erection, in places now requiring the .same, of government buildings adapted to the purposes of courts, postoffices, &c., of the United States, and in these and various ways to provide for the laying out of the public treasure for national purposes within the limits and bounds of the federal constitution, to the extent of one, two, or three hundred million dollars, to benefit the country, not so much by the simple expenditure of this money, as by the moral effect which such your action will have in arousing ho[)e and inspiring confidence in the breasts of tlie peo]»le, who will certainly take heart and hope when they see that the o-overnment trusts the future of the countrv, and is not afraid LiBKHKY Uh UUploKtbb —20- 013 787 046 to risk some money upon it. We ask no subsidy for any pri- vate enterprise ; we ask nothing that will involve the cheating of our posterity out of any portion of their national inherit- ance. We ask the use of our own credit and our own treas- ure for the erection of national works and national buildings, and for the effectuation of national purposes, for our present especial benefit in this time of public distress, it is true, but not at all to the loss and impoverishment of the generations which are to succeed us. Finally, we entreat you, in all other ways, by your voice and action, both in and out of Congress, to assist in breaking up and dispelling that frenzy of popular error which is ruin- ing us by persuading us to save in the small while we are de- stroying in the gross, and to this effect your memorialists and petitioners will ever humbly pray.