e not a
dollar to aid honest industry to maintain self-respecting manhood by
engaging in works which would add immensely to the real wealth of the
nation.

And, again, before pointing out how this money could be raised, I would
call attention to the fact that this cry is by no means a new one. It
was raised, and with much more show of foundation, during the dark hours
of the early sixties, but the great Civil War exploded the fallacy. One
would think that in the presence of the stupendous facts connected with
the conduct of our Civil War, even if the question of the value to the
state of an independent, contented, and prosperous manhood should be
left out of consideration, the shallowness of the objection would be so
apparent that it would have no weight with thoughtful persons. Let us
not forget that there was a time in the history of our country when the
Treasury of our government was empty, a time of great national peril
when gold had fled across the seas or into the vaults of the bankers
and usurers, as it ever flees in time of danger, when public credit was
greatly impaired by the presence of war within our borders and a strong
probability that even if the national government escaped overthrow a
large number of the States would become an independent nation. In this
crisis we had men in charge of the government who were statesmen, men
great enough to rise to the emergency of the hour. Now, if we were able
under such conditions to carry to a successful termination the most
expensive and memorable civil war of modern times by the aid of the
greenback, surely there would be no risk in resorting to a similar
medium of exchange for the carrying on of a work which would immediately
add to the nation's resources and free from the bondage of involuntary
idleness a large army of men who are now a burden to society and a
danger to stable government.

If, however, the fiction by which bondholders enslave the people still
holds such power over our legislators and the public mind that the
menace of the growing army of unemployed, the injury to the state by the
enforced degradation of her children, and the continued unproductivity
of both soil and industry must go on unless a concession is made, it
would be wiser to make the concession than to let the crime against
manhood continue. I therefore suggest that bonds on the land to be
reclaimed be issued to the amount of the national notes used for these
great works in redeeming th