"To  say  that  over  six  per  cent  interest  on  time
loans  shall  be  unlawful  and  shall  bring  down  the
penalty   of   forfeiture   or   imprisonment^ — while


464 THE  MAGNET

loans  on  call  can  lawfully  be  made^  as  is  often
done,  at  rates  sometimes  as  high  as  one  hundred
per  cent  per  annum  —  is  so  ridiculous  that  it
needs  only  to  be  stated  to  excite  general  derision.
''It  is  not  my  intention,  Mr.  President,  to  inveigh
against  any  class  of  men  nor  to  excite  undue
alarm.  I  believe  in  the  future  of  this  country.
Most  people  are  honest  and  honorable.  But  the
searchlight  should  be  made  to  reveal  the  evil
growths  in  politics,  in  finance  and  in  business,
that  we  may  cut  them  out  —  not  leave  them  to
endanger  the  health  and  happiness  of  that  splendid
body  of  citizens  who  are  causing  this  great  land  of
liberty  and  opportunity  to  oveifiow  with  blessings
the  Uke  of  which  all  past  history  has  failed  to
produce..
''But  these  great  blessings  should  be  enjoyed
by  the  producers  creating  diem  —  the  masses  of
the  American  people.    Is  this  to  be  the  case?

"At  the  demand  of  the  world  of  finance,  gold
was  made  the  measure,  the  standard,  of  value.
Billions  of  dollars  of  government,  state,  county,
municipal,  railroad  and  industrial  bonds,  debts
with  fixed  interest  rates,  scattered  through  this
and  foreign  countries,  are  now  spedficaUy  payable
in  gold.
