The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII | Page 4

in art is in front of us; that mankind has been
advancing, that we did not come from a perfect pair and immediately
commence to degenerate. The modern painters and sculptors are far
better and grander than the ancient. I think we excel in fine arts as
much as we do in agricultural implements. Nothing pleased me more
than the painting from Holland, because they idealized and rendered
holy the ordinary avocations of life. They paint cottages with sweet
mothers and children; they paint homes. They are not much on
Ariadnes and Venuses, but they paint good women.
Question. What did you think of the American display?
Answer. Our part of the Exposition is good, but nothing to what is
should and might have been, but we bring home nearly as many medals
as we took things. We lead the world in machinery and in ingenious
inventions, and some of our paintings were excellent.
Question. Colonel, crossing the Atlantic back to America, what do you

think of the Greenback movement?
Answer. In regard to the Greenback party, in the first place, I am not a
believer in miracles. I do not believe that something can be made out of
nothing. The Government, in my judgment, cannot create money; the
Government can give its note, like an individual, and the prospect of its
being paid determines its value. We have already substantially resumed.
Every piece of property that has been shrinking has simply been
resuming. We expended during the war--not for the useful, but for the
useless, not to build up, but to destroy--at least one thousand million
dollars. The Government was an enormous purchaser; when the war
ceased the industries of the country lost their greatest customer. As a
consequence there was a surplus of production, and consequently a
surplus of labor. At last we have gotten back, and the country since the
war has produced over and above the cost of production, something
near the amount that was lost during the war. Our exports are about two
hundred million dollars more than our imports, and this is a healthy
sign. There are, however, five or six hundred thousand men, probably,
out of employment; as prosperity increases this number will decrease. I
am in favor of the Government doing something to ameliorate the
condition of these men. I would like to see constructed the Northern
and Southern Pacific railroads; this would give employment at once to
many thousands, and homes after awhile to millions. All the signs of
the times to me are good. The wretched bankrupt law, at last, is wiped
from the statute books, and honest people in a short time can get plenty
of credit. This law should have been repealed years before it was. It
would have been far better to have had all who have gone into
bankruptcy during these frightful years to have done so at once.
Question. What will be the political effect of the Greenback
movement?
Answer. The effect in Maine has been to defeat the Republican party. I
do not believe any party can permanently succeed in the United States
that does not believe in and advocate actual money. I want to see the
greenback equal with gold the world round. A money below par keeps
the people below par. No man can possibly be proud of a country that

is not willing to pay its debts. Several of the States this fall may be
carried by the Greenback party, but if I have a correct understanding of
their views, that party cannot hold any State for any great length of
time. But all the men of wealth should remember that everybody in the
community has got, in some way, to be supported. I want to see them
so that they can support themselves by their own labor. In my judgment
real prosperity will begin with actual resumption, because confidence
will then return. If the workingmen of the United States cannot make
their living, cannot have the opportunity to labor, they have got to be
supported in some way, and in any event, I want to see a liberal policy
inaugurated by the Government. I believe in improving rivers and
harbors.
I do not believe the trans-continental commerce of this country should
depend on one railroad. I want new territories opened. I want to see
American steamships running to all the great ports of the world. I want
to see our flag flying on all the seas and in all the harbors. We have the
best country, and, in my judgment, the best people in the world, and we
ought to be the most prosperous nation on the earth.
Question. Then you only consider the Greenback movement a
temporary thing?
Answer. Yes; I do not believe that there is anything permanent in
anything