The present world is not recognizable when put side by side with the world into which the Puritan came.  I am not here to urge a return to the Puritan life; but have you forgotten that the Puritans came into a new world?  The conditions under which they came were unprecedented conditions to them.  But did they forget the principles on which they acted because the conditions were unprecedented?  Did they not discover new applications for old principles?  Are we to be daunted, therefore, because the conditions are new?  Will not old principles be adaptable to new conditions, and is it not our business to adapt them to new conditions?  Have we lost the old principle and the old spirit?  Are we a degenerate people?  We certainly must admit ourselves to be so if we do not follow the old principles in the new world, for that is what the Puritans did.

Let me say a very practical word.  What is the matter now?  The matter is, conceal it as we may, gloss it over as we please, that the currency is in a sad state of unsuitability to the condition of the country.  That is the fact of the matter; nobody can deny that; but what are we going to do?  We are going to have a new tariff.  I have nothing to say with regard to the policy of the tariff, one way or the other.  We have had tariffs, have we not, every few years, ever since we were born; and has not the farmer become discontented under these conditions?  It was the effort to remedy them that produced the silver movement.  A new tariff may produce certain economic conditions; I do not care a peppercorn whether it does or not, but this is a thing which we have been tinkering and dickering with time out of mind, and in spite of the tinkering and dickering this situation has arisen.  Are we going to cure it by more tinkering?  We are not going to touch it in this way.  Now, what are we going to do?  It is neither here nor there whether I am a protectionist, or for a tariff for revenue, or whatever you choose to call me.  The amount you collect in currency for imports is not going to make any difference.  The right thing to do is to apply old principles to a new condition and get out of that new condition something that will effect a practical remedy.  I do not pretend to be a doctor with a nostrum.  I have no pill against an earthquake.  I do not know how this thing is going to be done, but it is not going to be done by having stomachs easily turned by the truth; it is not going to be done by merely blinking the situation.  If we blink the situation I hope we shall have no more celebrations in which we talk about our Puritan ancestors, because they did not blink the situation, and it is easy to eat and be happy and proud.  A large number of persons may have square meals by having a properly adjusted currency.