Of course I knew little about finance, and could not answer the Nebraskan.
But had he advocated the free and unlimited coinage of pig-iron I could have talked him into a gasping hysteria.

For, we mill fellows figured that this was exactly what Bryan's money theory amounted to.

His farmer friends had borrowed gold money from the bankers, spent it in drought years plowing land that produced nothing, and then found themselves unable to pay it back.

They wanted to call silver and paper cash and pay the debt with this new kind of money.

He wanted a money system by which a farmer could borrow money to put in his crop, then having failed to raise a crop (I have mentioned the great drought years) could yet pay back the money.