The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1857-10-23
From the n. Y. Tribune.
Mercantile credit.

Mercantile credit.
The towering fabric OF Mercantile Credit
lies in ruins, and its crash 10 destined to shake
the civilized world. Nowhere has this Cred
II been 80 distended, 30 bloated, ~ with us,
and nowhere will it fall cause such perva-
ding disaster but its ramifcations are every
where, and its downfall must everywhere be
felt.
We must not be deceived by superficial APP
pearnnces. To say that the banks have fail
ed, would be to state the case untruly, de-
ceptively. The banks OF the Older States
are about all pertaining to our late balloon
Of Mercantile Credit that has not collapsed.
Hardly anybody capable of owning hundred
dollars' worth Of property that he wants to
sell, would not be very glad to exchange it
o-day for average bank notes; specie only
is Of greater value than they. Those who
have really failed, and whose failure hos in
volved nearly all others, are the farmers,
mechanics, laborers and spectators or idlers
OF the interior, and especially of the far
West, who owe ten to Thousand dollars
each to the merchants of whom they buy
cloth, tea ard sugar, which they are unable
or unprepared to pay, and their Insolvency
reaches through the jobber, the importer,
the banks, &C., even to Europe, aud will
draw down stately and venerable houses in
London, Birmingham and Lyons. The az
gregate Of those unpaid store bills amounts
to Hundreds OF Millions Of Dollars, and the
whole rests on this city as = fulcrum, but
presses heavily on every side. New England
could probably pay all she owes il sho could
obtain pay from those who owe her; New
York could do as we'll il not better Penn
sylvana and some other States perhaps as
we'll but the fearful burden OF Western and
Southern indebtedness weighs down all to-
gether. There is hardly merchant report.
cd ''as suspended" or 'sfailed" in our city
who has not many more dollars due him than
he owes; but those who owe him cannot col
lect from their customers theI efore, cannot
pay him; therefore, he cannot pay and the
weight Of this mountain OF insolvency has
broken down att that is beneath il.
We insist that this great lesson shall not
be mis-read. The loafers in ten thousand
bar-rooms, who are to-day cursing the banks
as broken, have themselves caused whatever
there may be Of bank insolvency, by buying
food and clothes for their families at the
neighboring stores, and not paying for them
when required. Foreign debt, Railroad loans
Bank circulation, all could be readily met
but for this labyrinth Of mercantile insolven.
cy, which stretches from Pembina and 4
paso to the banks Of the Thames and thu
Rhine. -
We urge the utmost forbearance and con-
siderution with regard to existing indebted
ness. Let the banks, the merchants, tn
debtors Of merchants, have all reasonable
tinie allowed them TO get into solvent po-
sition. Haste, rapacits, panic, would only
destroy assets, widen desolation, and inten
sify calamity. Let the ruins be cleared ava,
patiently, savingly but let the burnt ohil'
retain some wholesome and Christening rec
election Of the FIRE. Credit there will ever
be, because there should be !; paper currenc
there will ever be, because that is the cur
rency OF civilization, commerce and faith ii
man; but credit for merchandise by New
York to Minnesota or Texas; credit to any
and every stranger who comes from a littl,
town two thousand miles away with such let
ters OF recommendation as everybody writei
! for anybody--thi must henceforth cease
unless our merchants ore in love with ruin
IL ought to be the very first inquiry respect
ing merchant wanting credit Of importers
commission houses or banks--.sDoes he sol
goods on time out Of the city 2''-and, If b
does, that should be reason enough for re
fusal. Our city will lose City per cent. 0
ali that is nos due her for goods sold o,
credit to retailers. Is not that enough?
| not, let tho fact that she must wait inconve
nently for good part of the other hal
prove conclusive.
Why should the farmer sell his produc,
for anything but ready pay9 Why shout,
he buy goods any faster than he can pay FOL
them? Why should rich State like Ohie
owe half it's current crop to the seaports p
Why should planters and farmers obtail
cash on delivery for their cotton and wool
yet buy their cotton and wooden fabrics OF
creditp Why should the West owe the East
Or the seaboard owe Europe? Fcllow.suf.
ferers by this terrible revulsion let US full,
resolve that we will not have suffered il
vain