Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1857-09-18
THE CHRONICLE.
MONDAY. SEPT. IL, 1897.
Hard TimeS--The Remedy.

Hard lllneS-- Inc Rclllc0v.
Every mail brings its news of mercau-
tile suspensions, failures Of bank, and stop
pages of large business establishments. So
serious aud general money pressure, has
not occurred in twenty years at least.
THE CAUSES
are various. Iu the first place, he ,rork;
inys Of our rereHue Tariff arc pro'uci"y
their Gyitimate result. Crops IN the Old
World are this year good, aud less than
usual of our produce will be required.
Yet our purchases Of the luxuries aud So
called ncccssaries Of iifc--of railroad iron
We should make ourselyes-and cur sales
Of various kinds of stocks, bring US many
Millions Of Dollars in debt, yearly, to the
Cd World. This balance We must pay
III specie. Had not California furnished
Us SO much gold, this effect must have
been felt years before it has, and much
more severely too.
Tie building IF Rail,rays and Totrns
at the West, has BEEN too FIST, and mostly
done with means drawn from the East.
Many of these Roads are built twenty
ycars before their day-are bare specula
tons, at the expense Of the East but
those ouce involved in them, draw i'll their
friends to help them through-so that
there is scarcely a town or township In
the Old States that is not annually drained
Of thousands OF money to prop up paste
board Cities aud keep alive insoiyent Rail
way Companies. And most Of the New
State settlers are so intent upon "speeula-
tiOn," that they perform no labor for their
own livelihood -"getting rich or getting
drunk" they are continually eniangllng
their friends by getting them TO advance
more money to make ''eterual fortunes"
BY merely "swapping" corner lots at enor
nous and fictitious prices.-A crash, to
which that of 1897 was but the breeze be-
fore the storm, may be looked for at the
West.
Our ertrardyance increases faster than
our means. Look not only in our cities,
bat all over the land, at the multitude OF
females, young and old, "who toll not ,nei
,her do they spin, and yet Solomon in all
his glory was cot arrayed like one Of them"
Look at the scores of youth and Of men,
on every street and in every neighborhood,
who have no visible means Of support
who add nothing to the aggregate of our
countrys wealth-yet who live well, and
consume the fruits of some one labor A
full perception of the number and Of the
cxpensiveness of the mere idlers, the drones
Of our population, would be amazing. Add
to these the numbers in the various pro-
fessions, trades, exchangers, and other en-
ployments which add nothing to the real
capabilities of the country, and we have
an astounding number of consumers and
non,producers absorbing the earnings and
appropriating to themselves the means Of
those who create and add TO the resources
of the country.
The Credit System is too much extended
by Merchants and Manufacturers, Me-
chanics and all others Not settling often,
men get into debt more than they are
aware of, and thus unexpectedly involved
are unable or unwilling to pay when the
revulslous Of trade make their money most
needed and useful.
THE REMEDIES
Correspond exactly to the diseases. We
should import and consume nothing we can
possibly do without, except SO far as We
can PAY DOWN with our surplus products.
In this way, balance could be kept up
without continual drain upon our specie.
We should not build a rod of Railway
with British iron or by British money.
All public works which eat up the first
stocks at the outset, and give them to second
holders for nothing, should be avoided.
Railways that can not be built without
putting themselves under the thumbs of
capitalists, should be postponed until they
can raise means safely. Starting cities
before there is country to support them,
Asa mat on borrowed capital" should be
"D1aaoned, and let the country build up