The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1857-05-06

a Coon ARTicLE.-A gentleman of
our acquaintance has handed us, request.
ing republication, the following article
Did we know in what Journal it origi.
nally appeared, we would give proper
credit but neither our friend nor our.
selves can trace it:
Land Speculoti0ns in the ucst-
Their Influence Here-Thc extent to
which spectators in land have been car.
ried in the West, cannot fail to exercise
an influence, sooner or later, even here
To use an old smile. the financial world
is like placid lake, with stone dropped
in it disturbs it moro or less. over all its
surface, however remote. Already, in
fact, the debts due to Eastern merchants
from many quarters of that vast and
growing section have failed to be liqli.
dated at maturity, because the farmers
and other customers of the Western
shopkeepers, being embarked beyond
their means in land speculalions have
not been prompt in paying their semi
annual bills The nearer regions of thu
West have been the first to exhibit this
deficiency, for it has been from them
principally that the money for these
spcculations has been taken, and tho ac.
tors in them have gone, AS this state
Of things is not new, as we are without
parallel to it in the past, we may al
most certainly predict what is to follow.
For prosperous as the West is specu-
latiou cxaggerates that prosperity. Over
large portions of that thriving region
prices range according to its supposed
future wants, not according to its present
ones 1u Chicago lands will, today,
bring more money than in corresponding
situations in Philadelphia, Boston or
New York yet scores of persons are
anxious to purchase, Notwithstanding
these enormous prices n hope of still
further advance. Thus speculation slim
ulates itself. A fictitious value to prop.
erty is thus kept up. and will be till the
bubble bursts. Hundreds who are
shrewd enough to see the false character
of prices, nevertheless are embarked in
speculations, believing that they will be
able to sell before the revulsion cons
mences. and saying "after me the deluge
To carry on these transactions means
must be had and hence money is at
three, four and six per cent per month.
Honest debts are neglected 10 order to
gamble in lands Adventurous capital.
lists, who have gone from the East are
doubling their fortune every two years,
mainly by lending at usurious rates,
with mortgages for colla,efals
1t requires no long argument to dc.
monstra,e that this state Of things can.
not last always. The bursting Of the
bubble is simply question of time.
And when the revulsion comes, the East
will be the sufferer though moro limo.
cent than the West. There was a period
which men of forty or upwards still re.
member, VIII en- what is occurring 10 Min.
nesota, Iowa, and other parts of the now
far west, took place in Indiana, Illinois
and Missouri, period during which
lands were run up to fictitious and spec.
ulalive prices, and after which they fell
for long years, by natural reaction, to
prices below their actual worth Thou.
sands even in the East were ruined by
these fearful times. There will be thou.
sands now, if they do not take hee d in
season, We are no alarmists. But we
should be false to our position as con.
scientious journalists, if we did not warn
the public, five did not speak boldly out
The contagion Of speculation, which has
thrown the West into a financial fever,
is extending even to our Eastern cities,
and justly alarms all cautious aud re-
hecting men.