The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-01-23
Newspaper Opinions Before and Aftxs che
Crlsls.

on the entertainment they must derive from
perusal of the comments now appearing in on
contemporaries, abroad and at home, ON the sub
ject Of the revulsion. We know Of no coined,
at any Of the theatres which mght to be pro
ductive of so much merriment. 1t is always al
edifyine spectacle to see man eat his words
but when that astronomical feat is accompa
MED by pompous denunciatitn of his owl
former acts and sayings the sight becomes rar,
indeed.
1t is within the memory of every genera
newspaper reader that during he spring and
summer of last year we repeatedly warned thu
public that there was trouble alead We pub
lished elaborate reviews of tn, trade of the
port, showing that our importaious were I'M
duly heavy, and that decline il the value Of
our staple products would caue very grave
mischief. We appealed to the importers of 70.
reign dry goods and Injuries to moderate their
orders, if not for their own SAX, (the market
was tending to a glut then) at east for the
credit of the country, which would suffer if they
failed. We submitted to the banks that the
course of excessive expansion which they were
pursuing was calculated to lead to frightful
reaction when the time came-asit must come
for them to contract. Above all. we de-
voted attention to those overgDwn railroad
corporations which had become at one and
the same time, the chief fcus of spe-
culation, the chief borrowers of money,
and the controlling agents of he financial
and in many parts of the plitical COM
munity. We showed deliberately hat the bulk
Of these corporations were unsourl and insol-
vent, doing bad business as carrirs and COM
hitting heinous frauds as financial institutions.
We proved that very few out ofthe number
could earn the dividends they pid: that no
concern could borrow money at tie rates they
paid, and do a profitable business; hat their re-
ports were fSllacious, many of thG statements
false in fact and their suppressionsof the truth
enormous. From these premises w'argued that
breakdown in railway securities vas at hand;
and considering the condition ofthe general
commerce of the country, and the Inflated state
of things produced by six years product of
gold, we stated that ii was probble that the
collapse in the railway world migf be the &C.
casiOn of or coincident with revision among
the general business community.
These views were set forth, repeaedly, in the
HERALD throughout the first thre-quarters of
last year. There are persons whcan we'll re-
member them, having saved thousaIls by acting
upon them at the time. There are others.
again, who will recollect them est by the
hubbub they created and abuse the drew down
upon the HERALD by the newspapers of the
whole commercial world
The key note was given in ths city. The
theory here was that this journl was in the
pay of stockholders who wand to make
money by breaking down the took market;
and that the sole design of the HRAID in pre-
dieting the revulsion was to hip these fell
lows make little money. This absurd stuff
was frequently repeated here, and re-echoed not
only throughout this country tut across the
Atlantic to the chief commercial organs of
every leading country. Ever, NAL from
Europe brought some frantic deuncation Of
the HERALD and its editor as a rcklss stock
jobber bent on running his countr: I, make
few thousand dollars. As for the papers here
they were crazy with rage. No abuse was
strong enough for their hate anofiry; they
actually proposed to lynch the eifor of this
paper because he would persist iforeseeing
trouble ahead. Certain weekly !urnals in
Europe gave pen and ink portrah of him,
representing him as an ogre VIII lived on
rapine and murder, and who was ne engaged
in running all the American railr,ds in the
ordinary course of his business.
Amid all this clamor, the HERALD ersevered
steadily in its course, noting facts, diving con-
illusions, and warning the public. A last, the
first heavy drops Of the thunder shotr began
to fall; the railroads began to bnk down;
there was no question that there wan earth
quake. Then the newspapers chayed their
cue and said that the HERALD haduused the
breakdown. All over the commeual world.
the cry was that that terrible paperle HERALD
had actually succeeded in smashing thousand
millions worth Of property with "a articles.
Still, the revulson went on, spreadg, WIDEN
ing, extending. Very soon, the disco left the
railways, and attacked the merchantsnd banks.
What was now TO he said? The newspers had
not the brass to pretend that we ht broken
banks and merchants as well as raihys; yet
the facts were there, just as we ha pretold
them. The papers. abroad as well az home,
took the prudent course ofholding theiiongues.
No more abuse appeared about the HALp; no
more gable about stockjobbing: no me nom
sense about the ogre and his ferocious,stncts.
Eating humble pie, noiseessly an shame
facedly, the organs of the commercial ,rld left
us a monopoly of the direction of public
mind.
Latterly, they evince symptoms of ,covery,
and begin again to discuss the revul,n. But
their roar, now, is like a sucking doIs You
shall find all their ideas in last year HERALD.
They are ashamed q their sorry pyht; their
attitude sits uneasily upon them; sd of them
seem TO be In mortal dread lest we shld over
whelm them by republishinp their M wars |