The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-04-10
Hard Times Ahead.


The New York Journal Of Commerce, OF
q recent date, warns its readers to pre-
pare for general crisis in business, ow'
ing to the large imitation of prices, and
the coming sudden fall thereof. Itthinks
that no shock of events can finally stay
the ebbiug tide. The danger, in its opin-
ion, consists in the fact that when the
revulsion comes it will find the majority
unprepared. 1t offers the following sug-
gestions with view of preparing the
thoughtful reader for the financial crisis
approaching:
j. A financial crash itself is not the
worst possible termination to an infla-
ton. As the danger of breaking limb
is to the probability ola chronic disease,
so is a financial crash compared to the
wasting hamilton of a gradual collapse.
2. The loss of real or fancied accumn-
lations is not serious when it does not
impair the capacity for labor. The great
secret of the marvellous elasticity which
the people of this country have shown
III recovering from certain depressions of
business is to be found in this fact, that
the great majority are qualified for some
class of labor. In this country the dis.
tinction of classes is less strongly mark.
ed, and success dignifies any calling. 1t
is true that the hours of labor in the flu
ture arc to be heightened greatly by the
pressure of taxation. 1.-THE national debt
is assumed for this generation, at least t,ro
hours per- day ,sill be added to eray mans
toll But while unoccupied land is abun-
daut, meme need suffer for life's necessa-
ries who are disposed to eat their bread
in the sweat of their face Besides, the
tax on labor must ere long be lightened
by change in the style of living. This
may be done without abridging personal
or social comfort. A large part of the
expenditure of families, who are raised
above the pressure of immediate want, is
for mere display. The necessity which
limits the qualification of this vanity
will not prove an unmitigated evil. The
avenues to temptation have been greatly
multiplied by the effort to maintain an
appearance of grandeur, without the af-
fuence which it is intended to represent
Most of this, of necessity, will be swept
away, and the people be taught the com
fort of simplicity.
B. The great object for all to keep be
fore them, in view of Improbable future,
10 freedom from entangling engagements.
The crash or collapse must come. and the
consequent shrinking of every mans
nominal capital is inevitable. One of
the great mysteries to those who have
congratulated themselves on their accu-
INFLATED fortunes, will be what has be-
come of their supposed wealth. They
have succeeded in the majority of their
speculations; they have met with no di.
rect losses; and yet they cannot lay their
hands upon the meaus they thought were
90 indisputably their own. The shrink
ing Of value after a financial imitation
leaves no record of its expungent pro
cess, aud is certain to disappoint the
hopes even of the cautious and prudeDt
Debts will not shrink with the means OF
discharging them, and many man, who
might save asnug capital from the wreck
if he were not thus fettered, will come
out of the trial with nothing about him
but the burden of obligation.
IR.a ~