New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-06-06
gem edmns gsig easesn sveanesdag guoaag gan 1856

more adventurous and less serupulous to exercise
controlling influence in times of menaced reyul.
sion; they can only take care of themselves and
the houses in which they are directly interested
ln period of long continued prosperity credit
/ is substituted for actual cash with more and more
facility. Merchants become Indifferent to losses
So long as on unsupported condition gives them
credit with banks, and the managers of the latter
are but too willing to swell their discounts at con
stantly Increasing risks The facility of borrowing
is increased by the readiness of the representa-
yves OF supposed capital to endorse notes for a
| stipulated per centage. Speculative purchases of
stoeks and shares become more and more FREQUENT
until prices become inflated. Paper promises in
various forms take the place of money, swelling
the volume of the currency enormously and in.
creasing all prices in the same proportion. The
whole framework of commerce and finance
becomes structure of credits until the wheels of
business move over a trestle-work of trembling
and rotten timber. Merchandise and all forms of
property fuctuate in their nominal valuations As
they are tossed from hand to hand by speculators.
Stocks, notes, bonds, shares and house lots ba
come the mere counters of the brokers' gambling
tables All for time, it may be for years, wears
show OF prosperity, and while industrial pursuits
are carried on without interruption, few of the
very shrewd or the very bold make real fortunes
from dealing in fctious on fictitious capital.
by and byssome heavy speculator becomes un.
fortunate in his gambling and is obliged to state
that he oweS$everal millions more than he is able
to pay HIS failure draws down Others whose
credit was on his paper, and each failing
house has l teltes which sink with it
into the abys Bankruptcy The fair but to o
trusting merchant is involved in the ruin. The
banks, always prompt to withhold help when most
needed, contract their issues and suspend their
loans, swapping the cords of overstretched credit
by sudden curtament, From fictitious inha.
ton prices of all kinds of property rapidly de-
cline The confding dealer finds too late that his
deprecated assets are less than his liabilities,
gloom as OF midnight oYer-clouds the whole busi.
ness commonwealth, and the shock and crash OF
the panic reaches every class ana Affects every
industrial pursuit. Although it may be of short
duration its destructive effects are as sn5den ANA
disastrous as those Of tornado or an earthauake
Inc worst Of il all is that there is no escape
from these disasters, because as We have said |
mankind VIII not learn and never have learned
rom experience A half dozen Of crises occurring I
within twenty years viii not teach due circum.
spechon and caution in business, nor prevent the !
nhauon Of ofcurrency nor any of the evils of exces. I
i've credit The young men of another generation
FllIfollow the example but not heed the warnings
u their fathers, but tread the same aowery and
seductive path Of credit and speculation until tbey
umble pell-nell into the same slough oflbank-t
uptey. Only few wise men will build their
louses on the solid rock, while the multitude
making haste to be rich at the expense of limo i
ence, will build upon the drifting sand.