The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1866-01-11
financial.
Breakers Ahend.

=. -I ~ '""N iNl llliUE put :
iicaiion, Hlpcrs Weekly, warns the
people that there arc breakers ahead,
and lchovcs them 10 be Garrett IL
Read It for il contains volume ol
good aoyice to the American rcorlC
q, this time; I'VE must be yer,
careful what we are about. The i'm.
Iportations last week amounted TO over
s6 100000, gold valuation. In the
five and a half months which have
expired Of thocurrcnt fiscal year. they
amount to Si27 100000 for III,
whole fiscal year, ending the 30th ot
June next, they will not be less than
2j0,00O,COO. This is at The port o
New York alone, aud is over an,
above ali importations at Boston
Philadelphia, Baltimore, fronticl
ports, Sc.
"Now, tho country has just gon,
through an cxhausting four years
war. The war has cost nearly So,
I00n,000, 600 just that sum has been
spent, lost, sunk. by that sum the
nation is poorer than il was before
the war began. Yet it seems that We
can afford TO spend more money than
ever on foreign importations-thougl
the duty on such importations is from
/ . TO % per cent. heavier than it
used 10 be- aud the customs revcrue
is averaging half q million in gold
each working day.
"rhe seeming onomoly will not
bear examination. We can not afford
to spend the money We are spending
on foreign importations. We could
not afford it if goods wcro at old
prices; and in fact, we are so raven
Gus for foreign goods that wcarc pay.
! ing two and three prices to the man
uiacturcrs Of England, Germany and
France for the goods they arc send !
ing ui. Foreign manufacturers ulc
all growing rich at our expense, aud
are so busy that they decline new or
dcrs. If, instead of spending four
years in wastcful war-which cost
us about $40 per head per annum for
each of the four years-wc had been
industriously engaged in productive
labor, and had been practising due
economy the while, we could barely
afford the extravaganza in which we
are now induleing.
"Unlcss something occurs to check
the present spcndthrift tendency of
the people OF tho United States, the
collapse predicted by Mr.. McCulloch
may be upon us before the two years
of expansion he expects shall have
clap .ed.
alt is of nations as of men. A man
may wear bold front, and keep NJ
appearances long after his substance
has departed from him. So long n,
the bank discounts his paper he con
tinucs to enjoy credit, and to posses,
80 much money that the world sus
poets not his losses. But, sooner on
later, the truth leaks out, and he is
confessed a bankrupt. The people of
the United States are net get bank
rupt, but they have lost so much
money in the last four years that
nothing but severe economy and a
sedulous prosecution of productive
industry for years to come san pre-
vent tleir becoming bankrupt ere
long.
"Grcat wars boget commercial re-
vulsions. The British wars sgainsl
Napoleon were followed by the com
mercial collaps. of 1919; our war Of
lSl2-'l4 by the collapse of 1S1G-17 /;
the Crimcan war by the collapse OF
1867. Historians explain each OF
thesc collapses on different principles
and from their reasoning it would
seem that the reyulsions did not
necessarily result from the wars, but
were the fruit of other and distinct
causes. This may be; but it is i
curious commercial coincidence, that
in this commercial age great war;
have invariably been followed by Sc
yere commercial crisis; and as of all
transactions wars are the most waste
ful of human industry and the pro
ducts Of labor, it is not unrea on
able to suspect that the coincidence i
not purely accidental.
SIN the year 1856 and in the early
part of 1857 warnings were not want
ing of the inevitable consequences Of
the overtrading then in progress
The crisis Of 1857 was foretold many
times before it came. But no one
listened to Cassandra. Every thing
was serene. Importers could not i'm
port goods enough for the jobbcrs.'-
could not keep stock enough
for their dealers. Dealers could moi
supply the public fast cnough--that
public which had its pockets full Of
railway bonds and stocks, mercantile
paper, and otker paper evidences of
a