The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1873-10-01

comes freighted with accounts of
fresh disaster. If it were not so
serious. it would be laughable to
read the cheerful editorials, the Ia
bored attempts they make to show
that their long columns of financial
news do not mean much-really.
Some say this trouble has been
long anticipated, and some of those
not concerned with flashing the news
over the country consider the finan-
cial difficulty deeper and more seri-
Gus than the papers allow, and attri-
butte it chiefly to railroad projects.
The New York Erening Post says;
Nevertheless, there is something
more than a senseless panic in Wall
street; the loud squealing does not
come altogether from one or two
poor pigs that have been accidental
" caught in the fence; it has deep
er cause than the temporary embar
rassment of this or that firm, or this
or that railroad company. One of
the most immediate and obvious of
these causes is the extent TO which
we have invested our funds in non
paying railroad enterprises that con-
tinue to cry "Give, give" when there
is nothing more to give. During the
last four years we have undertaken
to construct and equip $4,000 miles
Of railroad, involving an outlay Of
nearly S6O0,0OO,00O, of which a con-
siderable part cannot for years bring
in any return.
A profounder and more powerful
cause Of the crisis, however, is TO be
sought in the condition of the cur
rency, which, consisting exclusively
of paper, it is impossible to render
stable and worthy of trust. All eX-
perience-and it has been a broad,
impressive and lasting experience
shows that you can no more rely
upon an inconvertlble paper as a
medium of exchange, than you can
upon an Arctic foe for permanent
habitation. All the civilized nations
that have been through great wars,
domestic or foreign, have tried the
experiment, but always with disas-
trOuS result.
Is this present outbreak, as some
of the papers phrase it, "the begin
ming Of the end" or only a transient
spasm, which will pass off of itself!
Thus far it would seem to be merely
the latter. The dOwnfalls have been
confined to those who for years past
have been riding on imaginary rail
roads. But whether the ruin will
extend further no one is prepared to
say, because it depends upon contin-
gencies that it is almost impossible
to foresee. The general commerce
Of the country is as sound as it can
be on the fuctuating basis we have
provided for it. The crops have
been good, the markets are active,
and, though money! is high and scarce.
we have as yet no unfavorable reports
from the banks; all which are favor
able signs.
In the midst of so much conflict
ing opinion and feeling as the pa
pers show over this panic, as it is
called, there seems to be a very gen
eral approval of the Presidents con-
duct in refusing to be drawn, official
ly, into the vortex Of financial calam-
ity. The Buffalo Express says;
The sober second thought and the
calm judgment of President Grant
were never more to be commended
than in the present crisis. His firm.
ness i'll refusing to tamper with the
currency has hastened the restora.
ton of firm confidence as much az
any other event. When urged by
many Of the most skilled capitalists,
backed by Vanderbilt's own personal
offer Of ten millions, he refused to
commit such an illegal act Of power
We are aware that competent legal
authority has since pronounced that
his first advisory step would have
been proper, but the second course
pursued by the President, has been
infinitely better.
|