Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-10-02
Wall Street and Washington.


As the panic continues and the facts
behind it begin to appear, the COM
munity is inclined to investigate the
causes of the financial commotion and
to apply the obvious moral to the case.
The incident directly leading to the
catastrophe seems to have been the
inability of the firm of Joy Cooke e.
Co. to carry any longer their loans on
Northern Pacific Railroad bonds.
They had reason to expect Govern
ment aid, but the Credit Mobilier
crash of the last session indefinitely
deferred their hopes. The Northern
Pacific is an enterprise that was never
called for by the people, who are now
tied up by Congress to the payment
of the interest on its worthless bonds.
1t was 4 scheme of spectators, who
amassed fortunes from the construc-
ton of its first length Of two hundred
and fifty miles. Beyond Minnesota it
has no constituency in the form of
present or prospective population to
sustain it. II drew the breath of life
only when the Government endowed
it with a subsidy of forty seven million
acres Of land, and upon the Govern
ment it relies. The inducements that
secured such an enormous grant of the
public lands to railroad that was not
called for may be as accurately imagin-
ed as described in the case of a Con
gress that was bearing the odous load
Of one Credit Mobilier transaction al
ready The subsidy business ought
to have received its death-blow by
this financial event. The paternal
system of government is no better for
railroads than Tor communities. 1t js
that system, however, which fosters
the speculative spirit that for years
has been rampant and riotous, obstruc-
ting the legitimate and steady bust
ness Of the country. 1t has been the
ally Of Wall street, and was practical
ly as much in collision with it as if it
were itself engaged in locking up gold
and greenbacks. Mr.. Boutwell's Sc
cret issue of five millions of the retir-
ed forty-four- millions of currency was
all the encouragement the specializing
cliques of Wall street wanted of the
Government, They knew where re-
lief was to be had whenever they were
in desperate straits. 1t is nothing to
say in praise of the President that he
declined to reissue that forty-foul
millions, as advised by the insane
clamor; he knew well enough that
he would have grossly exceeded his
authority in so doing, besides feeding
the flame with more of the same fuel
that made it already so dangerous. 1t
was humiliating enough to see the
President and portion of the Cabinet
running to Wall street to hear its
complaints that fact was enough to
demonstrate the closeness OF the con
nection between the Government and
the spectators.
If the President was to be applied
to at all, it was becoming that he
should have been found at the seat of
Government instead of room in a
New York hotel and at the dinner
table of a New York club. The bust
ness community regards his presence
among lot of frenzied spectators as
deferring much more to that than to
the banking and commercial classes OF
the country. 1t is too open an ident-
ification of the Government with a
community of bulls and bears. The
Government having thrown out the
temptations by its excessive issues Of
currency, its habit of bearing the
market and its coming to the rescue
as often as Wall street cliques get into
serious trouble, it was expected to be
within call on this occasion, and it APP.
pears before the country as an attend
ant on Wall street, not merely during