New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-11-04
WHAT CAN BE DONE.

The hard times of which we warned our
readers are upon us already, and the signs OF
them may be read by the most ignorant to
whom the reflex action of capital and labor
and of currents of trade are inscrutabie mys-
tories. They can see that sudden paralysis
has fallen on business; that half the meat is
left on the butchers stall; that the dry goods
stores with their purple and fine linen are al
most empty OF customers at this the busiest
season of the year; that rubes and diamonds
are left to blaze uDnoticed in the jewelers.
cases, and worst of all, that in every manu-
featuring town thousands OF unemployed
men and women are swarming ready for
starvation tomorrow. The millionaire broker
locks up his check book when the
millionaire manufacturer comes for loan;
and the bridesmaids wife draws her odd hund-
red or two out of the savings bank and con-
fdes it TO q stocking or teapot. Both OF them,
as indeed all of us, are quite convinced that
there never was more money in the cOun-
try than now; better crops, more foundation
for solid prosperity, yet every man looks
askance at his neighbOr. There may be no
reason for the panic; so much the worse; a.
a shrewd fnancicr said yesterday, " You can
" fight a reason but this is prejudice" Yet
there is after all some reason for the prejudice,
or within, or terror whatever we may call 1t;
and we have to look for it in the Fictitious
basis on which all business has been carried
Oh among us for years; the fever for spec
ulation; the restless ambition which drove
every man, and still more every woman, to
live in a style BETTING a larger income than
he or she possessed. That the first great fail
hot If fru~ taI
rity and high principle may account for the
electric rapidity with which the chill Of alarm
penetrated through the country to quiet cOun-
try towns aud farm houses, where great imam
cial operations were unknown, but where Jay
Cooke literally represented the religious part
of the Government If there was something
rotten in this part of the State of Denmark,
what part is sound7 who can be trusted9
In that distrust is the secret of the hard tines
in no failure Of crops or other rational cause
beyond our own consciousness OF misdOlng
We stand like gamblers arrested with the cards
in our hands, cycling each other suspiclOusly.
Perhaps the suspicion may last long enough TO
teach us an effective lesson. When will not
lend to b, nor credit ID as far rs bis weeks
expenses, the day of destruction will have
roads, fraudulent insurance companies. The
millionaire will not make us absurd abroad by
aping royalty, the clerk will be satisfied to
live as "a clerk, the mechanic as a mechanic;
the laborer's scanty wages will go to buy
bread, instead of sleazy silk for his wife's
Sunday wear. In short, we shall all be driven
perforce to conduct our business on prompt
cash payments, instead of interminable debts
oil paper-to honesty instead of sham.
Whether, when the panic is over, and the money
actually in the country OOzes out into its ac-
customed channels, we shall go back to our
false systemic building, each for himself,
topping gilt palaces on sandy foundations
remains to be seen. 1t is to be hoped that the
suspicion and real, biting poverty which many
of us must experience will not fail of their
salutary effect, but leave caution and fair
dealing as their wholesome fruits.
In the mean time, let us urge upon our
readers the prompt necessity of rendering the
coming pressure as light as possible. 1t is to
ing classes that the panic will cost most
dearly, and it is from their domestic lives
the cost must come. Much can be done by
the prompt payment of all small bills, and the
immediate adoption of cash payments in our
daily expenses. By this means large Quanti-
ties of currency will be thrown from these
innumerable sources into the under strata of
social life, where they are 80 much needed,
and the whole load lifted and lghtened from