The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-12-17
HOW NATIONS GET POOR.
A Panic and What Causes it--C Consuming too
Much.

A Pa,ic and What Causes Consuming too
Much.
How do nations get poor? asks Prof.
Bonaman. From devouring, consum-
ing more than they make I; then some
body must go to the bad, somebody
must lose. Somebody must lose in
warmth somebody must lose in enjoy
ment somebody, perhaps, must be
starved. That is what is called a
"crisis," "panic," an exceptional
and undue dest uction of things be-
youd tho amount of things that are
made. Then what follows? The farm
er says to his laborer, =" I cannot feed
you this yeer [ cannot sell my wheat,
because other people have been de-
stroying and have nothing to give me
for my wheat" IN that way the field
goes ont Of cultivation. There is loss
of capital which Che man who worked
in the field would keep alive. So it is
with the store, SO it is with tie shop, so
it is with the factory. IL is not what
the banks 90 /; it is what you do that
will determ nc whether the nation is
going forward or backward ; whether
there will be things enough made next
he has so many millions income. Do
you suppose any of us handle our in
come in dollars, paper or gold ? The
poor man, yes. The poor man, no
doubt ; he receives his weekly wages,
and that he touches in money but the
rich man who has 81 900 year, he
does not touch probably $500. So it is
with the great industries they don't
touch money. Income means this /:
Your share, your proportion of things
made and cultivated by the nation.
You count it in dollars. It appears as
if it were III dollars, but there is no
truth in it. Whether you are consum-
ing more than you are making, ii is
your share, your proportion of the
bread and butter and meat aud shoes
and clothes that are made. Capital is
that which is destroyed like everything
else. 1t is reproduced in goods made.
A beautiful picture is not capital it
does nothing iu the way OF making
other goods. You have lost your prop.
erty, but you have the painting.
Therefore, when men are sane and
sober and not wild, nations will create,
will increase their capital, will increase
machines for making those things which
are Indispensable for human life and
its enjoyment.
Jollify and eat up all your capital,
and in six months the American people
must die-sterniy, absolutely die. It
is just rs easy to make all approxoma-
ton Of death in this temporary undue
destruction of capital. Let me men
tion one instance--war. War is q rapid
r..
orders for coal, fine orders for clothing,
fine orders for all sorts of things gen
erals well paid great movements
great destruction. All goes on swim
mingly. But the process thab is not
seen is the destruction. Therefore war
brings on a great sense of prosperity.
You are eating your capital; the bread
Of twelve months you are eating up in
eight months. It is the same with
railways. You make too many rail-
ways. II you make toe many railways
what happens? The old story, dimi-
mutton Of capital. You have fed the
laborers you have clothed them; you
have given them tools, aud when the
railway is opened you are astonished
that the nation is so poor. You have
destroyed the capital OF the nation
you have destroyed the power of max
ing goods. The people are poorer;
they must consume less, go with worse
clothes to redeem what they have lost.
AT last there comes the panic every
body thought the railway was good
everybody plunged into taking shares
they consumed more than they ought
to have consumed they made holes
in the ground, and dug channels. and
they ended in poverty, There seems
to be in this consuming more than you
ought such iveliness of buying, such
a pleasant, buoyant feeling in every
store and shop, such a delightful
sense, that everybody helps his neigh
Dor III the destruction. Then comes
the speculator and the contractor, ond
all the different officials; the man of
small means sells his property and puts
it in the railway. But are dollars put
in the railway? Is railway made of
dollars? They mean that q certain
largo proportion OF their c&pital-their
stock-shsll be used III making the
railway. Everything moves pleasantly,
and they buy objects for ornamental
ton; handsome carpets, moro beau
tifpl sets of china. am told that there
are heaps of rooms in which there is
$40, 900 worth of ornamentation. Or
Iamentation is not capital. Capital al
ways reproduces. The other day there
was great fatness in Chicago because
the land speculation has dropped. If
it is mere bet that five years hence
land will be worth so much more than
it is now, no harm has been done. But
encourage these men to buy lands, and
what happens2 There is a great furry
in the market for land, and the prices
advance, and what do they do? They
live in more expensive way-that is,
more is paid upon lands; and that
leads you to live in a more expensive
way, makes you go to the Broadway
stores and buy fine things, and you
feel jolly. Don't you see that the land
as land has remained unproductive,
and while men were led to believe they
were becoming rich and comfortable,
there was all the time large destruc-
tion of national capital, and consequent
ly they were on the road to poverty,
and that desolation follows Now,
you understand why it is that such ter
rible disorders as have described hap