The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-06-08
NitI,n,ol,d 1ispattl1.
TUESDAY. .....'..'''.''''o-'" y
TheTrneS.

fs.:
~ and it desires the knowing po'''-
r;ans with presidential aspirations 70 u" WV
Deople how 1t is and what is the 'e"e"''
The matter is one upon which tneFs -
plenty of ignorance, and one "n''H
delicate and dangerous Embarrassing i'a'AS
o. d,scpss The discussion of both the
cause and the remedy necessarily involves
questions of critical nature.
promising that We here are really less Or
rec,Iv under the financial screws than some
NJ our pretentious northern COMMUNITIES
we say that the question Of the evil and the
remedy is. more Immediately theirs than ours
=. the present time. We have had our bar
r,wing and backing, and now we turn 1t,
over to them along With the hot end Of the
poker.
When the war ended we dropped right
down to the hard pan. Banks, insurance
comnauies, State currency, all disappeared,
and the property in negroes was ann'h'iated.
.Che presence of the armies and the dlsourse-
ments through the forces held here 10 keep
us captive gave us all the money we had Tor
awhile. Soon, however, spectators came
down TO buy rich lands, become planters,
and with improved systems OF agricu ture
to coin money and live such imaginary lives
of success and leisure as the ante.war plaut-
ers we're supposed to have lived. Much
money came 10 that way. and thus the South
was gradually relieved from the complete
money famine that occurred at the fall OF the
Confederacy. A speculative mania was
caused in the South, but 1t consumed chieny
northern capital. 1t proved disastrous; but
Il fell chiefly on northern people who were
too much In q hurry and were ten years
ahead in time.
The southern people proper had not the
means for speculation if they had had the dis'
position. So they have been kept down 10
hard work and slow gsins. very much curtall'
ed by the vicious political system which
vicious, and sordid, and vlndictiye GoVerS-
ment has for greater part Of the time since
the war kept in existence in the South
This was bad state Of financial depres-
sion. exaggerated in its terrible effects by
mischievous and cruel misgovernment.
But still we have not been permitted by
circumstances TO run pell.mell into financial
follies that are so often succeeded by long
periods of repentance and suffering. We
have been forced TO economize and TO strug-
gle. We have at the worst failed to pay old
debts, but have not been permitted to run
riot and plunge into netG difficulties.
We have been smlrtly favored. Cotton
and tobacco have given Us money, and other
agricultural products have helped us along,
and we have been growing stronger. The
high price tobacco has borne has helped Viz
pipia nightly. So We Gre not PROSTATE, and
yet not uncommonly thrifty. Under all the
cIrcums auces, nevertheless, we are wonder
fully we'll eff.
When we turn to the North, however, we
find the sea strcwed with wrecks from the
widest speculation ever known in the land.
One line of speculation has LOST millions 10
northern capitllists-viz: usurous loans TO
railroads and adventures upon the bypothe-
cation of stocks. The loans were not repaid,
and the stocks bypothecated have been by
That fearful ravager Of securities "shrpk-
age" is not yet done with the "shaviDg
capitalists. In vain have they fought against
it. They have struggled like man in the
qucksands. Exertions but helped to sink
them, or at best only delayed the end-tn'
gullment- hich could rot be avoided.
But the rage for speculation gave life and
wing to a hundred bad strategies for making
money, which have ended in widespread
loss and misery such as the "corners > The
desperate tricks employed to elevate and de
press values, that the mercenary stralegist:
might. in spirit Of canuibalsm, prey upor
one another the endless schemes TO make
NOR ey where there was no increased pro
ductiou. All the arts of the gamblers in golt
and stocks were but cut-hroat eXpedents.
Along with these evil practices there wa!
ageneral tendency to recSIessness and extra
Yagarce. Enormous salaries were the order
of the day; iusolveut corpo atoms wcr,
dividing out their receipts amongst corrupt
officers; fashion ran riot; luxury knew nc
restraint.
1t is not hard TO see that the day Of reac
tion and repentance had to follow all this:
and it has come. The whole nation is suffer
ing from it, but it falls with terrific effec
upon the sordid and unprincipled commune
ties who were chief actors in the drama o.
rapacity and corruption. Where be your
multitude of millionaircsS Not a few o.
them who were tnralded aS mon of inralou
liable wealth are now shrura" up te
skeletons. The mighty space of their large
fortunes may be grasped in the hand OF
stuffed into q thimble
There must be time for discriminating
finance and arranging skaters complicated
by folly and vice, and there needs the band
OF death to work out problems that could
not be solved without it.
The speculative mania-the greed and cor.
rupion-whieh have so bedeeRled the coun.
try are in great degree the natural spawn
OF war, aud in the civil war 10 this countn5
fanaticism and political ambition have adde's
their terrors to swell the disastrous conse
aaences. The measures Of the Federal GOV.
ernment have helped to vex the land and
throw the national industry into confusion.
The North has lost millions BY the loss OF
trade through the arrangement of southern
social economy and industry, and hundred:
4 oil thousands OF people who never knew
want and who tbroye through southern
peace and prosperity, have been plunged
into absolute suf;rtng through idleness and