The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-03-17

] Of their outgrowth Of i specie currency. In
/ either case also, just in proportion to the
] number Of those who ate sising from the ranks
of labor, and who furnish much of that high
err energy and power, il the completeness of
the shipwreek by which 4 trcacherous curren-
| cy sweeps them to adishonor almost worse
! than DEATH
But, without dwelling further on past
/ financial crises, we have recently passed
which, as it throws light upon all others, we
will examine somewhat more in detail At
the commencement Of the late war, our peo-
pie were sunk in one of those periods of stag
nation and poverty which follow financial
crash. Laborers were unemployed, the ma
chinery of factories, furnaces, and farms either
stood idle or moved siuggishly and capitalists
had little demand for their small surplus
funds. The war at once caused great. and
capital and for various pipducts which COM
bination of the two create. Producers, that
is, undertakers of industrial enterprises, as
such, are always, logically aspeaking, hirers of
both labor aud capital !; md In this country
they are generally SO in fact. Hence they
would naturally suffer as much Tor more)
from the increased scarcity of the two latter,
as they would gain by the greater demand for
their productsi and no cause as yet appears
poverty. Happily the scarcity Of specie at
home and lack of credit abroad, forced our
Government to furnish the people with that
most wonderful of all capitals, trustworthy
and sufficient medium Of exchange, by which
alone all other capital and labor can be mobi-
lied. This greater abundance of money, if
it only affected the loan market and lowered
the rate of interest, would in so far aid pro-
ducers. But in reality it was mostly paid out
directly to producers for food and material, or
to soldiers and others, whose families pur-
chased these. and hence could act directly up
on prices If issued in excess of the increase
in needed exchanges there would be a depre-
citation and undue rise in prices. That there
was some such depreciation there can be no
doubt. But that the premium on gold was
entirely worthless, as a criterion Of its extent
is proved by the fact that more than 100
points of such premium fell off in a few
months, from Sep 1854 to June 1865, while
the issues were still continuing. The COM
mon sense Of the people who experienced its
effects redistribution is far surer test. And it
is true that while all classes suffered at first
from the loss and destruction of labor and
materials caused by war, laborers and capt.
talists who, as such, bought and did not sell
products were the last to RECEIVERS from that
loss. 1t is true also that had our producers
been less apt or less able to respond to the
stimulus Of higher prices, that depreciation
might have been indefinite. But they were
the kinsmen of those who for four weary
years fought their way through difficulties
that demanded the highest energy, persistence
and invention. Those at home responded,
less nobly perhaps, but not less heartily to
their trust. The capital gained by higher
prices for their surplus products was instantly
applied, with all those characteristics, to in
crease production. Competition for labor
raised the rate of wages until working men
and their families recovered from the shock
by which capitalists were now the only
losers
And now appears another phase in this re-
markable SERIES The increased means of ex-
penditure in the mass of the people increased
the demand for products. As in the army,
from the rank and file sprang the men who
could build a bridge, repair an iron track or
handle an engine at call, so in the great bat
tie of industry; from the mass or the Ameri-
can people came the skill by which animal
and natural powers replaced the more costly
human labor. On the great prairies of the
West, the gang plow, the clicking mower and
the giant armed reaper replaced the labor of
500, 600 men. While in the towns and cities
of the East the creaking water wheel, the
ponderous engine and the fiery furnace did
the work which ten million horses would have
failed to bestow All these improvements in
creased the returns to industry. Competition
among producers caused an Increased rate for
CAPITAL which they could well afford to pay.
And now at last capitalists shared in the
general prosperity. / am aware that it is
alleged that this prosperity was only in SEEM
ing and not reality But will not resort
to the statistics of Wells or Kelly to SUBJ
stantiate this point They are not needed.
When such reasoners can prove that that
period of steady wages and abundant home
comforts for the workmen, of good profits and
higher intelligence for the farmer, manufac-
turer and merchant, of rapid growth and adj
ornment in towns and villages through the
Injuries of retired capitalists, was really
period of adversely in disguise, then they can
also readily make us believe that the present
with its broken wages and threatened starva-
ton for the workmen, with It's pinchlng
economy or overwhelming dishonor for the
farmer and manufacturer, with its losing or
vanished Investments for the capitalist is
really a period of the most bright and shin
ing prosperity the world has witnessed.
Peace was declared. The price Of gold and
many other products fell rapidly. And now
according to all representations there should
have been terrible financial crash. Bust
ness had been stimulated to the highest
point Specuations almost without number
in oil wells, in mines and in stocks, had come
to grief. TO crown all, prices had reached
their acme and were now on the defending
grade. And yet we beheld oil companies,
mining schemes; stock and gold speculations
90 under and leave scarce a ripple on the
broad current Of business. We saw business
drag, because of the fall of prices, and yet its
foundations were SO securely baised on the
cash payments of an abundant currency, that
they withstood repeated shocks. We saw
prices decend; and yet the broad fi1edium of
the trusted gfeehback made panics itiposs-
BILE. Can any student of finance doubt that
it was this broad basis of n trusted govern
mef1t currency and that alone, which then and
for years afterwards saved our people from
financial wreck.
But now our nation began to retrace it's
steps from financial position both powerful
and stable, to one both weak and unstable
When released from duty, many of our offic-
ers and soldiers had saved a little, capital,
which, as it was not enough To keep them idle,
they naturally sought to invest in some active
business. Some carved out farms from the
unsettled prairies of the West. Others, at
tracted by the beauty of some Southern glade
through which they had passed, invested
there. Others, again, near their old homes,
engaged in agricultural, manufacturing or
mercantile pursuits. With an ingratitude
which the Republics Of old would have scorn-
ed to show, our government has persistent