The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-07-21


23,7s9, and the whole amount of liablli-
ties was s7sss10,oOo. The whole number
of failures during the past five years,
including an estimate for the last
half ofthe current year, as above stated,
is 81 ,022, and the total amount oflisbilities
is 1922, 685,2ll. Here isan increase OF
more than 30 per cent In number, and OF
nearly 20 per cent in liabilities. In the
meantime the population Of the country
has increased not far from 80 per cent,
and the realized wealth, after making
due allowances for tie inflated figures OF
the late census, and the inclusion of evil
donces of debt as wealth, must have in
creased fully 60 per cent. 1t is some
little satisfaction to know that the in
crease of our wealth has been three times
as great rs the increase in the liza
5ilities of our failed merchants,
asd other business men. There would
be more satisfaction IN it if we
were tolerably sure that the end of dis
asters was near. The foregoing. table
show that the disaster of 1857 was con-
fined manly to that year, though its
effects extended into 1858. So, too, after
the numerous and extensive failures Of
1861, mainly due 10 the war, there was
immediate improvement, the number of
failures being less than one-fourth as
great as in 1862 as in 1861, and the
amount of liabilities only one
ninth as great. But since 1863, when
there were only 4s5 failures for no
more than $6,s64,7OO, matters have
been growing almost constantly worse,
the number of failures having been
greater every year embraced in the table,
with the single exception of 1871. and
the amount of liabilities having reached
the maximum in 1873. The next year
there was slight improvement in re.
spect to the amount Of liabilities, but
since then, matters have been growing
worse again.
The figures show pretty clearly that
the present disorders are something dit
ferent from those that we have expert
enced in former times, and something
more serious. The truth is that
we, in common with other
nations, are suffering the conse-
auences ola commercial and industrial de-
rangement that Is almost universal, in
volviug Canada, Great Britain, Ger.
many, Australia, and to some extent
France, while India is represented to be
on the very verge of bankruptcy. What
ever may be the general causes acting to
produce the unprecedented depression
now so widespread, it is now generally
admitted by enlightened men that in our
own case the distress is greatly increased
by vicious and huctuating currency.
1t is instructive to note the causes as
signed for the existing state
of things in the different countries and
the measures of relief proposed. It's
fashionable in some parts ofthe country
to attribute all the ills we bear to con-
traction, and to demand imitation as the
iniallible cure for those ills. In Canada,
a party has held free trade responsible
for everything that has gone amiss, and
demanded something like our spoilstion
system as the great cure-aIl. In Eng
land, too, there are agitators who would
be glad to go back to the medieval
system of protection, though they
are not strong enough to alarm anybody
not stronger than our anti-secret So
ciety party. And 1t is worthy OF re-
mark that no one in Canada, CT England,
or Germany. or France talks of imitation
as cure for the business depression
which all are experiencing. In Germany
there is a little talk of protection. In
Austria and Italy there Is more OF this
talk. and in the former of these coun-
tries some reliance is placed upon the
rag.baby. In India, the alleged trouble
is tho foreign exchanges. Silver has
fallen so low that very high premium
has TO be paid for exchange on London,
and the financial wlse.heads are trying
10 devise some method of putting things
to rights by tinkering exchange.
Now it must be apparent to every one
of good common sense that it is not pos
sible for all of these diagnoses to be right,
nor for all the proposed remedies to be
such as tho case requires. We forget that
Canada and England has not been visited
by currency contraction, and yet all these
countries are complaining of hard times
about as bitterly as We are, while France,
which has suffered less than any Other
nation, has contracted her currency more.
The Canadian and English people who
complain of free trade and prescribe large
doses of protection, forget. on their
part that while the country has for many
years enjoyed whatever benefit there is
in the protective system, it is, if any
thing, worse of than they are. The
truth is that all these doctors prescribe
for the symptoms rather than the disease,
aud poisons instead of medicines. There
is no psnsces in such cases. The best
tina. can be done is to get the poisons,
such as paper money and spoilation
tariffs, out OF the system, and leave ma.
L. L.