Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-09-29

rich in natural resources, and so init
mate in it's connection with the civil
lied world, it is the contraction o
business that contracts the money il
circulation, and not the contraction
of money which contracts business
Values fall first. To-day when busi
ness is SO stagnant, property is 81
low, the Government is putting 1
loan upon the market successfully a
II per cent. interest, and upon un
doubted security money can be Dor
rowed at as low rate of interes
certainly as was paid in our mos
prosperous times. If money coulG
be made to grow on bushes orbe ha(
for the asking, it would not be wortf
any more than anything else tina
grows on bushes or can be had fol
the asking. Air and water are more
precious than money, even though
gold and silver. Thank God the,
are free lat least the air is), but il
does not follow because they are free
that they would make good circu
lating medium
The War was a great business
carried on by the Government. Il
employed million of men in the
field and a million more in supporting
them. 1t created a demand for every
article produced on the farm or man
ufactured in workshops. True, il
was the business of destruction, but
it was the most gigantic business ever
carried on in the world, and it con
stantly demanded the use of vast
sums of money. TO obtain that mon
ey we went in debt to all the world,
and discounted our own future at
usurious rates. Then everything was
marketable-even human life. If the
expenses of the War had been paid
at the time by immediate taxation,
we should have realized that we were
growing poorer and not richer by the
immense destruction OF property and
diversion Of labor. 1t is the office of
national debt to transfer the burden
of one generation to another, or to
distribute it over many generations.
The national debts of the world
amount to the appalling sum of $685.
ooo,ooo,ooo. They have nearly all
been created by war, and the interest
on this vast sum is the price which
this generation is paying for the wars
of the past. A great war, carried on
upon credit, gives to a nation that
fictitious prosperity which deceives a
man into believing he is rich while
he is borrowing Oh unlimited credit.
Payday comes at last to both. But
some one may suggest, the activity
of business and general pecuniary
prosperity continued some years af-
ter the War. Yes, railroad train
will run some time by its momentum.
An effect often continues after the
cause, and a moral effect will long
survive physical cause. The close
of the War was period of hope, of
exultation. Nothing seemed impos-
sible to the American people. Ev-
cry county in the Northern States
seemed to be repeopled by returning
soldiers thank God, not
as soldiers, but as citizens. 1t was
like asuddcn accession of population.
The waste of the War had to be re-
paired, exhausted stocks to be re-
plenished, and that created demand
for labor and gave employment to
capital. Great fortunes accumulated
in the War and made splendid shows.
AS community we were cxtrava-
giant. Horses could not be fast
enough, houses grand enough, clothes
fine enough, or gew-gews too glitter
ing. We had been accustomed to
high prices, large profits, and sudden
advances, and did notrealize that the
cause was removed. We had gone
in debt and mortgaged the future so
easily we did not realize that we
could not continue to indefinitely
The slow and sure methods. of accu-
mutation seemed tame and common
place. The man who could not leap
into fortune was an old fogy. The
light was bright, but We were burn
ing the candle at both ends.
The revulsion seemed to come
suddenly, but it had been long in
preparation. Want came in at many
a back door, r,whilc the front door was
as snowy as ever. Institutions and
companies continued to do business
whose insolvency was known only to
themselves. The great failure of
Jay Cooke & Co. did not destroy the
public prosperity, but only revealed
its hollowness. You may have seen
in the early spring stream of water
flowing beneath coyerlid of snow.
The surface of the snow does not
change from day to day, though the
water is silently eating itout beneath.
At length it disappears in an hour
You may have seen a great river
bridged from bluff to bluff with ice.
You suppose the water is flowing in
full torrent beneath. Suddenly the
ice breaks with crash, and you
learn that silently and unseen the
river has sunken to Its channel.
I am perhaps wearying your pa
tience, and Disappointing those who
want political speech six nights in
the week, but find the feeling 80
prevalent that what is called good
times can be belegislatedinto existence
by an act of Congress, and that flush
times, high prices, and a demand for
labor can be restored simply by ar
bitrarily increasing the volume of
currency, without the conditions
which make the increased demand
necessary, that you must pardon me
if I proceed still further on this
subject.
1t is a common expression that
currency ought to be equal to the
wants of business. Of course it
ought. But it does not follow that
everybody should have all the mon
ey he wants. You, being very mod
crate, might only want hundred
thousand, or five hundred thousand,
or perchance a million each, but there
are communities where they are so
greedy they would take five times as
much, and money would become SO
plenty it would not be worth any
more than fourpenny nails. Business
may be depressed by many causes so