Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-07-12


vomber next, at Fifty cents pc
copy.
J. M. HEDRICK s. CO.,
Publishers.
HAnD THINKS.
You can't make money by resolu
tions, and the only royal way t
"wealth is to dig 1t out OF tn
ground" was the sententious ant
epigrammatic remark in Col. Inger
soils great Cincinnati speech, ant
this, coupled with individual ani
public economy, is the sublimity O
human wisdom on the financial ques
tion.
The United States, Germany, and
Great Britain are the three strongest
best, and most stable governments
under the sun or that perhaps eyel
existed. Yet, in these three grea,
countries, with about the same poptl.
lation in each, with an intelligen,
common people and philosophers
statesmen and publicists Of the high.
est order of culture, with no prospect
of foreign or domestic danger to
their respective governments or prop
erty, there has existed for some three
or four years period of financial
depression and uncertainty, which we
have formulated in this country un-
der the idiom of "hard times" such
as neither country has scarcely ever
experienced. It is true, however, that
in England and Germany the failures
in amount have more than doubled
those of the United States, while their
annual budget to meet current ex-
penses, have been about double that
of ours.
On the other hand, the weakest and
most unstable of the great govern
ments in Europe is France, where the
population is about the same as ours,
and which has just emerged from a
gigantic and humiliating war, costing
her, in expenses and indemnity
to Germany, say eleven hundred
millions Of dollars, all paid in
gold, and, Notwithstanding that,
France is to-day the most prosperous
in its finances Of any State in Europe.
1t is claimed that over four hundred
millions of money is to-day idle in
the banks Of France awaiting proft.
able investment. The amount annu-
ally collected by taxation in France
to maintain her current expenses, in
Guiding the cost of her immense army,
Is about five hundred and eighty mil
lions of dollars per annum, or sOme-
thing like twice as much as the annn-
al government expenditures in the
United States.
Can anybody tell why France,
which has just been drained Of an
amount Of the precious metals ean al
to half our national debt, should be
reveling in wealth and prosperity,
. and Germany, which has received it,
should be in the valley of "hard
times" and humiliation
Moreover, can anyone give a good
meason foS the periodic recurrence of
@ihard times," which come on with
.gl'eat regularity and afflicts all coun-
tries in turn, aud frequently at times
I Ae most unexpected, and when there
is 'spparently Abe deast casse for them !?
The political economist will tell
you thaA the financial prosperity of
the FnanGh people, which continues
in spi te of her wars and revolutions,
is due To the frugality and economy
of the p eoQle, swho make it point to
live withja ult4'r income, and this is,
doubtless true. What, then, becomes
of the demsgogne plank in the Dem
ocratie pla torn. (which attributes
our Hhard times" }" ana, in fact. all our
calamities, to bad Republican gov
ernmeaf? And here comes the ap-
plicatioa Of Pope Bob'spaitical econ
omy: "Yon can't make ,eoney by
resolutions" by law, or by govern
ment. You nnst dig it ont of the
soil or produce it in some other Aegit-
innate way by honest toll of haEd or
head. And also you must make It .
point to be frugal and economical
and live within your earnings, be-
sides laying somethiag by for wet
day, and then yon will have individ-
ual and public prosperity, and "hard
times" will vanish, whether the Re-
publican, Democratic or any other
party may temporarily have the dish
ing apt of the free soup patronage,
which is popularity called the govern
ing Of this country. If the Republic
an party is responsible for bringing
on the war and incurring the ex-
penses necessary to suppress it, and to
pay the annual interest on that debt /;
if it is justly chargeable with the ex-
travagant habits incurred by the peo-
pie, consequent upon the imitation and
fictitious prosperity resultant from
the war; IL it originated the lunacy
which spread all over the country
a few years ago under the skillful
manipulation of Democratic dema-
gogues, and stopped every railroad
project in the United States, and thus
cut off constant stream Of gold and
silver, which had, up to that time an
NJ lally poured Into our arteries of
tra dc from Europe; il it is response
bic for the two wet years which we
have, had, and the consequent short
crops. then, and not until then, is
there a semblance of justice or truth
in the cha rye Of the Democratic plat.
form that Republican bad govern.
ernmeut ha4 brought about the "hard
times"
In the ,nca ntime, the people who
observe Bob .lngcrsoll's philosophy
are not likely to be troubled greatly
with "hard tiMeA.
THE Chicago Tribune conservative
Rennhlican paper with Democrat.
tendencies), has discovered the fac
that slippery Sam Tilden, in 1866 and
1867, during the glorious reign O.
Andrew johnson, was connected will
a distillcry of Tilden Brothers at Leb
anon Springs, New York, which de
frauded the revenues Of some six t.
seven hundred dollars per day. W.