The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-07-22
THE NEW ORLEANS DEMooRAT, SUNDAY, judy 81 1871
classes can consume OF buy at living prices,

classes can consume or buy at living prices
and we are substantially
WITHOUT ANY FoREIGN COMMERCIAL ouTnE
adequate TO the overflow Of our surplus. Gu
energies arc too great for our employments
and In consequence as nation we are eatin,
each other up. AS a generation we contracts
debts and acquired luxurious habits whel
money was cheap. and now we seem to thin
we can pay the debts and maintain the habit
when money Is dear.
New York city took the lead In our specula
ton, and set examples of prodigality. Blu
| she does not, In this time of need assume th,
| van In retrenchinent. On the other hand, al
her business heads are dunbfounded at thu
/ consequences OF their own recklesSness II
former years, while socially. she is desperate
| ~ striving TO maintain the same profusiof
| that marked her when her swells wore
| $40. 900 solitaires In their shirt fronts, ant
carried $500 rolls Of bills In their vest pockets
| for spending money
weleker's in Washington, with New York
| mafl--one OF O party OF five. L saw him
| count out S25 to pay Tor that dinner and yet
| that man owed me $500, which he couldn't
conveniently payl'' Under the circumstances,
/ did not deem Ii discourteotis to mention the
fact.
SO we go. One man will refuse TO pay his
honest debts rather than abate his extrav-
agance. Another will sell the securities which
form the bed rock Of his capital his interest
rather than tell his wife and daughters that
they must stay at home this summer. It Ii
easy to forecast the fate OF an Individual who
pursues such business methods. Is 1t not also
easy to divine the end Of a nation made up Of
such individuals?
We often speak. of tho extravaganza Of the
rtling classes OF England and OF France, and
OUR NouvEAux RICHES
try TO ape them. But we do not stop TO think
that the ruling classes Of England do not
number million souls, while into their laps
has been poured for generations the wealth
produced by thirty odd millions of laboring
classes OF home and more than two hundred
millions Of inferior races held in subsection
abroad. AT best given number OF hands
will produce only O certain amount Of wealth
The English afistocracy gathers In the cream
of the wealth of many hundred times it's num-
Der of producers. But we are an isolated ma
ton, without dependencies and without com
merce, while every mothers son Of us liz try
ing to be an aristocrat at the expense Of the
rest of his fellows.
such state Of things could endure only
when everything was Inflated, when we could
borrow what we could not earn and when we
could seal or swindle where borrowing failed
But by-and-by a reckoning always comes. It
liz upon us now in the North, and our facti-
tious wealth is vanishing in thin all, along
with the mad schemes and hair-brained spec
ulations upon which 1t had its unsubstantial
basis.
The condition of the country for the last
ten years reminds me OF family once knew
ers living In sort Of colony among the hills.
I once asked my father now they all got o
liy .lBx trading horses with one another said
the old gentleman in his curt way, leaving
my infantile mind as much i'm the dark as
1t was before. remember trying to reason
the thing out; but / could not possibly see
how they could all make @ living. Some of
them must starve by any theory that could
coniure up.
another for ten years and have imagined that
we were getting rich. But Of late we seem to
be discovering that " some of us must starve
by any theory we can coniure up
This picture, go far as, the North is con-
cerned, Is utter shade, without one single ray
of light from any quarter. But it presents
A BRIGHT SIDE ron THE SOUTH.
For years and years before the war the
South produced the wealth and Sustained the
commerce of the country New England was
never SO prosperous as when her industry was
seacraft and her employment the carrying
sa adg Of Ne the yo vast ePy 9duf aones Of the
never 50 healthy as when she did the bank
ing and commission business for the cotton
growing .seaboard. Those times will never
come back as they used to be. But the eyes
aew Yo s are a 81 tn this ban =, he turned ns
far-sighted New York men are settling down
upon the capacity of the Southern cotton
fields and cane bottoms to turn the trade
balance In Our favor once more, as 1t used to
be q quarter of a century ago.
The other day had for travelling COM
panion a railroad president who Is well known
TO the hdbitttes Of Washington. asked him
If the new pooling arrangement between the
two great trunk lines on through Western
and sesboard freights w9pld hay, haze any bene
shipments and rouse the market from its
He smiled. "No, said he, ''it is only step
toward the inevitable; or rather 1t is the be-
ginning of the inevitable. The roads have
been forced into that arrangement because
the prolonged stagnation had SO weakened
them that they couldn't fight any longer. It
is an armistice to gain time or to recruit
strength, and has no relation to trade itself. "
ventnred to ask him what y, IN n his estima
dullness; whether 1t would end In panic or in
a gradual readjustment of values and bases
Of contracts without any widespread crash.
'srHERE CAN BE NO CRASH"
he said, 'for the reason that nothing can
impair the stability of our currency. There
may be bank runs and temporary SuSpen-
sions, but no general disasters as in the
wildcat days Of 1887 and ~. Why, in 1857
was put off train below here 1--WE were then
lust coming into Harrisburg unable to pay
my fare, though / had In my pocket over
$4,000 in Ohio State bank money. Such an
affair could not occur under our present cur
rency system
/ asked what would happen.
"Oh, the next four or five years will be an
ira of foreclosure Vast masses of property
will pass from mortgagor to mortgagee It
will be done quietly. Men who are now
,eally rich will become immensely richer,
md men who have been reputed rich will be
stripped of their incumbered possessions.
Those who weather the storm will be stronger
han they ever were. Meanwhile the transfer
II so much property q low rates. will
end to demolish all fictitious or fancy
,alues and reduce the notions of property
FOLDERS to q reasonable scale Of valuation.
simply liquidation. The country Is capital
zed far too high for its assets. Now in our
abroad business we sell out under mortgage
,onds and recapitalize on narrower basis OF
took when road can't carry its liabilities.
simply this is the matter with the country;
{ is capitalized too high, and must liquidate