The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-08-20

New YORK. Aug. 10, 1878.
The elements Of prosperity lie all around us
In such profusiou that if it were not for the
profitless and absurd agitation of visionary
theories about finance and the relation between
capital and labor the feeling Of confidence and
hopefulness would be universal. If the autumn
elections result as it is earnestly to be desired
that they will, in establishing the fact that the
American people are determined to maintain
the credit Of their government and to set the
seal of condemnation upon any financial policy
that threatens however remotely and indirectly
to impair the value of the public securities.
there will be greater cause for thanksgiving ali
over the land than there has been since the
surrender of the bel armies.
The business depression is virtually at an
end. Failures are still occurring with as
much frequency as ever, but the effect of them
is simply to clear the way for return to a new
and better order of things. Parties who are
conscious of having reached the stage of hope
less insolvency are naturally anxious to avail
themselves of the help of the bankrupt law
during the few remaining days that 1t will be
in force. 1t was to be expected that up to the
LIST September this convenient process of liquid
GUS debtors. After that date the calendar of
mercantile embarrassments will be very light
There have been pro1gous amount of liabili-
ties extinguished by this method within the
past five years, and while they have made sad
inroads upon imaginary private fortunes they
have occasioned no diminuton Of the general
substance. The country at large is Just as well
off as if none Of them had happened. The
only actual losses that have occurred since the
panic turned the current from the wrong into
the right direction are those that have arisen
from the interruption of popular industry.
These for time were undoubtedly great but
they have been more than ceunterbala anced by
the wide spread economy and frugality of which
they have proved the incentives
But unhappily just as we are emerging from
the difficulties superinduced by too free indul-
gence in the designations Incidental to adven-
tarous voyagng upon the sea of credit--when
we have taken observations. turned our course
shoreward, and are within sight of a secure
harbor, clamorous demands are heard from the
forecastle to put the ship about and let her
drift out once more upon the treacherous main.
Now and then sympathetic echo Of the same
requirement Is heard to issue from the quarter
deck. In vain is 1t urged that the craft Is in
worse condition than ever to rush upon such
perils-that she has grown leaky from the long
strain to which her timbers have already been
subjected-that the provisions are all eaten up,
the sails tattered and the rigging worn out.
Mutineers are seldom in mood to listen to
reason. Some Of them insist upon submitting
the decision to the test of numbers; others,
more violent, adopt threatening and bullying
tone, and shower abusive and profane epithets
upon the officers In command. These
troubles do not, to be sure, take so serious
form as to change the course Of the vessel, but
they do retard her progress into port, and are
cause of uneasiness and discomfort to all on
board.
The appeal for an increased supply OF a cut
rency already so redundant that no use can be
found for the whole of it is not one whit more
unreasonable than the request of ships crew
would be TO be launched upon the waves with
out compass, rudder or any of the appliances
of successful navigation. The wonderful re-
Cooperative powers of our great Republic have
been shown in its rapid recovery from condi-
ton of exhaustion to which il was reduced by
the endeavor to maintain its existence in q