The anti-monopolist., 1878-05-23
BUSINESS FAILURES,


ever he wants to buy he can have it at
half price. He has lent on house or
lands half their value, or less. He
can now takeRthe house or land, and
send the owner adrift. But he won't
do it. He knows better than that.
Here is big example, and the little
examples count by millions:-
Ben Wood, brother of Fernando,
our Congressional tariff tinker, buys
Il house for $l50,000, pays $4,000;
balance on bond and mortgage; inter-
est 81 900 year; taxes 81 900 or $2,-
600. Ben's newspaper business falls
off. He can't pay these heavy, ever
recurring sums. He begs the former
owner to take the house off his hands
Ben losing the $4,000 he has paid.
No the mOrtgarpe has no notion Of
it. He will foreclose, buy in the
property as cheap as he can, and hold
Ben on his bond for the balance. 1t
is done The house Ben had bought
for $l50,0O0 now sells for $40, 900.
Ben loses his $50 900, and is held on
his bond for $S6D,OO0 more. 10 escape
from this he takes refuge under the
bankrupt law, and even that law is
about TO be repealed, so that the
debtor will always be held to stagger
under the debt, discouraged and kept
down by it to the end of his life.
The careless. selfish, stupid ''busi-
ness men" are now paying the heavy
penalty Of their public apathy. They
saw that the country was going to
ruin under the choking grasp of John
Sherman and frail Congress-or,
rather, they did not see it. They did
not lift up their eyes to see it or to
look around them at all. ''What is
hops worth Is flour, sugar, hides,
lumber, coal, up or down this
morning 2" This was their continuous
thought. If on "change," they saw
nothing but what was "changing"
there. If behind the counter at
tending customers, that counter and
their wares and the customers were
the whole world to them. Supine and
submissive to all public wrong, they
offered a big, ripe harvest to the
reaper of Sherman, ShylOck. Syndi-
cate. Scoundrel & Company. That
company had nothing to do but NOW
down the harvest and gather it in.
And what has it come to now !
Financial Wrecks. Seventy three
failures, comprising seven and half
millions of dollars, in New York city
in the month just closed; and one
hundred and fifty applications in
bankruptcy in the same place and the
same time. So events succeed each
other. First, the millions of working
men are thrown idle-thrown into Il
condition of suffering that never,
never can be computed. Next, and
from the same cause, crash come the
business houses in one widening ruin
one falling "irm" pulling the other
down. one burning house setting fire
to the next one, and no end seen to
either the failing" or the "fre.
Perhaps it is best SO. Perhaps an
upward change is approaching. 1t is
almost impossible that this wreck
upon their own affairs will not knock
common sense into the stupidest head
among the business men. 1t is true,
whatever they might think or try to
do, they could of themselves do
nothing to dethrOne the hideous con-
spiracy that reigns in Washington.
or themselves they have neither the
number nor the intellect to do anv
public good. But there is Reform
element aroused, into which they
nigh, wheel and help it in subordi-
nate way. Help the element that is
greater, and wiser. and more powerful
than themselves-the element of
Work.
The first thing for those business
men to realize row is this great, all
reaching fact: Two millions of men
1.
Stunning nothing but the scanty crust
OF charity. Those two millions have
an average of three or four millions
looking up to them for support. Those
three or four millions can buy no
goods Of any kind. for to buy presumes
money wherewith to pay. Well. they
have ~ money, 50 they must patch
and piece. and wear out the old rags
liza plate is broken they may use the
fragments or want. If a hole is din
ged In the kettle they must scour up
the old pot and use that if they have
anything 10 putinto it. SO round and
all round. Each of the two millions
of idle men could earn value Of two
dollarS, day il seated or the land.
not to talk Of the productive help
THAI their families would bring To
them. Here then wonlJ BE four mil
lions day. aa.l more than that.
thrown lnto the Home Market At
the present moment those people are
in need Of everything. ami the market
they would furnish would. therefore.
extend 10 everything of use that is
manufactured and sold in the country.
Business in the workshop and the
factory and behind the counter would
start into renewed and vigorous life.
and that start would bring not only
more employment in the cities. but it
would bring higher wages. The life
ami death competition for Job" of
any kind barring a Tom Scott job
would relax or cease altogether, and
universal prosperity would return AS
surely as the return of ..seed time and
harvest. AS surely as cause ever
produced its natural effect. The
business men must see this: they are :
now themselves in ..sea of troubles"
the rising tide of tribulation, having
submerged the low lands. is rushing
up the heights and engul6ng them
selves. Will they even now act sensi- |
blv VIII fhcv s,,Sr Tho s~-..e .~e~-~..