The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-04-05
Did the War Cause the Panic2

AS" hHAPSeuo " luO iclOrlu WOrk III bruDSWlck.
Ihe usual reduction on the railroads will be made
Did the War Cause the Panic2
The war took million men from the nro.
ouctve industries of the north, and for four
years these men, who had formerly been en-
gagged in productions were as diligently occu.
pied IN destroying property.
Not only did the country lose the labor of
this million of men for four years, but the con
Try also lost the benefit of cotton crop for
four years. -,
Not only this, but it also had the loss of the
cost OF the war This last item has been esti-
yearsi Nor was this all. When the war was
over the South had lost all its slave pron.rtv
Its territory had been visited with the ravaoss
OF war, and the whole vast region was nara.
lVzed. Crrtaiuly all this was enough to i'm.
poyerish any country.
Aud yet from figures before ne wa GOO +ha+
IN 1860 the volume of real and psrso oal pron-
erty IN the United States was SIG. 600 O06. .000.
while IN 1870, Notwithstanding the war ana ali
lts Losses, together with the loss of slave prop.
erty, Tue Vs,1e OF ZEAL and personal property
was ABOUT $30, 600, 100000, or nearly donbel
Not only this, but four-sixths of the exnense
OF the war was paid during the war. Leaving
put about $4,000, ,000, 900 to be paid in peacel
Nor is this all, for during these ten years.
acc9ralng 20 Appleton's figures, the country
6OO,OOOl = -'' ''DN' ''0 SUI" OF sSoo'-
To recapitulate. The war cost the loss of
laDer OF million of men for four Years: verv
olmcult to estimate in money, but enormous as
total. 10
We also lost four cotton crops, an immense
sum.
The war began in 1861 and ended In 1865
Duribg tnese four yeats the people who r.
ma NAMED at home in the North paid S4 600. 900.
oo9 toward the expense of the war Then the
ha1r k,.A
Impoverished South added 90 our burdens. Rnt
woea hye years rolled around, bringing ma tn
ioIO, the country had not only survived all this
fearful loss, loss, but had doubled its value, besides
paying S9OO,OoO 600 10 interest money!
luis prosperity under such awfully adverse
circumstances, is simnly astounding! How
can it be accounted for?-Neao Fro.
1t is simply astounding-that Is, the state
ment that we grew rich in the decade be-
tween 1860 and 1870 is astounding. We are
asked to believe that the wealth of the
country doubled in that time notwithstand-
ing that two thousand millions of dollars
IN slave property reckoned in 1860 did not ex-
lst In 1870, and furthermore that two thou
Sand millions more of other property were
wasted and destroyed by the war. We are
asked to believe that the country doubled in
wealth in the decade during four years of
which it was ravaged by war, when at least
million OF men were Withdrawn from pro-
ductlon and set to destroying property, when
the most valuable crop in the country, per-
maps, was lost for four successive seasons.
when nearly half the country was laid desc.
late, and the other half was freely giving of
It's substance to accomplish that desolation.
why II the United States should increase in
wealth for fifty years as rapidly as it appar-
entiy did between 1860 and 1870, we should
oe worth more than all the rest of the world
together; we should have accu mulated more
wealth in the brief lifetime of single man
than the entire world has been able to accu-
muiate since Adam was driven from the gar
den. That is, while the country was ravaged
by war, while thousands of millions of prop
erty were being destroyed we were growing
rich with speed which has never been ap-
preached since the world began. That is the
conclusion to which the reasoning of the
ihnationlsts brings US. 1t is too absurd to
receive for moment. And what a COM
mentary on this method of reasoning is fur
nlshed by the figures of the present decade
In the decade which included vast destruc-
ton of property, and four years of the most
costly war that was ever waged, we double
our wealth! In the decade following with
no war or overwhelming disaster our wealth
Is undergoing a great decrease. Is this Iea.
sonable? Is this probable?
The Neao Era wants 10 know how this
apparent prosperity can be accounted for,
and answers its question by saying that the
Iree use OF paper money accounts for it.
Precisely. The apparent increase in wealth
was illusonary. We measured our wealth
by different standard. One might take ten
thousand bushels of wheat and re-measure
them using bushel with false bottom that
only held two pecks and so reckon twenty
thousand bushels; but not grain more O.
wheat would he have. Still men who only
looked at his figures would wonder at the
astounding increase in his wheat-heap, and
never notice perhaps that a thousand bushels
had been taken away from it.
We are richer to-day than we were ten
years ago. for we have more of nearly every.
thing that goes to make up wealth. But the
property existing in 1870 was measured by
an inflated standard. Every dollars worth
counted as two dollars worth. Suppose a
succession of great fires had DESTROYED
fourth part of all the cotton cloth in thu
country, and that we then went to work ant
declared by government fat that eighteer
inches should be yard, and then shoa L
measure the cloth lett. We should of course
have more yards of cloth than before the
destruction of fourth part of our stock; but
lt is evident we should have but three-tourths
the quantity of cloth, and so should be much
the poorer despite the apparent increase, the
increase in the number of yards Of our stock.
Now in going back to the old measurement Ia.
we are doing to-day there would be apparen
shrlnkage in our stock, the number of yard
would be reduced, but we should have ius
as much cloth. So in 1860 and for four year
after, great portion of our wealth was de
stroyed, but the destruction was conce ,aled b.
our change in the measures of yalu,e. w
called hfiy cents, or seventy cents. or fort
cen's' as the case might be, dollar, and the
measured our property and congratu late
eacn other upon its apparent increase an
thought we were growing rich. 1t vas
very foo''sh thing to do, but the very hin
an ihnated paper currency always leads ne
70 90. In the use of that currency, chan gin
Tue meaning OF denominations of value, I
O0 found our s.astoundinC nros naritv,, n Oj