Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-09-07
What is the Remedy?

| The FIRST step is not to exaggerate the evils Of
the times, or take false views of the situation
| Demagosues proclaim that there are millions OF
| unemployed work men in the country, when every
day facts disprove the truth of the statement.
They said there were between 200, 900 and SOC. 600
people out Of employment in Massachusetts, but
! the State Bureau of Labor has proved by iuvesti-
CATION that there ere less than 80 900 unemployed
| males and females in the State. There is suff r.
ing in some quarters, but nothing of the distress
pictured BY heated aud reckless stump o,atnrs.
Asa whole, throughout the country, people find
more or less to do, aud able to earu n living.
The trouble Is not that the people ATE stsrving,
but that we are not all growing rlcn so fast as
would IKE 10. There IL IS much business rs ever
| there WAS. but the profits are very much smaller
than they we're in flush times. Ever, thing IL com
ing down TO narrow margin. The capitalist re-
ceives less from his Investments. the sborer Is not
IN 80 great demand nor his wages so high as when
speculation ragged throughout the land. But then
he purchasing power of the dollar is greater.
The iaborer Can buy as much with one dollar as
ne Could few years ago with two. Tbe farmers
products biipg lower prices. but they purchase as
much OF the necessarIes of life as when prices
we're higher. We are simply coming down from
fictitious values TO real ones. We thought We
were eli getting rich in the flush times, but we
hnd now that we were only running in deot-and
that's where the shoe pinches. Gong back into
drowning man of into deep water just as his feet
touched the shore.
Matters are not so bad rs many would like to
make them appear. They are bad enough, bu,
the true philosophy Is to make the best of them.
Above all, let us remember that society owes
man . living. that legislation cannot properly dis
tribute wealth, and that every man gets just what
comes to him by industry, ability, education, en-
ergy and s.lt-denis Tue prescott business de
pr ession and financial distress largely brough
about by our own folly-by civil war, the conse-
quent imitation OF the currency, and the specula
ton, extravaganza and corruption growing out of
it. Tha only real remedy Is to be found IN hard
work, frugsnty and patience. Paul says OF Moses,
HE endured - seeing him who is invisible"
We all have much to endure in this world, and
our great burden just Is the necessity of pay
ing for the lime lost and the capital destroyed in
the var There is no escaping this necessity. No
lev islsti0n can rid US Of it. Attempts to shirk it
will not do. Reputation will not answer. Play
ing tricks with the currency will only msks things
worse Moses endured. because with the eve of
iaith he saw Him who was Invisible We may all
ture - sure to come BY the practice Of industry
and economy, by turning our hands to whatever
they can find to do, and by abstaining from all
wild and impractica5e schemes for the ovei turn
ing OF the present order Of society. The evils we
endure are temporary. They will pass ava, if we
do nothing to prolong them. One year Of busl-
ness prosperity will dispel all the fGancisl and
communistic fAlla.ies Of the day, as q sea-fog dis
appears Before . northwest breeze Portland
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