The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-09-26
FlARD TIM IS.
The Cause and the Remedy.
Speech of President Hayes at
Toledo, Ohio.

MY FRIENDS AND FELLow-C CITIZENS
The three States of Michigan, Indiana
and Ohio, it is safe to assume, are each
numerously represented in the audience
before me. These States are fortunate
in their history, in their geography, in
their soil, in their climate, and in their
people. They are part, and very i'm
portant part, Of the old Northwestern
Territory, that beautiful region north
west of the river Ohio, which was given
to the United States by the State of
Virginia, in 1887 and originally devoted
to freedom and freemen forever. And
now you have to-day assembled to show
what the productions of your farms
your shops and your mines have to ex-
hibit Naturally, one addressing an
audience assembled for such a purpose
is mainly turned to the material inter-
ests of this important part of the United
States, and during the very few minutes
that it is proper for me to detain you I
propose to call your attention only
to the subject of our material interests.
Geographically, the future fortunes of
these three States are alike and equally
great. They are in temperate zone,
and have good working climate at all
seasons of the year. A man can work
standing under and in the sun that
shines on this land without injury, and
in the winter he can work. Again, we
T01I6yuov7 hn1TrraA11 &ho 80 i
the great West, and we are midway be-
tween New York and Chicago and San
Francisco, between London and China.
1t is across this country that the COM
merce of the world must travel. We
are fortunate in our soil. Every great
valuable crop of the temperate zone can
be successfully cultivated here. Hay,
corn, wheat, cattle, all the great interests
OF agriculture in this zone, can here be
successfully cultivated.
The wealth of the mines we have
also. Coal in abundance, sufficient to
supply the whole land, and iron and
copper. [ say, my friends, that in ma
terial wealth we have all the essential
elements, and yet, and yeti is in your
thoughts; [ can almost read it in your
faces-that for five years past there has
been stagnation in business, and the de-
preston still seems to exist.
Now, the few plain words that I de-
sire to say on this subject are, first, q
word Or two as to the cause. One sim
pie, acknowledged fact, and known to
most men, is that the war was the cause
of it. Now, my friends, that is the
cause of that extraordinary and remark
able financial crisis happening in 1873.
There is no mystery in it. It was
bound to come, sooner or later. You
could not escape it. See this line of
soldiers marching along. [ was delight
ed to have them as my escort this morn
ing. Dressed in the old uniform, there
is no nonsense about them for holiday
play. Best of all, when you were
marching along, and the time you took
up the route-step and struck up the old
songs, then, indeed, you reminded me.
Did not that portion of our country
that made war necessary cause the hard
times? Do [ make a mistake? This
war made the hard times, as war always
does. Why, what is war? We know
about it now When that war began we
were threatened with it's effects, with it's
| results. remember a brilliant writer
in Cincinnati, where I resided in 1860,
who said, Why, this country can't go
to war" He said the people of Gin
cinnati live on the business in
the South. "Let us 60 to war
and in six months the grass will
grow in your byways and streets" Did
it? Why, my friends, the war hadn't
been prosecuted ninety days until every
man saw what mistake it was, and that
every street was buster than before.
! We had war. A million of men in
the South should be taken from the
ranks of industry, and, instead of MAX
ing property, they became destroyers
and consumers of property And so it
was in the North. But where it made a
difference from what was expected was
this: Every man who had wheat, or
corn, or COAL or labor, found, when the
war came, that he had better customer
than ever before a customer that wanted
all he had got, and wanted it immedi-
ately; customer who wouldn't haggle
about the price. That customer he had
in the person of the United States.
Business, instead of being depressed,
began to revive. Property which had
laid on the shelves Of the merchants for
a long time increased in value day by
day. The result of it then was, we made
money fast; we made it easily. We
could afford to borrow at high rates of
interest, because our investments would
be sure to be profitable. Overtrading
and fast living were the results of the
war. l need not enlarge on it. Finally
the war ended Men in the ranks re-
turned to their homes, and the material
needs of the Government began to go
down. You lost your best customer,
the United States. It didn't want to
buy. It wanted to sell Now, every
wise man knew we should have a day
of settlement. Flush times, like
times of war, are to be followed
by hard times like these we have