The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-09-03

profit he didn't employ the receipts in reduc-
ing his liabilities, but bought more land. He
valued the property for which he had paid
million dollars at q million and half at the
very least, and by that figuring made himself
out to be worth three times as much as he
really was. OF course he lived in a style COM
mensurate with bis supposititious means, and
his personal expenses made serious draft
npon his store. When the reaction came be
found himself weighed down by exactions
which he had no income to meet His credit
was gone; be couldn's pay the accrning inter-
| est on his mortgages; even his tax bills he was
unable to take care Of. He was involved be-
| yoDd extrcation, ard it was only question Of
| time when the remnant of his estate must re-
vert to the holders of the mortgages and the
rest be swallowed up in the general shrink
| age.
This is the history of considerable number
of men who have in time past enjoyed the re-
putation of being sffllent Tue mania for
trading on real estate is a periodical one and
RACES at times quite as fercely as the craze OF
stock speculation. Both have engulfed the
| savings of innumerable victims Toe operator
in stocks comes to rief sooner than the adyen-
turer who traffics in land. But great major
ity OF those who deal in either on credit, or by
hypothecstion of margins get stripped of every
thing in the end. The sufferers undoubtedly
| are objects Of commiseration Just everybody
is who is overwhelmed by reverses. But there
is no ground for regret that the events have
occurred that precipitated these individual Ca
lamities. The decline in the prices of property
1 90 20 kbo ,,,ft 49, Iaxx Tl.a
| effect of it is to make rents lower and living
cheaper, and in that way whatever is taken
from one person is distributed among many.
1t acts like sort of automatic principle of ap-
portionment to the people, diffusing wealth but
| not diminishing it
IT is paradox that battles all attempt OF go
| luton, why any laborer or professed friend Of
the lsborer should take the least exception to q
state of things, which Is 80 obviously and effec-
lively contributing to the improvement Of his
| condition. Inaation il it were practicable,
which fortunately it is not, could by no possi-
bility henefit any class except those who owe
| money, and the masses cannot be included in
this category. If the widest demands Of the
advocates of an irredeemsble and illimtable
currency were to bs realized, the result would
|
while of taxation, and thus would reap all the
advantage that could accrue from such q false
system of finance. When the day Of recke.-
ing came, the poor would bs compelled to bear
their full share of the penalties involved in q
departure from the established teuets of wise
political economy. L. certainly ought to re-
qure no argument to elucidate this pro position.
Before the panic the dwellers in cities, whose
resources were manly dependent on other peo-
Piles tOil-who produced nothiDg-added moth
ing to the wealth of the nation-derived far
greater proportion of gain from their pursuits
than those who were aiding to augment the
general store by industry 10 the field and work
shop. Since the panic these conditions have
been reversed. The laborers have not been ex-
empted from loss to be sure. The Interruption
of business deprived many Of them Of oppor-
tunities of earning money. Neverthe-
less they have not been depleted
to anything like the same extent that
the tradesmen aud manufacturing employers
have. Great numbers of the latter are abso-
lutely destitute to-day. They have got to be-
gin life anew The future looks promising and
many of them, no doubt, guide and instructed
| by tn SO sad experiences will recover aud be-
come well.to-do again. But if so the laboring
classes will partic pate fully in their recruited
| fortunes. There can be no return of prosperi-
| ty to the country that does not carry with it
the assurance of abundant and Justly requited
occupation to every man within Its limits who
| is able and willing to work. Tho idea that
| capital thrive while labor is lauguishing or
that there can be antagonsm between n them
| without detriment to both is . ohimericaI no.
ton that can find no Judgement in the brain
of auy man who has ever thoughtfully consid-
cred the relation of each to the other. 1t isn't
at all necessary that there shonld be any pre-
tense Of philanthropy in the solictude that
every intelligent man must feel that WORK
should be plenty and wages liberal Self n
terest is an all sufficient motive for the ~
salty of that sentiment. Nobod- ..vel
had wit enough to accumulate 4 who eve
Sd short-sighted as to D. money could b
the earning powe -. anything to dimiuisl
not agaius. .e of his fellow beings. L, /.
the a. those who labor but ooiy agains
! -slnerants who seek to infuse into III,
minds of the multitude distaste for labor an,
disposition to organize crusades to despoi
the frugal and thrifty for the benefit of th,
prodigsl and inert that the voice of the friend.
: OF order is lifted in honest denunciations
The obliteration of the large amount of nom
lnal debt that has been cleared off in the ex
: piring hours OF the bankrupt law, will materi
: ally help to prepare the way for the revival Of
business. The individual liabilities of oul
citizens were never relatively so small as they
are at present. The national obligations ars
not SO excessive but that they are manageable
They are now nearly all held in the u nitet
States, and that takes away the terror of theii
being returned hither in such quantities as to
interfere with the balance of trade between
Europe and America. On general principles
it would not be q matter of graduation that
the security of our Government found so little
favor with foreign investors that they sent four
fifths of what they once held back to us. But
on the other hand, it is q source of gratifica
tion that four-ffths of what they have sent
have merely gone to pay for the commodities
they have been buying of as. Ordinarily,
when affairs bere are in their normal condition
we can find use for very considerable amount
of transatlantic capital. Bat If we establish
our ability and our determination to make re-
sumption "ixed fact there is no danger but
that their money will come as soon and as fast
as we need it. Lenders are always ready to
trust those who have shown conclusiyely that
there is no apprecabe risk in trusting them.
Thus far the bonds that have been sent home
have represented the difference in ur favor
between our exports and our imports. BY and
I by, ana NOT very long hence, ttIrso differences
will have to be paid in COIN. From preseus
appearances there is every reason to expect
that we shall not have to wait long for this re-
iux. We are already sending abroad variety
of commodities that formed few years ago
an important element Of our importations.
Besides breadstuffs, in the production of which
we are excelling all the world. and cotton, the
growth of which has resumed its wonted abuu-
dance, we are shipping fabrics made of cotton,
iron and steel, and great many other things
that are rapidly bringing wealth to the nation.
In the eloquent language of the greatest of
English speaking statesmen, Mr.. Gladstone:
"The development which the Republic has
| effected has been unexampled in its rapidty
| and force. While other countries have doubled
| or at most trebled their population, she has risen
during one single century of freedom In round