Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-09-18

good friend Il. b. DoYener, whole
souled Republican.
Owing to the immense weight on the
platform, part of it gave way, precipl-
tating its occupants to the ground, but,
fortunately, hurting no one.
The immense crowd feeling hungry, |
and Gen. Garfield not having yet arrived, |
in response to earnest calls, Mr.. A. WI
Campbell of the Intelligencer. was call
ed out, and was getting in some excel
lent work, when the General was an
nounced, and Mr.. Campbell promptly
gave way, much TO the regret of the
meeting, who were very anxious to hear
him; and we here express the hope he
may be induced to come over and give
us regular talk during the canvass.
President Jones introduced Mr.. Garfield,
who was received with such wild dem
onstrations of enthusiasm as made the
vallies echo and re-echO. 1t was grand
reception.
We print below the Wheeling Intelli-
gencer's very full synopsis of the mas
terly address OF Mr.. Garfield, which was
listened to by the vast assembly with
intense interest:
After few Introductory remarks, de-
ploring his bad state of voice, the Gener-
al continued as follows:
GOOD CROPS AND REsoUNDING INDUSTRY.
The Democratic party fights against
fate. They are unhappy because we have
good crops and heavy exports. Yet Gen.
Ewing says that he finds misery and
want wherever he goes. l do not see 1t
around me here. l see the light of fla
ming furnaces and l hear the clang of
terminated industry. find it so wher-
ever go. | read calls for more men IN
all the newspapers. Wages are advan-
cling because of the actual scarcity of Ia
borers. The great works of the country
are full of orders for their goods. The
railroads are burdened down with
freight. American commerce is alive
again on all the seas. Is all this bogus?
Is it all a mere insubstantial delusion?
The Democratic leaders would have you
believe it is. And the reason they would
have you so believe is that they proph-
esied that ruin would come instead of
prosperity with specie payments, and
now their only chance of success is to
deceive aud delude you into the idea
that all that you see and all you lead is
sham and a fraud. To such straits as
these is the Democratic party of to-day
driven in order to ward off their I'M
pendiug defeat.
HOW TUE PANIC CAME.
want to say few words to you in
regard to the panic and as to who is re-
sponsible for it. All panics come from
destruction of capital. On an average
England has panic once in every ten
years, and this country once in every
twenty years. We had great panic in
1887, caused by the investment of the
surplus of capital in Western lands.
The mania of the times was to buy lands,
lay out cities and sell corner lots. As
an illustration of this mania l can poiut
now to the sites of five cities laid out
on paper in my section of Ohio. In SELL
ing corner lots in these paper cities $780,
| 600 changed hands. The streets were
laid out and named, but not a house was
built and not a spade was ever stuck in
the ground. There was the happy city
of Manchester, near COnneaut on Lake
Erie. The project was to unite it with
Liverpool on the'Ohio river, and build
up two great martS of commerce. Men
were crazed by the plethora of paper
money the afioat. Everybody got rich
on paper. Business in real estate was
booming in that day. Alas, for the de-
lusion. One fine morning in May the
bubble burst, the whole pile of bricks
fell in on each other, and there was a
universal crash. Ruin and bankruptcy
followed, and years of stagnation, de-
preston and distress. The paper cities
were wiped out even on paper, and their
broad acres sold for mere song. That
was the end of the great imitation that
eliminated in the memorable panic of
1887. In 1878 we had another panic.
As in 1887, we had an immense volume
of paper money afoat-more than at any
time for years previous. Gen.Ewing tells
the people that the panic of '73 occurred
because of a contraction of the currency.
| The statement is not true. The exact
reverse is true. 1 hold myself RESPONSE
bic to this audience for the statement
that in 1878 we had more money afoat
than we had in in 1870, or II or '72. And
vet the panic came as come it must. We
had blown up the bubble to the bursting
point. 1t was bubble rs much as those
that the boys blow with soap suds and
clay pipe. You have all blown such
bubbles You remember how the bal
loon appears above the mouth of the
pipe at the first imitation or two. 1t
looks very attractive. Then you give it
another imitation and it gets bigger and
more beautiful, but thinner-always
thinner. Then another, and you see it
in all the brilliant and dazzling hues of
the rainbow. Then another, and the
whole thing bursts and leaves nothing
but miserable mess of suds in the old
pipe.
THE RAILROAD MANIA.
The great cause of the panic of 1878
was the destruction of capital by invest
ment IN railroads that were not wanted
railroads built from nowhere to no.
where-railroads whose business would
not pay FOR their axle grease. Up to
1866 this country had constructed $4,000
miles of railroad, and had been so years
building them. In the eight years that
followed we built $4,000 more. We gra-
ded roads that were never ironed, and
we ironed roads on which no car was
ever placed. The country went Wild in
building speculative railroads. We spent
all of our own money and borrowed
from whover would lend US. We got in
debt heels over head. We sold bonds at
whatever they would bring. We finally
started to build the Northern Pacific
road, the greatest speculative railroad
project ever known. Two hundred and
fifty miles of this road ran through
trackless wild, where naught lived but
wild beasts and wild Indians, and where
the travel and traffic would not pay the
wages of one brakeman on the whole
line. In this way we buried in the
ground nine hundred millions of capital
sunk it out of sight and out of use
when one hundred millions would have
been ample for all our needs.
And in addition to this waste of
capital in railroads, we fell to build
| ing mills of all kinds. We oVer-excited
the development of ore, the develop
ment of coal, and drew from the ranks
of agriculture a vast myriad of people
into the OVer-DroductiOn of iron oIacc