Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-03-13
Hard Times.

To the readers of the HERALD and
the people IN general: The financial
troubles which our country is passing
through is a matter which calls for
consideration and mature deliberation.
That we have had hard work in OBJ
tanning the necessaries of life for
long time past is known to every
body and it is certain that this state
of things is the effect of some cause or
causes. l propose in this essay to
give some of the why's and where.
fores Of our difficulties.
During my recollection our country
has passed through several seasons Of
panics The first was in the year
1sl7-l8, the cause of which | did not
comprehend. But it was probably
the result of the war OF 1912 which
terminated in 1918. At that time bus
mess of every kind was depressed
and scarcely any commodity could be
cashed at any price. In the year 81
we had another panic which was pre-.
coded by great rage for speculation
in land, town lots and other things.
Honest industry was to a large extent
abandoned so that while we had the
richest soil and probably the best fa-
cilities for agriculture of any nation
on the face of the globe we were com
PEELED to import -four from Europe.
The crash found nearly every body
deeply in debt, without the means to
pay. Most of our Indebtedness was
for what we could have done without
Broken b.nks broken merchants and
broken farmers were the order of the
day. After hard struggle with pov.
erty and unparalleled distress we
found ourselves once more in thrv.
ing condition, and-if we had profited by
tho lessons of experience then taught
US the present financial difficulties
might have been averted. Let us
look at the state of things surround
ing 10 when our country became en-
barrassed in 1873. We had recently
been engaged in a war of more than
four years duration which left US
vastly in debt, with the southern por-
ton Of the republic laid waste by the
Union forces in putting down great
rebellion. This was followed by the
destruction Of one of our most import
ant cereals, (wheat) Then came
floods which took mills, houses, fences,
bridges and crops as well as the soil.
Our agriculturaliets to large extent
gave up the production of wheat aud
went with a rush into raising corn
and pork until the supply of pork
largely exceeds the demand. Those
OF US who had not run heedlessly ia
debt have not suffered much by the
change OF times. If all of our citizens
had heard the Apostles injunction to
owe no man anything and live accord.
ing to our means we could have OBJ
tanned our necessary supplies without
much embarrassment. As it is many
of our farms are mortgaged and the
occupants are paying largely in inter.
est which 10 gnawing at the vitals OF
our prosperity. Not . few of our
people are hopslessly insolvent. Blu,
the signs of the times are hopeful.
The balance of trade with foreign
countries is largely in our favor
which demonstrates the TACT that we
produce more than we consume. The
best thing to be done, all things con.
sidefed, is to curtail expenses, live
savingly and apply all our strength
and energies to the payment OF ouI
debts and try to profit in the future
| by what is past. Let such as are