The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-06-26
The Financial Situa ton.

While there is no adequate reason
for a panic either immediate or at
some time in the future, yet there is
just that uneasiness and unrest in the
money markets which, so far as pres
ent business operations are concern
ed, produce all the discomforts atten-
dent upon genuine panic. Business
operations are paralyZed and that too
at the very season of the year when
the most injury possible to a given
time, will surely result. In the south
we are making combinations for
money to move the crops. Margins
are very close any way, and if money
costs. more than it did, and the crop
brings less price as it is sure
to do under panic conditions, it is
easy to see that not only will we fail
to make profit on the seasons bust
ness, but the chances are that we will
lose. There is but one way to meet
the situation, and that is by trimming
our sails to meet the storm, by cur
failing our expenditures and by insti-
tuting rigid economy in all the af-
fairs of life. Texas suffered less by
the panic of 1873 than any of the
states, and should we have one now,
she will again come out of it with less
loss and less distress in every way.
The reasons are plain and a state
ment of them cannot but have a
good effect, that of allaying
any unreasonable fears that
may have grown up in the public
mind already, or which may spring up
in the future. We are one of the
largest producers of staple products in
the union. No matter how tight
money may become, people must eat
beef, bread, sugar and rice, and they
must be clothed. We have thus to
furnish two of the three prime neces-
stiles of human existence and
clothing-and as for shelter we have
that, and if we did not, our mild eli
mate would render the deprivation a
slight one indeed. There will be no
difficulty IN Texas selling at a fair
price every pound Of cotton, every
pound of wool, rice, sugar, wheat
rye, oats and barley. Every beef
and mutton she can raise, and for
cash at that. These facts taken with
a wise and rigid economy would be
quite sufficient to insure us a steady
prosperity which would not only hold
is grip, but enable us to go forward
in the improvement of the country
almost without let or hinderance. 1t
is true, there would not be anything
of the boom about it, but there would
be that which would be far better, a
steady, healthful advance, reliable,
strong and satisfactory.
Subdivided, the subject may be
turned over in all sorts of lights.
Every man, with the idea of true
economy about him, can do little
more, if necessity requires, not only
in the way of work but also in self
denial. He can smoke few cigars
less per day, and at little less expen-
sive price. He can drink less whisky,
indulge less in cards and wine and
wear less expensive clothing. The
dear ladies would wear plumes less
tall and dresses of muslin rather than
of satin, and wear them a little longer
The speculative Industries could be
held up little and thus would bed
rock condition prevail which would
save us more than we would really
make were the old rule
of expensive indulgence persued
and there was no panic pre-
vailing. Added to this would be a
real advance in morals consequent
upon the enforced self-denial. Thus
do our blessings come to us sometimes
disguised as disasters. We have en-
Joyed, in Texas, several years of uniu-
terrupted prosperity, and have fall
len into extravaganza habits of business
as well as of living. These must be
reconstructed, and promptly and earn
estly. Narrower margins must be ac-
cepted, and the balance sheet of the
years operations, although it repre-
sents shrinkage in results, must be
taken as satisfactory, and there must
be no business soreheadedness.
Such policy as this imperfectly
sketched one, prevailing throughout
the west and south generally, would
always steady New York and the
manufacturing states, so that a real
panic of wide and devastating effects
could never prevail, or if it did, not for
more than a month or so, until ar
rangements could be made with our
people to tide over break such as
caused the country to quake to its
profoundest business depths in '73,
when republican dishonesty precip-
itated crash which sent vast armies
of starving, wretched men tramping
and begging from place to place.
ought to teach us wisdom
if nothing alSn and tho truact xrricdo,o