Smyrna times., 1884-07-30
The Business Depression.

4u0 DuDluObD OO pIOoD1Uu1
We are undergoing a period of pecu-
liar and deep business distress. Many
accumulating fortunes are disappear
ing with amazing rapidity. There is a
well founded loss of confidence in all
our established business enterprises.
The oldest and best known commercial
houses are questioned; the banks are
sorely troubled, and railroad values
are being blotted out.
We have prophesied With great fire.
quency, for ten years past, that such a
result was inevitable unless railroad |
investments be protected by law as
other property is. We do not believe
that one-quarter of all the property
in the nation could be left to the unre-
stricted plunder of its directors and
managers, without begetting such a
loss of public confidence as would en-
danger all business enterprises.
There is an abundance of money
many millions are lying idle. The
contraction and the steady settling in
prices, day by day, are not because of
the scarcity of capital, but because the
public have discovered at last that the
law does not protect them in their rail-
road investments. The whole system
is permeated with fraud. First mort
gage bonds are no better than the
stock we tolerate an utter destruction
of both by the most transparent fraud
ulent devices.
1t is purely moral panic. 1t is a
matter of the utmost difference what
is the traffic and what the earnings of
the railroads. In any case, by some
trick or device, the managers get not
only the profits, but so load the plant
with burdens, which they create
for fraudulent purposes. that the
owners are divested of their property.
Thousands of millions of dollars have
been stolen in this way. The story of
tho gigantic rObberies of the Union
Pacific, the Kansas and Pacific, the
Wabash, the West Shore, and Of other
minor roads, is known throughout the
land.
The plundering has not been dis
guised. Millions upon millions have
been taken, and the ill-gotten gains
have been flaunted in royal equipages
in steam yachts and in Fifth avenue
palaces. Everybody knows the men
r yet not one of them in all the length
l and breadth of the land has ever beer
= punished. Our laws and our customs
, have tolerated and do tolerate sucl
robberies.
D The gigantic losses are beginning t.
t tell fearfully. A blotting out of two
thousand millions in market valu
n necessarily leaves hole in many safes
v Many acquired fortunes, which wer
!; deemed secure, have slipped ava,
It like morning mist Many widow
e and many orphaned children ar
l. fioundering in unexpected pOvert!
Ie Strong mems minds have become ur
# settled, and in some cases they al
N driven to suicide. The agony is teri
o. bic; in a multiplicity Of cases
10 reaches up almost to the unendurabl
,e There probably never was a time, sin'
" civilized commercial relations were G
Is tabished among men, when the suiIe
r. ing was as intense, a. wide spread, al
1t as far reaching as now.
te The end is not yet. Six thousar
d. millions invested in railroad proper
n in this country, mas ceased practical
ut to be marketable, and has SUI
Id denly become unavailable in busine
II. transactions as a basis of credit. II
on remedy must come from legislatio
or. and that unfortunately cannot be hi
nd just yet. That must come, and VIII
ur it does come it should be radical al
ne complete.
ell The public must be relieved rom
ed necessity of paying interest or di'
Of dends on fraudulently watered stOO
he or bonds. The railroad compani
lr- must be relieved from all fraudule
,as parlor-car, freight, express company
ng similar contracts imposed on them
NO their officers for the officers spec
tol personal benefit. 1t must be ma
of Just a much a crime for an officer
itv rob a railroad which is under his cC
nv. troll as it is now for an officer to rob
ian bank. 1t must be made just as seriC
the an Offense for an officer in charge Oi
Dus railroad to issue any false token
of promise, to make any fraudulent sta
he ment, to lie or in any way to decei
INV as it is now for the officer of any Otl
ay- kind of corporation to do such dang
inc Gus, disreputable things. Our cOu
tol. and society itself, must come to rec
at nize the fact that a thief who plUnd
ore railroad is just as dangerous {
the Just as disreputable as any other k
and of thief.
All this will come it must &C
on before the public can or will Sc
will down with feeling of safety over Il
will large investments in railroads. In
meantime all classes of property
be likely to sNffer. Business will 81
s. nate, and energy be paralyzed.
~. most important element in our de
opment and in our civilization is in
r. Il j.
,usi- tolerated their pranks until tolera
lie & is no longer possible. In roofing Il
ork, out their vicious methods must
IS of with them.-YOnkers Statesman.