Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-09-05
PEOPLE speak of hard times ss they

OO OA an cot ttbd uakc UT cgclOuc- -sOAc-
 thing inevitable and beyond. remedy.
 Indeed they are regarded as 6 serious
 intiiction, visiting the world without sp-
 parentreason and staying SO long as they
 finds means of subsistence. And yet
 this unfortunate state of affairs is gov
 erned by laws as immutable as those
 governing the seasons or the rise and
 fall Of the oceans tides Without at
 this time entering into Q general discus
 sion of the conditions leading up to
 business Impressions and the incident
 scarcity Of money among the great
 masses of the people, a subject that
 would require greater space than we
 have at our command, We shall note
 simply the attending conditions In Ari-
 zona, where they are perhaps somewhat
 different than in the agricultural and
 manufacturing countries in the east.
 In reality. there IS scarcely less volume
 of money in Arizona to-day than at any
 time in the past four years, but it is
 concentrated in fewer hands. The
 booming times, when men were busy and
 every one could spend money without
 counting its cost, the people acquired
 more luxurious habits and tastes than
 they can now afford to indulge. Every
 person who cared to work could get em- ployment at good wages, st that time.
 and they usually spent with open hands
 all they earned. and but very few were
 prevalent enough to hoard their coin.
 The mismsnagement of several great
 mIning companies and their final collapse
 threw a large number of miners upoo
 the country without money or employ
 ment, and the first step in the hard
 times began. These disasters made others more cautious in investing their capital in Arizona mining properties,
 particularly in the face of the present
 unsettled condition of financial matters
 in the east, and DO opportunities were
 offered the miner to recover his happy
 state of comparative Opulence. and he
 became a burden upon his comrades.
 Then came the strike al Tombstone.
 which ruined many a well meaning and
 industrious miner and brought him down to starvstion's door. It was an ill-advised movement, and the disaster rested the most heavily upon those who coall least afford to bsRr its burdens.
 With but very few mines n active op- eration the occupation of the miner was gone, and the few dollars that he could get together soon followed. The sea- son Gf their enforced idleness has been one of business depression. The lsboring classes are the arteries through which the current of money flows from the pu!sGting heart O.: active capital, carry ing peace and prosperity into every phase of life from the palace down to the hovel. When through any means these arteries become clogged, and the supply of money ia curtailed or de- nied the laboriDg classes, the depres- sion in commercial affairs Is felt at once, and if these conditions are protrscted, hard times are sure to follow. Man can exist, when absolutely required to do SO, upon En incredible short allowance Of food, Gnd in seasons of depression the practice of economy in every detail is not only essential. but it is one of the clements upon winch the hard times | subsIst. But with us, among the natur- a! resources of Arizona, such sesson of depression as that which IS just now passing away, brings to our doors 8 train of prosperity that is remarkable chiefly for the reversal Of the conditions producing it. Parsdo,icGl of It may seem, the very misfortune that closed the arteries O, wages 10 the miner. has been the $peans of producing it has turned his attention 10 mining ores for the purpose of ship- ment, and to such an extent is this be- ing carried on that the current of money is exactly reversed in it's channels, and the rigors of the long depression are rapidly loosen ing their grasp upon our territory and the certainty of prosperous times is s-- sured. Between to-day and the first day of the coming calendar year, the vlbra- tions of thousand stamps will echo in the hills and mountains of Arizona in to the present work of chlorid- ing, and what can be the result but the most flourishing of good times?