The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1885-09-05

we find Some Causes of the Pres
ent Depression" No doubt this
article will be of interest to many
of our readers who are looking for
ward to general resumption of
business:
"Therc seems to be no reason what
ever why this country should not now be
continuously prosperous Our acres are
broad, our soil is productive, our mines
are rich in all the minerals, our means of
communication are ample, our factories
are supplied with all the most improved
machinery; why should we not have
universal and uninterrupted plenty?
Doubtless the idle and the improvident
would suffer and ought to suffer in the
prosperous seasons; but it ought not to
be possible to find in this country at the
present time any considerable number of
persons who are willing to work and who
are suffering for the lack of employment.
With such resources us we possess all our
industrious people ought to be living in
comfort, and the wheels of our industrial
machine ought to move steadily and
smoothly forward This contamination,
so dovoutly to be wished and so raeson-
ably to be expected, keeps far from us.
Occasionally brief era of prosperity re-
turns, when all willing workers find en-
ployment, when our mills are running
and all our mines working, and our mer-
chants report ready sales and satisfactory
profits; but this is quickly succeeded by
a long period of stagnation and strin-
gency, when the machinery stops and
the freight-cars wait empty on the sid
ings, and the grain is heaped up in the
elevators, and there is no demand for the
fruits Of the soil or the products of the
factory, and the mechanics and opera
tives stand idle by thousands all the day
long in the market-place because no man
will hire them. The periods of prosper
ity seem to come less frequently, and the
periods of stringency to be more pro-
tracted, as our civilization ripens.
What strange spectacle this country
presents at this very hour! Money is
plenty-tifty or sixty millions on deposit
in the banks of New York city alone
Food is plenty; the granaries at the
West are full of old wheat, and though
the wheat crop of the present year does
not promise well, the corn crop is likely
to be larger than ever before there is no
fear of scarcity. Manufactured goods are
plenty; the storehouses of the manufac-
turers and the shelves of the merchants
are crowded with them. Labor is plenty;
five hundred thousand idle men are ask
ing for work. Yet in the midst of this
abundance a great industrial and COM
mercial depression has overtaken us. AT
the time of writing this, workmen are
selling their labor at the lowest prices,
and many are unable to sell it at any
price merchants and manufacturers find
dull market for their wares; the rail
roads report losses instead of gains: fail
ures multiply.
The situation is not only pitiful, it is
absurd. What is the explanation of it e?
Who is responsible for it? Is it the pro-
tectionists or the free-traders? Is it the
Silver barons" or the gold bugs? Is it
the Encyclopedias or the iron-puddlcrs ?
Why should industry be crippled and
trade paralyzed, and capital fettercd and
labor starved in America to-day? Who
will read for US the riddle of our civilian
ton? Three or four years ago our indus
tries were busy and our trade was pros
porous, but the stream of plenty sudden
ly began to diminish and disappear like
the Dry Fork Of the Cheat River in mid
summer This condition of things is not
natural. The action of the economical
forces is morbid. There must be a
remedy for these disorders. Who will
discover and proclaim it? Somebody i.
bent on killing the goose that lays the
golden egg. Who is it, and how shall Ii,
be brought TO Justice?
To all these questions many answer,
might be given for several classes, WI
suspect, are engaged in this stupid con
spiracy; we will content ourselves a
this time with pointing out two of them
The workmen who strike when thu
market is stagnant, and when there ar,
but small profits of production to divide
may be safely rockoned among these wit
less destroyers. To shut up the mill 0
or the mine that yields them livli
hood because it will yield them only
livelihood, when the condition Of trad
is such that additional expense of pro
: duction means bankruptcy to the en-
ployer is Il species of faulty quite to
} common among workingmen. Tn
, rightfulness Of strikes is not contested
, but the strike which wrecks cnterpris
) out of which the wOrkmen were gettin.
. a living, and the employer was gettn
: no more is a fragrant case of KILN
t the goose that lays the golden egg
! Strikes, like revolutions, are justified b
9"INSo9' licS may souIcStlIheS llll WheI
e they deserve to succeed but they al
n very often undertaken when there al
e no possibilities of success, when the col
e ditions Of business are such that the d,
n mands of the workmen would ruin tn
: enterprise. In all such cases they belon
a in the class of plumbers that are akin
n crime.
o 1t is also a question for economis
whether such strong combinations
" capital as now exist, using their accum
y lated power, are not actually forcing Il
IT the rate of wages down to u point
d which all trade is iniuriously affecte,
81 whether, indeed, the present depressi,