Wichita eagle., 1888-06-02
THE CAUSES OF DEPRESSION.
From the Nv York T.ibune.

From the NV York Tribune.
1t begins to pinch. Industry and hon
est business are disturbed in every part
of the country by the course which the
Democratic party has pursued and is
pursuing. Pleasant fctions of specu
lative boomers are giving place to un
welcome realities. For the four months
ending April 80 the actual business trans
acted throughout the country was 10 pei
cent less than it was during the same
months four years ago, and in May the
shrinkage will be even larger A large
number of iron and steel, wooden, knit
goods and other manufacturing estab-
lishments are standing idle, and many
thousand persons are out of employment.
Excessive speculation has kept in this
country large crops of staple products,
so that nothing short of a
failure of crops amounting to national
disaster seems likely to lift prices to such
point that the short crops foreshadowed
by official reports will prove remunera-
tive to the farmers. Crazy land specula-
ton has swept over the country, leaving
behind it new mortgages which may be
estimated at So 600, 900, OO0in amount; an
enormous increase in the paper circula-
llOu Has OCCuIIeu, 1hu liz" gnu US Gins
to go abroad.
1t is not possible to convince many
Democrats that these changes are the
natural results OF party mistakes. The
Democrat does not believe that initiation
of currency is harmful. Republicans
believe and practical business men know
that it is. He does not see how anybody
is hurt by kindling the flames of the
widest speculation. Practical men
know that inflated prices OF real estate
bring mischief, and that vast accumula-
tions of unsold products put our mar
kets and therefore our producers at the
mercy of foreign buyers. 1t seemed
to the Democrats mere frenzied parti-
sanship for Republicans to criticise
the secretary of the treasury, when he
was pouring out $50 900, 600 of currency
in few months, and making things
lively" in order to carry elections in
1886. But the men who then predicted
the pinching relations which now ap-
pears were not in error. 1t seemed to
the Democrats nonsense to say take off
part of 1.-The burden which Expresses the
people" could cause disaster. But the
army of workers who look in vain for
employment at closed mills and furnaces
know that the consequences are pain
fully real to them. Initiation Of cur
rency and tariff agitation have made dis
turbance, and the country will have to
make the best of it.
A Shrinkage in exchanges; what does
it mean? Week before last Sis, 600, 900
less was paid than in the corresponding
week last year, and in the end nearly
the entire sum paid represents labor en-
ployed and its wages. If the products
are not bought they cannot be sold and
the men and women who would gladly
make more must wait. This year,
taking the transactions of the first five
months as test, one-tenth less is
paid out for things purchased than was
paid four years ago IN the same months
and that means difference of $1,000
000,000a year in payments OF all kinds.
A large part are speculative, 1t IS true,
but the policy of the party in power
stimulates speculation, while 1t depresses
industry. Ii shuts manufactures In
which thousands of Americans are en-
ployed, and sends gold to Europe to pay
for foreign products imported.
The people who refused to believe that
a Democratic victory IN 1854 would no
no harm were not the wisest people on
earth. This country is of wonderful re-
sources and growth. 1t can stand more
running than any other, and its misfor-
tunes would appear the bliss of Paradise
10 those who dwell continually under
the blighting influence of theories which
Democrats ars trying to apply here. The
nations marvellous vitality and recup-
erative power will doubtless enable it to
overcome obstacles and escape disaster,
but it will have to pay the cost OF Demo
cratic misgovernment all the same.