Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1893-06-30
THE BUSINESS SITUATION.
A SENSIBLE VIEW OF 1T AND OF ITS
CAUSES.

Du" : hu"bSidl NItleTs gives IN tnHJ
Journal oie IF The most candid and sounl
expOsittOns Of the business situation that
W. have seen. He says.
1.-The curtailment of credits goes on
with unabated severity, and the number
OF debtors forced by Il into liquidation
has considerably Increased during the
week. The most conspicuous instances
have been those of Western and Califor-
mia banks, thel failures of private mer-
camille firms having been as yet com.
rratively few, though, as omens of
m're possibly to come, they add largely
e. the general 'disquietude. 1t is now
plaiu that the process of sitting and
wedding out must continue until every
weak spot has been exposed and bust
n 'ss Is reestRblished upon solid ground.
Tortu1atelS nothing like an unreason-
Ing pauicIprevails. Creditors and money
lenders are, indeed, more than usually
ca1tious'Gnd exacttng, but thus far, no
debtor Who could demonstrate his sub
stantfal solvency to the satisfaction of
elis creditors has been obliged to sus-
pehdpayment. Those to whom an ex-
tension of credit has been refused have,
utmost cases, proved TO have been un-
deserving, for a hong time, of any credit
@tall, and the present sntugency has
merely precilPNated catastrophes that
were in the narure of things inevitable.
The longer they were delayed the more
complete w'5ald the wrecks have become.
ard little as will be saved from them,
it is more than would have beea saved
by aud by
"tU the face 81 thes Recommendations of
the real origin dr the trouble, It speaks
badly for the Intelligence 'of'oUr people
that so many III them ere deluded by the
false explanations dfiill-irformed theor-
lists. Tn this section ,ef the country the
SAerman actihas been up for a scape-
goat, and Its repeal is demanded as a
sacrifice which will at once restore con-
ii lence andlpreventttuture bankruptcies.
ITothe act are attributed The exports of
gold whichThave so alarmed our banks,
andtromies repealTis expected return
How of the metal, which will at onee
tranauilline the pablic miad and enable
every deaStor to borrow all the mOney
needed tOVearry him along in his basi-
ness. ltiis not considered that the act
has added to the stock of'money in the
ceuntry.a1 amount of paper equal to the
gold whd@h has been exported sineeit
ttSoll effect, and that, although it is still
'1uifull operation, the exports of gold
have stopped, and small quantities of it
;aTe even coming this way again. Ger
rtsinly' nobody will pretend that the nu-
'n1erOus edefalcatiOns and losses by bad
speeulati9ns which the present stringea-
%ey is bringingt to light were caused bv
dhe act, 'aor that it is responsible for the
unwise' management of the blanks which
have failed through having locked up
their funds in loans upon land. in adj
wdnces to unsuccessful railroad and
manufacturing corporations, and in
'oiher iliegitimate ways which made it
dmpossiblefor them to pay their deposit
tors. UNLESS the'repeal of the act can
undo all The mischief of thisikind which
has been done, twill help very little to
mend matters.
A'At the West andsSouthwest the.Sher-
man act is viewed as extremely benefic-
ial SO far as 1t goes, but as not going far
enoalgh. There the.eountry Is said to be
suffering, not from. exports of god, but
from a curtailment of the supply of the
same silver, (which, here at the East, is
regarded as the chief menace to our
financial safety, while the maintenance
OF the gold standard for which we have
praised President Cleveland so highly is
there charged with being the cause of
the financial stringency. Curlousy
enough. this doctrine is espoused by
number of British politicians, paticu-
larry those who are landowners, and
who, like our own agrioulturists, are
losers by the low prices of the products
of the soil. Ut looks, indeed. very much
as If the Tories, in their .eagerness to de- ,
feat Mr.. Gladstone, who has committed
himself TO gold moDometallism, might
take up withAoi-metallism as a good cry
against him, especially as the Roman
Catholic archbishop of ireland has de-
clared against the gold standard as OPP
pressive to Irish tenants.
"Besdes these two opposing theories,
another has been put forth by the ultra
Republican protectionists. who, al
though the Mckinley tariff is still in full
force, ascrlbe to Its prospective repeal.
which is supposed to have been assured ,
at the last presidential election, the pres
ent collapse Of mercantile credit tits +,
true that coming events cast their shad- :
ows before, but business men do not u.s. ,
ually change their methods until thew
base. good reasons for doing 1t. Nobody :
is going to import goods from Europe :
year In advance in case of possible de- ;,