Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-09-15

NNe" u NAAAASe
the week, both foreign and local published every
Friday, sent postage paid to any address, for one
year g.; SIX months, 81; three months. IS cents.
GOLDEN AGE OF THE REPUBLIC.
It has been said that there exists no
good cause, no natural reason for the
present financial depression and bust
%stagnation throughout the country.
Is there not, after all, q good natural
reason? Have We not developed toe
rapidly and is it not one of natures laws
that following each other, like the
wave of the ocean, an era of unprece.
denied prosperity must be followed by
n Of temporary depression? Have We
not, during the period since the wal de-
veloped into a people of extravagant
habits, and lofty ideas? Was there ever,
in the history Of the world such a period
Of unrestricted development, such rapid
accumulation of wealth, such phenomi.
nal advancement in industry, such re-
markable discoveries in science and the
arts, as during the last quarter of a
century in the United States? If history
repeats itself, does not the history of
civilization say to us that We cannot
forever continue in the enjoyment of
prosperity and luxury to the degree in
dulged in by the people of the United
States since 1865?
These thoughts suggest themselves
after reading Andrew Carnegie's "word
to wage.earners," in September North
American Review. Coming up from the
ranks probably no employer is more
qualified to advise the wage-earner than
Mr.. Carnegie. Having during the
period in question accumulated a vast
fortune and being one of the keenest OBJ,
servers, deepest thinkers and withall
most practical and thoroughly unselish
Of public men, Mr.. Carnegie's study of
the present situation must have weight
with thinking people. Mr.. Carnegie in
the beginning of his article declares
that the country was lev so prosper
u as during the decade between 1880
and 1890. Labor was never so fully EN-.
ployed, wages so high, or the necessaries
of life so cheap; the masses never earned
and saved so much; never was the pro.
portion of the combined earnings OF
capital and labor given to and received
by labor so large, and the proportion
left to capital, so small. Never was the
foreign commerce of the country mol it's
infinitely more important home com
merce so great. 1t is probable that ou1
successors in many future decades are to
look back to the past decade as the
golden age of the republic, as far as
material prosperity is concerned. What
a contrast to this picture the position OF
u country presents to-day.
Mr.. Carnegie then goes on to show
the result of silver legislation in the
United States; how the government,
ever since the act of 1873, compelling
the purchase Of a certain amount, has
been trying in vain to give q value to
silver which it does not possess; how
keen observers everywhere saw that
silver was being produced in larger
duanties and more cheaply than ever;
how one government after another
stopped the coming of silver to use as
money; leaving the United States alone,
Mexico excepted, purchasing millions
of dollars worth of the white metal
monthly; how it was only a question of
time when financiers would see that
the government could not redeem all
its obligations in gold, and if their
securities were paid in silver it meant q
loss to them Of probably one-half.; Then
1t was that people at home and abroad
began to make all contracts in gold, and
to exchange the bonds they had bought,
payable in lawful money. for bonds
expressly payable in geld. Foreign
governments looked on with Joy at the
attempt Of our government to bolster up
silver, and quietly began to drain our
country of i 8 gold.
Reviewing the situation in other
countries and the manner of conducting
business in this country-showing that
actual money is used for less than n
twentieth part Of the business trans
acted-the bulk of it being credit and
settlement On balances-Mr. Carnegie
says:
You hear now and then from men who,
however, are inexperienced in business
matters. that our trouble arises from scar.
city of money" and that what we need is
more; money in the country; but | do not
think there is on man Of financial expert.
you that this is not SO. If more "money,"
meaning thereby more currency" would
have prevented this panic, it could never
have happened, because the government
has gone on month after month for years
adding more money to the currency. W.
have now more circulating medium Der
head than any civilized. country except
France, n France needs more than any
other nation because its neunle do mi me-