The Progress., 1893-09-30

TO lay at the door of SO called t2IlI Tt
form the evils incident to what he calls
tariff tinkering. England has had no
tariff tinkering in this generation, but
the world has been convulsed through
her financial panics.
Second-The conclusion is inevitable
that we can have no cure for CONNER
cial panics save in a new social order.
The truth is, panics are inevitable under
the present organization of business.
Our present economic system is a dis
NAL failure. 1t is the widest of wildcat
banking from the broadest international
and national point of vie'k Al the pres
ent rate the world is going hopelessly
in debt, and the present social order Is
responsible for it. The worlds debt
amounts, it is said. today to $780, 600.
600 900 There are but s. ,000. .000, 600 Of
gold and silver in existence in the known
world The interest on the worlds debt
amounts now to more than the annual
increase of the wealth of the world. 1t
is simply mathematical impossibility
for the world to pay It's debts under such
a social regime. About every 20 years,
in the case of human events, it may be
affirmed with certainty that there will
be financial crash, a period of bank
ruptcy, of Reputation and wreck and
suffering. This is the periodical year for
an attempted settlement. The debt of
the world cannot be paid, and as the eff
fort is made to settle its affairs the whole
body is convulsed. We are fighting
against the stars in their courses eco
nomically.
Take our own nation, for example, the
most prosperous in the world in its real
resources of wealth. 1t is estimated
that our production of wealth is s., $780,
600 per day above all expenses of produc-
ton and maintenance of workers. The
average cost of the United States gov
ernment per day, exclusive of certain
sums of the budget not counted as legit-
innate governmental expenses, is vastly
over 81 ,OOO,0 900 per day. The interest on
our public bonds is $4,000 per day;
the interest on our railroad bonds, $780,
600 per day; the interest on private
debts, 81, 400. 900 per day; dividends to
absentee holders of railroad bank and
industrial stock, 100000, the grand
total of our daily Indebtedness amount
ing to $4,310.000. Our net daily income
from production, with which to meet
this Indebtedness, being only s., 800, 900,
it does not take much figuring to see
that we are running in debt at the rate
of 81 so, 900 day. 1t is easy to see
that such a scheme of economics is
bound in the long run to ruin the society
which maintains it. Its only result can
be the accumulation of practically all
the wealth of the nation in the hands of
the creditors, who must become them
selves fewer with the process of liquida-
ton.
1t is also apparent, under the present
system of society, that the proportion of
the increase of the worlds wealth which
goes to the laboring man has suddenly
decreased during the past generation
until the proportion now received by the
laborer, as contrasted with the income
to capital, is less than one-half what it
was 40 years ago. The business of this
age, into which has been poured more of
human endeavor than in any other field
of activity, is stupendous failure. Our
young men of energy and genius enter
the business world.
Into this great caldron we have poured
our brightest blood through the past cen
tury, and what are our returns? Our
political economist tells us that under a
system of competition and commercial
war the delightful principle of self in
terest will work out the salvation of the
world. But the facts are-and they can
be ascertained from any commercial
agency such as Bradstreet's-that9 50 per
cent of all the business enterprises of the
nation are sooner or later bankrupt. 1t
is momentous fact that only per cent
of those who enter our commercial world
ever succeed in establishing themselves.
Can it be possible that we have deceived
ourselves into believing that a system
which produces 50 failures to . successes
is worthy of being perpetuated to all
time? When 95 fail under given prin-
ciple and only succeed, is it possible
that we can believe that such a system
is best? The plain facts stare US in the
face. Our present regime, say what we
may about its traditions, that date
through the centuries, stands arraigned
by its own method and utter failure.
THE DREGs AND THE FRoTH.
The product of society under such a
scheme can be but of the same piece.
The dregs and the froth are out of all
proportion to the saving strata. The
suffering a~d misery and crime under
such a commercial scheme must be con-
tinuously the increase. Are we sat
isfied with such an order? Have we
cause to congratulate ourselves upon it?
If you are satisfied with the record which
Bradstreet gives you from the business
world, can you be satisfied with the in
cidental accompaniments which we see
about us. Under our present scheme
our country is being depopulated and
the dark, crowded and fetid alleys of our
cities being overcrowded.