Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-08-03

We reprint the following from the
columns of the New York Sun.
and call attention to it's hopeful
reasonable tone. 1t is noteworthy that
| the writer, Matthew Marshall, whose
opportunities Of observation have ex-
tended over longer period of Ameri-
can commercial life than many, is not
disposed to regard the present crisis
as seriously as several Others that,
have preceded it. Says the Sun:
'The stock market, as well as finan-
c1al and business affairs generally,
seems to be in the condition of the
sick man who, in answer to an in
quiry about the state of his health,
could say only: My dear fellow, I
am dying Of a hundred excellent symp-
TOMS His physicians declared that
he was going on well and that every
thing in his case betokened a speedy
recovery, while he himself felt that
he was growing worse. In the same
way, prices on the stock exchange
have fallen heavily in the face of the
announcements of better supply of
money, Of an increase of gold in the
treasury, of imports of the same metal
from Europe, Of larger exports of GER
calls, and of an improving prospect
of the repeal Of the Sherman act. The
list of failures of corporations and
private firms receives, too, every day
fresh accessions; factories here at the
east are shutting down, and west Of
the Missouri bankruptcy is the rule
and not the exception.
"An this is decidedly unpleasant,
but it is not unnatural nor unprece-
dented. The destruction of credit
which has been effected within the
past two or three months, cannot be
repaired in the same short space Of
time. This is in accordance with a
universal law from which there are no
exceptions A mans leg may be brok-
en- in second, but weeks must elapse
before the bone will knit together
again. The woodsman with his axe can
in an hour fell a tree which it will
take years to replace, and Sir Isaac
Newton's dog, Diamond, merely by up
setting lamp, destroyed the fruit Of
lifelong labors. &c. when this i'm
mense fabric Of interlacing and indie
pendent credit which constitutes the
framework of the country'S business
receives a shock like that to which it
has recently been subjected, we have
no right to expect it to recover from
its injuries as speedily as they were
inflicted.
ITO many people, especially those
who are not old enough to remember
the earlier financial catastrOphes
through which the country has passed,
this one which we are now expert
encing seems the worst that ever
happened. 1t is perhaps more severe
than that of 1884, and even that of
1890, but it is nothing as compared
with that Of 1873, or even with those
Of 1857 and 1860. AS to the distress
ing period which began in 1887 and
continued with more or less severity
till 1S4S, so few of the men who were
in business then are still alive, that
it belongs rather to history and to
tradition than to he chronicle of cur
rem events. Besides, it is a popularity
of human nature that contemporary
occurrences occupy much larger space
in the mind than those of bygone times;
just as in landscape objects near
the eye fill a larger space than those
which are remote, and often complete
ly hide them.
''COnceding, however, that the ca
! tastrophes of 1884 and of 1890 were of
less magnitude than that of this year,
and were more speedily followed by a
recovery than this one is likely to be,
no one acquainted with the facts will
deny that the crash of 1873 was far
more widespread and destructive and
that its effects endured for a much lon
ger period than we have any reason
to expect at present. Thus far, at
least, the stock exchange has not been
closed as it was in 1873, the exports
of produce have not been suspended,
nor has the collection of debts been i'm
possible. The collapse of 1873 was fol
lowed, too, by a prostration of enter
prise, from which a recovery did not
begin until 1877, and which did not
wholly disappear till 1879. That we
are going to drag on in the same
way now there is no ground for sup
posing.
Nor are we suffering now as we
were in 1878, from the exhaustion of
4 four years costly war which impOv-
erished the northern twolthirds of the
nation and ruined the southern third
The enormous destruction of property
which took place in both sections was
repaired by borrowings in Europe, and
| by a fe1erish activity in every depart
ment of industry, and it thus escaped
general observation. The flood of
paper money which was poured out to
meet the necessities of the government
had also stimulated speculation and
carried the prices Of labor and Of all
kinds Of commodities to an eXtraordi-
nary height. For a year or two after
the war ended the impetus it had Civ
en- to business still continued and only
gradually died away. When it was
finally spent, and when we set our
selves seriously to the work of paying
the national debt. of preparing for
consumption of specie payments, and
of going back to the occupations of
peace, we discovered how much our
resources had really been depleted, and
how much it would cost to repair them.
AS the premium on gold fell, the
prices of commodities railroad stocks.
and real estate fell with it, and the
panic of 1878 was the result.