The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-07-11

PaOScOo ny pAAO AuTdUlOn Oh QUIZ
civil war and by the universally
of our victory. We not only suppressed
an immense revolt, which had certain
foreign and political backing, but We
put an endsto slavery. The war was
accompanied by no revolt of the slaves
In few parts of Europe, such as Ger
many, our loans have been taken at
heavy discounts, and the holders of
them were envied by all the money
lenders OF Europe. Bonds bought at
thirty went above par. The world
said There Is nation which has the
greatest belt of fine land on the globe
and good deal Of it virgin Land. The
people know what they are about and
have courage, financial skill, patriot
ism, and they will not again be at war
In hundred years. AS soon as our
war ended Austria and Prussia fell
out, and all Germany was involved in
the collision. The displacement Of sill
yer was one Of the unexpected results
of that war. The victorious nation
plundered France of her gold and then
demonetizedsilver. We being debtor
nation, and DESTROYS to stand well
with Europe, took the same step with
out any pressure being exerted-"
A general exclamation ensued:
eyes, that was where our credit had
hole TO be found in our arrnor."
'tTt was after that" said I, ''thaa we
resumed specie payments and went on
in the period Of our greatest prosperi-
ty. And now want TO ask question,
which may not be relevant, though III
seems so to me. Did we not make o
mistake in pushing development in
America through the second period Of
our prosperity? Did we not override,
following 1879, whatwe had done pref
ty well down to the panic of 1874?
Have we been as conservative In our
operations since we came to specie
payments as we should have been, con-
sfdering cur magnificent credit, when
we marketed all our crops at Euro
pean war prices, or when Europe was
short of the necegsaries of life? Is 1t
had gained their maturity have sur
viTed subsequent troubles, while all
the places that have doomed since
1879 have been heavy upon our hands?"
Exclamasions went around concern
ing Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mime
apolis, Fostoria, Findlay, Basic City,
Cumberland Gap, ETC.
'"rhe fact is," said one of my COM
municants, t'that it LIS high time some
check was called to the business of
Transforming all our arainy people into
SPECTATORS. A good deal OF the So
called prosperity for the past fourteen
years has been selling new lamps for
old ones, as in Aladdin's tale. What
ever was paying reasonable dividend
was acquired by SPECTATORS and sold
out again, and future profits fore
stalled. Electricity itself has been an
agency of speculation. We have put
down top many transportation lines,
and tried to rout the horseout of all his
occupations. Banks are not going to
taka care Of the speculators when they
can't take care of their customers. We
have pushed our credit in Europe too
far on the second bound, and have in
jured our standing over there by selling
to them quantities OF things which
were husbanded subsequently,, without
much principle or method. We sold
them ranches of cattle, consolidated
breweries, and trusts of every kind
borrowing their rotten. financial ideas,
in sheer wantonness of desire to manu-
facture something upon which we could
borrow foreign capital. Consequently,
after we had discharged immense por-
tions Of our debt, negotiated ON real
things, we went in debt again to
Europe for things of much less value,
and now we are paying the difference.
Gold Is being drained TO Europe, to lie
up in conservative vaults and stand to
the credit gifts governments, as each of
them undertakes to initiate us in
coming back 10 a gold standard"
Perhaps" said I, sit was necessary
for some check to come to ona. easy
credit, or we might have turned out to
be a nation of gamblers and confidence
men. Look at the lawyers in the
United States who have turned bank
ers. know an old region of the east
where the people voluntarily stopped
litigation from discovery of the fact
that it was the most expensive job they
could take up. They fed from the
lawyers, and left them with nothing to
do. A bar composed of forty to fifty
members did not have $4,000 to liti-
gate year, perhaps not half that
much. So, the lawyers, some of whom
had formed connections with railroads
and town-booming companies. began
to cultivate the eastern money mar
kets, and setup private banks, with the
hope of capturing depositors from the
thrifty countryside people. They
would get Dunkers and other sectari-
ans out of their hide-bound churches as
stool pigeons to draw deposits from
the superstitious and faithful. The
process went on everywhere of buying
outlying farms and cutting them up
into building lots, and charging for
the lots more than the farm had been
worth few months before per acre.
Factories were started without sufi-
Gent capital or skill Men successful
In some quiet development of manu-
features would be drawn to the doomed
town, and would give up their viii