St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-07
INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSIONS.
Written for the Globe.l
CHAPTER w.
THE RECOVERY.

After the speculative boom has col
lapsed after the people have come to
see that the price of town lots and other
lands cannot 60 OH rising forever-after
the mortgages have been fore closed and
many of the most reckless spectators
reduced to financial ruin-then the
price of lots and lands. and stocks and
bonds, basel on boom values. comes
down. Rents decline to the point where
Legitimate industry can pay the tribute
and survive. Wages are reduced-cap-
ital takes smaller returns. AS soon as it
is probable that the bottom has been
reached the people begin to look around
for locations Oh which to start business
enterprises. So long as the price Of
lots and lands is going down nobody
wants to buy; but when prices seem to
be about to take start upward then
suddenly thousands of people take the
hint and make start. Lots are pur-
chased and homes erected; closed far
farms are cleared and broken, stores
and warehouses erected. and new life
pulses through the veins of industry,
all because the price OF lots and lands
has come do M to the point where cap
ital and labor can again produce with a
profit.
Now the money that had been hoard
ed in the banks and vaults. in old stock.
ings and out of the way corners. is
brought forth, because it is needed.
Those that have bewailed the scarcity
of money" when the banks were over
flowing. and millions were stuffed away
in bureau drawers and holes in the
ground, suddenly cease their narrowing
howl. The volume of money is the
same. The demand is far greater. yet
nobody COMPLAINS OF scarcity.
Strange how people get the cart be-
fore the horse! Business never can be
made to revive after a collapse by iSsu-
ing more money. 1t can only revive
when the tribute to land monopoly has
been so reduced that industry can reap
a fair reward.
When the industrial machine once
begins to revOlve, it goes on with
constantly accelerating motion. Every
idle laborer set to work creates a de-
mand for food, clothing and shelter,
and sets other men at work to supply
that demand. Laborers at work is the
only possible means of setting other
laborers at work.
This. in brief, is the history of
the recovery after very great in
dustrial collapse that our country
has ever suffered from. The
recovery has usually been very rapid
after the start has once been made. The
collapse of '73 is the only apparent ex-
ception. In that case the recovery was
very slow till after Jan. l. 1879. But
that slow recovery was due to the fact
that the government was to return to
specie payment OH that date. The
value of the paper dollar was in 1878
only about 10 or IS cents III gold. Jan.
l, 1879, it would be 100 cents in gold.
People hesitated about mourning oDIi-
cations that would have to be met in
more valuable dollars. The recovery
was therefore slow, and the people suf-
fered six years of agony, part or which,
al least, they might have escaped if a
currency of stable value had been in
use.
Just as soon as 1879 came, and the in
crease in the value of the dollar ceased
to exert its blighting influence, industry
strobe forward with leaps and bounds,
with only slight check in 1854, rushing
forward again till 1888, when the eXor-
bitant prices of lots and lands began to
cause the stagnati0n which finally cul-
minated in the Industrial smash. UP of
1893.
The next chapter will deal with the
present industrial depression.
G. j. BUELL..