The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-01-25
PROVO CITY. JAN. 25. 1884
THE DEPRESSION.

There are panic conditions prevail
ing all over the civilized world, save In
France. There is a wide prevailing,
all sufficient, cause for this condition.
Every man and every nation is inter
ested in seeking for this cause and for
the proper remedy to meet it. For
thirty years prior to '7S the world had
enjoyed a season of almost uneXampled
prosperity. The laws of trade were
well understood and the double stand
ard of silver and gold at the ratio
prevailing, constituted an acceptable
and undoubted means of interchange.
No one doubted the money. 1t was
current in the jungles of India, in the
interior of Africa as it was IN New
York, London, Amsterdam and Paris.
A debt contracted in Calcutta and pay
able in London had no condition of
doubt about 1t and the only difference
in value was predicated upon the time
consumed in the transmission of the
papers. There was never any doubt
upon the subject of money of ulti-
mate redemption. The worth of the
paper had a fixed and answering
value at either or both ends of the line.
A merchant in Utah contracted debt
in New York. The money III which it
was to be paid entered not into the
negotiation. All was understood.
Gold and silver were behind every obli-
cation of the times. Confidence eX-
listed everywhere and all was prosper
ity. There was no doubt, no question
ofthe character of the money in which
it was to be paid at either end
of the line.
John Sherman's evil eye had not
been thr upon silver. The bankers
of New 2 = were not at work to i'm
poVerish the west and enrich the east at
the ex, anse of our industries and |
chances or tNe future. Confidence
reigned 10 ri apartments of COM
merce. There was no doubt. All at |
once this happy and hopeful condition
changed. Tie iarkly concealed pur-
pose-the oarkly concealed fact grad
ually leaked out that silver had been
demonetized to che aggrandizement of |
the bondhoiders. The threatened con-
ditions were likely to be disastrous to
all concerned. The change was too
radical, too sudden, and then began the
long series Of petty expedients to let
silver down easily and gracefully un-
accompanied by the revolution which |
threatened to sweep the dishonest |
schemers off the face of the earth, We |
had measure after measure offered, |
adopted and withdrawn before con-
gress. Hope, fear and panic alter.
mated, until at last the repeal bill last /
fall settled the fate, forever, it is
feared, of the metal which was wont to
make good the word of the Utah mer-
chant to the New York merchant, and |
settled against our man. Since then
there has been no day of confidence,
no moment of healthy dependence on
credit or mercantile honor, All has
been doub uncertainty, distress and
failure.
We must seek a road out of the
labyrinth of doubt, of depression and
despair which prevails, or some fear
full disaster, disturbance and revolu-
ton, which will blot out every SEM
olance'o of human liberty and bind US
helplessly to the car wheels of the
bankers of New York, London,
Amsterdam and Frankfort will
surely come. 1t is not yet l
90 late. Let the democratic party of s
his nation rise in It's might ard force
5he restoration of silver upon the t
world, either bY national or interna-
tIonal action. We can force it if we I
will, and the sooner we Go, the better
or us, in every sense of the word.