Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-09-11

seen them III this very state OF maine, IN
this very county Of York? How they did
pour IN upon us In 1878! What great
career Professor Leo Miller had under these
very skies! Where is Professor Leo Miller
nowp His name has persisted from off the
earth, and with him have passed into OBJ
livion many hundreds of stout orators who
vexed the air with tho cry that fiat money
alone could save this ruined nation. We
| were saved without fiat money then, just
as we shall he saved now, not by orators or
professors, but by the sound sense Of an
honest nation. These things are not with
out parallel History Is full of just such
situations as we find ourselves In now.
A Lesson From England.
In 1926 England had one Of these par
oxyslns, like the one we are passing through
now. Everything there had been prosper
Gus for long time. The hum Of industry
was heard all over the land Mems eyes
looked into each other with trust and faith
in all mankind Capital was accumulated
In legitimate business, which Is the supply
Of each others wants Then accumulated
capital, eager for employment, burst the
restraints Of safety, and speculation set In.
Companies were formed to do everything
under the sun and lend everybody money,
from the car of Russia to the king of the
Mosquito shore.
Pretty soon after slight drain Of gold
it occurred to some one to figure up all
these contracts, and the astonished nation
found that England had agreed to lend
more money than there was in the world
twice over. Then the bubble burst. Mer-
chants failed; banks broke; universal dis
trust poured over the land. For ono day
trade absolutely ceased in London. No
body would take anybody's note or buy
anybody's securities. Where was the diff
ference between England's prosperity and
England's standstill9 It was all in the
change Of ono word. Confidence was pros
perity. Dist1ust was ruin.
Then began the slow growth Of conf
dence again, which took years But Eng
lands prosperity did not perish. In our
own country we have had many such in
stances, many more than mean to men
ton, for history Oh that subject is as cheap
and abundant as wheat when times go
hard Away back in 1887 the country was
overwhelmed by ono of these crises. The
great land speculation was the termination
of period of prosperity too much pro-
longed. Whole families, whole towns and
cities were ruined, and tho memory of it,
long ago as it was, clouds some family
histories here in Maine today Prosperity,
speculation, hard times, it is the same sue
cession of events all tho world over.
The hard times of 1887 are part Of his
tory but at least half this audience can re-
member 1878. We had then pulled through
a tremendous war. Millions Of men had
been withdrawn from productive industry
to try to kill each other. All the rest were
busy providing for the wants IF those in
the field and running in debt So, 600, OO0,-
600 to pay the bills. When the army
came marching home, the men all went to
work The soldier, weaned from his home
ties and broadened by his travels and bat
ties, scattered himself all over the land,
and the land termed with enterprises and
with vigorous men, Millions had been
flung out with such profusion that dollars
seemed but drosa 1t was the old story over
again. We had not contracted, as England
did In 1926, to lend the world five times as
much money as there was in it. We had
done worse. We had piled up importations
and spent money as if wealth was but
wish and a rub of Aladdin's lamp. You
will find in q book of Professor Cairnes q
prophecy of what would happen to US in
1873, made just before it did happen. Then
came five years Of struggle back to q sound
currency, the restoration Of confidence and
then confidence restored; fourteen years
of prosperity, the results Of which have
never yet been effaced and never will be
until the sun ceases to pour it's energies
upon q productive earth. We had hard
times then, but, thank heaven, the Amer
ican people stood steadfast and listened to
no false prophets and no false economies.
but moved steadfastly toward sound cur
rency, and the long pent up energies of the
great American people rushed forward In
the straight line Of progress
The Misfortune of 1909.
We have just passed through another Of
these terrible crises and are on our way to
other years of wealth, with this addition
al benefit, that the distribution of wealth,
when we reach it, will be more even as
we'll as more abundant than ever before.
In 1898 we had great crash, as we had In
1873. All the world went with US, but
for special cause we had gone farther, and
1t is for US q longer way back. In 1899
we thought hard times had been banished
forever; we were sure that work and high
Day were never more to be separated Put
we were mistaken.
Pride goeth before destruction and q
naughty spirit before a fall. The election
Of 1899 was a great misfortune. 1t may
be we would have had q collapse then. No
one can be quite sure. But II we had, In
skillful hands we should never have gone
GO far or suffered 90 much.
make no harsh criticisms on the DEM
ocratio party or their president. I plant
myself on Abraham Linooln's text OF
Scripture, IA house divided against itself
cannot stand" I do not believe that
three Democrats out of ten in the busi-
ness parts Of this country ever meant such
q change in the tariff as was made Many
of them were more astonished than we
were. I make no criticism of the presi-
dent. There are many things about him
admire. He is both strong and brave.
Nevertheless, there are some things which
ought to be squarely stated, not to provoke
partisan feeling, but simply as descriptions
Of errors which we must avoid, not as Re-
publicans, but as citizens of republic,
the prosperity of which Is under the charge
of us ALL
Income Tax Destructive.
Among the arguments which the friends
of silver urge today Is one which was TO
be anticipated long ago and which I knew
was sure to come When the Sherman law
~ Io1 ho