, 1896-08-11
IN HOG SIGNO N
CAUSES OF

~
more striking than the persistency
with which the c%harlatans and finan-
cial quacks are laboring to make peo-
pie believe that the collapse of 1893 and
the business depression succeeding it
are due to the sp-called crime of 1873.
It is simply amazing that SC many of
the people appear to be oblivious of the
true causes of distrust and distress.
People cen to forget that the panic of
1898 is in every respect only a repeti-
tion of the panic Of 1873, which GER
tAinly could not have had even the re-
hottest connection with the treatment
of silver as a money metal.
In discussing the origin Of the dis
asters hat eliminate in the crash Of
1873 General Garfield correctly dag
nosed the case when he said: The in
dustrial revolution has been governed
by laws beyond the reach of congress-.
No legislation could have arrested it al
any stage of its progress. The great
depreciation of business. the stagna>
tlUA Vi Iidue, Tie udlu tilHeS WHICH
have prevailed and still prevail have
not been caused by an insufficient
amount of currency, but mainly by the
great falling off in the demand for the
products of labor"
Robert G. Ingersoll. discussing the
same subject back in the sos gave this
graphical descriptions: mo man can
imagine. all the language of the world
cannot express. what the people of the
United States suffered from 1873 to
1879. Men who considered themselves
miflionaires found that they were pau
pers. Men living in palaces supposing
that they had enough to leave all they
loved in afluence and comfort. sudden
ly found that they were beggars with
bonds. stocks, mortgages all turned to
ashes in their aged. trembling hands.
The chimney grew cold. the fires in
furnaces went out, the poor families
were turned adrift and the highways
OF the United States were filled with
tramps."
The conditions since 1898 have GER
tainly not been worse. And yet the
fall in the price of silver had hardly
begun to maifest itself. What then.
were the true causes Of the crash of
1873 and the panic of 1898. The most
profound thinkers who have made the
subject a study concur in the opinion
that the chief cause of distrust and dis
tress was over-speculation. just as the
prime causes OF the fall in the prices
of commodities has been the industrial
revolution. The panic of 1873 was pre-
ceeded by an era Of extravaganza and
reckless enterprise. This was true as
regards mo- merely the United States,
but also the countries on the other
side OF the Atlantic. In Germany, for
example, the close of the successful
Franco-Prussian war was, we are told,
followed by tremendous industrial &C
tivity. Ready capital became so abun-
dant that banking Institutions almost
begged for the opportunity to place
loans at rates as low as / per cent with
mdAuAdSutlC u III lLS pull pOSt Ol ell
larging their plants. The whole coun-
try plunged into all name of new in
dustry and financial undertakings. In
Prussia alone 687 new joint stock COM
panies during the year 1872 and the
FIRST six months Of 1873, with an ag-
gregate capital Of over $3.50, 900, 900.
The sudden growth of industries drew
hundreds of thousands OF men and wo-
men from the farms to the towns and
cities. Such a state OF things was most
unprecedented and reaction and disas-
ter came with great s%uddenness in the
fall of 1873. Great fortunes rapidly
melted away. industry became para
Typed and the whole OF Germany passed
at nce from a condition OF apparently |
great prosperity to a depth Of financial.