Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-09-16
Prosperity and It's Causes.
(Mr Reed in the Philadelphia Pres

| sept L.
| What striking resemblance there is
between 1896 and 1897 and the years of
our Lord 1878 and 1879. These years
are within the personal memories of
every man In middle life. In 1878 the
| air was resonant with denunciations
of the wicked men who would not issue
all the greenbacks which suffering
people demanded. Here was IA sure rem
edy for great Ills and yet the remorse-
| less rulers would not stir finger or
print a single bit of paper.
John Sherman was denounced on all
| hands. Samuel j. Tilden declared that
only vast central reservoir of coin
! could protect us against the failure of
| the proposed return to specie payments
| in 1879. The farmer was at his worst
ruined, destroyed. eaten up by taxes and
| usury. Down almost to the very day of
resumption the croaking came with dis
NAL and damnable iteration. Some capt.
talist even proclaimed his readiness to
give thousands and thousands of dollars
to stand at the treasury first in the row
of that vast multitude which would sure
ly assemble on the first resumption day.
That very autumn, at the September
election. the State of Maine. Mr.. Blaine's
own State. in a campaign under his able
and skillful leadership. went over to the
fiat enemy. 49, When the lst
of January came no crowds thronged the
sub-treasury corridors. Hardly a green
back was presented and we got back to
the currency of the world without a
movement or a jar.
From that moment prosperity began.
not the eternal prosperity of the New
Jerusalem but an earthly prosperity.
enduring as long asshuman nature would
permit. New York Central was 112 and
went to 1870. Northwest common rose
from go to 81; the preferred from S. to
104 st. Paul from % to 70; the pre-
ferred from 66 to 10O and all the rest of
them in like proportion. OF course, the
greenback leaders explained that this
was all temporary. because no real pros
perity could come without greenbacks
Nevertheless, the world went on. There
was no lack of money, because we had
business which paid. and whenever a
nation has business which pays it can
draw on the money of the whole world.
How like this are the events of the last
twelve months. Prior to the passage of
the tariff act We had scenes like, those
which preceded the first day of 1879.
Stocks have gone up, not because gam
blers have played, but because mems
minds have changed and the whole ma
ton takes utterly different views of the
future. A stock which is worth 40 when
everything seems on the down slope
feel that they are on the up grade.
What is prosperity for nation?
1t is to have all Of its people at work.
When all the people are at work the ma
ton Is adding to it's wealth all that is
possible in its day and generation. New
inventions might have made it more,
but for each year the labor of each
nation is the sum of that years creation
of wealth.
What makes men work?
Their own mental condition.
Has It come now? Is 1t close upon us?
1t is always unwise' to prOphesy about
the immediate future. for it may be re-
membered against you if you go wrong. |
and as you are only mortal the chances
of being right are against you. 1t is bet
ter to prophesy about things to happen
IN a hundred years or preferably in a
thousand, for then if you go wrong you |
are all dead and distributed.
Nevertheless, all the symptoms of
prosperity are here Men are willing to
lend money and sensible men are willing |
to take it and risk it in new enterprises |
In word, it looks like 1879.
At this moment the blind leaders of |
the biind are explaining why the rise IN |
wheat is no help to farmers. 1t is only |
an accident, they say. Poor crops else
all. You will be no better off in the end |
Tor such accidents cannot happen in the |
future. You will have to pay high |
prices Tor what'you buy. and so you will
be In the same case in another year as |
you were year before last.
what idle talk this is! The returns
from the wheat crop and the other ce-
reals spent in purchases starts the nation |
to work. When the nation gets to work
1t Will not stop until 1t gets out of geari
again and then it will halt, and then it
will go on again, succession of like
events forever and forever.
Inese eminent gentlemen might as
well say to the pendulum of wound-up
clock just started: "You had better
give up this weary job. You were
started with push and nobody is going
to sit up nights to keep on pushing you"
, Every historic period of revival has
been like this. Some event at the ripe
moment happens. like the resumption of
specie payments. the setting of money
IN motion by reduction of the interest on
part OF the national debt. the passage of
a tariff bill. which rightly or wrongly,
the people believed in. Human nature
and human affairs, made ready for the
change have always done the rest.
This talk of these gentlemen about
prices and accidents and this recrimina-
ton about dead and buried speeches
show them to be still cropping about
among the underbush while sensible men
are standing on the mountain top and
behOlding the earth to the very hort
cons edge. The view may not be of the
whole round earth. but it is better than
the view from the jungle. I