The herald., 1897-03-29

anywhere east of the Rocky mountains
| the price Of provisions and othsr neces-
saries was lass before there was any
suspicion OF the recent hard times thar
| they were at the close of the war, and
the prosperous years following. Yet II
actually costs more to live, that is, to
live up to the style demanded by the
times, or that people thought was de-
manded by the times.
How long can any people stand this?
Do the people of Europe save as they
do because they know no better, or is 1t
because the long years have taught that
it does not pay to struggle for vain
show? We have been going at a pace
for many years that no other country
even tries to maintain. Is 1t because
foreigners are fools and we have all the
wisdom? Can we keep forever going
onward and upward al an ever-increas-
ing pace? Or must we sooner or later
drop to a gait that no amount of real
greatness can hasten?
Few will deny that our pace has for
many years been a killing one. Will
any system of finance enable us to hold
1t? Will any amount of circulation per
capita, or any amount of money, whether
primary or secondary, enable us to main
tain such a march? An increase of
money might enable us temporarily to
get above our limitations. but would it
not be in the nature of boom which
must inevitably collapse and leave us
deeper in the mire for awhile?
1t is certain that the American people
have learned something of economy in
the last four years, and especially in
the last nine months. The gliding has
been knocked from many an idol never
to be replaced. Many matter of mere
style, masquerading as a necessity of
rubbish heap of the past and people are
not ashamed to admit it. Many a re-
spectacle merchant has learned that a
coat made of good material was worth
cleaning; many woman has found
a wonderful amount of music yet left
in the old piano; many farmer has
discovered vast capabilities in the old
without the new attachment
and the red and green paint.
spend money as he did five years ago,
even If he had it? Who has the conf
dence he once had in being able to un-
lead on some stranger the real estate
that he did not dare try to work HIM
self, and which he knew could not pay
IN income on the price he asked, except
FOR tender-foot ranching? If so, whence
IS to come the demand that is to make
he coming prosperity? Who is to buy
he goods and the real estate and other
hings necessary to set every idle hand
1t work? If thousands of hands have
oeen imported and thousands of hands
native here have been trained to make
that no one any longer wants
n the same quantity that he once did,
n that many have discovered they do
lot want at ALL how are these nanus "
,e kept at work at good wages at the
I'D business? Is it not well for every
me to consider these questions? state
# society in which every man can be
Kept at work at what he thinks fair
wages is something the world has not
ret seen in any times If by going too
asst we have called into the field an army
If laborers to make things we no longer
want, and render services that we find
We can co ourselves or go without, how
ire we to take care of that army? Talk
bout the greatness of our country will
it about as well as rhapsodies
IN health shouted in a sick mans ear
Will lift him from his bed. Our shouts
1f prosperity will only make us worse
f we are looking for what we cannot
nave. A return of steady times in which
any one of brains and industry can do
4 safe business on a legitimate basis
IS now under way. And what right have
we to expect anything else except on the
theory that we are the worlds great
and only exception to laws that history
shows different from gravitation only
in the quickness of action?
nnIrrN L a xII,c, 1NINI