Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1897-09-18

else can be done Those who nominally
own property resist this. They hope
some miracle will help. Then after set
Element If any laws be deemed necessa-
ry they must be passed or there will he
further delay Some false starts may be
taken, like that to which the Venezue-
Ian war cloud gave such chilling frost
The Return OF Prosperity.
But, finally, when all things arc
ready, something always happens which
develops the fact that confidence has re.
turned, and, To- the whole world has a
different aspect Wheels begin TO turn,
freight begins to move, commerce re-
sumes her full sway, one by one each
employment takes up its march and the
nation as whole goes to work again,
urged on by the never dying yearning
for the increase of wealth TO be con-
suGled for pleasure or wealth to DO
boarded for reproduction Until tho
time comes all stand fearful ON the
brink When it will come, no one cen
tell beforehand, but that it will finally
come every wise man knows
Has it come now? Is it close upon us?
1t is always unwise to prophesy about
the immediate future, for it may be re.
membered against you il You go wrong,
and as YOU are only mortal the chances
of being right are against you 1t is
better 10 prophcsy about things to hap
pen in 100 years. or preferably i'll 900,
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 will
ing to take it and risk it in new enter
prises. In word, it looks like 1879.
Another encouraging symptom is that
the financial medicine men are now ex-
planning in low tone of voice why what
they said in such loud tones last year
was not SO. This is the prelude to tho
utter silence which will fall upon them
in due time, silence which will be the
signal that the world has settled one
other financial problem in the only way
it can be settled, and that is in the
minds of the people
A good many questions have been set
tied these last few years In all the de-
bates in the house this past session there
was but one man who even mentioned
the CONSUMER, and he was from Ken
lucky. In other years, If you could be-
lieve our debates we had no population
except CONSUMERS. Producers did not
exist. Not q word did we have i'll the
debates of this year about the need OF
low prices We already had them, and
mouths which used to start the echoes
in Wild longings for low prices were
deyising plans for raising prices and
acted as if they had never helped ON
what Mr.. Thomas Carlyle used to call
"the career of cheap and nasty.
The Rise In the Price of Wheat.
At this moment these blind leaders
of the blind are explaining why the
rise in wheat is no help to farmers. 1t
is only an accident, they say--poor
crops elsewhere, aud so we sell at
profit; that is all You will be no bet
ter off in the end, for such accidents
cannot happen III the future. You will
have TO pay high prices for 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 isl The returns
from the wheat crop and the other ce-
reals spent in purchases start the ma
ton to work When the nation once
gets to work, it will not stop until it
gets out Of gear again, and then it will
halt, and then it will 60 ON again, a
succession Of like events forever and
forever
These eminent gentlemen might as
we'll say to the pendulum of wound
up clock just started: You had better
give up this weary job You We're start
ed 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 mon
ey in motion by reduction of the interest
on part of the national debt, the pas
sage of tariff bill which, rightly or
wrongly. the people believed in. HUI
man 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 underbrush. while sensible
men are standing ON the mountain top
and beholding the earth to the very no
rizons edge. The view may not be OF
the whole round earth, but it is better
than tho view from the jungle.
II b REED.