The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-14
REED ON THE HARD TIMES
THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE EX-
PRESSES SOME SENSIBLE VIEWS.
Hard Times Had Their Uses i'm Teach
ing Economy and Lowering Prices
Saving should Continue.
Illustrated American.

Illustrated American.
The ways of the Ruler of the Universe
are not our ways and this we could easily
know even if 1t were not Scripture. With
all our knowledge and growth in civiliza-
ton we are so unconscious of our own i'm
pulses and so ignorant of our own move
ments that the Temperatures of we'll
known phenomena awaken the same sur
prise and provoke the same msunder-
standing as the first appearance.
1t is true that the life of man is so short.
and the cycles of the Almighty so long that
in the lifetime of one man there are but
few repetitions of certain never-to- be-for-
gotten series of events. Not only is the life
of man short, but it is divided into youth,
manhood and old age. The sensations of
each are different, and it is hard for either
manhood or old age to recognize as the
same the very things which happened in
youth and which are repeated but once
again in a long life, and not at all in the
thirty years which, on the average are al
lotted to mankind.
Nothing has been more thoroughly well
understood by those who have studied the
past even in the superficial way in which
we all study 1t than that there is regular
succession of prosperity and adversely, of
causes and appearances, but which is sub
stantially the same century after century.
We will not press too strongly the seven
fat and seven lean kline, which came up
out of the sea in the dream of Pharaoh,
but you may depend upon it that that
dream had it's origin in actual events and
that the alienation of good times and
hard times antedates the pyramids.
But whether that be so or not, the COM
pick nature of modern society, the welding
together in matters of trade of the whole
world from Chica to Peru and from far
Cathay to the polar zones, has made the
periodicity of this alienation more marked
more clearly defined, wider spread and more
nearly universal. Has it ever occurred to
you to think that the wisdom of the laws
which govern the universe can even in this
case be justified to human reason and sense
and that hard times themselves help work
out the salvation of the human race?
The time perhaps has come for us to look
at this aspect of our situation and derive
much comfort as possible from our past
disasters. While the disaster was upon us
it was not the time to point out the bless
ing. L suppose that even the saints who are
made perfect through suffering do not quite
appreciate the process until ii is over
enduring result has made the sorrows I'M
dergone merely fading memory. instead
even the saints realize that sainthood can
come in no other way.
Every time we enter upon a period of
prosperity we think, Notwithstanding the
fact that all history is against us. that
this time we shall escape the Oncoming of
adversely, that civilization has, at last
reached q point where health will be per-
manent and disease banished forever.
NEED OF ADVERSELY.
But this will never be. Underneath all the
seeming causes of the alienation, under
meath questions of currency, tariff, balance
of trade, war, crops, prices and all other
causes their lies the great moving cause
ever present and never to be banished, the
human nature of the human race. We
creatures cannot endure monotony. We
must have change, and we do have it.
Nor is it a waste of time, the human race
being what it is. to lie fallow for a few
years. Were the continuance of the feeling
of confidence prolonged, uneroken, over
even a single century. 1 am persuaded that
all the wealth of the world would be dis
sipated and we should be as naked as Adam
and Eve came into the world.
Just notice how severe is the punish
ment Of nation which merely overstays
its time of prosperity We have in the
United States and its wonderful upliftings
in the direction of wealth special tempta-
minds, at least longer than other nations,
and the result is that we suffer more Sc
verely than they. We are also the last to
After all. why should it not be so?
We make hay abundantly when our sun
is shining and the barns are full. Why
should we be careful about hay? Let the
cattle trample on it and be bedded in it.
We have plenty. Why should we econo-
mlZe! That takes DrainS and above all,
worry. That means sleepless nights and
toilsOme days. Why should we who revel
In abundance CLEAN also the fields like the
ana expect pennies to take care of them
selves.
We go on from one folly to another. We
spend capital and persuade ourselves that
we are only spending income. 1t is easy
not only to mortgage our future but to
only temporary, only meeting a passing
emergency. BY our eXtravagant ways we
honeycomb what we have. Bv and by con-
hdence gets broken un ard the clock
strikes for settlement. The property is all
there but who owns it?
Nowadays such q, settlement is a world
settlement and a thousand million people
make it very complicated business How
we do 1t we can never quite tell But it
again commences. This period of settle
ment IS standstill except for the necessa-
ries of life and of the period in which it
occurs.
INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS.
BY necessaries of life is meant not mere
ly those things without which life could
not exist, but those things also which have
by the advance of civilization become such
a part of our lives that we will not relin-
quish them without a struggle OF course,
many of these necessaries of life depend
for their continued production upon
the amount of sacrifice we have to
make to obtain them and the maintenance
OF their production depends upon bringing
lhem within the restricted purchasing
power of the consumer
A necessary of life as thus defined may
be a necessary at 81 and impossibility at
" Hence all the energies of the producers
at such period are bent upon the prob
lem How can / bring the price of this
thlng within the means. the diminished
means. of those who want it at 81 and do
not want it at 50?
when you spread this idea and make it
active all over the trade of the world or
even over the trade of the United States
alone, you can see what power ii is
II sets inventive genius at work i'm all
directions. 1T makes economies possible
which were never dreamed of and never
could be dreamed of, in the DAYS of pros
perlty This reduction of the cost of pro
ductlon Is carried all over the country and
throughout all of the industries
1t is. indeed, entirely within bounds TO
say that the direct result of the hard times
IS that we have lowered the cost of produce