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

I'll tile SiNeuNilCkS WlllCh u suffering
people demanded Here was a sure rem.
edy for great ills, and yet the rernorse-
less rulers would not stir finger or
print single bit of paper
John sherman was denounced on all
hands Samuel j. Tildon declared that
only a vast central reservoir Of coin
could protect us against the failure Of
the proposed return to specie payments
in 1879 The farmer was mt 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
surely 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, horse, foot and dra-
goons, changing a majority of IA, 600
for sound money to a majority of ii, :
600 in favor of the widest carnival of
unreason that ever overwhelmed an in
telligent people. When the LIST of Janu
airy came, no crowds thronged the sub
treasury corridors. Hardly greenback
was presented, and we got back to the
currency of the world without move
ment on a jar
The Prosperity of 1897.
From that moment prosperity began !;
not the eternal prosperity of the New
Jerusalem, but an earthly prosperity,
enduring as long as human nature
would permit. New York Central was
liz and went to 1870; Northwest com
mon rose from go to 81, the preferred
from So to l0f; st. Paul from 30 to 10,
the preferred from SO to 100, and all
the rest of them in like proportion. OF
course the Greenback leaders explained
that this was all temporary because no
real prosperity could come without
greenbaeks. 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 I2 monthsl Prior to the passage of
the tariff act we had scenes like those
which preceded the first day of 1879.
The offerers Of the patent remedy stood
by and jeered. They Knocked at us when
| INF 70 dino 1c-
lation had been had and there was no
further change to be looked forward to,
when business had reached its sound
basis and there was a reasonable chance
to calculate the future, there came a
repetition of the phenomena Of 1879.
Stocks have gone up, not because
gamblers have played, but because men s
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 easily becomes worth so when
people feel that we are on the up grade.
When you are going down into the
dark, nobody knows how far down You
may go, and when you go up into the
sunlight nobody can tell how far up
you may go. Fear increases the fall;
hope increases the rise.
What makes prosperity, and what
makes hard times?
Way down at the base Of things the
causes may be different each time and
perhaps incomprehensible but on the
surface they are both only the results
of states of mind.
A Nations Prosperity Defined.
What is prosperity for a nation?
1t is to have all its people at work.
When all the people are at work, the
nation is adding to its wealth all that
is possible in it's day and generation.
New inventions might have made it
more but for each year the labor Of
each nation is the sum of that year 5
creation of wealth
What makes men work?
Their own mental condition. In the
old savage state when the man made
up his mind to work he could go into
the forest, and, by the stream alone and
his wigwam, had fish and flesh and
fowl and blankets and scalps and other
neeessaries Of life, but modern life is
not so simple Civilization is compli-
Gated beyond all hope of unraveling.
For the most part, all you can do is to
let it unravel. 1t is knot which must
unite itself No sword, even of Alexan-
der, can cut it.
All modern making of things requires
the union of many men. The prosperity
of modern society demands a simulta-
neous action of all When that comes,
everything comes. After great smash
like that Of 1898 or that of 1878 there
is nothing to do but wait and let the
business of the world settle itself, care
fully keeping meanwhile the medicine
men of finance, with their feathers and
rattles. out Of the way of the sick man.
When public confidence is profoundly
shaken. it must ra-establish itsslf. 1t
has been shaken by causes, and those
causes must be removed.
Men and nations and the whole civ
ilized part of the race go from one ex-
treme to another These alterations
seem as necessary as the ebb and flow
of the tides of the ocean. When the
business Of the world gets inflated at
certain npriods il will 20 too far and