Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-10-22
PANICS J INEVITABLE.
SO ASSERT THE GOLDBUC
HIGH PRIESTS.
Tom Reeds Fatalism and tho Chicago
Tribune's Effrortery-They Teach Us
the Doctrine Of acknowledgements
for Ignorance.

and booms. He processes to believe
that we are now having a business
boom of Republican proportions, but
warns us that we must prepare for an
other panic and industrial depression,
because under the only social arrange
ments that he knows anything about
panics will continue to come and there
is no way Of stopping them. Mr.. Reed
says:
Men and nations and the whole
civilized part of the race go from one
extreme to another. These alterna-
tions seem as necessary as the ebb and
flow of the tides of the ocean. When
the business of the world gets inflated
at certain periods it will go too far,
and then there must be settlement.
1t must be settled who owns the prop
erty, and until that Is established moth
ing else can be done. Those who nomi-
nally own property resist this. They
hope some miracle will help. Then af-
ter settlement If any laws be deemed
necessary they must be passed or there
will be further delay. Some false
starts may be taken, like that to which
the Venezuelan war cloud gave such a
chilling frost.
1.-THE returns from the wheat crop
and the other cereals spent in pur-
chases starts the nation 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 go on again, a succession OF like
events forever and forever"
This is the best cheer we can get
from the greatest man in the Repub-
lican party, "the man who made Nc
Kinley" Probably it never occurred
to Mr.. Reed that the nation might just
as easily have been set to work years
ago by the returns from silver mining
spent in purchases.
About how soon may we expect the
old machine to get out of gear again
and another industrial depression to
take it's turn? Next year. Because
next year there will in all probability
be large crops all over the world, gold
standard prices for farm products will
reappear, and the returns from the sale
of wheat and other cereals not being
sufficient to make many purchases, the
factories will once more close down and
large proportion If not a majority OF
our population will again be face to
face will starvation.
So let lis make the most of our pres
ent prosperity. 1t is with us for but
one year, and then men who nomi-
nally own property" will have to be-
gin giving it up again to their creditors,
who really own it.
And even when we have prosperity
some people don't know how to enjoy
it. The latest issue of a paper pub
lished in Speaker Reeds own region,
the Johnston, R. l., Beacon, says:
1.-THE times may well be called
troublous. The cotton mills of New
England are closing their doors on all
sides and the managers are busy ex-
planning that Mckinley and the tariff
have nothing to do with it. The docile
wage slaves who ambled meekly along
in protection and prosperity parades--
purely to please themselves and by no
means at the behest of their bosses
are acting as though they didn't hear
Alright. None of them has the courage
to cry out: Sold again. That is their
condition nevertheless"
The New Time asks the Chicago
Tribune, the Chicago Times-Herald,
the New York Sun, the New York Her.
aid, the st. Louis Globe-Democrat, the
Louisville Courier-Journal and other
papers which pose as public educators
If they expect another panic. 1t asks
them to give logical reasons why his
tory shall not repeat itself. 1t asks
them to defend a system which con-
dennis the world to enforced idleness
and suffering seven years out of every
ten. 1t asks them what remedy they
have to propose If any.
They have no remedy. They regard
panics as inevitable. Listen to the
Chicago Tribune: There is a regular
order about all business disorder.
'Panics' come on an average once in
seventeen years" (the Tribune figured
the average from 1919 to 1867 and omit
ted the panic of 1887. 1t also fails to
give the present average, which is one
in about six years. land last from
one to six wears. They are usually
followed by slow recovery, then by
period of good times, then by boom,
and the boom usually brings another
collapse from over speculation"
Perfectly correct" says the New
Time, excepting 'overspeculation. The
collapse is brought about by the fact
that the people cannot purchase back
that which they have produced. Their
wages will not buy that which they
have created. They cannot consume
the surplus. The factories cannot sell
their products. They shut down. The
men are thrown out of work. They
are no longer producers, and If they
consume it is by an expenditure of
their savings while at work or by the
grace of charity. Prices fall. Mer-
chants are ruined. Interest goes On.
Banks cannot realize on their loans.
The people who have deposited $1,000
ooo oon 80, co mn mn mn in Tho haul,