The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-09-15

of many men. The prosperity OF mod |
ern society demands simultaneous &C.
ton of all. When that comes every
thing comes. After great smash like
that of 1893, or that of 1873, there is
nothing to do but wait and let the bust
ness of the world settle itself, carefully
keeping meanwhile, the medicine men
of finance, with their feathers and rat
ties, out of the way of the sick man.
When public confidence is profoundly
shaken it must reestablish itself. 1t has
been shaken, by causes and those causes
must be removed.
but, finally, when all things are
ready, something always happens which
develops the fact that confidence has
returned, and, lol the whole world has
different aspect. Wheels begin to
turn, freight begins to move, commerce
resumes her full sway, one by one each
employment takes up it's march and the
nation as whole goes to work again.
Has it come now2 Is it close upon US?
1t is always unwise to prophesy about
the immediate future, for it may be re-
membered against you If you 60 wrong,
and as you are only mortal the chances
of being right are against you. 1t is
better to prophesy about things to hap
pen in one hundred years or preferably
in one thousand, for then il you go
wrong you are all dead and distributed.
Nevertheless, all the symptoms of pros
perity are here. Men are willing to
lend money, and sensible men are will
ing TO take it and risk it in new
enterprises. In word, it looks like
1879. Another encouraging symptom
is that the financial medicine men are
now explaining in low tone of voice
why what they said in such loud tones
last year was not so. This is the pre-
lude to the utter silence which will fall
upon them in due time, a silence which
will be the signal that the world has
settled one other financial problem in
is, in the minds of the people.
eat this moment these blind leaders
of the blind are explaining why the rise
in wheat is no help to the farmers. II
is only an accident, they say. Poor crops
elsewhere, and so we sell at profit
that is all. You will be no better off ir
the end, for such accidents cannot hap
pen in the future. You will have tC
, pay high prices for what you buy, ant
so will be in the same case in another
year as you were year before last
} What idle talk this isl The returni
from the wheat crop and the other ce
reals spent in purchases starts the ma
ton to work. When the nation once
gets to work it will not stop until i
gets out of gear again, and then it vii
J halt, and then it will go on again, {
succession of like events, forever ant
; forever. These eminent gentlemen
, might as well say to the pendulum of {
wound-up clock just started: 'Yo,
had better give up this weary job. 70,
were started with push, and nobod.
is going to sit up nights and keep push
ing you Every historic period of re
vival has been like this. Some even
. at the ripe moment happens, like thu
resumption of specie payment, the set
ting of money in motion by reduction
of the interest on part of the nationa
debt, the passage of tariff bill, which
, rightly or wrongly, the people believed
in. Human nature and human affairs
made ready for the change, have al
ways done the rest. This talk of thes,
|; generations about prices and accident
|, and this recrimination about dead an(
buried speeches, show them to be still
!, cropping about among the underbrush
while sensible men are standing on tn,
mountain top and beholding the eartl
to the very horizons edge. The view
may not be of the whole round earth
but it is better than the view from tn,
Jungle"