The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-24
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
POSTAGE PREPAID.
TUESDAY, AUGUST "a, 1897.
THE WAVE OF PROSPEI;IJ HAS
STRUCK THE WEST.

STRUCK THE WESI.
OF course all good citizens will be
heartily glad over all genuine indica-
ffons of returning prosperity. For
four OF five years the prostraticn in
business has been terrible. It has
smitten this great, vastly productive
country as by a simoon Of desolation.
If the United States and all they
mean are to be once again favored
with decided, unmistakable prosperity,
all men who are sane must rejoice.
But it must be genuine, must be wide
spread. A corner Of the country bless
ed. or manufacturers only, or the
wheat farmers simply may not satisfy
any but those favored. An universal
blessing is needed and greatly desir-
ed. The organs of wealth have long
been blowing Justify over the already
come prosperity. But it is noticeable
that nothing decided and convincing
q came until the squirt in wheat and the
blessings that thus befel mainly the
western farmers. Now pOeans fill the
pages of --loney organs over the mar
Vicious OuLlOOh LII lIC 6ACoS PAOSF>A
ity Of the farmers.
Thus far the south is not much ben
Gifted by the rise in wheat. A re"
Farmers as compared with the many
will be helped by dollar a bushel wheat
IL it will stick at that point. But tens
of thousands of southern farmers grow
but little if any wheat, so they buy
their flour. Then the millions of bread
winners in the south who do not farm
or grow wheat must pay from 80 to lOO
Der cent. advance on their bread. This
will not help them to a better living.
So the only real benefit to be der1v-
ed by the people is for the wave OF
prosperity to strike all-the greedy and
uensioned manufacturers, the wheat
the traders, the ~toilers, the
whole population. May God speed the
day Of relief and promise!
That the west or parts of 1t is now
Gin clover" is certain. In fact Kan
sas is greatly blessed Of God if half is
true that is told. A leading populist in
Kansas in the past was Mr.. John w.
Breidenthal. He has been inspecting
the Kansas banks and makes a most
remarkable statement of what he
found as to the condition. He reports:
"a most extraordinary financial con-
dition exists in Kansas. The surplus
I'm the banks of the state is larger than
ever previously known, and the cash IN
circulation among the people seems
i. u~ndiminished.
1.-The banks cannot loan their money,
L. 11~-yr -ho 70 dn
with the enormous deposits on which
they are paying 4 per cent. interest.
-'The grain is rushing east rapidly,
and all m are making improve
ments on the and and have plenty OF
money. The situation is the
bankers of Kansas very much. The
extraordinary situation is attributed to
the wave of economy which the nara
times Of the past few years developed.
The were forced to get along
without borrowing money, and now
they find it easy to continue in that
Iine."
Now whatever the cause The Mes
senger if glad of it if the flourishing
condition is rightly reported. The
Kansas farmers were very bad off a
few years ago and mortgages plastered
over their lands. They toiled and saw
ed, and 10Y when prosperity comes to
them in good prices they soon get in
-dependent and from under the heel Of
their moneyed masters. This announce
ment makes the gold papers happy,
but what is far better it makes glad
the hearts of the Kansas farmers.
But one statement is made in a
northern gold paper that appears to
contradict the above statement of the
great surplus in Kansas banks. the
abundance of money in circulation and
the positive glut in the money lending
market. Mr.. B~reidenthal say the
farmers 'have plenty of money" If all
this is true why this statement from an
northern newspapers:
"It is estimated that the banks of
New York alone will SEND to the west
for the purpose of moving the crops of
this year $3.50, 00O, 900. They are not so
cent dollars, they are Mr.. Bryan's 200
cent dollars"
Why send this great sum into the
west if the people are SO we'll supplied
already with the ready cash? We fear
there is some humbuggery somewhere
as the two statements do not agree.
But let the mighty of prosperity
rolI and may North Carolina receive a
full share of it.