Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1897-09-23
surely assemble on the first resumption


own state, in campaign under his abl'
and skillful leadership went over t.
the fiat enemy, horse, foot and dra
goons, changing a majority of IA, 00(
for sound money to majority of IA,
900 in favor of the widest carnival d
unreason that ever overwhelmed an in
telligent people. When the LIST of Janu'
airy came, no crowds thronged the sub
treasury corridors. Hardly a greenback
was presented, and we got back to the
currency of the world without move
ment or 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 l04; ST. Paul from 30 to 10,
the preferred from GO 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
greenbacks 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 ID can draw ON the money
of the whole world.
How like this are the events of the
last ~ months! 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 ieered They Knocked at us when
our fear came but when the due legis-
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 1870.
Stocks have gone up, not because
gamblers have played, but because mems
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 90, and when You go up into the
sunlight nobody can tell how far up
you may 90. 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 tho
surface they are both only the results
of states of mind.
A Nations Prosperity Defined.
What is prosperity for a nation?
IL is 70 have all its people nc work.
When all the people are at work, the
nation is adding to its wealth all that
is possible in its day and generation.
New inventions might have made it |
more, but for each year the labor Of |
each nation is the sum of that years |
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
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 a great smash
like that of 1898 or that of 1878 there
is nothing 10 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 re-establish itself 1t
las been shaken by causes, and those
,auses must he removed
Men and nations and the whole civ
ilized part of the race go from one ex-
RENE to another. These alterations
Gem as necessary rs the ebb and flow
# the tides of the ocean When the
business of the world gets inflated at
certain periods, it will go too far, and
hen there must be a settlement. 1t
must be settled who owns the property,
md until that is established nothing
Use can be done Those who nominally
,wn property resist this They hope
ome miracle will help. Then after set
lement if any laws be deemed necessa-
Y they must be passed or there will be
urther delay. Some false starts may be
aiken, like that 70 which the Venezue-
an war cloud gave such chilling frost
The Return of Prosperity.
But, finally. when all things are
eady, something always happens which !
eyelops the fact that confidence has re-
uTned, and, To- the whole world has a
ifferent aspect Wheels begin to turn,
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