The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-15


uent at the SLOW approach of confidence
and capital, are tempted beyond measure
to use all those appliances of the art of
hnanclering which seem so easy and are
in the long run SO ruinous. We had our
periods, we in the east when we ran to
paper money as to savior and found It
satan. Our very constitution, In its taking
away from the states the right to issue
paper money, is the result of the sufferings
undergone sby our ancestors in the east
which sufferings are depicted in Summers
History Of American Currency"
We have learned the lesson, but ought
not TO be too impatient with those who
have not We have learned and others
VIII have TO learn that in the end il is cap
ital which costs that makes wealth which
lasts. 1t is true that we may make cap
ital which does not cost but 1t is a dam
gerous demon andthe harness Is expensive
and the breakups frequent.
With our new country we are undergoing
an education which older nations have at
tained for themselves in their own sur
roundings already We have to learn for
ourselves not because we are not bright
enough to learn as quickly as anybody or
to learn from anybody, but because our
circumstances are different ana our temp
tations greater. We think our country
must be an exception and hurt ourselves
much in finding that 1t is not
What a nation finds out for itself. how
ever stays longer than what some one
else finds for it. The last few months
have been fun of education for the whole
American people. There has been moth
ing really new about it, but there has
been one more repetition to make the les
son solid. In time no one will dispute
the sure succession of events. and there
after patent remedies for hard times and
patent elixirs for prosperity will have had
their day.
What a striking resemblance there is
between 1896 and 1897 and the years OF
our Lord 1878 and 1879, These years are
within the personal memories of every
man in middle life. In 1878 the air was res
onant with denunciations of the wicked
men who would not issue all the green
backs which suffering people demanded.
Here was a sure remedy for great ills and
yet the remorseless rulers would not stir
hnger or print a single bit of paper.
John Sherman was denounced on all
hands; Samuel ]. Tilden declared that
only vast central reservoir of coin could
protect us against the failure of the pro
posed return to specie payments in 1879
The farmer was at his worst, ruined de-
stroyed, eaten up by taxes and usury.
Down almost to the very day of resump-
ton the croaking came with dismal and
damnable iteration. Some capitalist even
proclaimed his readiness to give thousands
and thousands of dollars to stand at the
treasury first in the row of that vast mall
titude which would surely assemble on
the first resumption day.
That very autumn, at the September
election. the state of Maine, Mr.. Blaines
own state, In a campaign under his able
and skillful leadership, went over to the
fiat enemy, horse, foot and dragons,
changing a majority of 1900 for sound
money TO a majority of 14,O00 in favor of
the widest carnival of unreason that ever
overwhelmed an intelligent people. When
the LIST of January came no crowds throng-
ed the sub-treasury corridors. Hardly
greenback was presented and we got back
to the currency of the world without a
movement or a jar.
From that moment prosperity began, not
the eternal prosperity of the New Jerusa-
lem, but an earthly prosperity enduring
as long as human nature would permit.
New York Central was 112 and went TO 1870
Northwest common rose from GO to 81; the
preferred from S., to 104. st. Paul from %
to 70; the preferred from &C 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 green
backs. 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
twelve months! Prior to the passage of
the tariff act we had scenes like those
which preceded the first day of 1879. The
omerers of the patent remedy stood by and
jeered. They Knocked at us when our fear
came. But when the due legislation had
been had and there was no further change
to be looked forward to; when business
had reached it's sound basis and there was
q reasonable chance to calculate the flu
ture there came a repetition of the pho
nomena of 1879,
Stocks have gone up, not because gam
blers have played but because mems
minds have changed and the whole nation
takes utterly different views of the flu
ture A stock which is worth 40 when
everything seems on the down slope easily
becomes worth 50 when people feel that
we are on the up grade. When you are GO
ing down into the dark nobody knows how
far down you may so, 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 to the base OF things the
causes may be different each time and per-
haps incomprehensible, but on the surface
they are both only the results of states of
mind.
What is prosperity for a nation?
It is to have all its people at work. When
adding to its wealth all that is possible
in it's day and generation. New inventions
might have made it more, but for each