The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-09-24


He Writes a Philosophical Essay to the
New York World to Show That the Ma
ton Has Again Started on An Era of
Prosperity.
| Copyright, 1897, by the Press Publishing Com.
pany. New York World All rights reserved
PORTLAND, Me-, Sept 11.-Civiliza-
ton is education, but it is something
more. 1t is not only the bringing out of
the human faculties and powers, but it
is also the successful application of
| them to the problems of life. The laws
of inanimate nature we can easily un-
derstand to be infexible. If we are once
| sure that we have taken observations
enough, we are equally sure that mani
| mate nature will work the same way
under what seem to us the same circum-
| stances. OF course, we never get perfect
knowledge and are always finding out
! exceptions, but in general way we
| are always right about matter and al
| ways feel satisfied that we can predict
what it will do. The steam engine will
| always work it's machinery and the cars
will always turn on their wheels.
1t was not so in the beginning. We
used to be very much in the dark and
! felt our way to all these things But
! while we have come to the simple truth
| that inanimate nature can be fathomed,
we are as much as ever in the dark as to
| the action of great bodies of men. Never
| theless there is reason to believe that
mankind as mass acts by determinate
laws, the courses and directions of which
we are every day more and more find
| ing out.
This nation has had to have a special
| education in finance, because it's circum-
stances and surroundings were and are
different from those of any other nation
| in the history of the world. 1t is true
| that before our day vast empires have
been peopled by immigration and have
f! fourished, but our empire has been
peopled not long ago, but in our day,
| in which there has been invented every
appliance to enable men to exploit the
riches of the earth. Moreover, beyond
| any other period in the worlds history
| capital has been essential to the utiliza-
tion Of the riches of lands such as ours.
Costly Capital Makes Lasting Wealth.
We in the east are very much prone
to blame the west for its attitude in
financial struggles, but the western peo-
pie are under strong temptations al
ways They can see the wealth Of their
country and all it's great possibilities,
and, becoming impatient at the slow
approach Of confidence and capital, are
tempted beyond measure to use all those
appliances of the art Of financiering
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 a savior and found it ,sa-
tan. Our very constitution, in its talk
ing away from the states the right to is
sue paper money, is the result Of the
sufferings undergone by our ancestors
in the east, which sufferings are depict
ed in Summers History of American
Currency.
We have learned the lesson, but ought
not to be too inpatient with those who
have not. We have learned and others
will have to learn that in the end it is
capital which costs that makes wealth
which lasts. 1t is true that we may
make capital which does not cost, but
it is dangerous demon and the harness
is expensive and the break ups frequent.
With our new country we are under
going an education which older nations
have attained for themselves in their
own surroundings 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 differ
emit and our temptations greater. We
think our country must be an exception,
and hurt ourselves much in finding that
it is not
What a nation finds out for itself,
however, stays longer than what some
one else finds out for it. The last few
months have been full of education for
the whole American people. There has
been nothing really new about it, but
there has been one more repetition to
make the lesson solid. In time no one
will dispute the sure succession Of
events, and thereafter patent remedies
for hard times and patent elixirs for
prosperity will have had their day.
Downing of the Greenback specter.
What striking resemblance there is
between 1896 and 1897 and the years of
our Lord 1878 and 1891 These years
are within the personal memories Of
every man in middle life. In 1878 the
air was resonant with denunciations of
the wicked men who would not issue
all the greenbacks which a suffering
people demanded. Here was a sure rem
edy for great ills, and yet the remorse-
less rulers would not stir finger or
print a single bit of paper.
John Sherman was denounced on all
hands Samuel j. Tilden declared that
only vast central reservoir of coin
could protect us against the failure of
the proposed return TO specie payments
in 1870. The farmer was at his worst,
ruined, destroyed, eaten up by taxes and
usury. Down almost to the very. day Of
resumption the croaking came with dis
NAL and damnable iteration. Some CAPT.