Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-01-27
Make Sure you Know the Real Cause

Make Sure you Know the Real Cause.
1t is as difficult for the people of a
country to realize that their land is
growing old, that conditions are natu-
rally changing. as it is to realize The
same fact respecting themselves. They
are likely to measure the prosperity of
the present by that of the past when
the country was new, opening to de-
velopment and the opportunities for
quick successes We're not. exploited.
What wonderful opportunities Cali
man went there with little capital save
his hands and health and made a big
fortune. Some have done the same
thing in the Alaskan gold region,
though the chances of success cannyt
be anywhere near what they We're in
TIE early days of the gold excitement
ir California. Today California is pro-
d' cling more wealth than she did forty
fi'e years ago, but there are not to he
IL slId tHCit AIit " ltitilNtS VI d tcitdlll
k)ad of prosperity that then existed.
TIE small capitalist or the man with
out capital who takes but a cursory
Wv of the situation is very likely to
assume that California is not now as
= osperOus as it was forty-fiye years
ago. And so it is of the whole country
There is more general more suhstan-
tial prosperity than ever before but a
certain class of opportunities afforded
under stimulating circumstances do
not exist. Those conditions are OF Il
busting, exciting nature and convey a
more striking impression at first
thought than do the more solid and
conservative conditions existing when
the country has become older, when
there are more men waiting to take ad-
vantage of the most obvious and COM
mon place opportunity
The man who went from Augusta to
Fort Payne during the craze there
thought he had found greater prosper
ity SO it might have been for him in
a certain way had the boom been based
on substantial foundations. But hal
the place experienced a real growth.
had the hopes of the promoters been
realized Forth Payne today would un-
doubtedly have seemed a less prosper
ous place to many than it did in its
early days. OF course it would not I've,
if it had all the mills and furnaces
projected running on full time, Its
stores and other business ventures all
ON good founda tions. And so it is with
stantial prosperity but it is not of the
boom sort which frequently was seen
in certain parts of it in the era of early
development. nor are there apparent
SO many chances for lucky strikes for
the poor man, who once by squattinS
GA a piece of land might in a few years
become the possessor of a corner lot in
demand at fabulous price.
Chances still exist. opportunities for
the shrewd person are by no meats:
gone, but the period of mushroom de-
Nelopment. taking the country as i
whole, is past. never to return. But
any do not seem to realize the fact.
= hey insist on drawing their compari-
: MS with the early days. not with the
oarly days when the pioneer underwear:
cissitudes that would appall the pres
eat generation. but with the early days
of California, with the exciting days of
the war when millions of producers
we're taken from the ranks of produc-
trs and made consumers only. Making
these comparisons they say the cou:-
try is not prosperous and very many at
hem attribute the cause to the kind
money How like human nature
Not SO very many generations ago tine
veragc mortal was accustomed to at
-ibute the nightmare produced by
,yereatng to the visitation of demons.
Who came to trouble his sleep. All
sorts Of conditions resulting from what
are now we'll known causes were then
laid at the door of evil spirits 1t is
and always has seemed easier to ldy
our troubles t0 some occult cause than
TO take the time and make the effort
to discover the real origin, For this
reason, because of this weakness in
human nature. which has had -
great influence since human nature b.
gan in keeping mortals in ignorance in
stead of stimulating them to cnlighten
themselves. the shrewdest of the race
have been able. if so disposed. to trade
on and profit from the credulity of the
others. Hence it is possible for the
politician to find hearers and believers
when he breaches the doctrine of frse
silver. for Illustration, when he holds
up the fifty-cent dollar as the panacea.
Just as easy in fact easier than it is