The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-12-21


ueper n the United States which ala not
6Aout With what Mr. cleveland WOULD
oall "ghoulish slee'' over the financial
news Of Monday last and Tuesday
tnornins. The strineency IN the New
York money masket was masniAed into
= panic. The usual failures. that ere
0lwAys happening in the ordinary
course Of business mortality. became
pOrtents Of coming doom. The coun-
nv was entering period Of distress
ana terror. And all Of this because
the house Of Representatives on Mon
eay passed the currency bill. 'Ses the
DISASTROUS work Of the gold standard"
cried the free silver people with one
voice. No sooner b It established by
law than the rush for gold begins. the
corner In gold draws the bonds tight-
". and the industrial world HES help-
less In the tolls Of the money devil.
This ana much more from those who
thought that they saw in the action Of
congress and the condition Of the mar
bet : coincidence too happy to be
wasted
BY Tuesday afternoon ths market
had resumed III usual condition. Yss-
terday there was not = tremor Of ex-
citement. Money was to be had at or
binary rates. There was no talk OF
: panic. there had never been any fear
OF one among the cool or wen informed
Yesterday people had forgotten all
about the little furry: ana the gentle
men who 20 kindly interpreted It for
us - : part OF the devilish work OF
the gold standard they most likely
would like to forget about It. too.
The trouble with them. a. it has
been 80 often, 10 that they shsut-
"a too soon. But then they 30 seldom
have even the appearance OF an excuse
Tor shouting that one does not wish to
he too severe with them. poor thinss.
The disturbance that troubled. the
financial ccntars for q few hours was a
speculatorss panic. II had not even
connection with legitimate business.
except In - far as It was made little
sharper by the demands for money
growing out Of the European situation.
but prosperity always tempts people to
take gambling chance. When every-
thing II going UP and there seems no
chance for reversal of the current,
speculation grows wild. The cure for
It Ii drop. and the squeezing of wind
and water out of some of the transac-
tons of the street. This is what hap
pened. 1t was the spectators who were
pinched. though the demand for money
effected the business of the banks tenn
p6rarily. But there was no alarm. no
anxious scanning of quotations, no fear
for the future. That Is the difference
between the present and the dark days
OF 1898.
II this was gold standard panic"
we are glad to have taken its measure;
for surely there was never one more
lnnocuous. If we have known and ex-
q.
perienced the worst that currency re-
form can do. then we have got on much
more easily than the silver people said
that we would. The disturbance Of
markets and the collapse of industry
that were to occur are as little appar-
emit as the long train Of Ills that were
10 befall US. on the Democratic hy-
pothesis. II Mr.. Bryan was not elected
IN 1895. We know that the temptation
TO gloat on Monday was Irresistible to
the average free silver editor, but he
ought to realize by this time that the
relation between cause and effect is one
not given to him to understand. There
Is no financial ruin, no crash of fail
ures, none of the universal calamity
for which Democracy waits and hopes
rs its only savior. 1t will have to go
back once more to Aguinaldo and the