The broad ax., 1900-01-06

to pay as high as rs per cent.
Now the fact that very few of oI-
gold standard friends agree on any
theory. however plausible. is certain
sign that they have been taken OF
their feet by the sudden developments
in Wall street-that the collapse came
upon the stock exchange like a clap
of thunder from a clear sky. One very
shrewd editor who perceives that it is
necessary to forestall public opinion
in this particular vows that those who
see any connection between the COL
| lapse and the adoption by the house OF
the gold standard measure are viii
fully blind.
So be 1t; put us down among the
blind and then send us in raised let
tiers some plausible explanation of an
event Of which one gold standard
editor has been moved to say: 1t
swept like tornado through the stock
list, and made havoc with fortunes
that a week ago seemed substantial.
the ruin and wreck it has caused. for
the area of its influence extends over
the whole country. and includes all
classes of people"
In regard to panics that are past
and gone. we have never seen any
plausible explanation that separates
the panic Of 1873 from the surreptitious
characterization of silver, or the panic
Of 1893 from the closing of the Indian
mint to the free coinage Of silver. Nor
do we perceive any material difference
between the conditions of 1898 and the
conditions of 1899, except this. that last
Mondays panic was more ruinous than
that which preceded the depression in
1893. Prosperity prevailed then, pyos-
perity prevails now; the first note OF
the panic then was the failure Of the
cordage trust company. and the first
note of the panic last Monday was the
failure of trust company.
We hope, indeed, that We shall not
have a repetition of the various and
manifold disasters of 1898. The coun-
try has been adjusting itself all along
to lower plane of living and to less
expensive business. and we are conf
dent that whatever stroke is in store
for the country, it will not fall as
heavily or be as disastrous as that OF
1893.
There is but one augury Of evil in
sight, and that is the enormous over
capitalization OF the trust companies
that have been formed. These present
to the AK of the gold standard a vast
broadside of wind and paper. folly and
credulity, and when the paper bubble
bursts there will hurrying 10 and fro.
and loud walls from those who have
been induced to invest in wind. II is
this event that is most to be feared,
for when the wind and paper trusts be-
gin to explode the spectacle will create
CONSERVATION even among those who
have nothing TO lose. and this means
the loss Of confidence and the restora-
ton Of conditions that are neither hap
by nor desirable.
But the real evil. the evil which will |
remain with us until the people rise |
up and put an end to it, is the fact that !
the gold standard places 1t in the pow
er of dozen men to control the avail |
able capital of the country. This dozen |
men can put a quick end to industrial |
development at any hour OF the day CT |
night. and they can wreck any system |
or any organization that presumes to |
compete with concerns in which they |
have placed investments.
So far as the actual scarcity OF |
money is concerned, the technical au
thorities are at one in ascribing 1t to
the demand for cash created by IN
creasing business and the expansion OF
industrial development. This means
that we have outrun or are about to
outrun the limits set by the gold stan
dard When prosperity comes to a
1t ceases to be prosperity;
its own growth and development are
what IL feeds on. Deprived Of this
food. IL perishes. On this expansion
in business and industry the various
in Wall street are based.
When the concerns whose stocks and
bonds are listed in Wall street
are prospecting and earning divi-
dends the securities that repre-
sent them rise in value; but
money and plenty Of it Is just as much
needed to give buoyancy - trade in
the street as It is to support business
the country. When. from
lack Of money. the Coxey yell Is heard
echoing in those precincts. 1t means
that serious complications will ensue
unless the necessary money Is forth
coming. What those complications are
1t their worst may be seen In the &C
sounts Of last MondPy's panic. !