Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1900-10-22
DANGEROUS GROUND.
Reckless Speculation Threatens
Ruin to All.


Time How Real Estate Booms Col.
iapsed when they had Real Backing
Note Of Warming Sounded.
+ WASHINGTON, ID. c. Oct. 2l.-The
Republicans have practically aban-
dened all issues except that of pros
perity. That the times are more
prosperous than they were during
/ the panic OF 1898, the panic OF 1878,
or any other panic is undoubtedly
true But they are not as prosper
Gus as during other periods of pros
per.ty and the new policy which the
Republicans declare has created for
the first time large foreign trade
has failed to create as large for
Ieign trade as we had twenty years
ago According to the statistical
abstract issued By the Treasury De.
partment the foreign trade of 1897,
1895 and 1899 amounted to $T4 03
According to the same publication
our foreign trade fer the three years
1879, 1880 and 1881 amounted to
SS216. Our foreign trade was,
therefore more than ten per cent
greater twenty years ago than it Is
now. 4 great deal has been said
about our exports. There were SIT
% pei capita in 1881 and only Sl4.-
II per capita under the Mckinley
administration in 1897. They have
meyer reached the point under the
4 If bne al mi n al ration
| want to call the attention Of
the people Of West Virginia to a fl
nancial history that they will we'll
remember. During 1887 and 1886
there was speculative fever in
real estate There was over forty
million dollars in capital represent
ed in land companies in the Shen-
andoah Valley alone There was
over five thousand million dollars in
similar companies throughout the
4 United States. Mills were built
everywhere. Mammoth hotels were
constructed. Railroad lines were
built. It looked like the millennium
of prosperity. The crash of that
real estate boom ruined hundreds of
! people. We are having the same
kind Of a period of over capitaliza
ton and reckless expenditure at the
/ present time except that the invest
ment then was in real estate and is
now in corporate stoke. Which is
the more safe? Is real estate less
reliable than the stock of corpora
tons? We are having an industrial
boom not based upon new demands,
but upon speculation purely just as
the real estate boom Of twelve years
ago was based. Our immense for.
eign trade that is so boasted of by
the Republican newspapers and ora
tors is less than it was twenty years
ago and the average OF the past five
years is less than the average of any
five years during the past forty years
except the years from 1873 TO 1878.
The investment of cash in new man
ufactuing enterprises is less in
amount of five hundred million dol
lars than it was IN 1887 and 1888.
The capitalization Of new companies
is double what it was then. The
imitation is tenfold whatit was then.
The same reaction is bound to come
and will differ only in being much
worse than it was then. At that
time the investment was in real es
tate and mineral products. Now the
investment is in purely watered
stock. There is absolutely no value
back of three fourths of the stock
which is now thrown upon the mar
ket ANY one familiar with the
booms of Wichita, Kansas City
Chattanooga, Kimball. Fort Payne,
Front Royal, Riverton, Staunton,
Basic City, Buena Vista, Radford,
Roanoke, johnson City, Carnegie,
Elizabethtown, New England City,
Piedmont and other boom towns
will remember very well how safe
and conservative these investments
appeared in 1887 and 1886. They
had real merit to back them. There
was actual cash put into them, And
vet that speculative fever almost
ruined the country. There is no
merit to back the present booming
industrials. In large number of
them there is no cash put into them.
There is no property represented by
the stock. The crash in industrials
is even more certain and will be
more disastrous than the crash was
in the real estate business. This
is the prosperity which the
Republicans want continued.
Ii 1t continues two years long
er we will not recover from the
bursting of the bubble during tween
tv years. Wages are better than
they were in 1893 but they are not
as good as they in 1855. The coal
miners wages while they are higher
than they were during the panic are
not 80 high as they were before the
f.aanIf