The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-18
The Panic and Its Lessons.

| New Orleans mes-Democrat. | The panic which burst upon Wall
 Street the other day can hardly have
 surprised any critical observer of re-
 cent events. Indeed. the real phenom- enon of the case consists in the fact | that the collapse was 80 long post | poned There is an essential sameness about all crises of this sort. In times
 of depression, the average man covers | beneath the shadow of present and
 prospective disaster. whereas few bold spirits seize the occasion to buy
 what nobody else will have. Nature
 works on the law of average, and nrnsperity comes along. as surely as | the flow succeeds the ebb' Of the tide. The process of recuperation is. at first,
 very slow, but the change of conditions is ultimately plain to the blindest. Then the public enlists in the army of | the optimists, and an era of unreason- | ing hope ensues. The original holders of securities quietly slip out and their places are taken by the converts who can feel intensely, but who cannot req
 son at all. The stage is thus set for
 the immemorial tragedy. For while all goes we'll. and the amateur votarles of fortune amass wealth which would
 never come to speculations of saner temper. All sense of value disappears and the sense of responsibility goes with 1t. The fairweather bark sails over summer seas, and the ships com
 many have no eyes for the storm-cloud
 which looms ever larger and blscker on
 the horizon. In the twinkling or al
 eve the cyclone does it's perfect work
 and none but the stoutest swimmers
 are able to breast the waves. NO two
 nanics are precisely the same as to
 their technical conditions. but their sa-
 Iient features are fearfully alike. one
 element of tragedy pervades them all;
 the whales eat up the little fish, with
 an appetite that never flags.
 The latest panic is. however. mark
 ed hv certain peculiarities. The crisis
 of 1873 was but the symptom or deep-
 seated disease. The railway system
 had been extended in very reckless
 fashion, and vast conversion or noat-
 ing into fixed capital had thus been
 nfsected. People of all classes deeply committed themselves to schemes which had no valid basis in the present. or
 near future. The stock market ineVi- tably became a vast powder-house, ready for the spark which came In
 the failure of the great house or Jay
 Cooke & Co. Fortunes were swept
 away in 8 minute, and years were
 needed to work out cure Of the ma lady The panic of 1890 likewise came
 in the train of mad speculation
 throughout the world, the suspension of Barring Bros. serving the purpose of the tocsin. In the instant case. noth- ing of the sort has happened. The general trade of the country is at high
 water wark, and the earnings of the railways are phenomenal. Commercial credit is thoroughly sound, and an al- most ultra conservatism Is the domi- nant note. The debacle of yesterday thus chiefly concerns the vast army of dreamers who either buy what they do not want, or sell what they do not pos sess. The losses are. of course, im- mense; but the money is simply passed from one set ofspockets to another, and the nations productive energies are left untouched.
 There is another phase of the matter that is of transcendent interest to the philosophic thinker. The corner" in Northern Pacific was the bolt from the blue which sufficed to rive all the air castles to the Sase. The congestion in this issue resulted from the efforts of two coteries of multi-millionaires to control the property. The outsider wcs ground between the upper and neither miIlstones of these incompati- ble ambitions. No great amount of sympathy need be expended over the 1 disaster which has hefallen the rash, intrudlng fools who have sought tc de- | rive rrofit by meddlipg with other peo- plcs affairs. It remains entirely true, how ever, that the public at large IS vitally concerned with manipuIations | which impe Til every legitimate business | In the land. When viewed from this | standpoint. the internecine conflict of | the autocrats Is of a piece with the | st uggles of Antony, Augustus and | P ompey over the spells of Roman con- uuest, As tEe triumyirz gave no heed |