The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1901-12-12
CONSERVATISM IN PROSPERITY,

CONSERVATISM IN PROSPERITY,
In the great prosperity of recent
years Indiana's golden share of it has
been so marked as no longer to occa-
sion surprise. There was and is SO
much in Indiana on which to base
solid prosperity that favorable trade
conditions only were needed to ac-
count for the large increase in wealth
and population that has been the
states happy history in recent years.
The phenomenal gas field, which do
zen years ago began to lay the found
ations of new Indiana, is still source
of immense wealth. Succeeding it
even too fast is the oil development
which promises to add to wealth in
the future as gas has added in the
past. Happily, Indiana's coal fields,
as yet an almost undisturbed source
OF wealth, are here to supply the
scarcity of other kinds of fuel, and in
their development to become another
source f prosperity. The inexhaust-
ible stone fields must increase their
business with the country's prosperi-
ty. More than this, the fine clays are
coming to their own i'm a growing APP
probation of their possibilities, while,
we are just at the beginning of the
development of the Portland cement
industry, in which the State promises
to take lead.
Meanwhile in all other of the feat
ures of prosperous community, Ind
lana is growing nightly. The extern
sion of the free rural delivery system,
greater in proportion in this state
than in any other, and the multiple
cation of interurban roads become
great factors in aiding i'm the distribu-
ti0n, and to a certain extent i'm the
creation of wealth, With all this ex-
naafience teaches that now is the time
to be conservative. We know that
prosperous times can not last always.
As the secretary Of the treasury has
pointed out in his report, sit is a
familiar fact in the past, and it will
be a recurrent fact in the future that
uEsettling influences come in at unex-
pected periods to disturb finances and
menace credit operations. One or
more events occurring in succession or
possibly operating together, disturb
confidence in the situation; and then
the secretary goes on to cite "a mark
ed example in the so-called panic of
$685." when within period of less
than twelve months, bank credits
were contracted by more than $780,
600, 900.
Confessedly in the opinion of bank
ers and fanciers as well as bv the earn
est words of the comptroller of the
currency and the secretary of the
treasury, neither our banks nor our
currency system are as easily to en-
counter these adverse conditions. The
secretary, in striking phrase, says,
admirable in many respects, exper-
fence shows that Our banking system
is devised for fair weather, not for
storms. !" So great business interests
and small business interests are vital
ly concerned in shaping course that
may hold fast if storm comes, and
may avoid the storm as far as possible
There is so much in the present pros
perity in Indiana that has the solid
est of foundations that we should be
short-sighted were we to fail to be as
conservative in all ways as possible,
to be slow to enter on speculative ven-
lures, remembering that dull times
as well as prosperous times come and
may not be stayed, but that those who
in the prosperous times have shaped
their ventures right and have preserv-
ed the fruits of them, are they who
can tide over lean years with mini
mum of distress. The people of Indi-
ana are in position to illustrate this
as they did during the last "hard
times" They will show their wis
don and self-restraint by following
such course. Indianapolis News.