Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-09-05
PROSPERITY RAMPANT.
Facts Behind Assertion of Pro-
tective Tariff Organ.
WRESTLING TO KEEP UP COURAGE

ominOus Signs of Trouble Ahead.
VIII Reap WhirIvvind.
1t now begins to look as if "Repub-
lican luck was going to desert the G.
o. p. Shrewd political observers of
both parties recognize the fact that the
Republican party has been as fortu-
nate in its defeats as in its victories.
All well informed and fair minded men
know that the panic of 1893 and the
succeeding years of depression would
have occurred, no matter who had been
elected president in 1892. The Harri-
son administration was put 10 its wits
ends to conceal treasury deficits and
stave off q bond issue until Cleveland
was inaugurated. In fact, the plates
for a new issue of bonds were ready
before Harrison left the White House.
The 1893 panic was partly due to the
Republican spendthrifts who, before
1893, had blown in" all of the big
surplus left by Cleveland in 1888. 1t
would have been fortunate for the
Democrats had they lost in 1892.
But the Republicans have overStayed
their time and are almost certain to
have to take their own medicine next
year. They are doing their best to pre-
vent business collapse before next
year and are whistling hard to keep up
their courage, but many recognize that
the jig is up with them. This idea is
beginning to find expression in Repub
iican papers. One of the oldest and
stanchest of them, the Chicago Journal,
said a few days ago that 1.-The belief
is strong that the tide of prosperity is
turning or is about to turn"
The government bulletins and re-
ports, and of course the Republican
newspapers, tell US at length all about
the prosperity items, but say little
about the gloomy items which are get
ting more numerous from day to day.
Thus the Bureau of Statistics Bulletin
of Aug. shows up the favorable fea-
lures of our internal commerce, says
that the current year compares favor
ably with the corresponding period in
1902 or 1901" and then hastens to say
that there is no evidence of a general
recession in commercial activities cor
responding to the extraordinary shrink
age in speculative values"
The American Economist, the organ
of the Protective Tariff league, is work
ing harder than ever to demonstrate
on paper that prosperity is still here.
Some of the headlines in its issue of
Aug. 81 are: Prosperity Rampant"
General Prosperity Untouched" The
Facts of Prosperity" Significant Fig
ures-Our Commercial Expansion I'm
der Protective Tariffs" "Labor's Pros
perity.''
When the Republican papers are as
sorting that prosperity is still here"
and are trying to prove it by publish
ing statistics showing that Pennsylva-
MAS iron and steel industry paid twice
as much in wages in 1902 as in 1885,
that our imports were greater last year
than ever before, that our post Office
receipts We're higher than ever last
year and other favorable statistics
which they tell us are reliable barome-
tiers of trade, while we are being as
sured that our crop prospects are again
good and that the railroads are threat
ened with another car famine" and
while the secretary of agriculture is
telling us that everything is lovely
with the farmers who are simply woT-
rying about how and where to invest
their rapidly accommodating profits, it
may be well to mention some of the
signs that point in the opposite direc-
ton. Here are a few of them:
First.-Great depression in Wall
street. Stocks have shrunk from 20
to 100 points during the last year, the
average shrinkage being about 80 per
cent. Financial experts do not agree
with Republican politicians that there
is no connection between Wall street
and the rest of the country. They
know that business is done mainly up
on a credit basis and that Wall street
is the heart of the credit system.
Hence when the heart is disordered
and diseased the whole system is de-
ranged and debilitated. Thus Mr..
Cuthbert Mills, for many years the
financial expert of the New York Trib-
une, the leading Republican paper In
the country, said in the issue of Aug O.:
"The country is beginning to wake up
to what is liable to happen in mercan-
tile and industrial affairs. There is
less Boosting than was recently heard
about the country not being concerned
with the gambling operations of Wall
street These operations, when they
are on such scale as we see them
now, are the sign and forerunner of a
business contraction, IN production ana
prices, which will put the country
through much the same experience
that Wall street has had. Good crops
will mitigate this considerably, but
will not prevent it"
Hambleton s. Co. and other financial
authorities have recently written in the
same vein.
Second.-This is a year of numerous
and great strikes. History shows that
the sequels to such years are years of
depression and panic. The strike years
of 1872, 1888 and 1892 are examples.
BY the middle of 1892 there were be-
tween 500 and 600 strikes on, and the
number increased later. The year 1893
saw a collapse in business and finan-
cial crisis not equaIed since 1887. In