The Republican journal., 1903-12-03
crest AND BE THANKFUL"

k>~S--->e~>>> 49,
content sweeping over the country
just now and many persons are inclined
to be querulous and disconnected on
this day of national thanksgiving.
A year ago we had reached the high
est point of an era of expansion in
trade, wages and prices. The reaction
that has occurred since then was newt
able and affords no solid reason for
taking gloomy view of the future.
In sense Wall street is the barOme-
ter of the country, and the shrinkage in
nominal value of securities has been
unprecented. The man who holds
certificate representing a hundred
shares of stock which a year ago had
a market value Of ten thousand dol
lars and to-day could not be sold for
more than five thousand naturally feels
poorer and is apt to fancy that the
country is poorer with him and that
there is less ground than usual for
thankfulness to-day.
The truth is that the country has in
creased enormously during the twelve
month in population, in real wealth, in
all that makes for the permanent we'll
being of the people. Certain pieces of
paper known as bonds or stocks year
ago had been ticketed at prices far above
their intrinsic value, but the country
was not enriched by this process as
much as it would have been by the dig
cling of an extra pound of coal or the
production of an additional bushel of
potatoes. Certain dishonest or Overen-
thuSiastic persons who caused an ex-
traordinary volume of these certificates
to be printed and who sold them to con-
6ding investors at fictitious prices be-
came richer by the operation. and in
exact proportion as the confiding pur-
chasers became poorer; but the coun-
try as whole was neither the richer
nor the poorer for the operation.
We should be thankful today that
while the cunning few were thus en-
riched at the expense OF the innocent
many, and despite the revelations OF
fraudulent promotion and the contrac-
ton in nominal values, the country has
been rich enough to withstand the
shock without panic. There is cause
for thankfulness in the splendid in
crease in the country's actual wealth
in the mass of mineral and agricul-
tural products for home consumption
and for export. Special cause for
thanksgiving is seen in the protracted
warmth of the season, which saved the
belated crop of corn-the most lmpor-
tant Of all our harvests-and gave us
yield never surpassed but once in our
history. Manufacturers and traders
complain of a Shrinkage in the demand
for products, but this is nothing more
than was expected by every far seeing
man. 1t is of the very nature OF a
''boom" that it is transient and must
be followed by recession to normal
basis. All classes must be content to
accept their shares in the contraction,
being convinced that it is but tenn
porary reaction caused by the national
habit of OVERRIDING everything. With
the continued growth of the country
and the steady augmentation of popu-
lation and wealth the general trend is
in the direction of improvement and
increased prosperity.
"Rest and be thankful" then, is the
motto for to-day If the Workmen must
submit to some reduction from the high
est wage it will be offset by correspond
ing recession in the necessarieS of life.
Ii the manufacturer and merchant are
confronted with decreased demand from
consumers they must console them
selves with reflection upon the phe-
nomenally active period through which
we have just passed and the inevitable
revival that must follow the depletion
of present supplies. We may have to
measure things with different yard
stick for the time being, but there is
reason for joy and thankfulness in the
fact that the country never before had
so much of actual wealth as it has to-
day, that we enjoy freedom from calam-
ity and from pestIlence and that with
bountiful harvests in our barns, peace
at home and abroad and with the added
blessings of free institutions and unim-
paired natural resources the outlook is
for continued advancement and pros
perity-N. Y. Herald.