Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-12-31
WARM WELCOME
Continued from Page ~

a departure from the gold standard. |
In 1898 the pressure for free silver |
was on, and the threat or national
had much to do with |
the delay in the return to prosper
Gus times. Our government
finances now are in excellent con-
dition, and we have large surplus.
Our farming communities in the
West today are not under the
weight of mortgages and distressed
as they were in 1898 and 1878.
They are prosperous and wealthy.
On Solid Foundations
Again, the railroads, which make
up large part of the wealth of the
country, are on much solder
foundation than they were in 1893.
Then many of them had to be taken
into hands of receivers, and i'm
mense amounts expended by means
of receivers certificates displacing
and destroying the value of vested
securities in order to put roads on
safe and income-bringihg condition.
The railroads today are in a better
condition than they have been ever
in their history. Their gross re-
ceipts are larger per capita of popu-
lation than ever before. But some
of them have recently been built
into new territory, in which bust
ness has to be created by intro
ducing a new population.
Again, the balance of trade is
with us. We are about to settle for
the hundred millions of gold that
we withdrew from Europe in order
to meet the demand for money in
the markets in New York, by the
excess of our exports over our i'm
ports in the single month of Octo-
Der.
| All these things point to the
probability of a restoration of conf
dence and after proper liquidation
and an industrial process of some
months, resumption of business on
the old basis. -N.t-
Modern business, conducted on a
system of credit, which in normal
times increases the facility with
which the work Of manufacture,
production and sale can be carried
on thousand fold beyond the limit
of earlier days and enables a total
of many billions to rest ON a very
small percentage of actual money
passed. Every manufacturer, every
merchant is, under modern condi-
tions, dependent in the successful
conduct of his business upon bank
credits extended at regular inter
walls. The banks themselves, in turn,
acquire the means of granting these
credits largely from the money of
their depositors. And in loaning
their deposits the banks rely on the
improbability that more than GER
tain part of the deposits will be
called for at any one time. A lack
Of public confidence in the banks
creates a common desire among de-
positors to withdraw their money.
The fright which seizes the creditor
the depositor-and leads him to
hoard his money. spreads like Wild
fire and is as unreasoning and un-
reasonable as the spirit of mob. A
run on the bank ensues. The banks
then begin to call on their debtors,
and the tremendous structure de-
pending upon credit tumbIes. Mean
time men who properly count them
selves as millionaires, who are hon
est, conservative, solid business men,
always responding to their obIiga-
lions, find themselves as helpless I'M
der such a financial catacIysm as
they would be in an earthquake.
Demagogues Seek Scapegoat
Gradually reason resumes sway,
but the injury to credit and the
blow which has been struck at the
normal business progress has more
or less permanence Values have
shrunk, plans for new ant incrcased
business enterprises must be aban-
doned and liquidation take place.
The business men who have had to
stand the strain-who have seen the
fondest hopes crushed and have only
been able to come through the cri-
sis with the greatest effort and most
substantial financial loss, are nat
urally sore and depressed. They be-
I,eve, and generally they are right.
that this disaster has come upon
them without fault of theirs. 1t is
it,S+ IN than No matter how