The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-12-14
COMMUNICATIONS

ISlllCe NY tHe WTltei, anu tIuc W Jul
custom, we herewith give it to our
lreaders.
'NIard times comes knocking at
our door" again.
That the conditions of hard times
were here in August, and that the
sky, and now the country is in the
midst of a demonstration The pres
ent financial trouble may yet seem
to blow over, but it will not depart.
Economic conditions, and business
indications, all testify to the fact,
that we are entering upon another
era of hard times. The periodic
fever of monopolistic speculation is
giving way to the periodic chill of
Industrial depression.
This is no new discovery. Every
one knows it., and every one is
talking about It. Many deny 1t,
because they confidingly hope against
knowledge, believing that If they
say nothing to anger the god OF in
Idustrial disaster, he may wait yet a
little while before beginning his
work of destruction in earnest. 9th
ers deny 1t because they expect to
secure themselves at the expense OF
the confding, during the period of.
false confidence, which swallows up
caution. Only few, and they with
bated breath, speak frankly. But this
lis the voice to be listened to. II
nothing more were involved than a
,,"run' on banks, 1t would be well to
strengthen confidence by insisting
that there is no danger. Such con-
ditions are like alarms of fire in
crowded buildings. The fire that is
feared may be less dangerous than
It's stampede when 1t comes. But a
general, economic convulsion is an
|alogous to a prairie fire. Everybody
no safer when everybody knows the
magnitude of the danger. And the
I''Nlnancial Stringency" Is beyond
lperadventure the premonitory shock
lof general economic cOnvulsion.
lIf recognized as such, its worst pos
Isibilities may be averted. A mere
Temporary currency stringency, known
10y bankers to be that and nothing
more, would produce no such strict
ures in trade as the country is now
Experiencing. Scarcity of currency
alone would not check the sale Of
cotton in the South, nor of cattle and
lgrain In the West, nor cause the
banks to refuse to their customers
extensions of maturing paper while
payments themselves. II
|it were a mere money famine, would
the postoffices suspend their custom
LOT receiving checks for certain pay,
ments at the very time that banks
suspend their obligations to pay
|cash?
Why this lack of confidence on the
|part OF the government itself?
The circumstances all point to
failure of demand to meet supply in
production, and not for lack of cur
rency. but In consequence of the coll
lapse OF monopolistic speculation.
The increase in living expenses with
out a corresponding increase in COM
pensation for work has caused a
Ealing of in consumption among
those of US who live by OUR OWN
WORK. Trace this disparity to its
source and you find the cause lodged
in monopolistic forms of property.
|Analyze and you discover that the
disparity is due to an economic con-
Iflict between monopolistic interests
and working interests, in which the
working interests have got the worst
lof It. Getting the worst of It. their
demand Tor consumption declines AS
the effect of this reacts upon pro-
duction the demand for workers de-
clines which produces a further de-
cline in demand for consumption,
declines. AS the effect of this reacts
upon production the demand for
workers declines, which produces a
Further decline in demand for con-
sumption, and that again In demand
for production, and so on. And now
the afkvliated banks, instead of
adopting a policy calculated to re-
verse this hopeless see-saw, adopt
Ione which Is calculated to accentuate
1t. Without a radical change of eco
I'VA''N POiASyt tHV dItCi III III
dustrial chills and fevers will con-
ltinue. The most perfect currency
system cannot stop them, the best
administration of national affairs
cannot avert them. They are symp-
toms OF Industrial disease, and SO
long as We leave the disease in the
social systesm, we shall have to en-
dure the alternating symptoms. We
and our children and our children's
children to the last generation. For
there Is natural law in the social
world, and natural law cannot be
defined. BY natural law the product
lof work belongs to the worker each
In proportion to his work II we
made this principle the basis OF our
lsocial system, we should have no
fever of monopolistic speculation, for
there would be no mOnOpOlies. And