Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1907-01-05
HARDSHIPs OF PROSPERITY.

tne entlre country, says the Literary
Digest, were lifting a pean of exulta-
ton over our national prosperity as
revealed in recent statistics-a pros
perity SO amazing, according to the
editor of The Manufacturers Record.
that we cannot measure the meaning
of it until we learn to think in bill
lions" But of late, in lieu of the 10y
Gus chorus, We are beginning to hear
occasional voices raised in misgiving
and perturbation. Most notable among
these is the utterance of the retiring
Secretary of the Treasury, Leslie M.
Shaw, who, speaking at Washington
banquet, said that I'VE who pray
should ask God to save us from any
increased prosperity; We have all we
can stand" Awed by the appalling
stature the country has reached, Mr..
Shaw added with evident apprehension
that he did not know what was going
to become of u.s." His pessimistic
presentation of the fact that 1--WE are
growing more crops than we can har-
vest, and harvesting more than we
can haul to market" suggests to one
facetious paper the ACCESSIBILITY of pub
lie prayers in the churches for bad
weather at harvest time. Another adj
monishing voice which has caught the
attention of the press is that of JUS
tice David j. Brewer, who declares
that our great expansion and rapid
growth in population and resources
are developing habit of extrava-
gance" which has led us most unwisely
to discount the future. Following
these hints, the press have shown a
tendency to lay most of our national
embarrassment at the door of the ma
tons material well-being. Thus the
present money stringency," it is al
legged, is due to the boom in specula-
ton, itself result of widespread
prosperity. "The conditions of all
around apparent prosperity is the most
ominous disclosed in our annals" re-
marks the New York Sun, discussing
the situation as it affects the railroads
in particular. We read further:
THE last quarter of the year has
seen over $100,000,00O added to the
wages of railroad employees 0ike-
wise the greatest decrease in the eff
cincy of labor ever noted in this or
any other country. The record of
prices of railroad supplies, rails alone
CASCplcu, uuIluS tue year SHOWS the
greatest advance ever known in a like
period. ...... The roads are between
Mr.. Roosevelt and the deep sea. ......
The gross earnings are suffocating
them, the net earnings are steadily
vanishing, and behind all is the spec
ter of an intolerable usurpation which
means only bankruptcy and disaster"
The same paper compares the coun-
try to youngster who has eaten too
much jam and yet is hungry for more.
"As a nation We are gorged with pros
perity," it asserts severely, but with
evident concern. rs our prosperity
getting little too prosperous?" sug-
gests The Wall Street Journal, while
the New York World sets graphically
before us the conditions of general
congestion with which the land is
groaning. Thus:
"The railroads struggle helplessly
under the general congestion of freight
while the western farmers grain lies
rotting in heaps and their coal-bins
stare vacantly at the bleak Dakota
sky. The car-shops and locomotive
works are behind with their business,
with two-year rush orders ahead.
Prices keep mounting higher and high
er, although there is too much of ev-
erything and because too many people
are in a hurry to use it. Wages are
being raised and labor ia scarce. there