The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-07-28
The Prophecy
and the Proof.

I1C 1Ot4lCSJ
and the Proof.
Col E. L. Russell, the genial and
withal shrewd vice-president of the
Mobile and Ohio railroad, is quoted in
current dispatches as saying: Il have
never been/able to understand why
we had a panic six months ago. and
also as stating as a reason why there
should have been no panic that there
were good wheat crops and cotton
crops, and all sold for good prices,
yet business stopped suddenly"
Outside of Mr.. Morgan's explanation
that the panic was due to '-undigested
securities" Ga large portion of which
were of the usual percentage of wa
teri there has never been any expla-
nation of the loss of confidence"
which was more or less generally, and
especially in high finance circles,
given as the reason for the money
disturbance. Though, why the Tack
of confidence" nobody has ever salts
factorily explained.
Was it merely cold feet" on the
part of the money circles? They are
VIGOROUSLY the most susceptible to
that malady OF any circle or set in his
tory.
Was it "Rooseveltism," as manifest
ed by certain strenuous efforts to
punish giant corporations for gigan-
tic misdeeds under a law that did
not permit the individual officers from
being held criminally responsible for
criminal violations of law? If so. the
n~FprIUdn-PaTty IN Convention as
sembled did not show much incIina-
ton to remedy matters in allowing
Roosevelt and his Office holding fol-
lowers to dictate.
Or was it that the predatory money
power, fearful of the results of whole
some steps toward reform, brought
about a state of affairs calculated to
make the short-sighted and timorous
afraid of reformation?
1t is true that a few men, headed
by ]. P. Morgan, turned the panic
of the New Workers. into the reservoirs
OF the common sense and grit of a
few. At that moment, their altogeth-
er abnormal money power prevented
the development of a cataclysm out
of a State of affairs that could not
well have existed at all had it not
been for he unsound conditions that
permitted Morgan ct al to have at
that moment what happened (because
of their self-interests as much as any
other reason) to be Il saving power
in the land. But the fact that a few
men could. and did under such condi
tions have and assert saving power,
is no reason why in a republican form
of government there should be permit
ted state of affairs and systems of
finance that permit a few men to hold
a power that is easier to use subtly
and as a matter of custom to the
public injury than occasionally to the
public good.
The panic of last fall. superinduced
by "undigested securities" in the
midst of plenty, and caused by lack
OF money in the midst of super-pros-
perity. may or may not have been
caused by a relative few as the result
of Roosevelt's turning on the light"
It may have been both the immediate
and the only inevitable result of the
turning on of the light. If so, what
does il prove?
Any condition that will not bear the
light Of publicity is an evil condition,
and the more the enemies of Bryan
and his halfway disciple. the present
president, try to show that Roosevelt
was the one to blame, the stronger
becomes the argument that the evils
Bryan excoriated twelve years ago
must be stamped out without furth-
e delay. and the one way TO stamp
them out is by the use of the party
that grows stronger and stronger in
its faith in the great Nebraskan.
With the possible exception of BIZ
metallism, the past four years of
revelation and reformation have prov
ed every contention made by the Ne
braskan in 1896 regarding Wall Street
and its relation to the people and the
popular welfare. The prosperity that
this country enjoyed, common to large
nations after successful wars, was at |
tributed by many TO the gold stand |
ard. to the exaltation of Mr.. McKin- |
lay and the single standardites gen