The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-01-31
LESSON OF THE PANIC

of all parts Of the country, but OF all
classes of its industries.
The financial stringency, accord
ing to the opinions of well informed
financiers, took its rise from the as
saults made upon the railroads by
state and national Legislators. At
first public sentiment was inclined
to view the troubles of the railroads
as thing separate and apart from
the general welfare and expressions
Of opinion were frequent that the
water was being squeezed out of the
railroads." and that the process
would in some way or other be ben
eficial to the general public. Some
business men joined with the poll
ticians in the game of railroad bait
ing, seeming to consider that the
lesses Of credit on the part OF the
sweeping reductions in tariffs en-.
acted by various legislatures were in
the nature of righteous retribution
upon them on account Of their evil
practices of rebating and granting
unfair determinations OF which a
railroads were guilty.
None of these public purists,
ever, could be convinced that the
enormous losses Of the railroads
could by any possibility effect their
own enterprises. Even when high
class industrials of all kinds suffe- I'd
a tremendous shrinkage in value the
politicians and this small minority
of business men declared that the
whole matter was only gambling
spree in Wall street, and that the
rest Of the country could not pos
sibly be affected. Some of the
western bankers were particularly
prone to this view, and one of them
from Colorado, was quoted last fall
; as SAYING: "Every security OF
every American railroad might be
wiped out without hurting my state
Colorado. We are 90 rich and
solid financially aud so busy at home
that we have no interest in what
Wall street says or does"
And then came the sudden awak-
ening. Almost in a day men awokc
10 the fact that banks had virtually
suspended, business of all kinds
was paralyzed, and all other indus
tries were in the same boat with
the railrsads-their credit gone and
operations seriously impaired, ap-
parsntly ON account OF the troubles
of three or four banks and trust
companies in New York. 1t was
the old fsble of the belly and the
members exemplihed once more,
and the members felt it to the
tips of their extremities.
The country received an imRres
sive object lesson, that the interests
of the railroads and those of every
other industry, business man, pro-
fessional man and farmer alike, are
intimately interviewer and an INJURY
70 one is an injury to all.
The moral of this experience is
karawa by ths Manufactursr' As-
cord as fellows:
"Every nan is indeed his broth
,sr's keeper sad no man. no country
aiyeth unto himself or Itself. The
ae,son has been q sevese ore. Ii
IA, cost every section Of our COM
mon land and every class of people
many millions of dollars. Cotton
growers are 5000, 900, oeo poorer
for it. The laboF,ng meh are in the
aggregate suffering, present and
irrespective, several times that
much. They have learned that
bankers and railroad owners, coz
poratiops, great or small. can not
be made to suffer without the pinch
going down through every grade OF
socisty and of business. Bitter as
the lesson is, deep as will ne the
.ussripg of millions, hungry I"
soue men already are, there may
come a great blessing from 1t. We
NAV learn that there is unity OF
,,,,sres, which binds every Glass;
t.;ch and poor, and that the one