Arizona republican., 1908-03-23
PHOENIX ARIZ., MARCH %. 1908.
WHY THE PANIC9

which has been in a conference witt
 other interests in Washington the last week addressed the president on Sat urdav in which they exonerated him and his policies of all blame for the panic which fell upon an uneXampled period of prosperity apparently of in- definite continuance with the sudden ness of a lightning stroke.
 There are differences of opinion as 10 the cause of the panic. though us- ualy in cases O. financial disaster. il is seen at a glance what brought it about In fact, ranics are generally preceded b. unmistakeable signs. People know the are coming, and know precisely why, but in this case the origin oe the depression is still a subject of dispute.
 The committee of middle-west bus mess men, speaking with the assur- ance O. those who know attributes the trouble to corporate violation Of law. the san Francisco fire and earthquake, and 10 t!-e disclosure Of official cor ruption which existed in that city and elsewhere, an tending to a destruction Of public confidence
 These theories are not entirely new. They were advanced by the president in his message on January Sl and have from tir1e to time been re-echoed by MT Taft in many of his public ad- dresses Passing over a suspicion that ythe committee of middle-west business men intended bit of delicate flattery O. the president by a coinci- dence with his views as to panics. trusts and things in general, their the ory as to the beginning of the panic may be looked into.
 It s difficult to conceive that the San Francisco fire corld so have shaken the countr,-. It might be be- lieved that if the entire state O. Cali fornia had slipped off into the Pacific on April IS, 9O6. such cataclysm ss followed year and seven months af-
  suited from that catastrophe.
 Official graft and corruption are by no means new. Ever since the time os the Tweed ring. compared with which the San Francisco cor ruption was pitiably small rascality, most of the large cities. of the coun- tr,, have been at time honeycombed with graft without shaking the confi- -dence of :l,e country in the honestw of the great citizen body or public faith in the stability oc the financial fabric.
 As to violations oe the law b,' large corporations. that :s also no new crime. The anti sherman law and the interstate commerce law have been violated. the latter for twenty years. and the former since it's enact mknt ir the carly nineties: there was little or TO secret Of such violations and whatever effect those crimes might have had on public confidence. should have been manifested long be- l fore NovembJ- oc 1907
 That there have been rich and pow 1 erful criminals all these years, is an i established fact and that such crim inals should be punished is an indis- 1 putable contention, so strongly i grounded as to be unarguable.
 But what relation there can be be- ! tween such crimes and the sudden ! cessation of prosperity has never been traced. No logical connection has ever been attempted to be established. |
 There is d lack of public confidence. | It is felt not alone by the corporations l which'h have been accused of crime, but | by all alike All railroads are unable | to procure money for their needs. Il That alarm $ proof of a widespread II want of confidence which is directly II related. rot to the exposure of al- legged crimes on the part of some Il roads but to hostile legislation by the federal government and the states. within the last two years. mostly within the last ear against all roads