Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-01-23
The Square Deal.

| quirements aggregating about six mil
! lions of dollars. AS all ewes have been
fixed upon the condition of the New
York banks since the beginning of the
| present difficulties, this return to
| normal conditions on their part may
be said to end the acute phase of the
| great disturbance of 1907. From now
| on, according to all indications now
| before us, mercantile and industrial
| conditions should redress themselves
until the business ship once more floats
upon an even keel.
| While we may, as a nation, congrat-
ulate ourselves upon the comparatively
! brief duration of situation which for
a short time seemed to threaten grave
results, it must be admitted that this
episode of dislocation and retardation
has been a most expensive one to the
country, and one of which it should be
the wish and desire of every patriotic
American to prevent the repetition, if
possible.
All schools of financial and economic
doctors are still diagnosing the case
and are already prepared, or soon will
be, to tell US exactly what our trouble
was and exactly what the remedy
should be. Without doubt many of
these commentators will give us i'm
portant facts and will propose preven-
tive measures which would be useful if
adopted, but as yet none, so far as our
observation goes, has reached the act.
ual bottom of the trouble.
In the midst of so much diversity of
view, it may not be amiss for the Dry
Goods Economist to express its opinion
that in tracing back any phase of this
recent disturbance candid investigators
| will finally meet at it's real starting
point, viz, the lack of Square Deal.
As rule, people in times like these
wish to hear some high sounding name
given to their disorder and to learn of
some novel and brilliant discovery, the
finding and application of which is
going to set everything right. They
which the case mainly calls for is the
| observance in their affairs of the ten
commandments and the golden rule
Without doubt this country needs a
new banking system and probably
some modification of currency laws,
but no legislation on this subject, how
over wise, can take the place of the
Square Deal. The Square Deal is the
only safe foundation stone for credit
to rest upon. Without that under it,
credit may fall at a breath.
To change the metaphor: The bust
ness of the country is equipped for
locomotion something like kangaroo,
which has pair of short, weak fore
legs, which amount to little, and
long, powerful pair of hind legs, by
means of which it does most of it's mov-
ing. The fore-legs of our business
Kangaroo are its currency, and the
hlnd-legs its credit. For nearly two
months, ending with the recent holi
days, these hind-legs were almost
paralyzed and a lot of the doctors were
trying to remedy the catastrophe which
had brought the animal to standstill
by seeking.to lengthen out by half
inch or so, the little fore-legs with
which there was nothing the matter.
The country's agricultural wealth is so
great that all the currency in the land
would not pay for one-half the crops
| of 1907. All the currency in the coun-
try amounts to less than one-third of
the deposits in the banks. 1t was not
reasonable, therefore, TO expect remed-
ial results from the addition of hund-
red million or so to a currency as good
as gold and already sufficient, if not
| redundant, for all ordinary uses. The
failure of the situation to our enormous
| imports of gold showed that it was not
lack of money, but prostration of
| credit which was holding us down
Credit, then, which handles ninety
| per cent. of our transactions, is the
vital instrument, the sine qua non of
business, without which the growth
and prosperity of a nation cannot ex-
ist, and the country's credit, to be i'm
pregnable, must rest upon the Square
Deal. We have over traded, it is true;
we have speculated too much in stocks
and real estate, as well as in commod-
tiles; we have pushed business to and
| beyond the limits of our present equip
ment for transporting and exchanging
goods. All these features required
correction, but none of them, nor all
OF them together, is sufficient to have
produced the phenomenon we have re-
! Gently witnessed, and which was the
culumination of popular distrust caus
ed by a knowledge of the lack of the