The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-03-16
THE TIMES D1sPArcH RICHMOND VA MONDAY MARCH 49, 1908


siderable circulation or intelligence
1 maintain with equal vigor and lack
4 OF proper perception that the underly-
ing cause of all of our difficulties
1 directly results from unconscionable
demands by the labor unions for excess
/ sive wages, and their refusal to rem
der anything like equivalent service
| for what they were paid.
| Though nobody has yet undertaken to,
revile and abuse that large section Of
our population known rs the common
| people, yet 1t is hardly to be doubted
that the same extravaganza and ex-
&C sses which have been charged against
| the rich men and the unions was shared
in some measure by their less organ
| ICED, but no less human. brothers.
In discussing the causes of this
panic some facts, however, are too
clear to be denied and too important
to be overlooked. First among these
stands that optimistic spirit which has
characterized all peoples at all times
! in midst of great prosperity, namely,
n belief that hard times had gone for
over; that everybody was going to be
rich and comfortable; that the amount,
OF work necessary to produce the daily
need Of food and drink had been eter-
nally lcssencd. Exactly this same phe-
nomenon took place prior to the great
panic Of 1887, and exactly tho same
belief in Interchangeable wealth and
prosperity pervaded this country after
the discovery of gold in this country
from 1S47 to 1856. Now, methods of
transportation may have changed and
corporations may have grown both
more arrogant and more grasping, but
human nature is much the same, and
the fat years from 1898 to 1906, the
bounteous crops. the enormous produc-
ton of pig iron and gold, the high
prices of cotton and agricultural pro-
ducts, all combined to insensibly make
the people of American believe that
new era had come.
| The first result was enormous de.
mands Tor capital in order to build new
railroads and factories, to open new
mines and greatly increase the luxu-
ries OF travel and of living. Seeing the
money going by. and feeling the in
creased cost of living, the labor unions
at once demanded higher wages and
shorter hours, and, as In all times of
luxury and comfort. tile amount of
do was greatly lessened.
In the middle classes houses were
built with luXuries not heretofore ex-
pected, automobiles were purchased,
and new style of living undertaken.
Suddenly the world walked up to the
fact that all the money possible had
been borrowed. and that no more funds
we're available for loaning purposes to
build new railroads or new factories.
Without attempting to explain why, it
Is nevertheless an absolutely invariable
fact that when the public finds no more
money can be borrowed, everybody be-
gins to call in his own ,loans. and thus.
where trade would ordinarily only be
lessened. 1t is frequently stopped.
These happenings were not confined
alone to the rich malefactors of Amer
lea or those Indicators who were not
so rich in Germany and England. for
the whole world found out, at almost
the same time, that 1t had overesti-
mated Its wealth, and had to stop and
retrench.
Apparently the tide has turned BY
slow degrees the disorganized indus
tries are being resumed on a basis Of
values IN ordinary as opposed to boom
times.
The times have been hard. on the
laboring men, but they have been
equally hard on those who employ
labor. Certainly the newspapers have
not recorded anything like the same
number of suicides in the first class
to those that have been daily reported
in the latter. The simple fact Is that
everybody In America was very san
suine In 1905 and very depressed in
1907. The wise and sensible thing to
do is for all hands to pull together for
1908. but surely no good purpose will
be served and swift recovery will not
NC HdsLeueu ny SOWlHS DTOdOCdSI tne
wholly fallacious statement, to use a
mild term, that this common suffering
was produced by few men, who de-
sired to inflict hunger misery and un-
happiness on millions of fellow citl-
zens that they might gain some dol
lars
The simple fact is that in such times
OF PANEL becomes Enthusiastically clear
to the thoughtful that we are all men,
bors one of another; that as we were
all unduly and irrationally elated we
have been equally without reason de-
pressed, and that as fellow builders of
this great country. a better under
standing and straighter thinking is
needed more than that sort of class
condemnation at which Mr.. Roosevelt
hac on many ;ypitatOrs and M eoiia1