Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1911-09-15
Gut Bismarck Vri3un.,
BISMARCK TRIBUNE co.
WHAT'S THE NATTER?

not make or ululdht Clle AoIAon wa
fare. They are merely symptoms or
signs of that welfare. But as symp'
toms or signs they are sure and exact.
It is for these reasons that every
man with ten thousand or ten hundred
thousand dollars to his name, says
the Chicago Inter-Ccean, has fixed his
ewes for the last few days on the mar
ket lists of his newspaper and has
observed with keen attention the
downward course of investment Sc
curities.
This downward course has been
steady rather than precipitous, but
it has gone on until securities that
yielded per cent have gone to a
6 per cent basis, six per cent securl'
ties have been obtainable on basis
of seven or seven and half per cent
return. and some stocks that formerly
paid Z or ~ per cent to investors
have been purchasable at prices that
would yield, at present dividend rates,
8 or 8 per cent interest. And yet
purchasers are reluctant and the
banks are filled with idle money.
Why is this? The United States
long ago passed out of the Z, or 3
per cent period of development. Why
then are the banks bursting with idle
money while investment securities
seek purchasers on the basis OF these
flattering returns?
Many answers are given by men
who are supposed to know or ought
to know. It's danger of war In
Europe. It's fear of general strike
in Europe. It's the prospect Of a rail-
way strike in the United States. It's
this or that decision of the interstate
commerce commission. It's the wool
bill. It's the cotton tariff It's Con-
gress.
Yet Congress adjourns, the English
strike is settled. the Morocco question
is let drift into the tranquil fields Of
diplomacy and still the signs and
symptoms remain the same where
they do not grow worse.
What then is the trouble? 1t seems
as if child should see, and yet the
explanations that do not explain con-
tinue to fill the financial pages of the
daily press. What is the trouble?
Why. simply this:
You cannot have the principal men,
or the most conspicuous men, or the
most noteworthy men, or the most
notorious men, in the public life Of
a nation, go about trying to tear out
the foundations of that country with
out paying the price.
You and your neighbors and your
neighbors' neighbors cannot pick and
send to the great law-making offices
of the state and nation the men who
would rend the foundations of the
government. tear the beams from the
structure, knock out the walls, smash
down the supports-and still have
confidence, and have your neighbors
have confidence. and have your neigh
bors' neighbors have confidence, that
the roof will still stand sound and
stead over your head and theirs.
These things are so plain that, tho
often withheld from the wise, it
seems as if they must be revealed to
babes. These things are so plain that
it seems almost wasteful to mention
them. But they-even they-are not
all. To them must be added the
countless examples and instances that
have come day by day. month by
month, with ever increasing force and
number, to drive home the lessons.
Just look back a few weeks or months
and consider.
A senator of the United States as
sociates himself with other senators
to bring about a recall of the supreme
court judges when, on the law and evi.
dence, they render a decision which
displeases the people. who have read
neither the law nor the evidence.
A senator of the United States as.
sociates with himself other senators
of the United States to debar. legally
debar, the courts from pronouncing
any act of congress unconstitutional
that is, to allow congress to abolish
any or all of the constitution, to vote
away by bare majority the constitu
tional safeguards against cruel and
unusual punishments. against the con
fiscation of private property. against
special class legislation exemptinl
some and disabling others, and 81
on back to the erasure of the Bill o
Rights, the Great Charter, and ever.
other measure of what has been coz