The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1912-10-31
THE PANICS OF
1898 AND 1907
sIBLE FOR THE DISTRESS
WHICH MARKED ITS ADJ
MlNISTRATION
FACT Is CLEARLY SHOWN
o.s.s . PROTECTIVE As,<f

The Financial Disturbance of Five
Years Ago Not Due to Adverse
Republican Legislation Nor to Any
Cause for Which the Republican
Party Must Answer.
With an audacity which can only be
explained by the desperate situation
which makes a resort to even the
most improbable of theories a polit.
1 ical necessity, the Democratic cam
paign text book charges the Repub-
! lican party with responsibility for the
panic of 1893 and the hard times that
| ensued. THE Republicans have been
trying to make the country believe"
! says the text book, that the panic OF
! 1893 was brought about by the Demo
cratic bill which was passed in 1894"
And then the text book writer pro-
| ceeds to make merry over the absurd
ity OF charging an effect in one year
to cause that did not transpire until
the year after.
Well, here are the facts: The last
year of the Harrison administration,
1892, was the most prosperous the
country had enjoyed up to that time.
Labor was fully employed, capital was
actively seeking investment and the
farmers were getting a good price for
a big crop. So far as industrial and
commercial conditions were concern
ed, there was not a cloud in the sky.
Republican speakers and newspapers
tried to persuade the people that they
should let well enough alone and that |
Democratic success might bring dis |
aster. But they would not listen. The |
prices of some things were pretty |
high. The Democrats declared it was
because of the high tariff and prom
ised that If put into power they would 1
revise the tariff Sin the interest OF the /
plain people" There was little ex-
pectation throughout the country that
Harrison would be defeated, and bust
ness doomed right up to election day.
But Harrison was defeated.
How the Panic Came.
And then what happened? Why. in
stantly, men who had money which
they were about to invest locked 1t up
in the vaults and said I'VE will Just
wait while to see what happens.
Manufacturers engaged in producing
protected articles, realizing that as
soon as the Democratic congress could
get at it their protection would be /
Immediately began to cut
their output to current demands. Who
cOuld hlame them for refrYSino m po
ahead and pile their warehouses full
of goods which might have to be sold
in competition with similar products
made in countries where the factory
wage scale was one-half or one-fourth
Of the factory wage scale which they
had been paying? Jobbers and whole
salers cut their orders to the manu-
iacturers in the same way and for the
same reason. Retailers all over the s
bought their supplies from '
lay to day, fearing to be caught with I
goods when the low-priced t
1ood came.
And so it happened that although 7
he Wilson bill was not actually pass a
ID until late in 1894 the panic began
he day after the election of 1892. II
vas not what the Democratic presi.
lent and congress had done, but S
What everybody knew they intended v
o do that wrought the havoc. Indeed
I the Wilson bill could have been L
'assed the day Cleveland was inaugu Il
ated the damage to the country woul, t