The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-06-25
THE HISTORY OF HARD TIMES:
WHEN AND WHENCE THEY CAME
Chas B. Moores of Portland Gives His Version of Our
Troubles to the Oregonian Readers, From
Buchanan to Wilson.

tihued until 1883, when there was
| again a demand for a downward re-
vision. For what followed read in Cot
tons Life of Henry Clay of the con-
dtions in 1887. when horses were sold
at 81, cows at 81. sheep at 13 1-2 cents
and hogs at IA cents, not per pound,
but per head. with everything else In
proportion.
| According to historians of the time,
Industry was PROSTATE, bankruptcies
were almost universal and there was
such a financial crash as had never be-
fore been equaled In our history"
These conditions elected Harrison, the
Wing candidate for president, in 1910. |
Prosperity returned with the protective
tariff law of 1912. In 1914 the demo-
Gratis named George NJ. Dallas, a Penn
sylvania protectionist, for vice presi- |
dent and won under the slogan Of "Dal- |
las and the tariff act of 1872" and "Fif-
ty-four forty or fight" They betrayed
the people on both issues, and enacted
the Walker tariff law Temporarily
held in check by the Mexican war and
the discovery of gold in California, the
inevitable crash followed. For partic-
ulars read in New York Tribune OF
!, December 16, 1854, and of January 15,
1865 with its stories of the bread lines
in New York City, and of the universal
national distress Read the lugubri-
Gus wall of President Buchanan in his
, message of December, 1857, and his
later message of January. 1861, where
In he tells us: 1.-THE public distress be-
comes more and more aggravated. AS
an evidence of this 1t is only necessary
to say that the treasury notes author
. zed by act of December II last were
advertised according to law and no re-
=, sponsible bidder offered to take any
: considerable sum at a lower rate of in
= terest than IL per cent" The highest
rate of interest ever paid by repub-
lican administration, even in the dark
est days of the civil war, was only Z
e per cent.
# tffere ended democratic supremacy
. until March 4, 1898. Then what hap
; pened? Brother Miller says that when
= Harrison left the White House on that
Q date 1.-The country was in the midst OF
# one of the greatest panics 1t ever ex-
perienced." Exactly And that was foui
,r months after Clevelands election, ano
e nearly a year after his election hac
seemed almost certain He reminds u'
ar that there was then mo democratic
IS finance or tariff law on the statute
70 | DOCKS. true. BuI eVeTyUouy hhcN
4, what was coming, and that the tim
10 had come for all hands to scoot 70
10 the cyclone cellar The panic starte'
ne and the "endless chain began 1t
NJ deadly work. after Cleveland had head
a ed for the White House. bond issu
70 became inevitable, and Secretary Fos
no ter issued the order for the plates o
a February 20, 1898, just IA days befor
We Cleveland was inaugurated. to make
an as convenient as possible for him
or take care of the panic he was bring
nj ing with him.
tic What were the conditions immediate
,le ly preceding this? On July 7, 1S9
to the New York Herald, a DEMOCRAT
he newspaper, said: 1.-The business OF II
er country is in a provokingly health
he condition New industrial enterprise
,se for manufacturing iron. cotton ar
it wooien fabrics are going into opers
ton in various sections. In the fa'
he of such a condition of things the ca
,g lamity howler must remain silent" {
re- July Is. 1892, the democratic Bostt
at Herald asked and answered its ov
,o- question where is the idle wool'
re- mill today? There Is none" The gre
m commercial agency OF Fl. G. Dun & c
nd at that time reported: "A fiscal ye
ter never matched in the history of &
iff country in the volume OF industri
our productions, in magnitude of domes'
M exchanges, or in foreign trade, h
,ln just closed" Edward Atkinson,
ost greatest of free traders, admitted
of that time that "there has never be
to period in the history of this or a
oen other country when the general ra
in of wages was as high as 1t is now,
and the price Of goods, relative to wag
the as low as 1t is today" Boies. the der
9th cratic governor of Iowa. in his Il
nee message to the legislature of II
ent state, declared: "At no time in the n
lin tory of Iowa have her people be
tive blessed with more general prosperit
tile Roswell p Flower, the democra
heir governor of New York. sent in M
,ks. sage of the same tenor. President HI
was rison in his message of December, Id
nds declared: $50 high a degree of pr
who perity, or SO general a diffusion OF
and comforts of life were never before
joyed by our people"
lriff Eight months after this, on Aug
alb g. 1893. Grover Cleveland called a s
7s9. Gle. session Of congress to consider
ited alarming and extraordinary busin
lime situation" made necessary by rea
r in of the fact that suddenly finan
that distrust and fear have sprung up
wed every side" viii our friend Mi
arp make a note Of that word "suddena
con- II was Harrison's panic, was It? T
tar came the unexpected democratic ta
yned bill, and what kind OF prosperity
ove- we have for the next four years?
lous. Miller tells us gleefuiiy that the pe'
de- kicked Mckinley out Of congress
with 1890 because of the Mckinley Il
,aLle law, but he does rot tell us howl
and repented in, 1885 and put him into
and White House by more than seesesa
pros iraiity over the great and. only Br.
con- and syerybody knows whether or