Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-03-05
THE DEPRESSIONS OF 1880
AND 1893
Billings Gazette)

The last previous business depression in the United
States which can be fittingly compared with the pres
ent one is that of 1898. The depression of 1921 was
accepted as the inevitable aftermath OF wartime ex-
pansion. ard to some extent had been discounted. And
the depressions of 1914 and l9O7-s were more short
lived and less severe than that of 1880.
The panic of 1898, like the depression of 1880, in
the United States was preceded by the economic dis
tress in most of Europe. Thorpe's Business Annals
show England, France and Germany in the thrOes of
business stagnation, through most of 1891 and all Of
1892, while business was on the upgrade in the United
States during the latter part of 1891 and all of 1892
Revival began in England, France and Germany in 1895
whereas the revival which ushered in prosperity did not
get underway in the United States until 1897.
The most striking difference between the depres-
sions of 1893 and 1880 in the United States is the ex-
istance today of the Federal Reserve System, with the
resulting elasticity in the currency. Although the pan
ic of 1898 was ushered in by business failures, its fun
damental cause lay in the depletion of the Governments
gold reserve and in widespread distrust of the currency,
with money scarce. Today money is plentiful, with
rates for call money low. On September 80, 1880, the
Governments postal savings deposits were almost 20
per cent greater than one year previously, and Is per
cent greater than on June 80, 1928. The deposits in the
savings banks of New York state in August of this
year were seven per cent greater than in August, 1928.
In 1898, national bank failures were common and
IL HdS DttH stitdtC tudl uUI Lu0u OIE vi uun-
bred commercial enterprises in that year went bank
rupt.
Settlement on public land took some of the employ
ment slack n 1898, and the Cherokee Strip was opened
to settlers in that year. Now there is practically no
public land suitable for farming. On the other hand,
American consuls in other lands are now restricting i'm
migration visas below the 100000 from Europe con-
templated under the present national origins plan,
whereas almost 440,O 900 immigrants came to the United
States in the year ending June 80, 1893.
In 1898, there was widespread cutting of wages.
with many long and bitter strikes. Today many busin-
ess leaders are %proclaiming that maintenance of wages
will aid in mitigating the depression, and capital and
labor are trying to cooperate. Agrarian and labor re-
calcitrance produced the Populist movement of
the 1905, where as few signs of any radical political
movement are to be discerned in the United States to-
day. The attempt to meet unemployment by extension
of public works is more strongly pronounced now than
in 1898. However, It'll S interesting to note that Gener-
al Jacob Coxey, who led his army of the unemployed
from Chicago to Washington in "a proposed road con-
struction to provide jobs.
The panic of 1893 came during a movement for
being urged today also that the decline in commodity
prices, with the accompanying slackening of buying, is
due largely to the fact that the gold supply of the
world is decreasing relatively to the demand upon it
But the bimetalist movement of the 1905 was a pop
ular one, opposed by most of the bankers and econom-
lists and it visualized action by the United States indie
pendently if necessary, whereas today's proposals for
broadening the currency base ccome chiefly from a
few bankers and economists, and stipulate only inter-
national action.