Evening star., 1933-11-26


gan a hopeless march on Washington
BY Thanksgiving 1893. the Nation
was immersed in hard times that were
to last for four bitter years. and to end
only IN labor troubles Of unprecedented
violence.
Depression Strikes Country.
Turn back another 20 years. II is the
beginning of Gen. Grants second term
as President. the Towering of Americas
social age of innocence and political age
of corruption, The President faced a
Nation torn by sectional and class in
terests. almost universally discontented.
In the South the Ku KluX Klan was
f1outing the fifteenth amendment. In
the Middle West the farmers were Or
ganizing for drastic protest against their
unfavorable situation. Bumper crops
had brought low prices. Export markets
for grain were vital to the farmer, but
the high protective tariff was an OBJ
stacle The unfair practices of rail-
ways. uncontrolled in their power to dis
criminate. hampered both industry and
agriculture. Corn, wheat and cotton
were falling in price. And an unstable
currency aggravated the precarious con-
sued fasued during ghA the Civil War. We're stiii
circulating as the Nations currency at
fluctuating levels.
In September, 1873, the country was
shocked by the unexpected failure of
Jay Cooke, speculator who had
financed the Northern Pacific Railway.
This precipitated panic and depres-
sion which paralyzed the Nations busi-
ness for four years. In five years the
country had invested S500,000,0O0 in the
construction of railways. Most of these
lines went into receiverships. Mercan
tile failures during the ensuing four
years totaled SITS, 100000. Unemploy-
ment was general and industry was in
the doldrums.
Ladies in bodice and hustle and
gentlemen with side whiSkerS lamented'
the state of the country over the
Thanksgiving dinner table in 1873.
Civil War Threatens.
Turn back 20 years more. An amiable
but completely negative President is
beginning his term of Office Although
Franklin Pierce is a New Englander, he
is personally sympathetic to slavery.
His platform declared for the annexa-
tion of Cuba, which the South wanted
as additional slave territory. He has
appointed to his cabinet the Southern
leader, Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of
War. A year ago Mrs Harriet Beecher
Stowe startled the country with Uncle
Toms Cabin" People everywhere are
still heatedly discussing the book.
A comfortable prosperity is in the
air, but people are not convinced that
it is securely established. The posi-
bility that the Union may break up,
peaceably and by agreement, is under
discussion among thinking people.
Over their Thanksgiving dinner ladies
in crinoline and gentlemen in peg-top
trousers are expressing hope that the
Nation will not be divided by violence.
Civil war is a possibility.
Twenty years backward once again.
A century ago. Andrew Jackson is be-
ginning his second administration. He
represents the new America of FROM
tiersman and settler, incorrigibly op-
posd to the aristocrats of the seaboard.
The country has had high protective
tariff to favor its manufacturing in
dustries. The revenues have been spent
chiefly for internal public improvements
to facilitate the western tide of settle
ment. But jackson opposes this. The
high tariff has caused a movement to-
ward secession in the South, which
Jackson has met with the threat of
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