Year: 1873




Lessons or the Present as Found I'm


tho Experiences or tho Past.


There never was time in the history Of
this country when commercial crisis was
less to be expected from monetary panic
than at the present moment Previous to the
crash in Wall street in September we saw
everywhere only evidences of prosperity. The
crops were abundant and the demand from
abroad more than usually active. In this
respect the contrast with previous panics is
remarkable In 1886 Chicago was compelled
to import -four from England. and in 1857
men were trying to meet liabilities incurred
when wheat was at two dollars with wheat only
at seventy-fve cents per bushel. In the latter
year, also, the Central America went down
with her shipload of treasure, which was ex-
pected sensibly to relieve the market, while
now the mines are more than usually active,
and the transshipment of gold from abroad
since the crisis began has been eleven millions
of dollars, with the exports of specie since
the 1st of january twenty millions
less than in the same time last year.
There has been, besides, Q great in
crease in our exports in other respects,
and American shipbuilding has been
growing enormously. The gross earnings of
the leading railroads have suffered no remark
able diminution and the manufacturing in
terests, Notwithstanding many of the mills are
running ON half time or closing down alto
gether, complain of no unusual dulness in the
market Business conditions are healthy ex-
cept as they are affected by extraneous cir
cumstances, and if public confidence remained
money would be abundant. A crisis in the
midst of such prosperity is not easily accounted
for, and not to be accounted for at all by the
usual chatter about currency and contraction,
and not to be overcome either by specie pay
ments or the special panaceas of financial
quacks.


1t is proposition worthy of particular con-
sideration at this time that the currency has
nothing whatever to do with the crisis. This
is simply the crisis of speculation and OF
| speculation's twin sister, credit extended far
beyond the limitations of capital Every
banker. every merchant and every manufac-
turer who has failed or who is In fear of
disaster traces his misfortunes back to the
failure of the banking house with which the
panic begun. These dishonored bankers can
only find the traces of their misfortune in wild
and reckless speculations and fierce gambling in
| Clancy stocks. It is but natural that other
bankers and brokers who followed in the way
their footsteps led should in the end reach the
same goal 1t was to be expected that nsuch
a panic as ensued from the almost criminal
acts of these men public confidence would be
in some degree impaired, and that strin-
gency should follow which is only another
name for caution. The storm blows over.
but the calm which follows is worse than the
storm. Currency has retreated into secure
hiding places; the national banks have vio-
lated their charters in failing to pay green
backs, and men who before we're accustomed
to pay one and one and q half per cent for
money cannot obtain money at any price.
pressing liabilities. Pay or break is the cry of
the nomenclature the result in the end.
The unfortunate merchant or manufacturer
has been doing business on q false
basis; his debts have become milestone
round his neck; he has been paying
more for money than money is worth,
and when he fails he suffers less than those
who depended upon him for bread. he can
| look forward to the end of the bankruptcy
process for livelihood in what is gathered
from the wreck; but in the cases Of his en-
ployes, whether they be score, or hundred,
or thousand, or ten thousand, there is nothing
for them except intense suffering, even if they
are saved from immediate beggary. 1t is the
monetary credit enjoyed by the rich which
thus becomes the destroying angel of the
poor. Every manufacturer who is on the
verge of ruin to-day finds himself in his pres
ent position as the result of unlimited credit,
which led him to incur liabilities he would
not be able to meet if payment should be
suddenly demanded. We may talk about the
insuficiency of circulation; but thousand
millions of currency would not benefit the
Spragues and people in like position, except
as it would initiate values and injure everybody
except the debtor class.


But we are not of those who see only dark
clouds in the heavens. However much the
skies may be overcast, there is always bright
sun struggling to pierce through the mists
and we all know that the earth must become
serene and fair again. However dark the out
look may seem just now, however much we
may suffer, and the poorer classes particularly


we see fair weather beyond. The men who
are in debt will be swept away, but the indus
tries which their borrowed capital created will
remain, unfettered by the liabilities which now
press them down. If the Spragues are able to
dispose of their outlying property SO as to pay
their debts and save the print works at Grams
ton and the cotton mills on the line of the
Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad,
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