Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1878 — Honesty East and West. [From the New York Graphic.] [ARTICLE]

Honesty East and West. [From the New York Graphic.]

We have heard a great deal about repudiation being a disease almost confined to Southern and Western mercantile life, and many severe lectures have been read to those sections about the villainy cloaked in the remonetization scheme as being latent repudiation. Let us test this theory by the facta. In Dun Barlow’s statement the following table is given :

w 1877. de. Bank Perstates. Fo.in National circulatn No. eentage Amount Average Busi- Bank for each Fail- Fait- of lAabiliness. Circulation. Trader, ures. ures. Liabilities, ties. Eastern 77,724 $112,678,336 $1,450 1,353 1 in 58 $26,088,007 $t9,239 Middle 224,707 112,811,913 547 3,049 1 in 73 77,173,750 25,311 Southern 91,783 23,531,026 256 1,078 1 in 85 17,271,920 16,022 Western 231,557 65,194,381 281 2,756 1 in 84 56,187,064 20,387 Pacific and Territories... 26,235 3,098,454 118 636 1 in 41 13,949,185 21,932 Total for United States. 652,006 $317,314,110 $486 8,872 1 in 73 $190,669,936 $21,491 Canada .. 56,324 $22,018,658 $391 1,892 1 in 30 $25,523,903 $13,490

This table shows that the percentage of business failures in the Southern States has been lower than in any other section of the country. The Western States follow next; then the Middle, then the Eastern, and last come the Pacific slope States. It has not been attempted to be denied that many failures are fraudulent, and on the score of probability it is more likely that where one trader in fiftyeight failed there will be more dishonesty than where one in eighty-five fails. With these figures before ns we see that the South and West have been grossly slandered—that taking those tables as our guide the South and West live up to their engagements better than any other portion of the country. As Dun Barlow’s report says: “ Notwithstanding the solidity and wealth of New England, its established sources of income from its long career of success, and its enormous investments within and without its own borrowers, its perfect monetary facilities, and other great advantages, yet all this does not preserve its traders from failing in numbers far greater than in the Southern States—ruined by war, retarded by misrule, and only just recovering to a self-sustaining power of existence.” There is another point deserving of thought. Failures are more prevalent in Canada than anywhere else in the world—one trader in every thirty failed last year. On the Pacific slope one trader in every forty-one failed. Now it should not be forgotten that Canada has the single gold unit of value, and paper has never defiled California, where the bulk of the Pacific coast failures occur. Unless there has been an abnormal development of dishonesty in Canada and California, gold must have had something to do with these failures. One thing is certain, whether they are to be attributed to the single standard or not, gold has not preserved tts votaries from great waves of mercantile disaster, accompanied, we may hope, with small waves of dishonesty. Let not the East hereafter say, “ I am honester than thou,” or pretend that gold will ward off the evils of insolvency.