Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1912 — FUTURE PROSPERITY DEPENDS ON VOTERS [ARTICLE]

FUTURE PROSPERITY DEPENDS ON VOTERS

Good Times or Depression An issue of Campaign. History of Business Panic Which Democratic Administration Brought On—Signs of the Times. Political condition* throughout the United States this year are bringing close home to the individual voter the question of which party he should support—the Republican or Democratic —for the general results of the election, especially as they affect the prosperity of the country, depends entirely upon how the votes are cast. It is an election to which first voters, as well as the older, should give thoughtful consideration, for upon its result very largely depends the employment of the younger men in factory, workshop and other industries which are guided In the magnitude of their operations by the volume of business that is available. Some twenty years ago there were many voters who felt that whatever the result of the general election, their future employment or prosperity would not be placed in jeopardy. Thiß was the though which came to hundreds of thousands of these voters. And they brought a Democratic administration into power. Immediately things began to happen in the business world. An era uncertainty set in. What followed can readily be traced in business encyclopaedias, reports of commercial rating bureaus, in reports of manufacturers’ associations, and other literature of the kind complied for the business man who for his own guidance must know the trend of prosperity or adversity in the commercial channels: of the country. The showing of the first few months of the Democratic administration which came in 1893 is given in the Columbian annual encyclopaedia for that year, which says: The three months ending June 30, 1893, have been months of unusual anxiety in business circles. A certain fear of something or other other —just what is hard to define —has spread over the country from Alantic to Pacific, causing an unusual stringency of credits, a depression in prices, and a most remarkable series of failures. The contraction of credits began immediately after the election of last November, and there is some connection between the two. Doubt and indecision, which are among the greatest evils that can affect the business of the country, continue to be the prevailing features of a situation which ha* altered little materially during the past three months. Throughout July and August the depression in trade and industry noted last quarter continued. Bank failures and suspensions of commercial and industrial establishments were of almost daily occurrence. The stoppage of industrial works, either wholly or for a part of the time, was in almost all cases due to diminished or uncertain demand for products.

Both Dun and Bradstreet reports confirmed the fact that the failures of 1893 exceeded by over 3,000, or 25 per cent, the number reported in any previous year. It is remarkable that while the total of liabilities as shown above, about $402,000,000, is unprecedented, the proportion of assets to liabilities, 65 per cent, is also greater than ever before —a phenomenon characteristic of a panic year. That the panic influences in business In that year, and throughout the Democratic administration, had direct influence upon the personal prosperity of the voters of all parties was very evident, for several million men were out of employment, and where there was one job open there were scores of applicants for it. The signs of the times point vividly toward a similar period of business depression should the coming election terminate against the Republican party, which turned the panic of the Democratic administration into an era of prosperity the like of which the United States had never seen and which has continued with comparatively little interruption to this day.