Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1893 — TOPICS OF THESE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

THE AUSTRALIAN PANIC. Tbie general uneasiness which has existed in financial circles in the iUnited States for some time seems to have prevailed in all the great financial centers of the world. In Australia the disaster has been ruinous, widespread and far-reaching. The conditions which have brought about this unhappy state of affairs are different from those prevailing in other countries where.similar calamities have occurred, and have called the attention of the civilized world to that antipodean continent. In ektent Australia is about as large as the United States and has a population of only about 4,000,000, onefourth of which is concentrated in the four principal cities of the country—Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. Gold was discovered in 1851, and vast wealth has resulted from that source. In 1830 there were but 1,300,000 sheep in the country; in 1891 there were 100,000,000, and this industry has proved a huge bonanza. During recent years a vast system of internal improvements has been carried forward, the money for which was procured by borrowing and by speculative ventures of various kind. In August, 1892, the aggregate debt of the Australian colonies was £198,1)00,000, bearing an annual interest l of £8,000,000, or nearly $lO for every inhabitant of the island. This recklessness is the root of the present difficulty. In 1892 Sir George Dibbs, the Premier of New South Wales, visited England for the purpose of strengthening the confidence of English financiers in the various colonial enterprises. Failures had begun in

December, 1891, and the financial statement of the government to the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales acknowledged the inability of the colony to effect further loans to carry forward the enterprises already under way. In February following the Australian Land Company (Limited) suspended payment. This was followed by the failure of a number of building and loan companies and the conviction of a number or iheir officers of fraud and conspiracy. Still the “boom” that had prevailed in the colonies for years was not entirely flattened out. Lots had sold at auction in Sidney at the climax of the excitement at about $6,000 per front foot. April 26, 1891, Premier Dibbs stated that tha only object of his journey to England was to place the true situation of the colony and the extent of its resources before the English public. On his arrival in London a few weeks iatcr he spoke for all the colonies, s fating that in ten years their trade had increased 71 per cent, and that in that period £113,000,000 of borrowed money had been expended on railroads. Apparently the mission of the Premier was a failure, for within the year nearly all the financial institutions of the Australian colonies have been wrecked. Fifteen arge banks, with aggregate deiosits of $411,808,760, / have closed ,-heir doors. Of this sum about 5126,000,000 was owed to depositors •n Great Britain. Indirectly the j ohe crash in Australia is liable to i seriously affect the financial situation in the United States, because • of the probability of British eapitallists calling in their American investments on account of their losses in that far off island. All the nations of the earth are now so intimately connected that any great disaster in any country can hardly fail to impair the confidence which is obsolutely necessary for the conduct of modern business. Happiiy our financial system is on a reasonably solid basis, and our “booms” are local in character and have not been guaranteed by the government. Therein lies our hope and assurance of safety.

THE FARMER’S PROFITS. That there has bgen a marked and serious decline in the sum of profits .secured by the average farmer in the United States within the past decade, when the amount of capital invested in the pursuit is taken as a basis for calculation, seems to be a generally accepted truth. Many reasons have been advanced for this Unsatisfactory condition of affairs. majority of our readers will, we think, be interested in the views of so eminent an authority as Mr. J. Sterling Morton, the present Secretary of Agriculture, on the subject. Mr. Morton in a recent authorized interview in the Philadelphia Ledger, exhaustively discussed the matter, and from the published report we liave gathered the leading ideas as to the primary causes of the exciting depression in agricultural circles: Under the operations of thaHom®stead Law the plowed area of productive land in the United States has been trebled in the last twentysix years, but the market has not been developed in the same degree.

Farming implements have within the same period been improved to such a degree as to add materially to the facilities for production. Foreign nations have to a certain extent pursued the same policy in regard to the opening of new lands to colonists and pioneer settlers. Thus the whole world has been in a manner plowed up and cultivated, and while the world is no donbt better fed than in the past, the supply of all descriptions of food products has exceeded the demand 1 and the net per cent, of profit has as a natural consequence decreased. This is also true of all legitimate avocations. Profits in all branches of business have suffered from over-production, but the condition being general is not necessarily a misfortune, but rather a benefit to the wdrld at large. Statistics show that 97 per cent, of the dry goods dealers who embark in trade fail at some period of their business career. The percentage of failures among farmers is less than that of any other vocation. The profits in railroad transportation have declined in a greater ratio than that of the farmers. Mr. Morton thinks the outlook for fanners in the future is especially bright. The supply of tillable land is approximately absorbed, and the demand for it is increasing. Any farmer who owns land, with twenty-five years of life before him, can' leave an estate to his children double or treble its present value by simply taking care of what he has intelligently without any undue effort to obtain riches. The demand will have trebled, while the supply of necessity will remain stationary. THE CHINESE EXCLUSION LAW The Geary law, and the absurd complications that have resulted from the inability of the authorities to> carry out its provisions promptly after the Supreme Court decision upholding its constitutionality, is a striking illustration of the adage, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” That is exactly wliat the United States has done in this instance. The law as passed and sustained is a shining specimen of illadvised and ill-conceived legislation, though the evil that it seeks to- remedy „isjnoJess_real and impending on that account. That Chinese immigration is in need of stringent regulation few will deny. To what extent the restrictions should be carried is amopen question. It is estimated that there are now 100,000 Chinese in this country who have not complied with the provisions of the registration act. It is the duty of the Treasury Department, under the act, to send these delinquents back to China.. For this purpose will be- necessary. Only $16,000 are available, with no possibility of other funds until Congress convenes. The decision of the Supreme Court places the Secretary of I the Treasury in a vefy awkward position, from which no power can relieve him. The outcome of the dilemma will probably be that the Supreme Court will grant a rehearing, and pending the rehearing an injunction may be issued restraining the Treasury officials from enforcing the law until Congress meets again.