Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1893 — TOPICS OF THESE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

WORLD - WIDE FIN A N CIA L TROUBLES. It is not an especially creditable, but very human characteristic,' to draw comfort in one’s own misfortunes from the contemplation of the troubles and sorrows of others. Old as literature itself is the adage that, “Misery loves company, ’“ and there are few of earth's sorrowing and afflicted ones but can recall or point to an example of suffering greater or less endurable than their own. - A great wail has gone up all over this broad land because of our comparatively light financial difficulties, and in the midst of our calamities we have largely lost sight of the manifold blessings that yet are ours, and have almost universally overlooked a paramount sact —that bankruptcy and ruin and collapse of colossal schemes have been of world-wide extent, and that in fact our troubles are but banks of sand dissolving before mighty waves that have spent theihforce in demolition of the very breakwaters on the shores of the financial sea. More than two years ago the dry rot of official corruption had sapped the foundations of Australia’s gigantic enterprises, and one by one they tottered and fell bringing ruin and desolation to countless firesides, and weakening the faith of capital throughout the world. The collapse of English investments in the Argentine followed and our bonds were sent home for gold to pay these losses when the failure of the Barings occurred,, and we then started On the downward plunge. So healthy and vigorous were all conditions, however, that business rallied like a strong man from a-weakening hemorrhage, and we of the United States read the news, as we would had it come from another planet, as of no personal concern of ours. Time went by and the great Panama scandal was revealed as another ulcer on the vitals of finance that added new dangers to a case already alarming. Again we read and wondered, and talked about those naughty Frenchmen, and laughed at their duels to vindicate their alleged honor, and again comforted ourselves that all these tribulations were beyond the seas and in nowise affected us. Little by little the trouble crept to us like the rising tide, until everybody was alarmed and the populace “ran like a flock of sheep from a dog. ” Filled with forebodings for our own future, in the melee we have lost sight of the fact that comparatively slight misfortunes have afflicted us, but now that the tide has begun to recede and the great storm has passed, we can read with sympathy the details of the calamity that has strewn the shores of foreign lands with many a mighty wreck, and can contemplate them from this distance with thankfulness that we still are blessed with peace and plenty and an assured hope of , future prosperity that is not guaranteed to less fortunate portions of the globe. Business in England is completely at a standstill. Failures cease to excite comment. Money cannot be had at any rate or on anysecurity. Matters have grown steadily worse for six months. It is believed there is not a solvent banker in London —that is one that could pay his debts in cash. Thirty millions of gold*Sterling is all there is in the Bank of England. The amount should be £150,000,000. The country is practically bankrupt. The deficit from income tax for next year is estimated at $50,000,000, because the class who have formerly paid this tax are not making any incomes this year. Investigation of the Postoftice Savings Bank has disclosed a deficit of $595,000,000. What has become of the money has not been answered and the biggest smash in the history of the world is immiuent in this connection. Verily, the people of the United States need not be called Pharisees should they hold up their hands and “give thanks that they are not as other men.”