Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1898 — ALL INTERESTS ARE MUTUAL [ARTICLE]

ALL INTERESTS ARE MUTUAL

A Striking Array of Facts and Figures In Opposition to Class Prejudice. 0 It was Abraham Lincoln, who in the midst of the throes of war for the Union, said that he turned to “The Plain People” for succor and help. It was he who coined that phrase. He believed iu the plain people of the nation, and they believed in him. The unbiased intuitions of the masses are as unerring now as then. Now, as then, the great masses of the American people ouly desire to know the facts, and intuitively they will go straight at the right thing in action. It is the prejudiced man. the crank, who sees something very clearly, but not in its relations. The strong common sense of the masses, whose highest aspirations are to be right, look at and carefully consider things in their relations to other things, and are the great conservative forces which build systems and powerful nations. The war" just closing, after a wonderful exhibition of national resource in money to carry it on, in power on land and sea, and cupula*.ty in management, has awakened in every American a new pnde in American institutions, a new confidence in Americans themselves, and the nation in the same ratio has riseif in the esteem of the world. All this has not come about suddenly, though it is suddenly realized at home and abroad. The real basis ut it all is steady and rapid growth toward what is now plain to all. It is clearly traceable to our cultivation of the arts of peace, to the development of our puolic scnool system, the building of colleges and other educational institutions, tilt we have become more symmetrical and capable in all directions tliuu any other people. There was a time when nations built wails aud confiued tneir commerce within them. China is crumbling to pieces iu a too loug attempt to maintain 6ucb a system. Commerce has become as the blood to tile body. The arteries aud veins of commerce ramify the civilized world. Great ships bridge the oceans and railways span the continents till the nations have become neighbors, whose productions aud handiwork seem indispeusible so each other. They buy and sell, intermingle in social life and are becoming more and more the “brotnerhood of man,” as intended by the Father of us ail. More aud more, ail men perceive that a policy which hurts one great class hurts ail other classes, and what benefits one benefits ail. All are coming to see aud realize this truth. This uation maintained the battle of the equal coinage of gold and silver long alter other great nations ceased it. Wo pursued the policy, thinking to stand alone, till well-nigh the brink of ruin. We went on, aua on, till silver went down, and down in value, though our markets were taking every ounce of the American product. Then it was perceived that tne task was greater thau one nation couid endure, aud just as we were about to become isolated, separated from all the great commercial nations; just as we were about to lose the balance of our rapidly diminishing supply of me world’s standard coin, aud becomes silver monometallist nation, aud isolated, we awakened to the peril and aban doned the single-handed struggle aud said we will hold on to our great commercial relations with the world aud to the world’s standard of coin. We had to-do it or lose all that had been making ns great. We had to do it or go to the level of China and Mexico. We had to do it or bring upon ourselves the greatest disaster the nation ever saw. It was fortunate that we did, before the present war came upon us, for possessing confidence in ourselves and holding that relation to the world, we were enabled to obtain from our own people, ample funds to prosecute the war, with offers of hundreds of other millions here at home which we did not need, aud during it all American securities held up their values abroad and were not sent home for payment. This is the splendid record. And now the wisdom of the new policy is already seen iu advanced prices of nearly every product, of the laud. It is seen iu advanced wages in nearly every department of yidustry. it is seeu in our rapidly increasing commerce, by land and sea; iu better condition of the masses of people, iu every avenue of business. The impulse of better conditions, of better living aud of hopefulness is now seen among all classes. It is the uuerriug proof of what has already been said, that what hurts one class hurts all classes, and what benefits one, benefits all. These facts are the final test of all theories. To use a homely phrase, “We are all iu the same boat.” We ride the waves together, or go to the bottom together. Bearing further upon this great fact here is some statistical information touching both the effect of the disasters through which we have come, aud showing that all classes are alike hurt by the wrong policies in which we persisted too long. These facts were obtained in the past year by the Indiana bureau of statistics through receivers and assignees of banks, manufacturing establishments, aud merchants that failed daring the years 1893 and 1894. It is found that rich and poor alike, bankers, merchants, factory owners, farmers and the professional classes went down together daring the last years of the panic aud the hard times, under the attempt of this country to “go it alone” on a wrong system of coinage and finance. Surely these facts are the final test, not only that this country could not pursue this course alone, but that persistence iii the attempt to do so was bringing ruin to all classes. A great deal of data on this subject has been obtained, and a few sample tables will suffice, for they are all of the same tenor, from the central western states. ' BANKING HOUSE FAILURE. „ ~ " Number Number Per oent v ocations. Depositors. Bankrupted Bankrupted Bankers and Stockholders * * 100 Merchants ‘0 13 06 Manufacturers. * *• Mechanics and Laborers J3J f 8 Farmers % Widows 1° _ MANUFACTURING PLANT. ~ ~~ 7T~kIZ Number Per cent \ocations. Number Bankrupted Bankrupted Stockholders ■' 8 8 MS Skilled Mechanics..... 84 fLumbermen 8 i“ Finishers J 8 “ S* Day Laborers lfl () ‘ - GENERAL MERCANTILE HOUSE. \ ocations. Number Bankrupted! Bankrupted Proprietors ••.•••• «? ! ,5 - Bookkeepers and clerks 18 •? . Laborers 6 < * BANKING HOUSE. 7 77 ~ I x-..... Number Percent \ ocations. | Number Bankrupted Bankrupted Bank Stockholders... J* JH} Merchants 84 s•* Mechanics ** * ■“ Professional Men BANKING HOUSE. 7 ~7 ' ~~ Number Percent Vocation. Number. BHnkrupte ,i Bankrupted Bank Stockholders 24 Wi.Ott Merchants * a A Manufacturers •»' Um Professional Men « j* l 8 ... BANKING HOUSE. Vocation. Number. Bankrupted Bankrupted Bank Stockholders *2 .2 „ Merchants ?! *2 ft® Manuiaeturers *;{ .. Farmers 4 - - } 4 Widows } 8 18 88 4 Protessi'ilial Men === * These facts simply show how true it is that all classes and all industries are linked together; that oue ettuuot be ruined without bringing down scores of all other classes, and that the prosperity of oue class means the prosperity of all the others. This being true, how great a mistake it is to be possessed of the idea that the bankers, business men aud commercial classes, iu the reform of our currency system, are seeking to hurt any of the great industrias. They all know, that' according to all experience, as well as all history on the subject, that any plan of adjustment that would hurt any other great productive and industrial class is the very thing that would bring ruin to themselves also. These fuels show it. The financial plau which gives one class prosperity gives prosperity to all the others, and the financial pluu which ruinß one sends all the others to the bottom. Therefore the differences of opinion which exist about fiuaucial plans are ouiy differences of judgmeut. and do not have their oriftiu in attempts at taking advantages. The commercial classes first feel the effects of wrong systems and then the harm reaches our to all others. It is natural, therefore, that'they have been in the trout ot the movement iu bringing about a better system. This is the reasou that this class, irrespective of purties, are iu this movemeut. They know that false svstems will bring disaster to themselves as well as to others. Durtug the winter of 1893 and 1894, one great city fed thousands of people out ot employment on 79 ceuts per week with four to the family. Auother city fed thousands iu constrained idleuess on 81 cents per week, average of four persons to the family. This was occurring during that period, all over the coontyr. Mechanics and others, whose wages had beeu #7 to |ls per week, and w o usually spen. more than half of it for subsistence and home comforts, were then spending nothing. This condition reached out to all classes, to the farmer’s markets, and to the markets <or all other products, and hence prices weut down, and down, as the demand was largely cut off for want of something to buy with. There v • ju«-t as many millions of dollars iu the nation as ever, bat our coiuage a d finaiiciul systems had destroyed confidence, and the money would not ventn*« into business, because prices aud markets were destroyed by the attempt to continue a wrong policy. The peril past, and we have the present splendid con tiou of all the industries, and the good sense of the “couimou people," as ha Lincoln called the masses, will never content to tua backward.