North Carolina Newspapers

F YoL Y. HANFORD, NORTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY % mot i I i y * : No. 23. wnai masts rANlUoy—FOOLS. A Comprehensive View ef American Trade and Finance—Read It, Hf Voa Want to Know How You live, Move .! and Have Your Being* JEdward ilMnn in JVanfe Xollt’a Ztttu tratod Xetcspaper. I have been asked to give an an il swer to this question. My reply is that tools ■ make panics, generally speaking. The tree question is. “What is it that scares the fools?” ‘ That is a hard question to answer. ■ . In order to explain the matter ,we must begin a good way off. In these days hardly anybody works for himself; hardly any one raises any large part of the food that he eats; even most farmers grow spe cial crops, buying a large part of their own food somewhere else. Hardly any people, either men or women, make their Own cloth; very few make their own clothes. Hard ly any one does any work on hu own house. Almost everyjnan or woman who is at work, either with head or hand or tool or machine,' is supplying somebody else—either with food or with fuel or with shel . tef or "With clothing, whiie somebody else is supplying them. In a plain Way we may put the case in this form* A-ll hands swap all around. Thatig what makes trade. There are a few places in this country where there is never a mon ey panic or a crisis in business. Down in the Southern mountains, in what has been called the “Land of the Skv," one can still find a few jpwpic wuu caru, spin ana weave their ovvu cotton and wool, cut their own wood for fuel, “bread them ..; selves” on their own com and salt , aud smoke their own meat These ' people are not subject to money panics. They never had money enough to get scared about, . In other places, where people have found out that each man can get more for himself by working on what some one else wants than he can by trying do all bis own work, there is a great deal of trade. Where trade is active, there is the place for a money panic. Now where there Is a great deal of work to be done there are a great many men and women who work for war •ges. Many of those who don't " want to work for wages get a piece of land. In 1889 there were more farmers who worked land on their own hook than there were of hired, men who worked on the farms for them. What a fool a man would be to work for wages when he didn’t want to, and grumble about it! Any man pan get a piece of land cheaper than it ever cost to get a piece of •ana before, if be wants to make a choice of lots he may have to pay a high' price, bat there is more is' more land somewhere, at less cost, at this time than there ever was be* fore, measuring the cost in the work needed jto earn and to get it into condition to make crops. Some of it is good land, front which men got a good living fifty years ago, when it cost them a great deal more work to make their crops and - a great deal more money to get their crops to market than it does now. ■j ... Not to say anything about land 1 •r. in the :Northwest, any man who wants land, and ’knows how to work it, can gebrit in the South al most on bis own terms; and any man who is willing and knows how to work on a farm can get a New England farm at Less than the cost of the walls and the fences, good buildings thrown in. On these same farms great families started and men and women have been raised, many of whom are now the very ones that are paytng.wages in ‘ the cities and towns to those whom they hire instead of working for hire themselves. Any one who knowt how can get on better now than ever before, because there is more work to be tyne. The work is not as hard as it used to be, and it pays better to do it; the "know Aw’Vis what is scarce. The reason why there is more trade than there ever Was before is oecause there are more goods to, be traded in. Counting per' bead of the population, there is more' corn, more wheat, more oats, more beef, more pork, more cheese, more but ter and more eggs than there ever was before in this country or in any other. Half the cost of living, to nine-tenths of the people, even of this country, is the cost of food, there is more food to be had for the wages oi u day’s work than there .ever was before.' There is also f«el«.»ore tron mid more cop* per per head;- more cotton raised here, and more wool raised or bought somewhere else, than thereover was before. , There is so much product raised to eat and drink and wear, and to build with, that we could not hse it all ourselves if we tried to, so we swap what we don’t want for tea, eoffee, sugar, and other things that we do want. That makes foreign trade. Every man who is. willing to work, and who knoteg how, can do more Work with less hard labor and can get more out of it than he ever could before. The reason of - the high wages, the low cost of labor, and tbe low prices of goods, is that there is more capital ready to be us ed. at less profit, than there ever was before. By way of trade our big product is turned into terms of money,' and the money that the product brings is.divided up, payment being made in coin, notes, checks, bills of ex change, or by writing off one against another on the books. oi shopkeep ers, banks, etc. The way in which it is divided is by way of swages, earnings, salaries, rents, interest, profits, and taxes. All these shares come out ot ine product, uur pres ent big product, even at low prices, comes to more money than the small product which was made with muohharder work a few’ yean ago used to bring. A less part of the product goes into profits and a lar ger part of it goes into wages than ever before. Profits and wages both count up in bigger sums be cause the product increases while the work is leas. - ' Fifty years ago a bushel of wheat could not not be moved a hundred and fity miles in a wagon ■ without the cost of carting it using up about all that it would bring, To-day a barrel of flour, that takes nearly five bushels of wheat to make, can be moved a thousand miles for a half dollar, and often for less. The profit to the railway in moving a barrel of floor a thousand miles is less than the value of the empty barrel at the end of the route. Vaa ierbuilt made his great fortune by making flour and other tilings cheaper than they ever had been made before by moving them at teas coat. We can’t afford to spare such men. Without them it would cost is a great deal more work' to get jur own living, and we should not get as good a living as we do now. Down South they say, when a nan raises bis own corn, that “he ireads himself" by his own work. Mew England does not now bread ierself for a week in a y ear. , If she rad to do so |$iere would be hardly my time left for any other kind of ^ork. How does she get herbread? By trade. - On what terns is the irade conducted? Partly on credit, Partly for money. The better md safer the money, the more he trade and the less the cost of iving. —-.~.i,.„ ... About two hundred dollara’ worth —I mean gold dollars’ worth—of Food, fuel, fibres, and fabrics are made somewhere in this country on the average to eveiy man, woman, ind child in it. The average may :ome to rather mere now, but that was about the size of the product a Few years ago. ,<Wiut do we do with itP We use it all up, * How do we get it? By trade. Before we can cipher that nut, we had better ask wbat this product consists of: 1st, food; 2nd, Fuel; 8rd, fibres; 4th, forest pro iucts; 5th, fish; Oth, fabrics; the six “F’s." ‘The food won’t do me uiy good if it is out West; the fuel if it is in Pennsylvania; the fibres if $hey are in the Sunth or out in Col orado on the sheep’s back; the for est products if they are in Michigan or Georgia; the fish if in the smacks* nor the fabrics if they are in the factories. Sow do they get oat and how do they get round? By trade. Panic stops trade; fools make the panics, generally speaking. • What kind of money do we want? The best kind, made of gold. What fools we should be Id use a poor kindir -- :: y^ ;: ~ • Mr. Porter says' there are shout sixty-three millions of ns, but I think there are about two millions more than his figures show; about sixty-five millions. How do we all get our living for a week? What do we do and what does it come to? We all need three to five pounds of food, solid and liquid, in a day. _ We couldn’t eat any more if we had it. We need some boards, shingles,. or slates over our heads, and none of ns can be in more than, one room at a time. We all want some clothes on onr backs, and we can only wear one complete suit of clothes at one time. As nearly a» 1 can make it out, we use np food, fuel, shelter, and clothing at the rate of about thirty five million dollars? worth every day in the year. About fifty-cents worth per head Now, in order that the grain may be put into bread; that the meat may be cot up and packed; that the fibres may be spnn and the clothes may be made; that the tim ber, brick, and stone may be work ed into houses; and in order that all the metals and fuels may be con verted over so as to be. nsefnl, al most everything that is produced may be moved about four *>"»««■ That' makes trade, panic stop* trade; fools make panfts, generally epeakiny, ^ Tbe grain most go to the eleva tor or the eorn crib; next to the mill; next, to the dealer; and last, to the baker; or to the housewife if she knows how to make bread. The fi bers mast be gathered and baled; next, they must be moved to the factory; next to the clothier; then to the dealer. So it is with the timber and the metalB and every thing else. Within a fraction- of ten tons, nr over nineteen thousand pounds of food, fuel, fibers, and far brics were moved a hundred and eleven miles over the .Always last year for every man, woman and child in this country! What was this all about? Just to give everybody something for breakfast, dinner and supffer. Half the work is done for that. Also to get a few boards over our heads and some clothes on our backs. All that a man in this world, gets ont of it, whether he is rich or poor, is his board and clothing. What else? If the price of a day’s living for Uncle Sam is about thirty-five mill ion dollars’ worth of stuff every day, and it all has to be dealt in about tour times, tnen each week-day s trade, leaving oat Sundays, comes to about one hundred, and fifty or one hundred and sixty million dol lars. That is about the size of it. Perhaps somebody else can make a closer measure; I can't. That trade must go on. It can't be wholly stopped, no matter what panics occur. If it stopped a week, hundreds would go hungry. If it stopped a month, thousands would | starve. A panic stops parts of it. Cheap money makes trade go slow ly. Fools make panics and bigger fools who want cheap money help them. What a fool a man is who wants a poor kind of money whed he can hare the best! What a fool a man |is who gets into a panic when there is no cause! There never can be a general cause for a panic, because more than ninety-nine people in ev ery hundred can pay their bills, mean to pay their bills and do pay their bills. It is not' worth one per cent a year to guarantee the whole regular rade of this country.'' It might be worth a great deal more to guarantee the stock-jobbers who gamble in slocks, but it is not worth one per cent., or one cent on each hundred dollars to guarantee the payment of all the bills, that Uncle Sum and his family ineur in a year! for food, elothesv and' shelter.In the wholesale trade it is not worth half that. Men that don1*- pay their bills, men that don't mean to pay their bills, and men who can’t pay their bills do not often get trusted more than once. When they are not trusted trade with them stops. They want cheap money. In one of Baccoccio's tales it is related that after Fair Tom had ceased to be able to lire.by his wits at others people's cost in one place, “he went down to the 'Land of Mendacity,’ where .they had nothing bat paper money”. He know that sraa the place for arogoe. Now if we can’t live without trade, trade will goon, aa we all mean to lire as long as we can; and if trade goes on men most pay their debts somehow. Therefore, when people talk about trade being dull they mean that there is a little bit of a check. When such a check or stop comes from a panic it is time to put the question:. "What cause* the fools to get tcared?" Somebody fails. Perhaps it is a bank. Then the fools get scared and think everybody is going to fail; but ninety-nine men out of one hundred can pay their bills. Perphaps a big firm like Baring Brothers & Co. fails. Why did they fail? Because they had been fools enough to put all their money into fixed investments'in Sooth America that other fools would not buy. Of course they came near failing; hut there were plenty of sound and strong banks and bankers and they stopped the panie in time. If everybody tried to get all the money that was due him at any one tirffts, of coarse nobody wo^ld get much; all would h w to wait-. There isn’t money enough tp go round all at once. If there were money enough to meet such a call as that in the time of a panic, there would be a great deal more money than any one could make use of at other times. ; When a bank fails, scmetimes a lot of the fools make a run on every other bank and that makes a panic. But the biggest fools of all are those who try to get money into use that is not worth as much after it is melted as it is iu the coin. When they try that those who are not fools hold on to their money and keep it, and that may make a panic. But the men who hold on to what they have in good .money and try to keep it are not the fools who make the.panic. It is the men who scare them who do . the mis chief. If such fools are to have their way, we may see the biggest panic that ever happened -in this country before theyget through. i Minis x near some one say: “That is pretty tall talk. What do you know about it? What business have you to speak in this way?” There was an old friend of mine who owned a big woolen-mill. He made the best goods that were made in his day. He let anybody that came to the mill go over it and try to find out how he did it. I asked him why he let them in. _ He said: “I always go with them. Any fool can teach me something." Now I said at the beginning that "thefools moke panics.’' If the men who are trying to make other people take a cheap dollar in the place of the best dollar that can be made ofgold, and who want to put sffon other people a dollar which will not beworth a dollar after it is melted, are not fools, then I may he a fool for trying to get up a panic on that question.' Whoever reads this article may answer the conun drum: "Who is the fool?". .The savings banks of Massachu setts have been in existence for sev enty-two years. In that period their depositrbsve amounted to a fraction less than sixteen hundred million dol lars, of which considerably more than three hundred million dollars now remain in their custody. Nearly every other man, woman, and child in the State of Massachusetts has a deposit averaging over three hun dred dollars each in these savings banks, Their officers are paid. Their expenses are less than in any other kind of business of the same importance and magnitude. The trustees who make investments are not paid. In this whole period, in dealing with this vast amount, the looses from bod investment, frauds or defalcations, have been less than one-seventh ofone per cent; less than fourteen cents on each htmdren dollars deposited. V The confidence of the depositors is maintained because they feel sure that when they want their money they Mil be paid in the best kind of money; tn money, that is to Say, in gold coin or in notes or bills for which they can get gold coin on de mand. This is but one example of many busts of a similar kind throughout the country. If the fools who think a.cheap silver dollar which may be worth after it is melt ed, seventy cents, eighty cents, ninety cents, or even sometimes a hundred cents in gold, .try to put "such a dollar off upon those who trust them—thus betraying their trust both to those who have saved something and to those whose wages should be paid in the best kind of money—the depositors in the sav ings banks and in all other banks wilt be the fools if they do nottry to save the best kind of money by drawing out their deposits, even though they do not want the money but would rather keep it where it is so long as it is safe. When that time comes fools Will have made a panic. Which is'the fool? V the mugwump is disgusted, Became David Goes fo the Senate But He Goes, All the Same, Though Not Until He Gets Ready—The The atres and the Plays the People Like Best Car. State** ilia £oN(fmark. New Lore, Jan. 28th 1891. The mugwumps are mucn dis gusted at the election of Gov. Hill to the United States Senate, and they are especially worried because he was elected by two votes instead of one. They did wish so hard that the vote of the confessed forger, Demorest, might elect him. For the benefit of those read era who do not already know the fact, I would say that Demorest is a Democratic legislator, who, to the astonishment and mortification of his constitu ents, has recently been arrested for the crime of forgery. Yet Demor est, though a sinner, is not a Re publican, but a Democrat, and therefore voted with his party for Gov. Hill, thereby making a major ity of two for the Governor on joint ballot of the upper and lower houses of the State Legislature. AQd now that the popular Puvid has been elected Senator, the mug wumps are urging him to give up speedily the office of Governor, which they always begrudged him, and just to loaf around and take things easy, until it is time to pack his grip-sack and go to Washington. But it is hardly likely that he will heed them. He has been Governor so long that he likes it and doesn't care-to stand and look "on with his hands behind his back while some body else runs the great big machine which he has made, Fot somebody else might break it. He will prob ably continue to pursue his guber natorial occupation for many moons yet, thus teasing the mugwumps as of yore. TALK or THK FOOTLIGHTS. Ton may go to a different thea tre every night in a month and yet not see all the theatres in New York city. The majority of the people who live here go to the theatre and of course the majority of the strang ers who come here from everywhere averaging in number 100,000 per day, it is said, go, even those of them who would not dare go at home for fear of being thought worldly and sinful. Therefore there are theatres galore in Gotham. And what sort of plays do the people like best? It seems to me that the. answer to that question might serve as a gauge by which to measure in some sort the morals not only of the New York, but (with an eye to the 100,000 stran gers) of the people of the whole country. It is commonly supposed that the most popular plays put on the boards of New York theatres am those in which ^there are a . great many, or at least one-or two yonng girls,- who dance certainly, and sing maybe, clad in hardly anything. And, indeed, such plays are popular —-not only when produced as varie ty shows before the toughs of the Bowery, but also when produced as grand opera before the “aristocra cy” of Fifth avenue. But they are not the most popular. To the hon or of the sturdy, honest men and women who are known as “respecta ble people” the most popular plays now in New York are those from which the aforesaid young girl is rigidly excluded. thb.sk imhehshly popular plats. QOneof these plays, “The Old Homestead,” has occupied the stage of the Academy of Music (the sec ond largest theatre in the city) for four consecutive seasons; another, “The Country Fair,” is in its third year, and another, “Blue Jeans” | which appeared sixteen weeks ago,1 bids fair to last as long as either of the others. They ,all deal with plain country people and their country ways—not such country people as we have in the South, hot gcubijr nor po wmie trasn, Dut down East Yankees and Hoosiers, prim dames, and awkward men fall of mother wit. They are admirably acted and the stage setting or “scenery” in each is exceedingly re alistic. In “The Old Homestead” a real ox cart loaded with hay and drawn by real live oxen rolls lum bering into a big barn on the stage. In “Blue Jeans” a geuine buzz saw screams its way through genuine planks, flinging the saw dust over the floor of the mill. But the most interesting scene is at the “Country Fair” where three race horses rush along before your eyes for half minute at top speed, their jockeys flying whip and spur with all their might. The horses are running upon tread mills and the treadmills themselves are pushed by machinery across the stage, iugeni-, ously, excitingly, so that a certain black colt who the audience hope will win does win and captures a prize of $3,000 which pays oft the mortgage on the farm of a certain fld maid whom everybody loves for her sterling good qualities. But pou don’t see the treadmill—only the lying horses, who doubtless honest y believe they are really running a race on a plank road. MCH MEN INTEREST US BUT WE AP PLAUD GOOD ONES. Despite the horse race (which by the way was run without the sanc tion of the good old maid) the mor al tone of this as well as of the others plays mentioned is most ex cellent and the people’s appreciation and-enjoyment thereof is very grat ifying to those who believe in the evolution of the soul of mankind. I once heard a man wh<T*thul lived in the West say that there . was no piety in America outside *~of the South. And indeed piety does seem rather rare not only in the West but in the North, too. The golden rule of the business world :North is, Qetallyou can, no matter how, and keep all you have. Every dollar is a chick and every man a hawk and each hawk is trying to catch a million chicks. How the feathers, fly 1 But is not the same greed of gain prevalent in the South as well as in the North, as far as cities are concerned? Doubtless Northern country people are as pious as their Southern rural brothers, though perhaps few Southern men will ad mit it. At any rate whether we as a nation are pious or not—and oth-, er nations say we-' are—admiration of wealth is an American character istic. A hundred years ago Talley rand observed it and wrote of it in his memoirs. He tells of a certain - farmer who expressed but a mild de sire to see Gen. Washington but earnestly longed to beheld the richest man in Philadelphia, one Bingham by name. Jay Gould of New York is a much greater object of curioe- , ity than any man of intellectual attainments ip the city or than the u mayor for example, and moat people would rather be an Astor or a .Van derbilt than strnd at the head .of any of the leered professions. And yet the stage heto, the stage favor ite, the actor who “brings down the house" is not a conspicuously rich man but a conspicuously good one. MODEL OF THE* AIR-SHIP COM PLETED. / ■ _ Plans for Aerial Navigation—The Trip to Europe to be Made a Matter of a Few Houre—Hitherto “nnttohmt Buoyancy Made Feasible by tba Use «i Cheap Aluminum—Electri city to Control the Meehanim. <»>«•*• DUpmUh, NO, «• Out IT. W. Iftinrtf A twenty-four foot model of the Pennington air-ship waa shipped from Mt. Carmel, III., to-day, and , will arrive in Chicago to-morrow. ■ As soon as arrangements caa be ' made this model will be put: upon exhibition in the exposition build ing on the lake front. A com mittee called upon the secretary of the exposition company to-day in regard to the use of the building for the tests, but no agreement was . arrived at. However, it is expected that all the necessary arrangements will be madeearly next week, when the trial will take place. It is the intention of the inventor to make several trips daily around the 'ex position building, after which tests will be made in the open sir. ■ine enthusiasts who own the ship are E J. Pennington and Rich ard Butler, and they have succeeded in interesting several capitalists in the scheme of building air-ships. A company known as the Mount Car mel Aeronautic Manufacturing Company, with a capital of $20,000, 000, has been incorporated, and none the incorporators have been allowed to take stock. A building eight hundred feet square is now in pro cess of erection at Mount Carmel, ind in this the work of manufactur ing the air-ships will be conducted. In addition to Pennington and Butler the incorporators are W. C. Dewey, of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Furniture Company; E. L. Cham berlain and James A. Pugh, wealthy manufacturers of Manchester, En gland and other men of money. All the men interested in this scheme are not theorists, but expect to make money in the venture. They possess the necessary capital, and Mr. Pennington says the test expe riment with a twenty-eight foot ship was a complete success. , *?. PEHNtNOTOjr S HOPES. Mr. Pennington is an earnest mftn of perhaps thirty-five years of age, who disclaims all illusions and only takes to theories that can be worked into facts. “We have assurances,” said he, “that we can get contracts for cafe*.. rying the'mails as soon os we show what the machine is capable of do ing. Already some railroad men. are fighting us, but we don't care for that. We’te got millions back; of us and don’t ask favors of any body. If this machine is not a suc cess, nobody is hurt except those who have put their money into it.’ ASAiraunnt makhpaotcub. W.C. Dewey, of Grand Rapida, Mich., a manufacturer, is «ven more enthusiastic than Mr. Penning ton. He has taken liberally of the stock. “It is really the simplest - and most practical matter in the ’ world,” he asserted, “and if success ful it will revolutionise the world even more then the railroad or tele- ~ graph has done. We are already in correspondence with the Postoffice Department, and have been assured t. [COSTISUKD out POUKH PAOX. j C ^