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 ^