492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



South American republics, have not been free from its effects. All 

 kinds of commercial activity bear witness to a universal languor. 

 The railroads show diminished receipts over all the European Conti- 

 nent and in the British Islands. The foreign commerce of France has 

 been declining for five years, during which time the valuation of imports 

 has diminished by sixteen per cent, and that of exports by ten and a 

 half per cent. A part of this decrease is, doubtless, due to the general 

 depreciation of prices, so that the falling off in the quantity of goods 

 handled is not actually so great as the figures would make it appear ; 

 but this depreciation in prices is another cause of serious concern to 

 economists. England, also, is struggling against difficulties of a simi- 

 lar character. Italy, where the financial management in later years 

 has been most excellent, has had to pay tribute, though in smaller 

 proportionate amounts, to the general depression. Germany has met 

 a check in the speedy race to wealth which it proudly thought it was 

 making. In the United States the exports have fallen $200,000,000 

 since 1880. The Argentine Republic, also, is obliged to struggle against 

 grave financial and commercial embarrassment. 



We may consider, then, that all nations are afflicted with commer- 

 cial depression. What are the causes of this universal debility? 

 How long will it last ? What remedy can we employ to restore com- 

 mercial health in the shortest possible time ? The opinions as to the 

 origin of the crisis are widely different. Some persons see in it only 

 one of the periodical shocks, one of the "growing pains" which seem 

 to be the accompaniment and price of all progress, and which, coming 

 on in the natural course of events, and having a kind of character of 

 fatality, will disappear of themselves. And some of the people of 

 this class believe they can already see the signs of convalescence. 

 Another class of observers pretend that the present crisis is different 

 from any that have preceded it, that its cause is not natural but arti- 

 ficial, and originated in the mistakes of governments, and that a sim- 

 ple, easily adopted measure of policy will cause its removal at once. 

 These are the partisans of silver, or the bimetallists, as they call 

 themselves. Some attribute the trouble to over-production. Men are 

 producing more than they need. If we do not raise less wheat, make 

 fewer clothes, build fewer houses, everybody will die of hunger, or 

 cold, or want of shelter. This is not a new doctrine, self-contradictory 

 as it is. Then come the protectionists. The mischief is on us because 

 we do not protect enough. All countries are suffering because they 

 buy too much and sell too little. We must protect more. When all 

 the different lands shall have realized that mysterious ideal of selling 

 much to one another without buying in their turn ; when they shall, 

 by means of customs duties, have annulled the diversities of pro- 

 ductive forces that are derived from nature or from remote antece- 

 dents ; when they shall have abolished the territorial division of labor 

 among men the fine days will come again, and prosperous years will 



