THE ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES SINCE 1873. 297 



tarily out of employment in that year than in any previous year. Report for 

 April, 1887. 



The following extracts from published statements and opinions 

 are more general in their nature, but not less instructive : 



1876. Our country is now passing through a period of unusual depression, 

 both in its industries and its business. The present depressed condition of busi- 

 ness and of financial affairs exists over all countries having a high civilization. 

 Facts and Observations addressed to the Committee on Finance of the Mutual 

 Life- Insurance Company of New York, July, 1876. Printed for the Private 

 Convenience of the Trustees. 



1870. The inquiry has been sufficiently broad to enable them (the committee), 

 to point out with a considerable degree of accuracy the causes which have im- 

 mediately operated to produce the present depression in the commerce of the 

 country, and in some branches of its manufacturing and mining industries. 

 These causes are quite beyond legislative control in this country. Report of 

 Select Committee of the House of Commons, Dominion of Canada, 1876. 



1877. Hard times ! For four years this sober pass-word has gained in gravity 

 of import. For a time it was panic; but suppositions of speedy recovery have 

 given place to a conviction of underlying facts that these hard times are more 

 than a panic; that the existing depression of trade and dearth of employment 

 are not, in popular apprehension, exaggerated, but are the serious results of 

 causes more permanent in their nature than is generally considered. Bard 

 Times, oy Franklin W. Smith, Boston, 1877, James R. Osgood & Co. 



Congress of the United States, House of Eepkesentatives, June 17, 1878. 

 1S78. Mr. Thompson submitted the following resolution, which was agreed to : 

 Whereas, labor and the productive interests of the country are greatly 



depressed, and suffering severely from causes not yet fully understood, etc. : 



Therefore, 



Resolved, That a committee of seven members of this House be appointed, 



whose duty it shall be to inquire into and ascertain the causes of general business 



depression, etc., and report at the next session. 



1878. Commercial depression is the universal cry a commercial depression 

 probably unprecedented in duration in the annals of trade, except under the 

 disturbing action of prolonged war. . . . Ample evidence abounds on all sides 

 to show its extent and severity in England. Have other countries bowed their 

 heads in suffering under the commercial depression ? Let America be the first 

 to speak. In 1873 she experienced a shock of the most formidable kind. She 

 has not recovered from the shock at this very hour. Let us visit Germany 

 Germany the conqueror in a great war, and the exactor of an unheard-of in- 

 demnity. What do we find in that country ? Worse commercial weather at 

 this hour than in any other. Nowhere are louder complaints uttered of the 

 stagnation of trade. Austria and Hungary repeat the cry, but in a somewhat 

 lower voice. And so we come round to France, the people whose well-being 

 has been so visited with the most violent assaults. Her losses and sufferings 

 have surpassed those endured by any other nation. Yet the deep, heavy press- 

 ure of her commercial paralysis has weighed upon her the least oppressive of 

 all. Such a depression, spread over so many countries, inflicting such continu- 

 ous distress, and lasting for so long a period of time, the history of trade has 

 probably never before exhibited. Bonamt Pkice, Contemporary Review, 1878. 



