STABILITY OF AGRICULTURE. 9 



individual capacity, establish the limit of all minor corporation 

 indebtedness. 



Debt may not be regarded as a positive evil until it becomes 

 a burden ; and then, unless circumstances are fortuitous, it 

 will ultimately break down the party or the corporation 

 strugglino^ to carry it. 



In the United States, during a period of ten years, nominal 

 property, representing thousands of millions, printed in the 

 form of stock certificates, faded out of sight; and more than 

 five hundred millions of railroad bonds have foiled to pay the 

 interest on the debt they represent, and could be bought in 

 the open market at a fifth of their nominal cost. 



Looking back upon this shameful waste and prodigality, is 

 it a matter of wonder that business is dull ? Lookino- back 

 upon this speculation in oil wells that never were sunk ; 

 in copper mines that were never explored ; in railroads 

 that never were half built, or if built could secure no 

 legitimate business ; in towns and counties laid out on 

 expensive maps, but which had no inhabitants ; in western 

 school-house and court-house bonds, when neither school- 

 houses or court-houses were ever constructed ; in coal 

 mines that were never opened ; in silver mines that were 

 never found ; in inventions and patent rights which were 

 the products of an ill-balanced mind ; — it is a marvel that 

 when the shock came it did not produce complete revolution 

 and ruin. 



The explanation can only be found in the vast army of 

 farmers occupying their two hundred millions of acres of 

 improved land, and producing not only bread and meat 

 sufficient for home consumption, but a surplus to aid in 

 employing the merchantmen on the high seas, and to secure 

 an influx of foreign gold to aid in increasing the value of the 

 currency, and in the mechanics, artisans and miners whose 

 constant and steady industry created vast wealth to aid in 

 preventing an absolute depletion of the national treasury. 



The national government has set the first example for 

 reform. Cutting down salaries, and investigating with the 

 most rigid scrutiny every department ; at the same time 

 providing means for diminishing its debt. Had the national 

 government continued, as did the jDcople in their private and 



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