THE INFLOW OF GOLD 245 



per cent. Looking back the student may ask, was not the 

 shadow of the civil war a contributing cause? It is certain 

 that all branches of business were prostrated and that the 

 distress was wide and intense. The banks suspended, but 

 the government kept on paying coin, \\niile paralysis fell 

 upon enterprise, the country was not exhausted as in the 

 panic of 1837. Industry and commerce had been rushing 

 on too fast, and the brakes worked suddenly with a severe 

 shock. To-day the contrasts with that period are many 

 more than the parallels. No sectional strife disturbs the na- 

 tional serenity. Our huge railroad system binds all states 

 together, and connects ocean with ocean and the gulf with 

 the great lakes. Our industries are more varied and so have 

 a broader base. Enterprise takes more extensive range. 

 They cannot be so easily toppled over. From 1890 to 1900 

 the annual product of our manufactures grew from $9,372,- 

 437,283 to $13,039,279,566. Our imports of merchandise 

 ran up from $789,310,409 to $849,941,184, and our exports 

 from $857,828,684 to $1,394,483,082. We are 82,000,000, 

 with so many electric brains and hearts beating to many 

 rhythms and with chameleon desires. To such, general and 

 sudden change does not come so readily as to a smaller popu- 

 lation with simpler methods and with narrower experience. 

 The magnitude and variety of our interests present increas- 

 ing power of resistance to perils and to follies. The severest 

 cyclone can not cover a continent, but has a short and narrow 

 path. 



Our currency rests absolutely solid on its rock bottom 

 of gold. Some ghost seeing IMacbeth may discern weird sisters 

 on the blasted heath, casting their incantations together, with 

 the refrain : 



'' Double, double, toil and trouble, 

 Fire burn and cauldron bubble.' ' 



He may dread the rush of United States notes for re- 

 demption, may suspect that some secretary of the treasury 

 will use silver for official payments, may tremble at the hazard 

 of wild legislation. He forgets that $260,000,000 of the United 

 States notes are of denominations of $10 and below. How 

 can they be gathered in any large volume? The silver dollars 



