MONEY AND LABOR. 191 



Here we see that notwithstanding the constant 

 efforts that are being made to guard against mercan- 

 tile failures, by the restriction and limitation of cred- 

 its, and by the establishment of a vast and perfected 

 system of espionage, through numerous mercantile 

 agencies, that enables the patrons of those great 

 establishments to learn the business standing of every 

 considerable trader in the country, that the number 

 of failures reported each year unmistakably proves 

 that a chronic state of commercial demoralization ex- 

 ists that is most disheartening. No better evidence 

 is needed to conclusively show the rottenness of the 

 industrial system upon which all our trade is stand- 

 ing. And the foregoing table, in the clearest and 

 most forcible manner, also tells the story of the cause 

 and cure of the world's industrial distress. 



Commencing with 1857, a period of great industrial 

 idleness, we find broad columns of failures and liabili- 

 ties, which hold and increase until the people are 

 brought into general employment, when they suddenly 

 contract to less than one tenth of their former volume. 

 This remarkable shrinkage in failures continues until 

 the people are once more thrown into idleness, when 

 these columns again, and almost at once, began to as- 

 sume their former huge proportions. For thirteen 

 years they almost constantly grew broader and heavi- 

 er, as the idleness and destitution increased, till they 

 reached 10,478 failures, and liabilities to the amount 

 of $234,383,132 ; since which time the number of 

 failures have fluctuated between five and ten thou- 

 sand per annum. 



Making due allowance for the difficulty of obtain- 



