THE SOURCE OF PROSPERITY. 223 



fallen spires. In 1866 the failures had nearly trebled 

 the number in 1865 ; in 1867 the number was more 

 than five times greater, being 2,780 against 530 in 

 1865. The percentage of failures in 1867 rose to the 

 extraordinary rate of 1 in every 74, a rate that was 

 not again reached until 1877. In 1872 there were 

 4,069 failures, and in 1873, the year of the panic, 

 there were 5,183, being 1,810 less than in 1861, at the 

 close of the great distress before the war, and 158 less 

 than the falling off in the next year, 1862, after the 

 people had been brought into general employment. 

 In the seven years preceding 1873 there had been 

 20,222 failures, and from 1865 to this time there has 

 been a nearly constant yearly augmentation. 



The storm really commenced in 1865, and the very 

 first incident which marked its beginning was the 

 sudden throwing of three millions of persons, in the 

 North alone, out of employment into idleness ; as the 

 first incident at the beginning of our prosperous period 

 was the bringing into employment of the great body 

 of the then unemployed. The throwing of these great 

 numbers out of employment was followed by there 

 being many "men wanting work who failed to find 

 it ; " by wages being reduced and demand for laborers 

 decreased ; by workers in iron, and steel, and brass, 

 and wood, and stone being as little in demand as 

 workers in cotton and wool. Mechanics now, when 

 they can get work, are fortunate to obtain from one 

 to one and a half dollars a day, in place of three to 

 six, as in the period of our general prosperity ; com- 

 mon field laborers are glad to get seventy-five cents 

 and one dollar, where formerly they received two and 



