90 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



for instance ; the agricultural, must always necessarily remain 

 scattered broad-cast over the continent. The power of a 

 corporation is represented by its money; that of the mer 

 chant by his goods and wares ; that of the manufacturer by 

 his fabrics ; that of the farmer by his lands and their prod 

 ucts. His monetary power lies in his crops. A single 

 farmer s crop is of but little value to the commerce of the 

 world, or of that of a nation. Aggregated, the agriculturists 

 represent a power which all others may not equal. 



Yet, in spite of this, as matters now are, the financier and 

 gambler in stocks and bonds hold not only the farmer, but 

 the entire industries of a nation as in the hollow of their 

 hands. Should the farmers of a country withhold for a single 

 season the produce of their labors, manufactures, trade, 

 commerce, and every other industry would languish and lie 

 prone in the dust. A wail would go up such as has not 

 been heard since the seven lean seasons of Egypt. 



The gold gamblers, the stock jobbers, the dealers in ficti 

 tious and watered stocks, however, have gone on from year to 

 year &quot; bulling &quot; and &quot;bearing&quot; stocks, absorbing every 

 dollar of successive inflations of the currency, buying and 

 burying every coined eagle of the mint ; tempting, subsidiz 

 ing, purchasing, our legislatures, statesmen, and even the 

 executive officers of the government, until the nation itself 

 stands appalled at the enormity of the iniquity. The excite 

 ment dies away and is forgotten, for, when so many are cor 

 rupt, each is willing to cover his neighbor as with a mantle. 



HOW PANICS ARE GENERATED. 



The financier hurls masses of money against the stock of 

 some particular corporation as an objective point ; values are 

 inflated; stock gamblers become wild; they buy and sell, 



