356 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



crops of the country can not be moved at remunerative prices. 

 Witness the corn burned for fuel in Iowa, and the pork sold in Illi 

 nois for three and three and one-half cents per pound. 



The industrial classes have recently 

 discovered the injustice of this proced 

 ure, and will no longer pay rates on these 

 fraudulent investments. They have 

 come to their &quot; bottom dollar,&quot; and are 

 led to inquire what has become of the 

 price of all their toil. They have dis 

 covered that they are now, and have 



At Three Cents a Pound. , _ . , 



been for years, paying rates on the 



railroads alone of near $800,000,000 above their real cost, and still 

 a larger sum more than they ought to have cost. This being so, who 

 will be surprised at the statement that these frauds cover billions 

 of dollars, held for private gain at the expense of the industries of 

 the country ? The labor of this country can and will pay these rates 

 no longer. They now call on all the powers of government to protect 

 them from the injustice thus put upon them. 



The result is what the bankers and public journals call &quot; a want, 

 great want, of confidence.&quot; Confidence in what ? Simply this : That 

 the producers of this country will be stupid enough to go on paying 

 ten or fifteen per cent, on fraudulent certificates and bonds in which 

 there was never one dollar invested. &quot; Only this, and nothing more.&quot; 

 This is a big confidence game, but it won t win any longer. The 

 result is, that capitalists will no longer invest in these &quot;bogus&quot; 

 securities, arid the banks that have advanced largely on them will 

 be compelled to break. This is just as it should be. There is no 

 way out of the difficulty but to wholly purge our stock market and 

 finance of every dollar of these false stocks, or to reduce the aggregate 

 value of the real and false by the amount of the false. This implies 

 the breaking of many banks, brokers, and dealers, as well as many 

 innocent laboring men, but it can not be avoided. To continue the 

 present state of things, is only to defer the inevitable retribution, and 

 make it worse when it does come. It is this state of affairs which 

 has swept Jay Cooke & Co. from the boards, and shaken to its founda 

 tion nearly every bank in the country. We may well fear that the 

 worst of the crisis has not yet passed. The struggles of the financial 

 cormorants that have amassed millions through these frauds will be 



