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Show thing we have never since had. But the bank- ers wanted them retired and congress respond-' ing retired them so- swiftly that people had1 nothing to meet their engagements with and the panic followed. That there never should have been any panic was clear from the fact that the old fear of the greenback had passed away, its price Was steadily rising, but it drew no interest, tience the anxiety of the interest gatherers gath-erers to get it out of the way. They overworked the business and there came a sudden collapse. The same spirit was behind the business that a little later caused the country to ring with the cry for the demonetization of silver. There was not half as much cause for the panic of 'T.i as for that of '93; both were brought on by the same class of men: the first to make the people pay interest; the second to keep them paying interest for all time. It was the same spirit behind be-hind both, but the thieves who engineered the latter had the further intention not only to keep the people paying interest, but to add 50 per cent to the purchasing power of the interest thus collected. And their hearts have not in the last softened since. CAUSE OF THE 1873 PANIC. Mr. Conant in the current Century says: The panic of 1873 was the natural result of the destruction of capital by war, fire and unwise investment in-vestment which had been going on during the previous decade, and of the encouragement given to speculation by a fluctuating paper currency." cur-rency." That may be true, but we do not believe it. The currency was not flunctuating. but rather advancing steadily in value. The "sound money" sharps who had been mum during the war began to urge the calling in of greenbacks as a means to hasten the resumption of specie payments. At last the cry reached congress. The greenback was all the money the people had during the war, and despite their steady decline in price, those engaged in business were prosperous. prosper-ous. The greenback had the promise of redemption re-demption and supplied a medium of exchange, . aufljeient for the business of the country, some- |