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Show DEPRESSIONS. It has not been so many years ago that business busi-ness depressions" or financial stringency were considered con-sidered to be a direct result of victory or defeat of a political party. The notion is very widespread even today. There can be no doubt that radical changes in governmental policies carry with them the need of certain readjustments to changed conditions, con-ditions, but the most ardent political haranguer has never attempted to explain why business depression de-pression in the United States caused by ''tariff tinkering" or by a change in the political control of the government should be accompanied by similar sim-ilar trade depressions in other countries which are supposed to benefit by the loss sustained by America. Amer-ica. How an American tariff system could injuriously inju-riously affect American institutions to the benefit of English or German manufacturers, as certain political economists (or probably they should lie called political partisans) contend, and yet be followed fol-lowed by financial disaster in the benefited countries, coun-tries, as well as in the United States, is a question ques-tion too abstruse for the politicians to explain. That, such is the fact leads one seeking the truth to believe that the cause for business depression lies deeper than the rate of import and export duty levied by the American congress. Business depression is a subject which can not be separated from business activity. If the American Amer-ican nation is prosperous, there is a similar wave of prosperity in other countries ihe prosperity of one depending very largely upon the prosperity of all the others. And by the same token, financial stringency in one nation is accompanied by financial finan-cial stringency in the others. Money is the life-blood life-blood of business. In every country on the globe there has been a season of marked activity; development devel-opment of natural resources and manufacturing has gone on uninterruptedly for several, years. The conditions seemed to require more and more of the lifcblood of commerce and trade, while working capital failed to keep pace with the requirements. When the strain upon the money resources of the world became too great, doubt arose as to the ability of the pacemakers to nuV't their obligations, confidence was shaken, money was withdrawn and tied up. and the crisis was upon us. As an evidence evi-dence to the fact that the crisis was not local or national, but international well-nigh universal the discussion of the situation by the president of the Imperial Bank of Germany before the German lawmakers is pertinent. He pointed out that the return of prosperity to the German nation depended depend-ed not upon any action of the reichstag, but on ihe general adoption by all of a policy of retrenchment and moderation. He was speaking of the German people when he urged this theory of economy. The doctrine is sound as 1o America, too. It was further fur-ther urged by the president of the Imperial bank that all expenditures which were not absolutely nec- n I III ITTP'll IIKIII.I. . U,.m, essary should be postponed "until the people have had time to accumulate more capital." America, the most prodigal of nations, has been busy developing her resources, embarking upon new and some doubtful enterprises. The people have exhausted their supply of money, mortgaged the future, and are now paying the penalty. Public debts of nation, state and municipality have grown to proportions which future generations must pay or repudiate. Manipulation of stock water has swept away .the accumulations of thousands of people, ami hundreds of millions of dollars have gravitated to speculative markets, where investment invest-ment in inflated values has taken from legitimate industry the lifeblood which keeps things moving. Prosperity depends not so much upon the result of the election this fall, nor upon any tariff or other oth-er policy of the great political parties, as upon the employment of economy by the individual and an insistent demand for economy in public expenditures. expendi-tures. The great principle of prosperity is to spend less than your income, and this principle is universal. It is this principle which makes the individual in-dividual independent, the municipality strong and the nation powerful. Put aside, and the wisdom of the wisest legislator can point no way to the restoration resto-ration of the prosperity we have lost. |