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The Financial Situation [excerpt]
A notable crisis in
the affairs of the nation has been passed since we last wrote, and
passed in a manner to afford special satisfaction as evidence of
the stability of our Government and of the substantial nature of
the term of industrial prosperity now in progress. President McKinley,
who had been shot Friday two weeks ago by a creature in the form
of a man, died last Saturday at 2·15 . .,
and was laid to rest at Canton on Thursday most affectionately and
universally mourned by a bereaved people; in the meantime his successor
to the office of President had quietly taken up the reins of authority,
continuing the existing Cabinet, so that affairs proceeded uninterruptedly
along the old lines with no change of policy. Except for the general
stoppage of business Saturday (the day of Mr. McKinley’s death)
and again on Thursday (the day of the funeral at Canton), the course
of industrial movements during the six business days under review
has been substantially undisturbed. The only acts remaining to close
the history of this horrible tragedy are the trial, sentence and
execution of the criminal, and some legislation which shall place
anarchists where they cannot longer plot and perpetrate such villainous
acts as that we have just experienced.
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What is responsible
for the existence of such a class of beings as Czolgosz represents
and what should be done with them are questions which are greatly
agitating the public mind. In various sections of the country, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific States, “yellow journalism” has been
urged as the instigator of the crime that has been enacted. A set
of resolutions adopted by the executive committee of the State Board
of Trade of Connecticut contained these words—that “yellow journalism
is directly chargeable with Mr. McKinley’s death.” The Merchants’
Club of San Francisco, the leading organization of business men
in that city, has taken hostile proceedings of a kind that indicate
a like intense feeling and similar views. Even in this city Ex-Mayor
Hewitt said in an address made at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce
Monday that the “perverse teachings of a reckless press” were the
cause of the prevalence of anarchistic principles—a declaration
which was apparently received with general favor.
All “perverse teachings” have a bad
influence from whatever source they come. But it seems to us that
the sort which led to the murder of President McKinley is of a kind
so far down in the scale of being as hardly to be accounted for
in that way. Is not the case exceptional, and is not the existence
of the class of men to whom the assassin belongs exceptional? In
what a thoroughly treacherous, cowardly, sneaking way this man walked
up with arm extended as if only intent on shaking the friendly hand
of the late President, but instead of that and under that cover
coolly shooting him down although having no grudge or feeling against
the person he shot. Mr. McKinley probably came as near to having
never harmed a man in his life as any individual has in the United
States; and the only motive for the act was that he had been elected
and happened for the time to hold the highest office under our form
of government; for that he was killed.
There must be much that is lacking
in the make-up of a man capable of such an act. The impulse could
not have come wholly or in large part from without. A total loss
of moral sense is plainly in evidence—an absolute reversal of right
and wrong. Milton makes his devil say, “Evil, be thou my good.”
Does not that fit the case precisely? The poet did not by any means
draw his facts alone from the Bible in creating his Satan; his inspiration
came largely from an intuitive knowledge of the nature of man and
its possibilities when at its lowest. In these latter days it seems
that a body of beings has been evolved, out of what conditions it
is needless to say, among whom even the semblance of what is known
as good is so far absent that they have bid farewell to hope, farewell
to fear, farewell to remorse, and by a strange metamorphism have
made evil their good. This being the situation, we obviously cannot
get relief from acts like that we are suffering from by purifying
or repressing “yellow journalism.” That is a laudable work. But
more is needed to meet the conditions presented. We have to deal
with a unique class of criminals without conscience, without remorse,
without any right principle, simply vicious and depraved. It is
desirable that these conditions should be clearly understood as
the nation is in search of a remedy, and the legislation to be effective
must be radical.
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It is a noteworthy fact
referred to above that neither the announcement that President McKinley
could not live nor his subsequent death have had any disturbing
effect on business affairs, notwithstanding two weeks ago to-day,
when the news came that he had been shot the previous day, there
was almost a panic on the Stock Exchange, and the other leading
markets suffered a material setback. Several changes in conditions
have caused this difference in influence. The suddenness of the
stroke and enormity of the original calamity were just suited to
unnerve the nation. No one was in the least prepared for any such
event; it should not cause surprise that it proved to be a staggering
blow. If the business situation had not been abnormally strong,
the result at that time might have been easily and widely disastrous.
The later developments were also a great disappointment, for the
hope of the recovery of Mr. McKinley had been daily strengthening;
but at the same time the public was in a measure prepared for the
worst. The improvement in the outlook of the money market was also
and of itself a favoring influence of great weight. During the past
week any borrower really needing money and having security to offer
could readily supply himself. Then, too, there was the settlement
of the steel strike, which helped to strengthen confidence.
But more important than all else was
the altered feeling with reference to the incoming Administration.
At first there was an undefined fear that the change meant a more
aggressive and less conservative policy. When the public had time
to think, it remembered that the new President had conducted himself
in every official position he had ever filled with more than usual
credit. Moreover, he has since President McKinley’s death put to
flight all fear by his wise and frank announcements and the decided
way in which he has carried them out. On taking the oath of office
he said: “It shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the
policy of President McKinley for the peace and prosperity of our
beloved country.” Immediately thereafter he requested the members
of the Cabinet to continue in office, and on Tuesday, the day [582][583]
of the obsequies at Washington, at a conference with the full Cabinet,
he repeated this request, and added that he desired the appointments
to stand in the same situation as if he had made them originally.
Besides these, he stated that his purpose would be “the use of conciliatory
methods of arbitration in all disputes with foreign nations so as
to avoid armed strife.” In brief, we may say that he has for the
time being by his actions and words put every fear as to our foreign
relations and our finances—the two particulars respecting which
sensitiveness had been felt—absolutely at rest.
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