South American republics, have not been free from its effects. All kinds of commercial activity bear witness to a universal languor. The railroads show diminished receipts over all the European Continent and in the British Islands. The foreign commerce of France has been declining for five years, during which time the valuation of imports has diminished by sixteen per cent, and that of exports by ten and a half per cent. A part of this decrease is, doubtless, due to the general depreciation of prices, so that the falling off in the quantity of goods handled is not actually so great as the figures would make it appear; but this depreciation in prices is another cause of serious concern to economists. England, also, is struggling against difficulties of a similar character. Italy, where the financial management in later years has been most excellent, has had to pay tribute, though in smaller proportionate amounts, to the general depression. Germany has met a check in the speedy race to wealth which it proudly thought it was making. In the United States the exports have fallen $200,000,000 since 1880. The Argentine Republic, also, is obliged to struggle against grave financial and commercial embarrassment.
We may consider, then, that all nations are afflicted with commercial depression. What are the causes of this universal debility? How long will it last? What remedy can we employ to restore commercial health in the shortest possible time? The opinions as to the origin of the crisis are widely different. Some persons see in it only one of the periodical shocks, one of the "growing pains" which seem to be the accompaniment and price of all progress, and which, coming on in the natural course of events, and having a kind of character of fatality, will disappear of themselves. And some of the people of this class believe they can already see the signs of convalescence. Another class of observers pretend that the present crisis is different from any that have preceded it, that its cause is not natural but artificial, and originated in the mistakes of governments, and that a simple, easily adopted measure of policy will cause its removal at once. These are the partisans of silver, or the bimetallists, as they call themselves. Some attribute the trouble to over-production. Men are producing more than they need. If we do not raise less wheat, make fewer clothes, build fewer houses, everybody will die of hunger, or cold, or want of shelter. This is not a new doctrine, self-contradictory as it is. Then come the protectionists. The mischief is on us because we do not protect enough. All countries are suffering because they buy too much and sell too little. We must protect more. When all the different lands shall have realized that mysterious ideal of selling much to one another without buying in their turn; when they shall, by means of customs duties, have annulled the diversities of productive forces that are derived from nature or from remote antecedents; when they shall have abolished the territorial division of labor among men—the fine days will come again, and prosperous years will
