74 YEARS AGO

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3443, 15 March 1932, Page 6

74 YEARS AGO

A WORLD IN TURMOIL. PARALLEL WITH TO-DAY. Of interest to the present generation, which is now experiencing a crisis in its economic affairs, is a description of the state of the world 74 years ago, published in Harper's Weekly, New York, in 1857. "It is a gloomy moment in history," the article states. "Not for many years—not in the lifetime of most men who read this papier—has there been so much grave and deep apprehension, never has the future seemed so incalculable as at this time. In our own country there is universal commercial prostration and panic, and thousands of our poorest fellowcitizens are turned out against the approaching winter without employment and without the prospect of it. "In France the political cauldron seethes and bubbles with uncertainty, Russia hangs, as usual, like a cloud, dark and silent, upon the horizon of Europe, while all the energies, resources and influences of the British Empire are sorely tried, and are yet to be tried more sorely, in coping with the vast and deadly Indian insurrection, and with its disturbed relations in China.

"It is a solemn moment, and no man can feel an indifference (which, happily, 'no man pretends to feel) in the issue of events. Of our own troubles no man can see the end. They are, fortunately as yet, mainly commercial, and if we are to lose money, and by painful poverty to be taught wisdom the wisdom of honour, of faith, of sympathy and of charity—no man

need seriously to despair. And yet the very haste to be rich, which is, the occasion of this widespread calamity, has also tended to destroy the moral forces with which we are to resist and subdue the calamity." In quoting this article on a Christmas card to its customers an overseas firm points out that this description would fit with the utmost accuracy in the world situation to-day. Yet following this gloomy statement about a very gloomy state of affairs, the United States made the greatest progress in the history of the world. Timid souls were low in spirit 74 years ago when that article was written, but men of courage and commonsense were strong in their confidence that things would grow better. Only timid souls were fearful to-day of the future.