The Price of Speculation: A 1885 Analysis of Market Volatility

We are often reminded in these times of the ‘power of the press.’ Does the press, by constant repetition of the accounts of the distress and the press, tend to bring about the present business depression? The financial circles are by many blamed for their 'panic.' It is not always easy to trace the distinct and prevailing causes, whether between capital and labor, or between the government and the people. The continued circulation of the East of all denominations of paper money, have all led to a common idea that the present depression in ordinary business and resources is mainly due to the world at large; but there are deeper seated causes which may apply respectably to our own country or parts of it. The disposition to speculate, which is manifested by many of our people both east and west, is one of the causes. The rush for the easier gains of stock in grain, oil and mines has not only inhibited the healthier labor of many a promising young man, but it has injured the popular estimate of business principles and standards. As a nation, we have grown so fast in numbers; the resources of our soil and mineral wealth have been so rapidly developed that we have had exaggerated ideas of our capacity for uninterrupted money-making. Energy and enterprise are too far afloat unless balanced by wisdom and judgment. If we are fast toward increased material prosperity, there must be occasional reaction in the direction of decline. Capitalists also fail, and, in part, from the lack of a high sense of their responsibilities in the use of moneyed power. A larger and more abiding sense of this responsibility is needed in all the relations of business and of private life. With it there would be less frequent disturbance in our commercial interest and individual confusion, and less complaint of the pressure of hard times, so long as the earth teems with its present beautiful harvest fields and latent wealth.