reached the boom feature, and the state
was on a sound financial basis. Fortunately we had not recovered
sufficiently to become investors in railroad securities to any great
extent, and land speculation had not reached its usual twenty years'
mark. We had, also, on hand a local affliction, in the presence of
grasshoppers, so that, although it disturbed business generally, it did
not succeed in producing bankruptcy, and we soon shook it off.

This periodical financial disturbance has been attributed to various
causes. From the regularity of its appearance, it must be the result of
some impelling force of a generally similar character. My opinion is,
that the period of twenty years being the average time of man's active
business life, the actors of the second period have not the benefit of
the experience gained by those of the previous one, and they repeat the
same errors that produced the former disasters; but be that as it may,
when the period extending from 1873 to 1893 had passed, the same result
had occurred, and with quite as much force as any of its predecessors.
Land speculation had reached the point of absolute insanity. Everybody
thought he could become rich if he only bought. Values, already
ridiculously expanded, continued to increase with every sale. Anyone who
had money enough to pay down a small amount as earnest and intelligence
enough to sign a note and mortgage for the balance of the purchase price
became purchasers to the limit of their credit. When a party whose
credit was questioned needed an indorser, he found many requiring the
same assistance who were ready to swap indorsements with him. Everyone
became deeply in debt. The country was flooded with paper, which was
secured on the impossibility of values continuing. The banks became
loaded with alleged securities, and when the bubble was strained to the
bursting point, and some one of supposed financial soundness was
compelled to succumb to the pressure, the veil was lifted, which opened
the eyes of the community and produced a rush for safety, which
induced, and was necessarily followed, by a general collapse. In 1888
and 1889 banks suspended, money disappeared, and in 1893, in the
expressive language of the West, everybody who was in debt, and all
stockholders and depositors in defunct banks "went broke." Had the
cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis been captured by an enemy and a
ransom of ten million dollars been demanded from each, paid and carried