_Remedies for hard times._—The means of recovery from such a disaster are less easy to see than the causes. We know, in fact, that the world does recover confidence among enterprising men and confidence in the future, sometimes surprisingly soon. We can see some of the steps by which the burden of debt is diminished and hopes are revived. In the first place, some method of settlement out of the usual course is adopted. Most obvious is an agreement among banks to carry on the usual machinery of exchanges through checks, drafts and a clearing house without the use of currency. This is called suspension of payment. It holds the deposits steady while the transfer of ownership is easy. It saves the sacrifice of large credit to meet the panicky condition of small trade, and it checks the disposition to hoard money in out-of-the-way places. The actual failures are thus confined to those actually engaged in the wasted production or directly involved as creditors of such persons. The failures in 1873 were said to have been nine in each thousand business houses; those of 1893 were thirteen in a thousand. The actual failures among farmers are confined almost entirely to those who have been caught in the speculative spirit of investment in more land for the sake of increasing prices or have borrowed capital to be used in other speculation. A few only have wasted their substance in expensive homes and luxuries. If all forms of indebtedness could circulate freely, the final result in balancing debts with debts would be quite readily reached, and the actual losses would be found less than is generally supposed. An equal loss without distrust, if that were possible, would be met with new enterprise and extra energy instead of despondency.