CRISIS, ECONOMIC

or KC NOMIC DEPRESSION, a period du to sup which the industrial and commer without system becomes sluggish and results keepers of financial pre ure on the populati applied This phenomena is peculiar to indust and countries, and may be said to b military characteristic of our present cha system of private industry. The cai (fi. have been a igned to various réas¢ chiefly to ‘over-production.’ Manu horse-hair turing establishments produce in gres skirts; quantities than is demanded by with steel consumers, and stores of goods accu 1856. late. Manufacturing then slackens,: the workers are thrown out of wi in ColoBeing deprived of their earnings, tk on the being of the bulk of the consum and the become still le able to acquire of 50 miles surplus, a ‘vicious circle’ being t It is the created. This further curtailment mining dis consumption brings about a_ furt of the check in other fields of manufactur in the and thus depre ion progre es, unt: mills, crisis is reached, usually resulting connected labor and social unrest, threate founded in revolution, etc. Eventually the surt he ae stocks are disposed of, sometimes at a material lo to the manufacturers, and the wheels of industry again begin to turn, bringing about an upward tendency in the situation. Some economists contend that these periods of depre ion are automatic a lly periodical, with from ten to twelve years between each crisis. In the United States they have occurred in 1814, 1818-19, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1884, 1889, 1903, 1907, 1914 and 192253. The depre ion of 1914 was interrupted by the oncoming of the World War, when the abnormal demands of European countries created an abnormal prosperity in_ this country during the war period. The depre ion of 1922 may therefore be said to have been caused by the deflation following the period of artificial prosperity.