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ARTICLE
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the great flood that inundated Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on May 31, 1889, killing 2,209 people.
Donald Dale Jackson, writing in the May 1989 issue of Smithsonian, describes the relief efforts:
At a time when federal disaster relief didnt exist, Johnstowns recovery was achieved through one of the greatest private charity campaign
ever mounted. The American Red Cross, only recently founded, won renown as a national disaster relief agency for its work in Johns-town
...
By . . . June 2, railroad crews had repaired the tracks connecting Johnstown to Pittsburgh, 55 miles west. By then the press and the initial
detachment of relief workers were in town, Americans were starting the read the first shrill dispatches from Johnstown and a cavalcade of
help was on the way . . . .
The exhaustive press coverage stimulated a rush of private benevolence that eventually threatened to overwhelm Flood City. Food,
clothing, medicine and other provisions began arriving immediately. Morticians cameJohnstowns first call for help requested coffins and
undertakers. Demolition expert Dynamite Bill Flinn and his 900-man crew cleared the wreckage at the stone bridge. At its peak the army
of relief workers totaled about 7,000. They carted off debris, distributed food, erected temporary housing and occasionally made a
heartening discoverya parrot named Bob was found alive in the wreck of one house, complaining that it had had a devil of a time.
On Speculators
Manias such as the Tulipmania, the South Sea Bubble, the Mississippi Bubble, the Gold Panic of 1866, the stock market crashes, and violen
swings in the value of the dollar are frequently cited as examples of occasions when speculators contributed to instability and imbalance. Bu
who could do the job better?
Selected government officials might want to see a different outcome. But their track record of setting prices is invariably one of famines,
endless shortages of what people want, and gluts of dull, low-quality products. The bureaucrats have little incentive to improve or innovate.
When speculators are wrong, however, they are punished severely for their mistakes by losses. Over time, the large speculators would tend
to be those who were most prescient in their calculations. Through competition, the energies and talents of numerous speculatorsall
inspired by their selfish desire to profitare channeled into the public good.
Victor Niederhoffe
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Price. The prices at which goods and services are exchanged are always above the bottom prices of the
sellers and below the top prices of the buyers. Economic law prevails.
Bettina Bien Greave
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August 1989
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VICTOR NIEDERHOFFER
Copyright 2013 Foundation for Economic Education. All Rights Reserved.
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