The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-15 00:00:00

GOOD TIMES IN THE UNITED
STATES.

The Correspondent of The Times, writing from Phila-
delphia, gives the following glowing account of the revival
of trade in America :

The evidences of revived industry in the United
States multiply, and the universal belief is that we
have entered upon a period of unexampled prosperity.
Every manufacturing and transportation interest
seems to be pushed to the utmost capacity, and the
demand for goods is enormous. The stock markets
continue scenes of wild speculation, with everybody a
"bull." The transactions are immense and prices
steadily advance. All interests are similarly affected,
and the shipping trade, so long depressed, feels the
stimulus of the revival, vessels being scarce and the
freights advancing, The San Francisco market has wit.
nessed in the past few weeks a most extraordinary rise in
freights to Europe, a scarcity of tonnage combining
with the demand for wheat for export to produce it.
The Reading Railroad, confident that all tie coals
that are raised can be easily marketed, has advanced
prices and tolls for November 1, and will give five per
cent. increased wages to its vast army of emplokes,
this being about equal to half the advance; while
another advance in coal prices is contem-
plated for November 15. I never knew of so re-
markable a state of affairs. It seems as if there
is not enough grown, or mined, or manufac-
tured in the country to supply the demand, and
that the railways and waterlines have not anything
like the ability to carry all the goods that are offered
for transportation. Rivalries seerc suddenly over-
whelmed by the great wave of prosperity, while
" combinations " and "cut rates" have been swept
away by the deluge of goods that has swamped the
transportation lines. It is natural to find that in such
a state of affairs prices of all kinds are tending up-
ward and that a strong spirit of speculation is develop-
ing in almost every branch of trade.
-

;There is no better evidence of the present condition
of business in the United States than the sight pre.
sented by the magnificent highway between the west
and the seaboard, the Pennsylvania Railroad. This
great line as it proceeds westward spreads out like a
fan. It has Atlantic coast terminal points at
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washing-
ton and between these and the Missiseippi and the
Lakes covers the land with a broad network of
railroads. It drains the produce of a dozen great
States, spreading its branches to Oswego, Buffalo,
Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago on the Lakes;
St. Louie, Quincy, Cairo, Rock Island, and other
towns on the Mississippi; Columbus, Indianapolis,
and a hundred cities on the broad prairies between
Pennsylvania and Missouri; Pittsburg, Stauberville,
Wheeling, Cincinnati, and Lousville on the Ohio; and
to other places further south and west. The myriads
of its widely extending arms both east and west pour
their tribute into its main line running some 450 miles
from New York to Pittsburg, a highway of travel
conceded to be the finest in the country, and which
under the genius of Thomas A. Scott has been made
the best constructed and most efficiently worked rail-
way of the United States. Upon this line is now being
poured a flood of transportation such as it never saw
before. It has every locomotive and car of its
enormous equipment in use, and the station agents,
overwhelmed with goods, are clemoroue for the
facilities to move them. Its stores are stuffed with
produce that accumulates faster than the trains can
carry it away, The manager is at his wits'•end to
provioe rolling stock, although its shops are turning
out new engines and cars by the hundreds. At the
western termini millions of bushels of corn and
thousands of bales of cotton, with acres of cattle, hogs,
sheep, and horees, await a chance to be carried east;
while almost limitless quantities of coals and petro-
leum are also pressing for shipment. This great line
tells the story of our reviving prosperity and also
shows what is going on to a greater or leas degree
on all our railways.
Last week I took a btief journey westward and back
over the Pennsylvania Railroad, going as far as Cin-
cinnati, about 700 miles from the seaboard. The
journey showed what was going on, for it took me
through the coalmining and manufacturing regions of
Pennsylvania and Ohio. All the mines were pouring
out their black diamonds and all the factories were at
work. At Johnstown and Pittsburg, great centres of
the iron trade, there were no "dead chimneys," but
all poured out their sheets of flame and clouds of smoke.
Pittsburg rivalled eeything seen in your "black
country" in its best days, giving, as the cense clouds
and streaks of flame filled up the valley in which it
stands, probably the best idea an anticipating
American can get of the infernal regions. Every
furnace and forge and hammer and roll was working
at full capacity, goiog day and night, with relays of
men to keep the work moving continuously. The
town wee full of life and bustle, while miles of the
rivers were covered with loaded coal-barges and their
attenderst towbeats, awaiting a highei stage of
water on the Ohio so that they could go down
and supply the people living on the shores below.
About 16,000,00 tons of coals thus awaited ship-
ment. The Pennsylvania Railroad between Phila-
delphia and Pittsburg was a succession of goods
trains, going both ways, and pushed along as
rapidly as the safety of the traffic admitted. The
columns moved in steady and swift procession,