The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-06-27
s. Css.kers.

! eW&1A ". Ceeakerss
Oar eastsfn cod nporaries have been fol
some tine sagsgsd in manufacturing to o.
der IN sezpscted crash'' that is to overthrov
~ order Of business, Ia 1885. Ever,
means have been resorted to in order 10 dis
parags the West, in the hopes Of thereb,
preventing emigration from the East. Oul
Eastern neighbors are getting jealous Of vi
of the West--it grieves them to see the mus
Gle, and bone and sinew, and capita, de
part from amongst them, to enrich the field,
and cities Of the illimitable ssGreat Vest
This state of things has excited the ire Of oul
older brothers, and they vent their spleen, OF
every occasion, upon Western institutions
generally and Unfortunately. Because oul
growth has been rapid, and unparalleled
they come to the conclusion, that it is not .
healthy and permanent one, and therehp-
on predict s.crisis' Of the most disastrou.
character. To such croakers we would re.
commend careful and unbiased perusal Of
the following facts, taken from st. Louis
Contemporary. They have general signif.
canoe and application. It is the most cor.
rect and able exposition of the actual state
of things here in the West, that has fallen
under our observation, and, we think, ought
to satisfy the most incorrigible croaker,
| that the ssWesto is in state of permanent
prosperity, and not on the high road ia
ruin.
Financial and Commercial.
Money continues in fair supply at the
rates last quoted by us. These rates may
seem high, but they do not show pressure
on those who use money SO much as the fact
that it can be proftably employed here, at
those rates, in the thousand openings for
business and speculation that presents them
selves in rapid growing city. Apprehen-
West, which will stagnate business and bring
down the price of real estate, have been
freely expressed in some of the Eastern
newspapers. But the fears of such ca
tastrophe, and all attempts to produce it,
are, we think, alike idle. The notion that
prices are inflated, Is INDUCED in chiefly by
those who, remembering the state Of things
in 1919 and 1886, imagine that the present
time is like those. But their reasonings
proceed on false analogies. The interval
Of TING which separates the, periods is not
half ~ wide apart as the character of the
two.g, Then there Uds imitation. People
over-traded and oyer-lived. They imported
more than they exported; actually Tin 1850
shipping cargoes of wheat from Liverpool
to United States port, (Baltimore) which
was then in the heart Of the granary of the
United States they ran extensively into
debt, anu for actual payment merely prom
ised to pay, with comparatively little means
Of payment. Issues of paper money enor-
mously disproportioned to the quantity Of
specie in the country, gave fictitious value
to land and its products, as also to mer-
chandise. For SO much Of the last as we
imported from abroad, we were paving
either in gold and silver at paper prices, or
in public bonds, some of which were repu-
dated, and in private bills, not a few Of
which were finally dishonered The moment
that the currency was withdrawn, Us it was
by bank curtailments and suspension, these
values had no longer their delusive repre-
sentative to sustain them. Debtors who
had contracted debts at paper valuation
were obliged to pay them in specie one.
In many cases they were unable to do it.
The property they owned, estimated by the
one standard, would have paid their debts.
Estimated by the other, its sale left them
utterly bankrupt. For it was found BY the
standard to be deprecated in value from
one-haif to three-quarters, and even more,
where its prospective value, and not any
immediate use Of which it was available,
was the chief motive to the purchase of it.
Such were some of the characteristics of
for meryears "years of bloat." But they
are not the features of the present times.
In 1886, it is true, there was great deal
OF capital and emigration from the East
which took westwardly direction. But
there is great deal more of both now than
there was then. To this must be added the
enormous emigration from Europe, which
had hardly then begun to set in-an emigra-
tion now again rapidly increasing, which
has brought and will bring both money in
large amounts and millions of able and in
dustrious hands. Then, the West was
vast expanse of wild land, only here and
there showing signs of settlement and i'm
provement. The land was then enormous
ly in excess of the money which could be
applied to its purchase 1t is not so now.
Then it was bought chiefly on speculation
without a reasonable prospect of any effec-
tive demand for 1t from actual settlers
How different is the case now! Pesons who
read the Reports of the Commissioner of
the General Land Office and see what vast
areas he sets down as still belonging to the
United States government may naturally
conclude that land must be drug for many
generations. But such conclusion would
be in ignorance Of the fact that much the
larger part of this vast domain is almost
worthless for cultivation. 1t is not too much
to say, that twenty years hence, under the
present system of sales, the government
will have left scarcely section of land
which farmer would pay money for.
Our paper currency does not now show
any signs OF imitation. But prices rest on a
solid specie basis. A mark to indicate
whether the paper currency at given mo-
ment is or is not inflated has been pointed
out by the New York Economist. By
comparison year by year, since 1922, of
the aggregate of Imports and Exports with
the aggregate Of loans for that period of 60
days, that journal arrives at the result that
this aggregate Is In healthy years, about
the same as the aggregate Of loans for that
period. In 1887, the imports and exports
were $25S, 0O0, 900 agaisnt an outstanding
bank loan of $525 100000. In 1857, we
havea commercial movement of $7S0,UOO,-
900 against a bank movement Of $72S. OOO,-
900. Wenow know that 1887 was period
of great imitation. In that year the amount
of loans doubled the amount of shipments.
In 1861, the shipments are about I per.
cent. in ercess of the loans.
There is some extravaganza in living now,
hut not so much, we believe, as there was
ia 1886. Men and women lived then very
fast. and were plunged thereby into embar-
easements from which they had not the
same prospects of relief they have now from
similar troubles. Credit is not so easy to
be obtained now, either by retail or whole
sale, rs it was then, and the facilities for
running in debt are less now than they were
then.
The West cannot be said to have overtra-
ded. There is complaint that the orders
from the West on merchants at the East
have fallen off. The June statement of the
New York Merchants Magazine is that ssthe
Western trade has been smaller than for
several years." 1t is the want of demand.
as well as large supply, that has glutted the