New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-22

dearly, the question now presses intensely upon sill
Shall we profit by its lessons or blindly and
heedlessly repeat the errors which melted it Shall
the burn, child realize and respect the truth that
FIRE will burn or shall he proceed to thrust his
fingers afresh into the glowing embers "a careessiy
as if they had never scorched him. Shall expert
ence teach us or shall all the commercial reverses
and disasters Of 1867 have been suffered absolutely
in vain
The business Of new year is just beginning.
The plans and engagements which will largely con-
troll il are now in process Of formation. The best
intentions and resolves will not, indeed, insure
line of conduct in perfect consistency herewith;
but il is very certain that we shall not. as COM
| munity, do better than We intend. On what prn-
ciples, then, we urgently AK, 10 the American
Trade OF 1863 to be conducted? by what rules is
it to be governed
1t must be steadily borne in mind that, though
the fret fury of the commercial tornado is spent,
ts disastrous effects have by no means been fully
realized and proclaimed. There are still thou
sands who hold their heads quite high, including
many who even esteem themselves wealthy and
prosperous, who are nevertheless this hour in
solvent, and must soon be proclaimed 80. The
country is fairly covered with the wrecks Of the
great hurricane, some Of which are covered by
other wrecks or otherwise shrouded from observa-
ton Many an honorable merchant supposes him.
self solvent and forehanded on the strength of bills
receivable, which will neither be paid at maturity
nor ever. There are thousands Of mortgages in ex-
stence and supposed by their holders to be worth
their face, which will never command the half of
it. To say nothing of the Railroad Stocks and
Bonds which arc not worth the paper they spoil,
the amount of variegated but all worthless promises
to pay wherewith the whole land is plastered, is
enough to put the entire gold product of California
TO open shame.
We know how general ia the belief that the in
terror ia full of unrealized wealth, in the shape of
Grain in the stack or the shock, only awaiting the
oppOrtune moment to rush to the seaboard and
extinguish all outstanding mercantile indebtedness.
" Oh, The farmers are ricb," is alleged on every
side, "snd, when they sell their crops, all will be
made right" No calculation was ever more falla-
cous. A good nany-perhsps mOst-farmers will
be able to pay their own debts when they shall
have marketed their crops; but this will fall far
the interior 1t remains to be- proved that the
owners of the surplus Grain and the debtors to the
country merchants are the same, aud not two very
different classes. There are townships, and even
counties, which possess the wherewith to pay all
their mercantile indebtedness; but those who owe
the debt do not happen to own the means which
undoubtedly exist for paying it.
Let Ills state few facts. In hourishing young
city of Wisconsin, three mercantile firms, all re-
spectacle and hitherto in good credit, were recently
constrained TO make assignments. One of them
owed thrty.fye thousand dollars, and showed
bill. receivable good and bad to the amount Of
ten Thousands another owed something over twenty
thousand and set forth bills receivable Gall sorts) to
the amount of dgh thousand. Each of course had
some goods on hand-nOt many, for they had pur-
chased little since last Spring--nOt to speak of
"Real Estate" which they valued at ten thousand,
and which might possibly be sold for two thousand.
1t can hardly DO necessary to add that the farmers
may Iquidate every hrthing that is due these con-
cerns and yet they cannot pay fifty cents on the
dollar. There are a good many such mercantile
concerns, and they are by no means confined to
the West
The vital truth is, there are (or recently were)
four times as many persons engaged in Trade rs
there should be, and the main melting cause of this
burdcnsOme instruction of effort is the fatal fac
ity whcrewith goods have been bought on credit
Almost any youth, sitter serving as clerk for year
or two, could gather in q score Of cOmmendstory
letters on the strength of which he could buy sew
eral thousand dollars worth of goods in any of the
great .esboard cities. Thus launched upon the sea
of Trade, without capital capacity or adequate ex
perience, but with the means of gratifying every
appetite and whm so easily acquired, what wonder
if he launched into prOdigal expenditures married
and furnished a house, bought store, dipped into
land speculation and subscribed generously to the
railroad fondly expected 90 make city of his vii
lage-psying all from the proceeds of the goods oil
but thrust upon him? Of course, the goods them
selves he cannot pay for; but he can rail at the
"panc" and denounce those who are destroying
1.-the credit of the country" as heartily as the
loudest.
The country does not need One-fourth the amount
of Dry Goods in 1853 that were sent into il in 1856
or Z, and will be every way richer and more pros
porous if they should neither be imported nor dis.
tributcd. No retailer who owes one farthing for
past purchases should obtain another dollars worth
on credit; and those who are out of debt can do
nothing else so wise ss to keep out. If jobbers in
st. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Dubuque and other
Western cities, see fit to give credit of sixty or
ninety DAYS to the retailers of the surrounding
country, In eiug them intimately and having them
constantly in view, that may be toerably safe
operation; but as between the retailers and their
custon.rs ,bors IA I'm, ono sound policy--that of