The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-23
The Encouraging Prospect of Business
Matters.

THERE has been a great deal of crodking about
business during the last few months, much
more, in our opinion, than the facts of the
case warranted In passing from the high
prices and immense expenditures of all kinds
incident to the late war, it was inevitable that
business should sustain more or less of
shock; but we contend that the actual derange-
ment, the losses and failures, have been less
than there was reason to anticipate. There
have been no general failures, there has been
no panic, no sudden and violent contraction of
values, but gradual and natural return from
the imitation of war towards the normal condi-
tion of trade in a time of peace.
Many persons say business is dull and times
are hard, simply because they contrast the
more quiet movements and the slower gains of
the present with the unnatural activity and
the inordinate profits of war times. The man
who made one hundred thousand dollars in
the year 1864 thinks times are very dull now
because he makes this year, perhaps, only
half that amount; when very probably in any
year before the pdr he would have been amply
content with such business as he is now
doing. The fact is, there was so much specu-
lation during the war, fortunes were made so
rapidly and easily, and business of all kinds
was transacted ON such an inflated scale, that
men have hardly yet regained their senses,
and find it extremely difficult and irksome to
return to the old order of things. Their dis
satisfaction finds vent in complaints about the
condition of trade.
In no year before the war do we believe that
the people of this country were so generally
out of debt as they are at the present time.
The profits of business during the war enabled
the most of the farmers to clear off their store
debts and old mortgages, and as a class they
are to-day in sound and solvent condition.
Moreover, during the war, the credit system
was very generally abandoned or greatly re-
strcted, and, fortunately, has not yet had
time to infct new crop of evils upon the
country.
The great industries of the country are in
comparatively prosperous condition. Manu-
facturers, of course, are not making such i'm
mense profits as they did during the war,
when everything had an upward tendency,
and their stock often doubled or trebled in
value on their hands. There is, too, some
embarrassment growing out of the unwise
efforts of operatives, in some instances, to
secure an advance of wages in opposition to
the general downward tendency of everything
else. But these are ephemeral things. They
will soon right themselves. On the other
hand, we read almost daily of the building of
manufacturing establishments on large scale
in various and widely separated parts of the
country.
Farming is being prosecuted more extern
sively than ever before. The scarcity OF labor
during the war stimulated to wonderful de-
gree the introduction and use of labor-saving
implements, so that we estimate the produc-
tive power of the farming population to be
much greater to-day than it ever was before
In this country. We shall be much sur
prised if this fact does not reveal itself in the
crops OF the present year. The present high
prices OF wheat are exceptional, and due to
very light crop last year. We find butter,
cheese, pork, and wool, however, much
cheaper than for several years past. Fair
crops this year, such as now seem probable,
VIII bring the cost of the great staples of life
back pretty we'll towards the old standard.
The political outlook, too, is much brighter
Ihere can be no doubt that the business of the
country has suffered severely from the tremen-
dous political agitation which the President
forced the country into by his foolish and
almost insane warfare upon Congress. The
prospect last summer, when he was STIGMA
uzing the highest and most important depart
ment OF the Government as ''so-caIed Con
gress, "a body hanging on the verge of the
Government, as it were;" and, tbrouob bis
Secretary of State, was asking the naorle
whether they preferred "Andrew Johnson a.
President or as King was not such 40 con
duced to business activity Nobodv lznou
where such consummate folly might lead 70
Visions of a coup dftqt, and of general braa,,
up, loomed before the timid eyes of eanital
Nor did the fierce contests of the earlier mar
of the late sessions of Congress between tina
body and the President serve to improv
matters much.
The final triumph, however, of that mo:
wise and conciliatory measure of sound state
manship, the Congressional plan of recor
structiOn, with the Presidents submissio
thereto, has changed the aspect of affairs vo,
derfully. The long and dangerous conAi,
between the Executive and the Laoislot;r
Departments of the Government has 6nou
been settled upon a proper basis, and N
Presidents execution Of the Reconstrnct;o