The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-06-28
THE BUSINESS sIrUATIoN.
Financial RECORD for the Months o
May Rnu June.
EA.n,,, thn IlhiLnrI.Lnhfn L.erfner

Financial RECORD Tor the montns OF
May ana June.
FSOm me Philadelphia LEDGER.
The month of May closed amid a gem
eral depression ofaIl business, and so
far in the present month of June there
has been no actual Improvement.
Some of the more sanguine are found
ing hopes OF a favorable change on the
present prospects ofthe growing crops.
While this is very we'll, and may turn
out as hoped and predicted, the time
Intervening until the growing crops
are housed lis SO long as TO render pres
ent hopes in this respect very uucer-
tain. The future Is not sufficiently es-
tablished as to induce any general re-
lance on the promise-at least, any
such confident reliance as Will encour-
age ventures in enterprises looking to
the future for reward. Business men
must therefore accept the situation, and
resist further depression by husband
ing closely in the present and laboring
diligently in the future. This is the
only reliable mode OF cultivatiDg that
confidence from which can spring active
business. AT no time in the last twenty
five years was trade OF every descriP-
tion SO generally suspended as 1t has
been for the last few months, and
never before, unless provoked by
financial crisis. The prostration of bu-
siness and the breaking down of every
species of enterprise that followed the
initiation of the currency in 1887 Is the
only instance in the past which paral-
lels the present stagnation. But then
there was manifest cause. Banks all
over the country, suffering severe loss
through the bankruptcy of merchants
and manufacturers, went Into suspen-
sion, some of them never to recover;
credit was destroyed, and all produc'
ton for future consumption was sus-
pended. There was "A general pause in
Industrial avocations, and the whole
country sat inertly down to use up the
little stock in hand. Ofcourse, descend
ing from the prohigacy and extraya-
gance that were the natural conse-
quence of cheap currency, the years
succeeding 1887 to 1S4l-2 witnessed
deal OF suffering and loss, before the
truth was realized that the currency
and the business of the country were
at the lowest, point at which 1t would be
safe to venture on enterprises, with the
probability that each succeeding week
and month would show higher
prices. This time eventually came,
and with it enterprise and active in
dustry in every pursuit all over tue
country. By 1915. the agricultural in
terest had responded SO bountifully to
the einVigorating touch of the husband
man that we gratuitously sent ship
loads of breadstutfs to the starving OF
Europe, and before that year had extH
pired, the merchant was again rolling
In affiuence, and the manufacturer bad
SO often turned his annual profits into
extension of his works, that protection
against foreign competition, was
thought to be no longer necessary.
Everything was then on the topmost
round orprosperity. But, unfortunate
perity-R currency that was steadily
cheapening-insiduou lurked be-
meath, and soon told in that demoral-
iZing desire, an universal haste TO be
rich. Then came another slight revnl-
sion and some failures on large indi-
like the breakdown OF 1887. Cheap
currency and high prices, how
ever, : preceded both the crisis
of 1887 and lS4T, as they did ten years
later, in 1857. We are now at the end
OF another decade, with a currency
more debased, and with higher prices
than at eitheEof the three precedllg
periods OF time named, except, pei
haps, that of 1897. There Is this differ
ence, however. Then there were i'm
mense debts between individuals and
the failure of one large concern carried
with 1t a dozen OF others, uprooting
business and paralyzing all effort,
Now, though taxation Is oppressively
heavy, there Is, fortunately, compara-
lively little individual liability in tho
industrial pursuits. There is, too, rea-
son to believe that the decline in the
prices of many manufactured articles
has nearly oEquite reached the lowest
or turning point, and that, with good
crops of grain the current year, I've
NAV see the business of the country in
1888 riselfrom the lethargy that now SO
disastrously oppresses IL. Let no effort,
therefore,s be spared in increasing tie
producfion of breadstuffs and pEoyi-
sfons. With decline in the cost of
Lying rests the hope of a revival of
6onfid6nce and an escape from a crisis,
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