The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-29
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPICs-CoMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
The business Of the Country.

From ne ". y. World. bro ..L"
The recent failures of two of the leading
firms 10 the dry goods trade lead to reflection
on the business of the country. 1t Is very
evident that those who favored the election OF
Grant on the plea that his success would make
trade more brisk, have not found their calcu-
lations realized. The fact is, the wholesale
houses are experiencing dull trade AZ the
very time that they anticipated 1t would Dc
brisk How this can be, when the country
has been blessed with better crops than at any
time for years, is, to most people, mystery;
yet 1t is easily explained.
The prospects OF an enormous crop led the
merchants to believe that the demand for
goods would be increased in proportion, and
10 make preparations accordingly. But when
the farmers of the Northwest saw the price OF
spring wheat the great staple OF that secuon,
fall from one dollar and seventy to one dollar
and six, they were less inclined to make large
purchases, notwithstanding their large crops,
than they were when receiving high prices for
breadstuifs, while no doubt many refused to
sell, and thus, instead of paying cash for
goods, are merely buying when necessity de-
mands it, and that on credit The western
merchant thus finds it difficult to make his
remittances which, taken in connection with
the money pressure here, the high rents and
heavy expenditures necessary to carry on
large house, falls with peculiar severity on
those competing for trade in this or the Eastern
market.
That the mercantile embarrassment which
those failures indicate is not caused by the
failure of the farmers to sell their grain, is
made evident from the fact that there is now
gathered at the great centres OF breadstuffs-
New York, Buffalo, Chicago, and Milwaukee,
twice as much wheat as there was last year at
this time. The well-to-d do farmers and those
who are not obliged to sell their crops may
be holding back and refusing to sell; but the
very fact that there is such large stock
in the warehouses at the great centres, and
the present liberal receipts at the points re-
ferred to- show very plainly that the mass of
the farmers are disposiDg of their wheat.
Finding it, however, impossible to obtain
the prices which they have been 10 the habit
of receiving for several years past, their crops,
although larger, do not bring them as much
as smaller yields did during high prices.
This leads them to the reduction OF their
purchases, and makes them more slow in
meeting their bills at the retail stores in their
immediate vicinity. The result Is, the coun-
try merchants or those in the interior cities
and small towns fiud their calculations at
fault, and this in turn is felt by the wholesale
dealers in this city. They find themselves
now the victims of overstocked markets, too
great competition, and too large expenditures
for the amount of business done. This is the
lesson which these last failures teach. The
fact is, the business of the country has been
too much on stills, aud the shrinkage of
values which of necessity follows the return to
more safe and sound basis must of neces-
sity affect all of those houses which have
made no calculation on this readjustment of
the business of the country.