The New York herald., 1871-02-08

Business Failares Ia tae United states--
tlcians.
We have before us mercantile circular for
the year 1870, in which We find some interest
ing facts in the shape Of figures giving the
number OF business failures in New York and
Brooklyn and throughout the Union for the
years lses, 1869 and 1870 respectively. j
thus appears that the aggregate OF failures III
money for each Of these years is as follows:-
Ne,c York United States
ona Broohappa outside. 7o,ns.
sssSSS ss2ssaSSo ssSSS 900
1s1o....... 2o573,ooo s7,seoooo sS,242,oOo
Here it will be observed that while the
failures in New York and Brooklyn in 1868
were nearly equal in money to all the failures
in the United States outside of these cities,
the New York and Brooklyn failures in 1869
were less than One-half. and in 1870 they were
less than 0ne-third of the failures outside this
metropolitan district. This would seem to in
dicate that while the merchants of New York
and Brooklyn have been holding down the
brakes since 1868 those Of the country out
side have been putting on steam. So it hap
pens that while the sum total of all the failures
in the Union in 1868 Gncluding our two cities)
was in round numbers sixty-tbree million
dollars, it is given for 1870 at eighty Eight
million dollars.
There would be in all this, however, nothing
very alarming but for these important facts:-
The whole land, city and country, is overrun
with merchants Of all Sorts In the competi-
ton thus produced there has been fearful
cutting down of profits, which, with the steady
decline in gold since the war, has operated to
break the backs of the weak traders who on
pay day could not come up to time. The
great mass of the consumers of s'store goods
have, meantime, gained from the losses of the
sellers, and so the eighty eight millions of dol
lars lost by our mercantile failures of 1870
may not in reality be the loss of sixpence to
the actual wealth Of the country The mer-
chant is not producer. He is the mere
agent who passes the productions of the farmer
and manufacturer from hand to haad, collect
ing his toll in the transfer The banker is not
a producer, nor is the broker; and yet upon
these three Indispensable classes, who produce
nothing-hankers, brokers and merchants
all the productive interests Of the country
depend.
And yet, again, our enormous national
debt, with its heavy burden Of taxations, is
operating in every way and among all classes,
to make the rich richer and the poor poorer,
to draw the solid wealth of the country houses
and lands from the many into the hands of
the few. The masses Of the people are
beginning to realize the increasing pressure
of this state of things, and in looking about
for remedy-''s short, sharp and decisive
they are beginning to perceive that they can
have it In the Presidential election of 1872.
BY this simple process Of turning ont the
party in power and of turning in the demo-
cracy it is quite possible that we may have a
final settlement by the year 1873 or 1874, which
upon paper will signify loss of two or three
thousand millions to the country, but which
in reality will signify only that If some
classes Of our citizens have lost SO much other
classes have so much gained. This is the
problem which comes upon us In the considera-
ton Of our mercantile failures and the pres
sure Of our taxes. and il Is problem which.