The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-12-10
The Beginning of Better Times.

The prosperity of trade depends on the
condition of the classes who are engaged
| in production. In the United States the
agricultural class of producers far sur
passes in Importance any of the others.
If we can show that the condition of the
farmers and planters is an improving one
it Will follow that a corresponding inn
provement viii before long be manifest
in the general trade of the country.
When we speak of men in masses of
millions, as we must in discussing the
affairs of such a nation as the United
States, we necessarily have to disregard
multitude of exceptions to the general
rule. Taking the farmers and planters
as a class we do say that there is ample
statistical proof of the fact that they are
better off than they have been at any
time for three years past. We point in
the first place to the condition of wheat,
corn, cotton, beef, pork, cheese, hams and
bacon exported; in the second place to
the prices obtained for those articles, not
at the port of New York, but at the
places where they were produced, for the
farmer has had the advantage for over
year of internal freights low beyond pre-
cedent in the third place to the lower
rate of wages at which farmers and
planters have this year procured their
labor; and in the fourth place to- the
fact which naturally follows from the
three already mentioned, that the i'm
ports of tea, coffee and sugar have been
larger in the fiscal year ended with June
last than in any previous year in the
history of the country. In her dealings
with the United States Great Britain has
proved a good customer. While our inn
al D,-.A IL
enormously curtailed, our exports to
those regions have greatly increased since
the close of the year 1872. In either
one of the three calendar years 1873,
1874 and 1875, we have found a market
for more grain in Great Britain than we
ever did before. Much of that grain
nevertheless the farmers who produce it
have been paid for it, and well paid for
it, too.
Another favorable circumstance in the
condition of trade throughout the United
States is the absence of speculation.
Probably there is no important article
whose price is now upheld beyond fair
level by the competition of spectators.
The demand that at present exists for
merchandise and manufactures can be
depended on to continue and to grow,
because it comes almost direct from the
consumer. The population of the Union
is now in round numbers forty-five mil
lions, and it is increasing at the rate of
about two and a half per cent. per
annum, and much faster than that in the
great agricultural states of the west.
Under such circumstances of prosperity
and increase of the agricultural pOpula-
ton, how long can the market for cotton
goods remain glutted at the present low
prices? 1t must, within no very distant
period, feel the increased consumption.
At the same time we are bound to say
that there are no grounds for expecting a
rival of speculation. Since the telegraph
has united the business world, specula-
tiOn does not play the part it formerly
did in trade and commerce. Hence, the
slow and almost imperceptible step by
which business revives where it is not
too heavily weighted by debts and taxes.
We cannot think it out of place to
urge economy on those who are in debt, !
from the mayor, aldermen and common
atty O/the city of New York down to
that man who merely owes his grocer and |
tailor. Prompt payment is quite as con-
ducive to the welfare of business as large |
purchases. We believe at this very time |
that nothing would tend more strongly |
to bring about good times than a reduc- |
tiOn of taxes, and the only honest way
to reduce taxes is to cut down eXpendi- |
tures.-Ne1C York Times.