Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-09-12
From the New York Tribune.
Encouraging Signs.

Encouraging SigHs'
The Improvement in business. of which
we have noted many signs. evidently con-
tinues. Better prices. larger demand,
and a more hopeful feeling are noticed at
Boston. Comparison of grain receipts
and shipments shows very remarkable
gain at Baltimore, and. with improvement
in other branches of trade, encourages the
business men of that city. Philadelphia
rejoices in traffic which is still, as it has
been for months. somewhat larger than
that of corresponding periods last year.
Buffalo reports marked Improvement to-
ward the close of August in grain rates by
lake and canal, although the receipts for
the month were small. Pittsburgh re-
ports a sudden upward start in bank clear
ings. which is attributed in part to the
rapid advance 10 oil, but is in part unex
planned New Orleans. notwithstanding
4 considerable loss ia grain receipts, re-
joices in very large crops of cotton and
sugar. St. Louis closes the cotton year
with receipts nearly double those of any
year preceding, and has gained fairly in
cattle and in quantity of grain moved this
year, though in some other branches of
business loss. Chicago is moving very
large grain crop though at low prices.
In this city there is slow but unmistaka-
BILE improvement. Transactions are larger.
dealers more hopeful, and in some cases Il
slight improvement in price already an
swers the increased demand. The clear
ing-house exchanges since August |, have
approached more nearly to those of 1870
than in any preceding period this
year. In view of the fact that prices
are stiIl more than per cent. lower
than in August, 1915, the fact that
the cearings are only II per cent.
smaller indicates an increase in the guam
titles exchanged. The same indication,
which has the peculiar merit Of showing
not what men hope in one branch Of trade
or another, but what they have actually
done, points to still greater improve
ment at Philadelphia and Pittsburg, where
the clearings for August, 1876, are larger
than for August, 1875, and to an improve
ment in quantities exchanged at Boston,
where the decline in clearings is only IL
per cent. In each of the Western cities
the decrease has been much greater; in
St Louis Is, and in Chicago over 20 per
cent. compared with the transactions of
August last year. This may in part be
due to the very low price of grain, but it
is very probable that the exceedingly low
rates of westward freight have enabled
dealers in this city, Boston, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore to capture considerable
part of the business usually done at this
season through the chief distributing cities
of the West.
When the coal combination broke down
it was generally predicted that Il more
confident feeling would be likely to APP
pear, in not the Stock Exchange. but in
the many branches of manufacture which
depend so largely upon anthracite for pow
er or fuel. and upon which. the pros
perity of Eastern cities SO largely depends.
This anticipation has been fully justified.
The low prices realized in the great coal
sale were dshearte ming to operators and
miners, who had became used to the fic-
titious rates maintained by the monopoly
But the news was cheering TO hundreds of
operatives, and this change has doubtless
contributed materially to the marked i'm
provement in manufactures and trade re-
ported by the New England papers. 1t is
important to observe, however, that there
is no reason to look for a speculative rise
of prices. Production will revive, we
may hope, but only because ability to pro-
duce at lower cost has invited revival of
consumption. Business will improve, not
spasmodically, but slowly and steadily, If
present indications do not deceive. We
are on the road to better times because
we are getting rid of the fictions and the
burdens of the past, and earning solid
prosperity by economy and accumulation
Of capital.