Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-02-07
ThE ftEEmau
Business Prospects.

1t is no doubt, on the whole true, thai
the business of the county has bette
outlook than for some time past. Since
the crash came in September 1878 times
instead of growing better have steadily
grown worse to the present winter. Things
have gone on from bad to worst and it il
perhaps one reason why folks think they
are to be better, that any change must be
in that direction. But there are other
than merely negative reasons why bust.
ness men are more hopeful
There should be no extravagant ideas
entertained, however. The political cam
paign of the last year misled many per-
sons into thinking that Il change in admin
istration would work wonders. but since
the seventh of November those who had
used this clap-trap argument have let the
subject drop very quietly. Still later
there have been fearful beings who saw
rum impending in a disputed presidency
submitted TO the arbitrament of arms.
These men doubtless are. in the reaction
caused by the passage of the electoral bill,
over sanguine us to the future. When the
presidential question is settled they will
find that the absence of that blue ruin "
which they feared, does not necessarily
imply the presence of unbounded prosper
ity.
There are, however, good many things
that are encouraging and which promise
better times. Not the old times though,
when Il man couldn't hold property of amy
kind for a day without finding its value in
creasing, but straightforward business
times in which the wheels all move and in
which margins, though small, are not all
on the wrong side.
The evils of an inflated and unstable
currency are not much longer necessary.
Gold has gone down to the lowest point
since the war, and the grcenback may now
be said to be worth in market IL strong 95
per cent of the genuine hard cash that it
has so long promised. The country is
coming gradually to the much secuted
Greeley notion that the way to resume
is to resume" and the greenback is now
worth so much that the step will be easy
to n specie basis and may be taken at al
most any time.
Then there is no doubt that for year
politics have stood in the way of business.
The excitement of u presidential campaign
is always Il nuisance, especially that of
one conducted as the last one was. And
since the November election, it has till
now been worse than before. Capitalists,
with or without cause, have been fearful
OF investments in bona-fde business enter
prises. That fear is now removed and
whatever enterprise can be le9itimately I'M
dertaken can stand on its own merits with
out fear of the bad effect of political COM
plcations.
There cannot be with safety much ex-
pected from purchases that depend on war
in Europe, but our people have pretty well
learned that they ought to be content
with small profits and they must live with
more economy than in the flush times of
the war and the years Immediately sue
ceeding it. With this lesson learned, the
country freed from the dangers of contin-
ued political disturbance, and our currency
approaching rapidly a solid foundation, it
is reasonable to hope for slow but sub
stantial improvement in all the industries
of the nation.