Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1877-06-14
Helena, Montana, Thursday, June II, 1877.
The Outlook in the United States
by a Foreign Reviewer.

by a Foreign Reviewer.
| After reviewing the state of trade in Great
Britain and Germany, the London Telegraph
says, with reference to the United States:
''ln 1876 thirty American railways, cover
ing 3,846 miles in length, and representing
$217, ,848, 900 of invested capital, were sold
under the foreclosure of mortgages; receiv-
ers in bankruptcy were appointed or fore
closures determined upon in the case of forty
six other lines, extending over 1876 miles
and involving total expenditure in construc-
ton and maintenance of 1886, ,OOO, 600; ten
railway companies figure in the list OF defaul-
tiers for the same year, whose aggregate lines
measure 2,757 miles, and show $156, ,66l, 600
to have been invested in them, making total
of eighty six railways, consisting OF IL, l79
mileage, and exhibiting loss to the share
holders of 1912, sos, 600. The list, therefore,
as far as it has been made up, discloses the
fact that during the past year one fifth OF the
entire railway mileage of the United States,
representing a similar proportion OF the total
railway capital of the country, was brought
from various causes into state OF insolvency.
But this revelation naturally awakens our
curiosity to learn how far the business classes
proper shared in the general financial vista
ported to be engaged in business in 1876, no
fewer than 9,O92 became bankrupt, and the
gross amount Of their liabilities reached the
sum of $l91, III, ,786. The increase in the
number OF failures, as compared with 1870,
was 1850, while the latter year showed the
number to be 1000 more than in 1874. The
total Indebtedness of insolvents, in 1876, how
ever, Notwithstanding the augmented number
of failures, was less than in 1875, by nearly
| $4,000, 900; but the description OF firms
| which collapsed last year, combined with the
reduced average liabilities chargeable upon
the previous year, plainly indicates that the
| wave of financial embarrassment IS not yet
| spent, and that, after engulfng the mammoth
houses, it has been gradually swallowing u
the smaller traders. 1t is, moreover, signifi-
| cant of the manner in which business has
been conducted in the several divisions of the
Union, that the failures in the Middle States
are one in every ffty-seven trading firms, and
| in the Western States one in every seventy
two. In the Eastern States, Notwithstanding
their reputation for wealth and stability, one in
every fifty-ni firms has succumbed; while
in the Southern States, which have been de-
| populated and exhausted by the civil war,
and are still laboring under heavy political
disabilities, the percentage of failures is only
one in every sixty-four.
Were the facts we have adduced to consti-
tute the sole basis of our calculations in esti-
mating the prospects of American trade, the
outlook must be deemed eminently discour-
aging. But there is an diverse side to the
picture. Many of the failures we have emu
merated are believed to have been caused by
departure from the principles Of legitimate
trading. During period of prosperity not
few merchants invested their surplus earn
ings in speculative operations They bought
land or became interested in mining and rail-
way undertakings. without forecasting the
possibility of commercial revcrses; and when
the crisis came and strained their resources
they found the additional capital they re-
quired to meet urgent obligations locked up
in investments which they were unable to
realize. 1t is to be presumed, therefore, that
the bitter experience they have undergone in
the past may impose a check upon reckless
tendencies in the future. Again, in proof
that trade is returning to normal state, pro-
duction has of late been more strictly limited
than before to the requirements of regular
consumption, and universal disposition pre-
walls in the community to economize expendi-
ture to the utmost. Happily, too, the poten-
tential riches lying in the soil OF the Ameri-
can continent are practically boundless, and
every year the profits derived from the cult
vation of cotton, grain. sugar and tobacco
steadily increase. Gold, silver. and petroleum
also will continue for an indefinite period to
be an exhaustless source of profit to the
United States.