The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-22
The New York Evening Post thus speaks OF

/
an active fell and winter trade In them.
The New York Evening Post thus speaks Of
business prospects:
| We find among the far-seeing, both In and
out of trade, the expectation that with the
coming autumn there will be q more decided
! change In business than has yet been witness
| ed In any season since the CONFUSION OF 1873.
and that this will be for the better nat only In
| respect Of mercantile affairs but also In res
pect of new enterprises. There nave been 50
many of what may be called false starts"
toward recovery that many capitalists and
men of means may, however. be reluctant to
move until there Is more decided evidence OF
| Improvement than has yet been witnessed.
1t Is conceded on all sides that II the crops
are as good as last year, and If there Is as
good q foreign market for the expOrtable sur
plus as there has been in the last eight
months, there can be no change for the worse,
and that there will be at least a moderate i'm
prOvement.
Under the heading, "Now for Business
Again" the New York Daily Bulletin has the
following:
In truth, our material interests are suffer-
ing to-day quite as much from want Of per-
ception that now is the time to invest as they
suffered In the first instance from the over
confidence and initiation that produced the
panic. A continuance Of this want OF intelli-
gent perception may indefinitely pr0lOng the
existing depression; while free Investment
Of capital on the present basis OF values
would as certainly produce an immediate re-
vival of business. Those who are first to
comprehend the present opportunities, and TO
put their long idle means into employment,
will hold the best chances for the future. This
early action, however, requires sagacity and
courage, which the majority do not possess;
and therefore 1t will probably be found that
there Is no general eagerness to employ
capital until the intelligent few have shown
the way, when business may be expected 10
exhibit sudden revival, with an attendant
rise In values and In wages, and everybody
will wonder they did not see what was com
ing, and blame themselves for not acting at
an earlier stage.
writer In the Boston Journal OF Com
merce thus argues on the subject OF "Produc-
ton and Labor"
Ninety cotton operatives, with the average
food-produCing power each Of $500 Increased
from 5000 since 1888 by the increase of wages
will now purchase and consume farm pro-
ducts or their equivalents to the aggregate
value of $4,000 per annum, requiring the
present labor of 1876 farmers, producing 5000
per annum through improved machinery and
processes las com pared with 500 In 1889 over
and above the subsistence Of themselves and
families. The ratio OF Industrial economic
equilibrium between cotton cloth pro
ducers and the producers Of other commodi-
the United States in 1876 was, therefore, APP
proximately as 30 to 1876; or, In other words,
the labor OF 225 persons Is as effective in 1876
in meeting the demands of the country for
cloth and food products as was the labor OF
69t persons in effecting similar results in 1888
and, as o consequence Of this change In the
power of production, the labor of 4G6 other
persons has, within this time and within the
special Industrial sphere under investigation,
been rendered unnecessary; and they have
been compelled to enter into relations with
new wants and new capabilities Of purchase
In order to find employment.
Results similar, and possibly even more
striking, are afforded by the analysis of other
leading American industries. Thus, In the
manufacture of boots and shoes, three men
working with machinery can do at present
what, prior to 1860, required the labor Of six
men to effect; while the individual or per
capita consumption OF boots and shoes in the
United States has probably been more uni
form during the same period; this Is the case
with almost any other commodity. At O. con-
vention Of the stove trade in 1876, in st. Louis,
1t was officially reported that under what
may be called @ healthy trade there was at
least SO per cent greater present capacity for
making stoves In the United States than the
country requires; and that three men now,
with the aid Of machinery, can produce as
many stoves as six men unaided could have
done in 1860.
In the manufacture Of straw goods, 300
hands in one Of the largest factories in New
England 10 more with the sewing machine
than what comparatively few years ago re-
quired a thousand to effect when sewing of
the braid was done by hand, and the steam
press turns off four hats to the minute In
place Of the old rate OF one hat to four min
utes Similar results derived from consider
alton of our industries as whole are also
given in the last national census, which shows
that while the increase Of the population In
the United States from 1860 to 1870 was less
than % per cent, the gain in product of our
industries during the same
period was 50 per cent, or near 30 per cent in
the excess Of the gain In population.