Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-19
COMMUNICATIONS.
The Business Outlook.

The Business Outlook
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 My newly y-assuned office as president of the New Haven Ruf1e Company has kept me at home for the past few weeks, consequent ly have sent you no letters but Wednesday I took short run over to Philadelphia, and meeting with old friends who had not re- ceived the JOURNAL AND COURIER for some time past caused me to write you now. In
 writing you I gained more notoriety than ex-
 pected by taking it upon myself to speak from | time to time of the business outlook. And as what said came almost exactly true, I am in receipt of questions by the score as to what I may think of the future. Now let me here say that am no prophet. What write you occasionally are such observations as gather by being actively engaged in the business 1 world, and going as do from place to place over considerable extent of country, and being a careful observer of all I hear and see,
 do get pretty good idea of the f'outlook"- some time in advance of those who spend
 their time mostly at home. Therefore, in answer to numerous questions, will here state what is my own opinion of the future, for the next few months at least.
 Iron is the great staple of this countrvs
 business. Next is grain, and third, cattle. From what can gather, we are already re-
 covering from the effects of the bursting of the great "boom' in all of these great arti- cles of traffic. Importation of metals is al- ready falling of, and nearly all the mills in the Lehigh valley are working on half time now, as learned Thursday when there All the while the quantity of iron used for every day purposes is enormous. Take the article of telegraphic wire alone and hundreds of tons will not satisfy the demand. I saw Thurs day that the city of Philadelphia is pushing the elevated railroad fast, and that will take thousands of tons. Nothing started the price of iron up while ago so fast as the fact that so much of it was used in the construction of the New York elevated railroad, and Thursday learned from the best of author itY that it was to be an established fact soon, that the constant jostle of the cars upon the elevated track so ''demoralizes'' the flores of iron that in about five to seven years the whole of the present structure will have to be taken down, and replaced by new. True, there have been in the past year many new mills fitted up and soon it can be produced in al- most endless quantities, yet the demand for it will doubtless be very great. The president of one of the largest mills in the West said to a friend of mine few days ago that he wished iron had never risen above twenty five dollars per ton, for when it went up to it's inflated price a short time ago he knew well that it could not stand and trouble would follow.
 Take grain. It is not likely that for some
 time to come we shall have so large a crop, and it is almost certain that we never shall have so good market as last year. And then the evil of speculation came in, which always unsettles anything ten times more than any legitimate trade And yet to-day grain has found it's level, and there is an active bus mess going on, upon supply and demand" basis. This is also true in regard to cattle.
 But let us come conclusion, for I am writing too much at length. We are to-day in 8 most healthy business condition in re- gard to our future. There has been no panic,
 because it was impossible to create one Just as soon as anything dropped to price where it would pay capital to invest, there it at once stepped in and the decline was stopped then and there. Take dry goods for illustration
 They went up with rush much above par, and for a few weeks there was quite 'sscare,n but where are they now :? Not very much different from what they were year ago-a little higher perhaps, but all can get all they want, and no one cares to sell except at standard price. We are placing our or ders at present for importation of our stock, and we find that in our business there is no marked change from year ago-on the whole an active demand with prices slightly advanced, and we have had to pay that ad- vance. have little doubt that the trade for the next few years will be steady and gener- ally on the increase, and that we may not ex- pect to get war profits. There will be a good demand for all manufactured goods, for the great reason that the country at large is all the while filing up with population and at faster rate than was ever known before, and they all want cl5thes, and they are mostly producers from the soil who will enrich the country at large by their own Iabors I saw it stated few days ago that the single State of Illinois produced more value in dollars and cents from the ground in crops, than all the gold and silver mined in the whole country at large. Now, if this be trne, what wealth we have before us all the while So I say as New Haven manufacturer, let us take cour- age and go on M O. S.