The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-07-13
PROSPEROUS SEASON.

From circular issued by the mercantile
agency, the following information il
CLEANED:
Total number of failures in the United
States for the first half of 1881 were 4, 1858
as compared with 2.-497, for first si1
months of 1880 and 4,05s in 1879. The
The liabilities for first half of present year
are forty millions, as against thirty -two
millions for the same period in 1880 and
sixty-five millions in 1879.
The failures for the past six months,
Notwithstanding the slight increase, indi.
cate a stability and strength in the posi-
ton of the great mass of the mercantile
community that is in happy consonance
with the prosperous condition of the coun-
try generally. The tendency is, therefore,
under such favorable circumstances, to ex-
tend the lines of credit very rapidly The
facility with which weak and unsound APP
plicants obtain goods, and the growing
increase in the time and ease of the terms
of credit, are particularly noticeable.
These are the first signs of the possibility
of a revulsion, which some fear must
come from the extraordinary expansion
which has occurred everywhere in the last
eighteen months. The temptation is al
most impossible to resist to extend the vol
ume OF business, when failures seem so
few, and the general condition SO prosper
Gus To be conservative, at such period
is a most difficult policy to pursue. yet it
is in just such times as these that hidden
dangers lie in circumstances the most UNI
suspected. Prudence would, therefore,
point to the avoidance of conditions with
out which disaster is impossible; thus for
instance, the expansion into unwise and
credits; the locking-up in un-
available shape of active capital necessary
for business; the increase of business and
personal expenses; and, above all, the
growth of Indebtedness. Signs abound at
every turn of the tendency to launch into
which to prudent minds are
the sure precursors of the reaction that
must come sooner or later. But little dan
ger can come to those who maintain their
obligations at a limit which their active as
sets euable them easily to discharge or to
carry. To use homely phrase we shall
be ''fOoGng away our good times" IF the
reaction, which is sure to come, finds us
owing largely, with capital and profits dis
persed almost beyond recall. To many al
so the experience of the six months just
closed has demonstrated the possibility of
doing an enormous business with little or
no profit hence the possibility of au IN
healthy expansion of trade without a cor
accumulation or sinking fund
from profits to compensate for the risks in
Cured thereby.
The condition of business in each prom
inent locality of the country is promising.
No one can rise from a perusal of these
without being thoroughly imbued with the
prosperous condition of things at present,
and with the extent, variety, and available
lty of the resources of the country. The
crops, generally, promise most favorably,
and the agricultural classes, having had
two years of extraordinary prosperity, are
in condition much more satisfactory and
than ever before. Even should
the demand for breadstuffs be lessened, the
variety of exports, other than these, viii be
SO large as to enrich the country under al
most any circumstances. The prospects
for continuance of prosperity seem, there
fore, to be unclouded Except for the
vague feeling of insecurity, which neces
sarily accompanies such an extraordinary
as has been witnessed, there IS
no reason apparent to threaten the con in
lance of the healthy condition of trade
which now exists.