Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-10-09
The state Il Business
Chicago Tribune.

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The periodical monetary spasm
through which Wall street was nursed
last week by Secretary Folger was the
presage of the more serious financial
stringency which will come some
autumn if the country continues It's
reckless extravaganza of living, railroad
building and stock iobbing. But for the
present speculation has not spread SO
wide as to create embarrassment outside
of the stock exchange, where there have
certainly been some signs of glut. The
manufacture of new securities, repre-.
senting not only new railroads, but other
enterprises has gone on with unprece
dented rapidity. The new railroads
built since the first of the year are repre-.
sented by not less than $500, 00e, 900 of
paper stocks and bonds At its
last weekly meeting the Governing Com.
mittee of the New York Stock Exchange
listed over 100000 600 of new railroad
and telegraph securities, and it was not
a good week for new securities at that.
Hosts of companies are being formed
continually that never aspire to the
dignity of recognition on the New York
or Chicago Stock Exchanges, but every
one of which absorbs some money that
would otherwise be left at the disposal
of established businesses. This absorp-
ton of money by railroad and other en-
terprises is of course the beginning of a
movement which in all previous in
stances has gone too far, and has ended
in a smash. But it has not reached any
such mature developments as yet.
Commercial and manufacturing re-
ports from all parts of the country reveal
a condition of sound and general pros
perity. Clearings are increasing. The
strikes at Pittsburg are over and the
barometer of the clearing house instant
ly records the fact by a notable rise of
43 in the bank exchanges at Pittsburg.
1t is lower than when the strike began.
Never were strikes more foOlishly con-
ceived than those of last summer They
were made in the nick of opportunity
for the manufacturers, who have un-
questionably bettered their situation,
while the operatives have lost heavily.
Commercial centres also gain in clear
ings, and the returns for the country as
a whole show that legitimate business is
expanding in almost all directions.
Chicago merchants give an encouraging
account of the prospect of trade in the
country behind this city. The very fact
that the farmers are holding back large
part of their produce is a significant
proof that they are well of and
can wait to market their crops. The
proceeds of previous harvests have
cleared the mortgages from tens
of thousands of farms, and put
the farmers into circumstances which
enable them to be steady consumers of
the goods Chicago has to distribute to
the interior. Their light marketing of
grain this fall is affecting the exports,
and has rendered dim the prospect of
immediate imports of gold. The New
York money market cannot look ap-
parently with much confidence to speedy
imports of gold from Europe for relief.
1t must either draw from the interior, or
something must give way. The interior
is using its money in its own behalf,
and the alternative result has been seen
of decline in prices of stocks, bonds,
and produce.
The testimony Of the clearings and of
the merchants of Chicago is reinforced
by the returns of railroad earnings,
which are among the surest straws to
show the direction of trade winds. Rail
road earnings are decidedly on the in
crease The prolific yield of the soil
assures the carriers a great business in
transportation, and the industrial effects
of this, from the manufacture of rails
up, will be far-reaching. Against the
clear sky there is to be discovered really
no serious cloud. In the 100 failures
announced last week there were none of
general importance The failure of the
New York note-broker who carried his
accounts in his head has brought down
only a little coterie of other
men who were specializing in the same
pool with him. A failure that I'M
covers more serious symptoms is that
of dry goods house in Boston. Their
collapse is attributed directly to the un-
healthy severity of the competition
which has of late years made itself felt
in almost all branches of trade. Selling
goods has come to be thought almost
more important than making profits.
Expensive travelling statesmen are en-
ployed, and these men cut prices savagely
in order to make a good showing of
sales. Close observers of the business
conditions of the day fOresee more
trouble from the extreme length to
which competition is being carried than
from any other single force at work.
The consumer gains by this competition
up to a certain point, but loses when
competition goes so far that it breaks
down and monopoly begins.