, 1882-01-28
The Outlook.

What sort Of financial weather does the
industrial barometer promise for this
current year of 1882 The readings are
as various as the men who make them
One il certain that the outlook Is
very fair, and that nothing need be
feared. while another is sure that dark
clouds will be rolling directly overhead
in a few weeks or months, and discharge
their dread contents of ruin all over the
land. That the country is not as favora-
bly, situated as it was year ago, Is, how
ever, admitted on nearly every hand
The great drought OF last summer did great
damage 10 every crop in the East that Is
grown on the continent, and despite the
old CITY raised once more that short crops
at high prices are better than large crops
at low prices, the people who know most
about these things are by no means hope
ful Short crops, unfortunately, cost
Jus, as much to produce as the larger
ones, and even if they bring as much to
those concerned in their productions as
the larger ones do-which is rarely or
never the case-the purchasers, who IN
the majority OF cases are the mass OF the
American people themselves, get 50 much
less for the same money, or have to pay
so much more for the same quantity.
The country is therefore decidedly poorer
for the short crops, and no amount OF
sopbistical arguing can make the fact
otherwise. In good years the farmer
gets a fair return for his labor, even II he
has to sell cheaply; in bad years he gels
no more, but every man who has to buy
a loaf of bread, or anything else that is
the product OF The soil, is taxed as much
as is needed to make up the deficiency
which. were the price to remain the same,
the farmer Sould have 10 encounter.
Short crops are consequently one OF the
circumstances that make the outlook Tor
the current year unpleasant. Another is
the randi extension Of our railroad sys-
TEN. Two hundred million dollars is a
pretty larse sum 10 rake from the capital
of the country and put in roads that
must perforce be mproductive for some
time 10 come. The statistics os the De-
pariment OF Agriculture III Washington
show that while between 1872 and 1850
there was a constant annual increase Iii
the area OF cultivated farms there was no
such increase at all during 1881, and the
explanation of this is that men have
found the inducements to engage In rad
road building and othef like enterprises
much more seductive than the einducements
to labor OF farms. In other words, they
chose to work in producing that which
for the time being is non-produetlse, IN
stead Of working for that which is Imme-
diately productive. There are two points
here which are we'll worth considering
the extra cost Of living which VIII be en-
tailed on the entire nation by The poer
crops. and the withdrawal OF the usual
population that adds to the crop products
Of the land and its transfer to industrial
labor that for awhile at least il so much
dead capital These things affect the resi-
prosperity Of the c,unty-not the specu-
lative prosperity which is dependent ON
inflated values Of stocks on the exchanges
and which is liable to collapse at any mo-
ment whenever something unforeseen
rises up and pricks the bubbles that have
been skillfully'blown.