Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-05
i HAVEN, CONN. FRIDAY MORNING. JAN
sapurnaI arh Gpllrier.
Friday Jan. 5, 1883.
THE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.

FlNANClAL
 At various times during the last two years | prophets have risen and prophesied that a
 financial crash was imminent. The crash
 has not come yet, but the prophets have not given it up and are again announcing that it is at hand They point for support of their prophecy to the unusual number of failures
 during the last six months, the great amount
 of money temporarily sunk in railroad build ing, and the tremendous speculation in stocks, grain and oil.
 It is not to be denied that 8 financial break
 down will come sooner or later, and there are some features of the present condition of affairs which are not very encouraging. But it can fairly be doubted that the crash is near. A writer in the New York Brening
 Post forcibfy points out some reasons for continued confidence and hope. He believes that the failures do not forebode collapse,
 but are rather calculated to prevent one The weak firms are being shaken out, as the Wall street men say, and this operation
 constantly reminds business men of the ne- cessity of being cautious and circumspect in their operations, and especially in the matter of credit, and thus it is apt to prevent them l from doing the very things which, when generally done would bring on general breakdown" There is good reason to be- ieve that there is not that expansion of credit and that recklessness of venture which are so favorable to collapse.
 As for the railroad building, there has been great deal of it. Over 12, GOO miles have been added to our railroad systems during the IpCff &bo R14
 says A large majority of the F, ,OO0 miles of newly built railroad are either ps zts of great trunk lines already in more or less successful operation, or they are branches and feeders of great, and financially powerful, railroad systems. They are immediately useful and, in most cases, directly or indirectly profita ble. The money invested in them, therefore, is not, as it was in great measure before 1873, thrown into the sea and, for the time being at least, completely wasted and lost, but it is capital productively employed
 There has been excessive speculation, but it must be borne in mind that there is no excessive imitation of prices. As the writer above referred to says While there has been great deal of very reprehensible spec ulation in grain, all the disturbance caused by that speculation has in the meantime reg ulated itself, leaving some of the speeulators as the only crippled parties in the field And while there has been much speculation in stocks, it cannot be said that the stock market is inflated and deals largely in fcti- tious values. While there are some securi- ties of doubtful value on the list, the genera, market is rather lower than it was ayear ago, dividend paying stocks have 8 price not l above that warranted by the percentage they l yield, and the stocks of unfinished enter | prises have on the whole not anticipated their 1 value upon reasonable eomputa- tion. Moreover, stocks are mostly in the 1 ands of regular investors or professional | 7alers, the general public" not being to 1
 Extraordinary extend concerned in the [
 sional movements above or below the l
 of real value, such as the operators in | stocks manage to contriye.
 In addition to these facts there is a very feature of the situation, and that | is the improvement and in prospects of the | export trade. On the whole, therefore, there | is no cause for despair yet.