The Portland daily press., 1883-08-17
Business Prospects.

1t Is certain that this country will produce
the present year reasonably abundant crops.
not SO large as those of last year in the
great staples, cotton, wheat and corn, but
still large and superintendent for our own
needs. The crop reports from Europe indi-
cate that the yield there will be fair, but not
abundant. The nations over the sea will
need to draw upon America for supplies,
and we shall have supplies to send them.
The farmers of the western prairies, and of
the southern fields will get good return for
their labor, and the nation has in the fruits
OF that labor resources of wealth which are
secure whatever tricks the gambling specu-
lators OF New York and Chicago may play
with prices. The years labor in the great
department. of agriculture is rewarded with
riches which even panics cannot take away.
The great feature of the present situation
is the steady decline in prices. 1t is not sud-
den, but has been coming for long time.
Almost every thing has declined, the pro-
ducts of the earth, the products of the mills,
aud shares in corporations. The two things
that have so far yielded least to this tenden-
cy are labor and real estate. Wages have
not yet gone down in equal proportion to the
decline in the profits of capital or the de-
cline in the cost of food and clothes.
Whether or not they are to tumble can
not be certainly foretold for it may be that
there will come out of the present situation,
new adjustment by which labor will OBJ
tain larger interest than it has heretofore
had in the wealth it creates. 1t is apparent
now that the wage workers have little reason
to complain while they continue employed,
for what they receive will buy more than it
would two years ago, and if they do not need
more they can save more, provided they can
have constant employment.
But this proviso suggests one of the sim
gular phenomena of the time. 1t has come
about that the facilities of production are so
increased that the total demand of the coun-
try for many classes of manufactured goods
can be fully met without constant work.
The market is glutted unless there are
periods of cessation from production when
machinery and hands are idle The nation
can easily make more goods of several kinds
than it needs, or will use, and for these
goods there is no foreign demand, or none
which it is Immediately practicable to take
advantage of, for disposal of the surplus.
What is to be done in that case? No one
seems to know. The problem staggers the
doctors of the body polite. But we may be
confident that time will work cure al
though it is not possible to say how or
when. There will be suffering and losses in
the process, but these are incidents which
cannot be avoided. The balance between
production and consumption must be read
justed, for waste is as fatal to healthy pros
perity as are wants that cannot be supplied
There are those who at such time as this
think the true course is to go ahead as il
skies were fair and winds favoring.
They pretend to think there is nc
occasion for caution. Their advice is
"Don'tstop; go ahead; shut your eyes; pu,
on more steam; have courage; pat out your
money; borrow and lend, as if there were nc
day of reckoning at hand; believe that all
is right and all will be right" That kind
OF talk is not wise and often it is not sincere.
There is something the matter and it is the
part of wisdom to be prudent and to hus-
band resources and to exercise caution until
the nature and exteut of the difficulty is bet
ter understood. 1t may be ouly temporary
and local congestion. If that is the fact il
will appear in due time. There are many
things which indicate that the country is in
fairly good condition and that its industrie.
will flourish. 1t is Dot well to ignore these
any more than it is well to ignore the palpa
BILE signs that the financial centres are dis.
turbed, and that just now trade does not run
in smooth channels. 1t is only the rasf
navigator who sails on recklessly through
the fog. The prudent sailor has care, es
pecially if be does not know all the currents
of the sea, and he is content to wait until the
fog lifts and he can see what is before hin
before crowding on all sail.