Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-10-04
The Industrial Depression.

Nashville American.
An old citizen of Nashville remark
ed yesterday that he had not known
such stringency in money matters in
thirty years. 1t was but the echo of
an expression that has become stereo>
tyed. We have heard all kinds of
tradesmen complain Of the difficulty
of collections and the general COM
plant of the scarcity of cash. But
this condition of things is not confined
within local limits. 1t is the same
everywhere. There is almost univer>
sal depression. A New York exchange
has information that trade at Matan.
zas, Cuba, as almost everywhere else,
is excessively dull, in proof of which
it may be stated that until the 18th
inst, not single American sail yes.
sci entered that port during the long
period of six weeks, a circumstance
without parallel in sixty years, What
little trade there is goes to the steam
ers, and there is absolutely next to
nothing left for sail vessels.
This condition is generally ascribed
to the one cause Of overproduction. If
the cereal crops the world over have
been abundant, other products of less
commercial prominence are scarcely
less prolific. Even the indigo crop is
unprecedented. One authority, the
New York Commercial Bulletin, attri-
butes the industrial depression to the
great reduction of the cost of trans
portation, by the enormous multiplica>
ton of new steamships for freight pur-
poses forcing down rates below the re-
munerative mark. 1t argues that the
increased facilities of transportation,
both by land and water, have produc.
ed disastrous prostration alike in the
business of transportation as such, and
in the great manufacturing industries
which supply the rails, the cars, and
the ships.
The obvious consequences to the
iron industry have fallen with great
severity not only upon this country,
but upon all the countries of western
Europe even Spanish ore has fallen in
price disastrously. A large number of
the iron mills of Great Britain are in>
active, or working at loss, because
there is no longer any considerable de-
mand from the ship yards for iron and
steel, nor is there any longer the old
demand from the United States for
rails and structural iron. When the
fever of railroad building set in in
1879, the expansion Of productive
power was so great that the enormous
demand upon Great Britain was soon
cut off by the increased home supply.
Then instead of building $4,000 miles
of railroad in single year, we sud.
denly dropped to 5000. At the same
time the substitution of Bessemer for
iron rails had eliminated, cutting
down in the minimum the quantity re-
quired yearly for requirements on old
roads. These two causes account for
a tremendous decrease in the consump-
ton in this country.
In addition to these causes, SO far as
this country is concerned, the Presi>
dental election and the tariff agitation
are not to be left out of the count as
factors in the general depression. Cap,
ital is timid. Since only few weeks
will elapse before the Presidential
election, it will hold back for the de-
velopment of political possibilities.
This is one of the evils of too much
politics and too frequently recurring
elections. With restored confidence
the country is in a condition for q
boom. 1t is not likely to come until
after the election.