Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-01-08
FRIDAY MORNING. JAN. 8. 1885.

FRIDAY MORNING. JAN. 8. 1885.
EIGHTEEN UNDRED AND
EIGHTY-SIX AS A BUSL-
NESS YEAR.
The chief interest of 1886, in view of
the long business depression, is found in
the possibilities contained in it for re-
revival of trade. We have now had four
years of depression whose advent was
marked by the sound of the assassin g
pistol that ended the life of Garfield IN
1881. That bloody event found the country
the midst of a business boom that had
commenced early in TO, and while it did
not contribute to it, still it came to be
used as date, seeing that it found the
general health of trade affected and gave
it the slight premonitory chill that pre-
cedes grave illness. At the New York
Stock Exchange the next day the chill
was observed, and FROM that time-up to
about DTS n0ntsisk gsl51 -lss.sssssers were &c
ing wLh slew but STEADY prs0gress from
had TO gsaFsss. s4SA-GsaaRainess %sas peculiar,
Tor the decline has not been FASTENED by
such events as the Grant Ward failure of
millions in extent, or by the tremendous
defalcations which ramifed the very veins
of Wall street. 1t has been hard to &C.
count for this depression, and the reme-
dial schemes have been so numerous as to
be bewildering, but taking the question
by the nearest point that seems in prac
tical reach, the gradual loss of an Euro
pean market for our products seems che
most plausible solution. American wheat
and cotton now have TO appear side by
side with that produced in Russia and
India. American wheat is quoted at
Liverpool ten cents lower than in New
York. and that, though it is four cents
better in this country than it was at this
date last year..
Tired of waiting for higher prices. it
would appear that the American producer
intends this year to go into active, if COM
paratively unremunerative competition,
trusting to future luck and big crop,
and arguing that even low prices Can't
be worse than no prices atall. We see
that for the eleven months of 1885 the
freight sent to the seaboard from Chicago
was three. quarters Of a million tons more
than for the same months in "a. and that
in the face of higher freight rates. With
this showing comes the fact that the COM
bined iron and steel associations have de-
termined to increase their output limit
for 1886 by aquarter of million tons. and
that the lumbermen of Maine have deter
mined to increase their cut this year by
another all the great business interests of
the country are looking forward to and
preparing for better state of affairs in
trade than there was last year, hopeful
ness that finds confirmation in the
fact that the marked Improvement in
trade has all come in the last Jhree
months of '85, and still continues.
In Virginia the showing is also enc0ur-
aging, The statistics of the past 7ass for
the metropolis OF the State gao.isoed
ridav IN The RjcA'oond Dts ak. are in
themselves good tidings. Tor when Rich
mond does well the rest of the State will
do we'll. It is fact greatly to the credit
of Richmond, and the State as well, that
in the depression of last year its manu-
features not only did not diminish, but
increased and gave employment to more
than a thousand people over the number
employed in 'S4. The other portions of
the State promise not to be idle in SO
For tho first time in three years some rail
road building Is to be commenced. A
road out of Lynchburg into North Carroll
ma is to be built, and two roads through
Russell. Dickerson and Buchanan coun-
ties, and up the Holston, in Smythe coun-
ty, are to be built. The rumors that the
Valley railroad is to be extended this year
also grow stronger.
In our own town the plans agitated for
1856 show that there is hopeful activity
In the minds of our people, which may be
either the cause or effect of better times
this year. A new company, headed by
solid and practical men, will be in the life
insurance field il few days. The two old
ones age preparing to enlarge then field of
operations. The most practical efforts are
being made to secure State Normal
School here, which would bring large
income to our town and largely increase
its population. The leading members Of
one of our denominations are putting
forth efforts to secure another Female
Seminary here; and a correspondence has
bssn commenced with view to establish
ing mandatory here of "a line of goods
for which Staunton can give peculiar fa-
cillties. These projects, whether they are
all realized or not, betoken an active and
hopeful mind among our people that will
not get left in the general race for pros
perity. 1t can be said of our local inter
ests; that none Of the past four years of
depression has found the people of Staun-
ton 80 necessarily w..chful and active in
inaugurating some enterprise for their
benefit.
II don't think there ever was time when
newspaper lying was SO general and SO mean
as at present. and there never was country
under the sun where it hourished as it does
in this The falsehoods daily spread before
the people in our newspapers, while they are
proofs of the mental ingenuity of those en-