Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-17
THE FINANCIAL QUIET.



Perhaps tits becauss have drifted ashore,
as 1t we're, out of the moving current OF
business, but certainly It seems to me that a
remarkable quiet at present pervades the
financial world. The operators on the stock
Exchange do their best, from time to time,
to create little ripples of excitement in
special securities, but they do not make
them last long nor spread far. Like the
calm, bright autumn weather which we have
so long been enjoying, and for which trust
the millions of people who participated in
the Columbus celebratioa were duly thank
full. financial affairs go on, just now, tran
quilly, from day to day, the world over and
give no indication of an Impending storm.
street may have in store for us, do not
know, for although l am on speaking terms
with most of them, they do not take me into
their confidence.
ments, which was recently threatened by
the foreign demand for the metal ,and by the
constant increase of our paper money I'M
der the act of July, 1890, has been post
to draw from US for the present, and will
supply herself hereafter from European
stocks, while the crop movement is absorb
ing our surplus currency and thus tempOr-
ar1ly averting danger from that source. The
free silver agitation has been pretty effect
ually killed, and whether Mr.. Cleveland is
0itCttu freS1UcuC, OF MT. d0rrl3On, 1t mas no
chance OF resurrection. since both of these
gentlemen are pledged to veto any bill that
may be passed by Congress IN its behalf.
The Country Safe in Any Event.
That our citizens are generally impressed
with the belief that the result Of the Presi-
dental election, whatever it may be, will
have no bad effect upon finance and trade,
is evident from the tameness of the CAM
paign. Among all my acquaintance 1 do
not know OF one who expresses solicitude
about the result of 1t. and even the betting
men are idle, from the want of any indica-
tion of the drift of public opinion in either
direction. The Republicans concede that
Mr.. Cleveland is an honest man and will
faithfully administer the duties of his Sec
ond term of office as he did those of his first
The Democrats, in turn, concede that Mr..
Harrison Is able and upright, and will not
let his party do any mischief IL 1T should re-
turn to power.
What fntrigues and secret negotiations
may be lurking beneath this smooth surface
of things do not know, Of course, and cleo
tions. ton New YorS State ought ny 9aturaliy tn f9tS TO-
go Democratic, and II it does, Mr.. Cleveland
will be elected; but free trade talk and the
pertinacity with which writer's and
Speakers insist on making him tho cham
pion of State bank currency may turn the
scales against him. The careless remark of
a prea cher about Rum, Romanism and Re-
DelllOu lOSG inc SCaCe 10 MI. Bla1n0 IN 1854,
when the disaffected Democrats, under
John Kelly's leadership, had surely given it
to him, and this talk of reviving wildcat
money may serve Mr: Cleveland the same
votes that would otherwise elect him.
Business Fairly Good All Around.
The condition OF business throughout the
country may, think, fairly be called good.
As usual there are many dissatisfied grum-
h = Ix<.t tod Oh
pant speculation which prevailed just before
the Barring collapse has died away, leaving
numerous schemers with unsuccessful pro-
jects on their hands and obligations which
thev are unable to meet. But that in this
part Of the country at least, people are pros
porous, the experience of the past week,
right here in this city. abundantly demon
strates. The bare fact that so many hun
visitors @ 81 could afford the time % and % the money @
they devoted to the enjoyment OF the
attending the Columbus cele-
bration, shows that they at least are not suf.
fering from want.
The prices paid for seats to view the pa
rades alone prove that those who paid them
had more money than they required for
their absolute necessities. I saw, moreover,
numbers of plainly dressed men and women
giving % cents apiece for boxes and barrels
to stand upon, and am told that the Dusi-
ness was thriving one atevery point where
the expenditures upon our celebration for
decorations, illuminatfons, parades, plat
forms, transportation and refreshments are
an overwhelming refutatton of the charges
often made by demagogues that our people
are sinking steadily into degradation and
poverty, and that the most heroic measures
are necessary to prevent them from going
to ruin.
Evidences of Plenty Everywhere.
I admit that have no right to judge of
the con dition of the entire nation by what I
see around me here in New York 1t may
be, possibly, that this city is prosperous
when other parts of the country suffer, just
as the deepest part of a pond, after long
drought, is full of water, while the shallower
portions are dry. Against this have only
to urge the glowing descriptions, illustrated
with pictures. which 1 find in newspapers
and periodicals, of the prosperity of this,
that and the other Western and Southern
town or city, of which even the name is
novelty to me, and the enterprises which
come into Wall street for capital, backed
with details of the wealth that lies awaiting
him.
Even the strikes of the past IL months
prove, by their very costliness, the comfort
able condition of the men engaged in them.
If these men were, as some assert goaded to
frenzy by insufficient wages, they could not,
without any wages at all, long hold out.
most in the present condition of finance and
trade, and with whom / sincerely sympa-
thize ale those who ran in debt for farms
and other property during the era of high
Tor them under the reign of low prices. For.
think it cannot be successfully disputed
that the prices of agricultural productions,
metals Except gold}, and staple goods are
lower than they were ten years
igo, and, certainly they are lower in this
country than they were before the resump-
tion of specie payments in 1879. Nor is it to
oe denied that the maintenance of gold
standard is the CHIEF cause Of the iall in
prices since the resumption, and that the
ldoption of silver standard would raise
prices, and thus ligIten the burdens of
leDtors.
One Mans Poison Is Another's Bread.
But the misfortune of one set of citizens
n this respect is to the benefit of another.
The earners of wages and the holders of
money obligations. both large and small,
profit by the greater quantity OF commodi-
les which the dollar buys as much as the
ellers lose. It must be remembered, too,
hat only few of what arc called the credt- |
or class are people of large means. A news |
,aper OF this city recently compiled with |
,reat care list of men throughout the |
,ountry worth q million OF dollars and more |
piece, and they only mum Dered about 1000 |
.ltogether. This, in population of 10, O00,-
90, ts but one in $4,000. or II we count none
tut the 10, ,000, 600 voters OF the country, one |
n 1000. Or these 1000 besides, many are |
loing business with borrowed money, and
re therefore not creditors, but debtors; SO
hat it is q great mistake to say that the
'old standard rebounds to the profit of the
'ery rich alone.
Debtors must also remember that they ran
n debt OF their own free will, and ii they
ave been disappointed in the result of tho
'peratiOn they have no right to call upon
he rest of their fellow citizens to pay the
ost OF helping them out OF the scrape. In
many cases the property they bought ON