The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-02-04
PRICES AND MONEY.
Tho Output of Manufactured Com
moditles Has Brought.
down. THE COST TO THE CONSUMER
Tho Home Market Docs it.-.A Few
Illustrations to the Polnt..-Tho IRE.
mendous freight Traffic So. Low
Prices No Longer u Proctor u Cause
of Disaster.
St,s York Commercial, Bul,oaa


Tho lowest prices ever known forvery
many products, appear to some people
evidence that business is bad. So 10
others tho extraordinary accumulation
OF money in New York banks, and the
unprecedented deposits, appear TO DO
proof that money is in small demand
for legitimate business, and therefore
the volume OF trade must DO small. But
the coin has another face. The accumu-
lation OF currency at this season proves
that settlements to q very large amount
have been made, and u vast body OF in
debtedness has been cancelled. The
low prices OF many products are tho di-
rect result OF the fact that the produc-
tion Of them is greater than ever.
a few illustrations will serve to show
how either set OF facts taken alone may
be misleading. Pig iron has been only
once lower than now, and then only for
afcw months in 1878. Then low prices
did mean great depression. The
production was then not quito n quarter
what it was in 1890, or in the last half
OF 1891. In 1878 it was only 2,577,3Gl
net tons, and Ind been nearly 100000
tons larger five years before. But it is
now at tho rate OF II ,000, 900 tons yearly,
and prices are low because the produc-
ton is so great. They are held down to
tho lowest point consistent with con-
tinned production by tho enormou out
put, and yet the output continues more
than four times as great rs it was tllir-
teen years ago, because the consump-
ton has corrcspondingly increased.
At the prevailing low prices more iron
is used in many industries, and the man
ufacture has made such progress that it
can now turn out 100000 tons in half
year, whereas with substantially tho
same range OF prices it was able to
turn out only 2,577,00O tons in the year
1878.
Cotton goods are also at about the
lowest point, and some of them arc
quoted ut the lowest prices ever known
in the trade. The same is true OF some
kinds OF WOODEN goods, though not OF
all. sBut the actual consumption OF
cotton i'll manufacture is greater than it
eve has been at any other time, and
figures have recently been published
tending to show that the same is true
in regard to the consumption OF wool
III the WOODEN manufacture as q whole,
although it is we'll known that in some
branches the production is at present
curtailed. Here, again, the enormous
production-ot WOODEN and cotton goods
is the obvious and direct cause OF the
low prices prevailing; and yet that
continuing production indicates that
the manufacturers are no longer COM
PEELED to stop their works by prices
rs low or lower than those which
in former times forced them to 4 general
suspension. Progress in the manufac-
ture, and expanding consumption with
the advantage OF cheaper goods, have
each done much to render low prices no
longer a proof or 4 cause OF disaster. At
q quarter OF q cents profit per ton per
mile, ONE railroads are prospecting
wonderfully to-day which would have
gone into bankruptcy with half a cent
per ton per mile years ago, because they
now car get, and in part by lower rates
are enabled to get, five or ten times as
much freight as they could get in former
years. The same principle applies to
production, and with especial force in
those branches OF manufacture where
the greatest economies can be obtained
by production on n large scale.
The accumulation OF money ut this
and other centres Is partly due to the
TACT that there is more money in the
country to accumulate. The circulation
is much greater than it. ever had been
before, has considerably increased in
the mOntE!Nof January, and largely in
the closing months of 1891, and while
the enormous supplies appeared to be
necessary during the iall, when unpre-
cedcnted crops were to be moved, and
even later when bad weather and bad
country roads throughout the West
made the marketing OF crops slow
and collections hard, the situation
has now entirely changed. The
Northwest has had 4 season OF good
weather and good roads, during which
crops have gone forward very freely,
collections have improved with great
rapidity at almost every centre OF trade,
and Indebtedness amounting to many
hundred millions has. been paid OF. The
money ior part OF this indebtedness be-
ing to Eastern lenders, directly or in
directly, has been coming back to East
crn monetary centres, and now awaits
other use or investment. The very
magnitude OF this accumulation is
therefore an indication OF the enormous
amount which was employed in moving
products and in paying debts.