The Monticellonian., 1894-10-26
PROSPERITY RETURNING.
Improvement in Business Since the Pas
 sage of the New Tnrir RiII.

sage of the New Tariff Bill. Special reports from the most impor- tant industrial and trade cente-s of nine great states west of the Ale ghanies all concur substantially in saying tbat there has been a decided improvement in business since the tariff bin assumed it's final shape and became assured.
 In some localities the drought has affected trade rather seriously, but the people know that the democrats are not to blame for that, whatever re- publican stumpers may say. From most points the reports are decidedly favorable, from others they are only moderately so, while from some they are positively rosy. About the only case of blues is reported from South Bend Ind. Even there the worst that can be said is that industrial inaetiv- ity is anticipated after 6 busy summer. The story is told in one sentence: While nearly all of the larger fac tories have had big forces at work all summer, it is understood that in sever al instances these forces are not as large now and the prospect is that they will be smaller by the beginning or middle of winter"
 This is the very worst reported from any point by correspondents who were specially cautioned to state facts with put bias or coloring. From some points of great importance, St. Louis for in stance, the reports are that business has not been better at this season for H.lw 1. ports show, to state it very moderate ly, that from Pennsylvania to Colorado and from the Ohio river to Canada business has already improved, the volume of trade is larger, and indus trial establishments are doing much more than they were from four to six months ago There was no such im- provement in so shor. time after the panic of 1873, when there was no tariff reform and the republicans had things all their own way.
 And the clearing house returns con firm for the whole country the reports of correspondents for this great cen tral group of states. Outside of New York the clearings were greater in both August and Septemb Der than they were in the same months last year, av- eraging about sixteen per cent greater for the two months. They were less than in 1891 and 1899, it is true, though not so very much less than in 1891. But those were the boom years pre- ceding the panic, when speculation ran high, credits were greatly ex. banded and clearings were consequent ly large beyond precedent. The vol ume of business as indicated by the clearings is already up to the average for some years before the speculative boom.
 In the above statement the New York clearings are not considered. There there Is still much smaller volume apparently than there was a year ago. Bnt that is due in part to a smaller volume of stock transac tions, and in part to the fact that the clearings of these transactions are now made through the stock exchange clearing house and do not appear in the regular bank clearings There is reason to believe that the,volume of strictly mer- cantilc business is increasing in New York, as it is in most other cities.
 There is no room Ut all for doubt that the country Is once more on the mp grade and making rapid advance on the road to prosperity. No such early and rapid recovery from panic depression has occurred since 1857 and 1858, when the country was nearer to free trade than at any time since the first decade of the century Chicago IIaro11