The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-24
PERMANENT PROSPERITY SET IN.

1ndt the prosperity Wnlcn Is STdu-
ually growing in this country is not a
mere business squirt, as intimated 10y
some Republican would-be skeptics.
but is a permanent Improvement be-
comes more apparent every day.
Advances in the stock market are
not always indications in that direc-
ton. They may be succeeded by de-
presions in the period of a day. Nor
is a "boom" in some special branch of
trade to be depended upon as a sign
of business advancement. But when
the movement upward is general;
when closed workshops, mills and
factories are re-opened and enlarged;
when wages in a large number of in
dustries are increased; when both the
home and the foreign trade grows bet
ter every day; then the proofs are suffi-
cient that prosperity has actually set
in and that it is likely to continue.
These are the signs of the present.
They should be accepted in their full
Specification. They stamp Republican
representations as to the effecrs Of
tariff reform as utterly false, but
nevertheless to dispute them now is
worse than to stand convic.e Of error
in the past.
Papers of all political persuasions
are recognizing the fact that people
are working and earning good wages,
the country is producing at fair and
rising prices, and all the world, in
Guiding ourselves, is buying and pay
ing for what it buys. The advanced
ground gained by trade during the
past six weeks is maintained, and
every step forward is made the start
ing point for another. The restoration
Of wages to the rate prevailing before
the depression has become general.
not a day passing without reports Of
voluntary advances in manufacturing
industries.
On this subject we find the following
just and temperate remarks in the ed
itorial columns of the Boston Post:
In many cases the normal point has
been. reached and encouragement is
found in the fact that the advanced
position is maintained.
Viewing the industrial field at large,
the indications are most favorable.
Take the item Of bank clearings,
which is the measure of actual bust
ness transacted in which money passes
from hand to hand in the broader
channels Of trade. The aggregate for
the week just past shows an increase
over that of the preceding week, and
is the heaviest for two years, 1r since
early in June, 1898. The gain over the
corresponding week Of last year is
nearly one-third. Here is a contrast
which marks the difference between
depression and confidence
Take the price of staple articles CT
consumption, and it is seen hat the
upward movement continues. At the
bottom of the advance is iron, which
in it's rise lifts the entire list. And this
rise comes in response to the demand
for material of construction; which in
it's turn signifies that enterprise is in
spired by confidence and that capital
is going out into productive work. With
iron and steel, other staples advance
all along the line, and the healthy
establishes itself.
Another measure Of the situation is
business; and here similar encourage
ment is found. Reports of railway
earnings for the first quarter of the
current year have mostly come in, and
these show in general an increase in
gross receipts in net earnings. That is
to say, the actual business of transpor-
tation has improved, and economical
management has aided the improve
ment.
On whatever hand we look, the signs
of a permanent prosperity ushered in
by the business boom of the spring of
1895 are evident to the dullest observer.