The morning call., 1895-01-11

clearings for the year as compared with
1893, and 26 per cent as compared with
1892
The failures for the year 1894 were less
than half as numerous as those OF 1898.
being only 1885 in number; though the
failures in New York and Pennsylvania
show an increase. The soundest portion
of the country appears, to be the west.
Taking the country as whole. the tall-
ures were 1875 to every thousand hrms
doing business. This is the more credit
able, as prices OF commodities reached IN
precedented depths, the average being only
6S.73 per cent of the prices which ruled IN
1860; during the year 1894. iron and steel
products declined IA per cent, wooden ana
cotton products about 10 per cent, WOOL
1874 per cent and wages IL per cent. Still,
the production of finished goods in all
lines increased about s per cent In the
months of November and Decent Der,
though consumption did not respond.
Taking steel rails as a sample OF the
whole tie sales are only about half what
they were at the same season a year ago.
The Year 1894 witnessed the lowest
prices on record for wheat and cotton. the
cause being an unprecedented accumuia-
ton of stocks, coupled with reduced de-
maud at home and abroad. SO far as
wheat is concerned, it is evident that the
actual production has been very much In
excess of the amount reported TO the Agrl-
cultural Bureau. Indeed, the returns OF
that bureau have ceased to command at
tention among dealers, it is so Impossible
to reconcile them with the course OF the
markets. As 10 cotton, the 7,000. 0OO-pale
mark was passed on January 4, and as that
point was not reached last year till April
20 it is fair to assume that this year will
show the banner crop OF the staple.
Planters will not realize as much money as
they have done with some smaller crops,
and some of them are preparing TO devote
larger portion of their land to the growth
of food crops this year; but no country
was ever ruined by an overproductlon OF
merchandise property.
An important feature in the situation is
the increased product of gold, and 1t is not
easy to predicate results with confidence.
In the year 1898 the United States product
of gold showed an increase OF 81 $4,000
over 1892 In 1894 the Director Of the
Mint reekons the product at $43. 000,00 an
increase OF S7,0G0,000 over 1898. while the
Witwatersrand district in South Africa
will probably be credited with yield
equally large. Ever since the phenomenal
yield of the California placers practically
ceased in the ffties, the gold product OF
the United States has t1uctuated round
thirty millions. An American increase of
30 per cent must produce effects on trade !;
and the Witwatersrand district is an en-
tirely new source of supply. Ii our miners
can succeed in reviving hydraulic mining
they can easily add 100000 year to
the presen. product of the State and the
figures of 1855 for the country at large may
again be reached; while the African fields,
PLAYING the part which Australia played in
1885, might raise the worlds output TO
the aggregate which was the prime factor
in the outburst of commercial activity that
preceded our civil war.
Commerce is not waking to the prospect
and yet 1t is manifest. The country is still
suffering, as it suffered in 1898, from a
want of confidence caused by losses in
Cured through overproduction of steel
products, textile products, and finished
products generally. That is a trsnsitory
evil When manufacturers cannot sell
their wares they will stop making them
and In time equilibrium will be restored.
In the meantime the substratum upon
which trade rests-the production of raw
understandable property-grow sounder
daily. The United States raised in 1894
more cotton, more food. more fruit. mora
wine, than it ever did. and more gold than
it had produced for forty years. In such
a country commercial depression cannot