Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-04-26
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL &c, 1895.
THE PROSPECT AHEAD.

The surest, but not the most welcome.
sign of the improving times is the breaking
forth of speculative movements. Business.
like Nature, begins anew it fruitful life
with fitful April showers, and then the
steady season sets in. The great specula-
tive craze in the oil regions Of Pennsylva-
MIA, Ohio and Indiana, where crude Oil, a
barrel of which for the last three years,
would only buy bushel Of fifty cent wheat,
has Jumped to g. so, may not be perma-
nent blessing, but it has helped wonderful
" to start things up. Fortunes are being
made there in single morning by specu-
lators: old, abandoned wells have been
started up again, and on some OF the days
of last week the Oil Exchange at Pitts
burg repeated the wild scenes of 1859-60.
This has been rock thrown into the placid
water; it has stirred up things and the Cir
cles are reaching the farthest shore.
True, it is gambling, but the existence of
gambling is sure symptom of money being
brought out of it's hiding. Where there is
no money, there is no gambling.
And the money seems to be peering out
looking for investments. We see that the
stranded booms are beginning to attract
attention. Near Salem last week some OF
a boom company S land sold for over $500
an acre. A real estate dealer in Richmond
said to the State last week that the NUT
terings of boom in real estate could be
int ho AZ, apdc hQiDO nJokpd
up quietly and land companies are being
organized. You may look out for the
boom"
Wheat does not weaken any, but is
strengthening, and the figures 81 now rule.
A few days ago Secretary Morton. the Sec
rotary of Agriculture, said cit is Won
derful how little one looks ahead. Now.
wheat for May delivery is quoted at about
fifty-five cents, believe. And yet when
recall the failure Of the Argentine wheat
fields, as we'll as wheat conditions all ovel
the world, 1 cannot get over a belief that
wheat will be ninety cents to 81 bushe
before the next crop. People don't see il
now"
There seems to be a general disposition
to accompany the improvement in thu
times by restoration of the old wages thai
had been cut down, where the business will
permit it. All the cotton manufacturers
of New Bedford, Mass, have raised thu
schedule of wages in their mills 10 per cent
and on last Friday posted this notice in thu
different departments: son and aftel
April %, 1895, the schedule of wages pre-
vious to the reduction of August, 1894
will be restored" The owners of the Fal
River and Providence, r. L., mills hav'
given the same notice. At Quinnebaug tn
wooden mills have returned to the wage
paid in 1898, an increase of Is per cent.
In Pittsburg, Pa, the Times rep. hal
collected the opinions of the big iron ant
steel manufacturers in that city. They
agree that business is from twenty-five tt
fifty per cent. better than in 1894, and tina
the conditions now are Identical with those
of this period of 1879, which was followed
by the greatest boom ever known in the irol
trade, when the rate for pudding which il
now $3.50 and 81, went to 1913 ton
There is nothing like boom now, but evel
the most conservative of the iron men sa
the outlook is good, and that an exceed
ingly prosperous future appears assured.