The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-06-21
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
MONEY AND 81 SIN ES>.


for such advances as were made i'll prices
of wheat and cotton. The official crop re-
port would have received no confidence
had it kept pace with speculative stories
in proclaimiug disaster. as Snch reports
have done for wears, but when it fell far
behind them its influence was great. 9th
err accounts have been decidedly more
favorable so that stocks and some branches
of industry have taken 4 new start. No
other has been more sensational i'll its
movement of prices than the iron industry,
though some scattered advances have APP
pearcd in cotton goods, shoes recording
no change, leather and hides being less
strong in tone, and WOODEN products
changin" only in carpets, which have
slightly declined. But iron and stocks,
quite in accordance with old ideas. advance
together.
REMOTE CAUSES OF PROSPERITY.
New York Evening Post The steady
increase in the volume of business, the
general rise in wages. aud the advance IN
the price of most commodities continue
to cause great embarrassment to certain
Republican editors who seem to care more
for the prosperity of their party than for
that of their country. They find it neceS-
sarv to construct theories for the eNplana-
ton of this prosperity which are AS hard
to work as the Ptolemaic system of astron-
omv, and which involve consequences
which these theorists can hardly
have considered The New York III
bune, for instance, plants itself squarely
upon the ground that the recent depres-
sion in business was due, not to the &C
tual legislation of the Democrats, but to
gloomy anticipations on the part OF the
business men of the country as to what
that legislation mi CHIT be. On the other
hand, the present activity i'll business Is
declared to be due to cheerful hopes OF
what the Republicans are going to do
when they come into power two years
or more from now.
One can hardly believe that even the
most pcrscvcring and devoted readers of
the Tribune accept such theories as this
as altogether adequate. The theory i'm
plies that a large majority of orr citizens
| put the Democratic party in power, and
| then Immediately became so frightened at
what they had deliberately done as to bring
| on a panic 1t implies that the dissipa-
ton of the surplus of the National Treas
| ury by the Republicans the reduction of
| revenue by the removal of the duty on
| sugar to the extent of forty or fifty million
| dollars, the increase of expenditure by the
| pension act to an equal extent and the
multiplication, by the silver act, of the de-
| mand obligations of the Government
| payable in gold, had no effect, either to-
| gether or separately, upon the business
world 1t implies that cessation of the is
sue of these demand obligations, the
| check upon pension extravaganza, and the
substitution of revenue duties for those
| intended to hinder commerce, likewise
| had no effect. The theory, moreover, en-
TREY ignores the material basis Of pros
perity. the actual increase of physical,
| "
deserves some consideration.
1t is to be noticed furthermore, that the
| cheerful hopes ofprosperity which now an
| innate business men are according to this
theory, wholly indefinite We hear of no
business associations that urge the Repub-
| licans to restore the Mckinley tariff. The
| Republican politicians, ever, do not Ven
ture to propose any 'taritftinkering eN-
cent in the most indefinite and meaning
| less language. Nor do the Republicans
| dare to make any positive declarations
| cercerning the currency. They do not
know what their PA Congressman think
about it, or what they will do about it.
| The only thing really certain about the
! future is that no very miscellaneous legisla-
! ton will be permitted by President Cleve-
| land and if any theory of prosperity
that attributed it solely to anticipation of
governmental action We're tenabe, much
| could be said in favor of the view that
| confidence in the President was the cause
OF the present buoyant feeling.
ations cannot be ignored Our National
Government has vast capacity for waste
| and Il considerable capacity for mischief,
| both of which capacities it has certainly
exercised, while its beneticent action has
| been most conSpicuously exhibited i'll re
peainr its own acts But let us recall the
fact that Il single week of hot weather
last summer, affecting 4 comparatively
small section of our country, gave Us Il
corn crop of 800, oO0. 900 bushels in place
of one that might under possible condi-
tons have amounted to $500, 000, 90 bush
els. The loss to the country from this hot
wave was, at Il moderate computation.
SCOT. 900, 900 and if we reckon the results
of the increased price of feed and of beef
products, it was perhaps double this sum.
The loss of trcights to the railroads on
accout of this scanty crop was perhaps
SGT, 600, 900, the interest upon 81 zoe, 900, =
900 of bonded debt. 1t is speaking with
in bounds to say that timely rains in May
and June may often be worth to this cOun-
anyone doubt that such factors as these
have something to do with general pros
pcritv: If our railroads had showed for
last year gross earnings $4,000, 900 great
CT than they were in fact, would not the
confidence of business men have revived
even if PA Democrats have been elected
to Congress instead of 50 many Republic
cans.
The fallacv of such a theory as that
which we criticisc cons lists in its selection
of one factor as the cause of results to
which many factors contribute The in
come tax. mischicvous as ii was. in what
it forcbodcd more than in what il accom-
plised, was not iiea-bitc in comparison
with an untimcly frost. The Mckinley
act, barbarous and unprinciplcd as ii was
was ncutralZcd by a great wheat crop
The most reliable and the best FOODS
for the money. the most obli9ine clerks.
No r,r.-t assert .J lt,,I- ,f ,r,,.I. az Il,