Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-07-03
"GoOd Times" Close at Hand.

The New York Herald says, lin spite
of the prophets of disaster there is no
longer room to doubt that the people
of the United States are entering upon
time of great commercial prosperity.
There appears to be hardly one line II
trade in which the signs of coming
growth in volume and improvement in
price are not plainly visible.
1t is unnecessary to trace in detail
the reasons for this universal revival
in business. The fundamental basis
whence it sprang seems to have been
the advance in the price of farm and
mining products. Wheat and other
grains, cotton, iron and coal, after
selling few months ago far below the
cost of production, began, near the
close of the winter, to regain their
rightful values. The producer, find
ing that he was losing money at the
prices then prevailing, ceased to force
his products ON the market and waited
for better times.
ment-partly natural and partly specu-
lative-until the price of wheat, for
example, rose more than sixty per
cent. while cotton was nearly equally
favored. The result has been that the
farmer, the planter and the miner have
been able not only to sell their &C
cumulated stocks at good profit, but
to find a market for the products OF
their labor for several months ahead.
In the "hard times" which began
late in 1892 and which reached their
lowest depths last winter, the whole
population resorted to the closest
economy. All articles of every day
necessity were kept in use as long as
possible, and the consumption of food
and other perishable goods was held
down to the lowest figures. Conse-
quently money was saved and the
stock of goods in consumers hands
was replenished only in small quanti-
ties.
When farmers, planters and miners
saw their way clear to selling their
output at fair prices they began to
supply the places of many things which
they had worn out. A grand rush to
buy everything that is used in the
American home set in, and it is this
movement, now only fairly started,
that is putting life into every work
shop in the land and heralding the
dawn of an era of good times"
That this statement is based upon
certainty may be shown by the reports
of an improved business outlook from
all parts of the country. In the last
day or two the following instances of
expanding growth may be cited -
There is satisfaction expressed
throughout the great manufacturing
district about Pittsburg, Pa, over the
adoption of wage scale by the en-
ployers and the employed in the iron
and steel trade. A schedule lasting
for eleven months has just been signed
guaranteeing steady work, unbroken
by strikes or lockouts.
The Alabama Car Service Associa-
ton reports that for last May seven
thousand more cars were handled than
for May, 1894. In Jefferson county
alone the coal output mined this year
will exceed that of the whole of Ala
bama for 1894. The same condition of
the coal and iron trade is reported in a
higher degree in Tennessee.
The Illinois Steel Company has been
obliged to advance the price of steel
rails from about seventeen dollars to
twenty-five dollars ton, and the de-
mand is such that the company's out
put for ninety days ahead is already
bought. For ordinary construction
work iron cannot be produced fast
enough to supply the needs of waiting
customers. Wages have been increased
and full force has been taken on,
numbering more than seven thousand
men.
At Port Chester, N. Y, the bolt and
nut works are running day and night,
and the old rate of wages has been re-
stored.
In the potteries at Trenton, N. j.,
and at Wheeling, W. Va, wages have
been increased from ten to forty per
cent and the plants are being enlarged.
Cotton particularly in the
South-are raising wages, increasing
their force and enlarging their ca
pacity At High Point and States
VILLA G. LARGE additions to the