The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1896-08-08
4 Few Business Pointers.

\ Few Business Pointers.
can best serve a patriotic purposes
and their own interests by keeping
cool and not allowing fear to run
away with their better judgment.
There is no immediate danger and but
little in prospect. Mckinley is not
elected, but his chances are so reason
ably certain that the margin of sue
cess is all in his favor, since POpu-
lism has signed its own death warrant,
and in so doing has reduced the pos
sibility of Democratic achievement to
a minimum, including the damage to
be inflicted between now and the cleo
ton. Physically, the country is in a
most excellent condition. The mark
cts are reasonably firm: crop pros
poets are good; commodity output is
up to the average of recent years:
stocks are not heavy. and in some
cases are very light, while the en-
pleyment of labor is at least equal to
what it has been in similar previous
periods. Money is not scarce, and
the banking rates show an increased
demand as a result of an expansion
in business. Collections are general
ly good.
The conditions preclude any rea-
sons for a scare. Conservatism in
method is at all times a valuable fac
tor, but can be made SO pronounced
that the object toward which it is *
ercised is prevented from becoming a
fact accomplished: it may ruin what
it seeks to develop. A conservative
power is necessarily opposedtO scares.
yet it may be carried so far that it
creates the very thing its followers
desire to avoid. INSTRUMENTATION
is a negative force that may become
positively dangerous, both to its ad-
vocates and those against whom it is
used, So that it actually degenerates
into a means for closing the channels
of trade and a partial stoppage of
business. 1t is in itself a scare and
produces a vast amount of mischief.
These are facts that do not require
demonstration: they are self-evident
and conclusive. Yet it is becoming
evident that business men are induced
by a fear of the future to disregard
present possibilities and that their OPP
erations are limited to an extent moi
justified, apparently, by existing con-
ditions. 1t is we'll enough at all times
to look ahead and to provide against
all possible contingencies, but it is
time to call a halt when this policy
becomes so pronounced in effect that
business is made to suffer an unnec-
essary punishment. This may not be
the case to-day, but any further de-
velopnent of the present restriction
policy is apt to induce such a curtail-
ing of merchandise movement that the
country will be made to suffer in a
greater degree than from the influence
of a justifiable scare. or one which
does not actually exist to-day. 1t is
a matter that appeals directly and
with peculiar force to those interests
which are in favor of sound money.
as they certainly are infavor OF sound
business principles. both in policy
and management, and if they assume
the position of alarmists owe money
matters to-day they will merely aid in
making them worse than they really
are. The proverbial common sense OF
the American people will assuredly
assert itself by November, unless the
business leaders thwart its purpose by
assuming a fear thatacareful scrutiny
shows TO be without Justification. De-
spite a thermometric influence. it is
time to keep cool and not to get hot
under the politico-business collar.
Globe Democrat.