St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1896-08-08
PROPHETS or FALsEHooos.
Unreliable soothsayers OF tho .sAdvanca
Agent OF Prosperity.,s

Unreliable soothsayers OF the ..Advaneo
Agent OF Prosperity
The republican prophets were cock
sure two weeks ago that the no1nina
ton of Mckinley and an uneqaiyocal
declaration for the gold standard at ST.
Louis would Instantly INTRODUCES an
era of good times.
They told US that confidence would
be restored at once. at home and
would hasten to invest. and the wait
ing enterpreneur to- set the halted ex-
petitions Of enterprise in motion.
They told lis that British investors
who have over 5000, ,a0o, 900 all ready To
put into things, and who for months
have been unable to get two per cent.
for their money, would fall over one
another in grabbing for American Sc
curities. American captains OF in
dustry would give the command to fail
in and double quick march to the goal
Z of glorious success.
The convention. pressed the button
according to the programme, but some-
how the rest is not done. The British
investor doesn't invest. His ille cap
ital continues to accumulate, and the
rate of interest continues to sink, but
that promised confidence in American
Securities does not appear. And the
American who was cnly waiting for the
advance agent and the platform doesn't t
pull the lever, and the marching doesn'b t
start up. Either these people have no
faith in the advance agent or they do
not accept it as axiomatic that the re-
publican party is the whole thing.
Look at the facts. The bank clear
ings last week were Il per cent. less
than they were for the corresponding
week last year, and outside of New
York they were 10.s per cent less.
There was a decrease in 44 out Of 63
clearing house cities. There was de-
crease in all the principal cities and
in all but two of the cities having
clearings of as much as $4,000, 900 week.
ly These two cities were Minneapolis
and Omaha. The clearings at all cities
were less than 100000. .00G, or at the
rate of less than s46,So0, 900 600 for the
year, which is "a per cent. less than the
highest record. This does not speak
we'll for the advance agent.
Neither do the reports of the conn
mercial agencies in their reviews Of the
situation of trade and industry. Dun
| 8 Co. report that signatures have been
given BY enough cotton mills of Fall
river to insure a temporary stoppage
Some New England mills have already
closed, and practically all the south
ern cotton mills will be represented
at a meeting Monday with the same
object. Woolen mills are acting with
out concert, but IA are mentioned in the
dispatches as having closed this week.
According to the same authority the
annual stoppage in the iron industry
bids fair to last longer than usual this
year, owing to important eontroFer-
sizes as to wages.
The Railway Age reports that track
was laid on only 7s8 miles of lines dur
ing the first half of the year, against
1867 miles in. the first half of 1892, The
Age says: There are hundreds Of en-
terprises waiting for more fayorable
times, and if the financial credit of the
UuIttd 0tdtes III tils % - " lHfSoeoA',
in this country and Europe is not de-
stroyed by the Endorsement Of q debased
money standard in November, as it is
not likely to be, there will be much rail-
way building in the near future" But
the Age does not intimate that a single
one of these waiting enterprises has
been put in motion by the action at
st: Louis.
The event has demonstrated that the
prophets Of the advance agent are false
prophets, ais are all those who foreteu
prosperity as a result of political move
ments which are hostile to commerce.
and destructive to the extent that they
are successful of commercial and in
dustrial liberty. Chicago Chronicle.