The representative., 1897-02-10
SHOOTING NIAGARA.
An Able Article on the Financial
Situation.
WHY THE TIMES GROW WORSE.
tPhiladelphia American.)


The new year does not open with
the promise of pros porous times. The
outlook is far from cheerful. The dis
agreeable truth is that industrial
stagnation and trade depression grow
more pronounced from day to day,
while the business world stands in
feverish anticipation Of impending
disaster. Prices are falling and conf
dence is lacking; profits are swept
away by depreciation Of property; the
ability Of men to pay their debts is
undermined; failures multiply: pro-
duction is being curtailed, and wage
earners thrown into enforced idleness.
The whole community is wrapt in un-
certainty. Merchants hesitate to sell
from fear that they will not be paid.
Seeing bankruptcy on every hand,
they hesitate to grant customary
credits to their customers. Without
such credits their customers cannot
buy. So trade is at StandStill. The
merchants etfecting but limited
amount of sales greatly restrict their
manufactured goods is limited. And
why all this? Why is 1T that the mer-
chant fears to sell on credit? Why is
it he can effect but a limited amount
of sales?
He fears to sell on credit, not be-
cause the risk OF payment is great.
But this is not the root of the trOu-
BILE. He fears to sell on credit, not be-
cause he doubts the honesty Of his
customers. His customers are the
same as of old; they are as honest as
of old. yet he has not the same conf
dence in them. He doubts their
promises to pay. not because he
doubts their intentions, but because
he doubts their ability. He sees
prices falling; he feels that the re-
tailers cannot dispose of the goods
they buy, and he knows if they can
into money, they cannot pay them for
the goods he sold them on credit, and
if they cannot pay him he cannot pay
the manufacturer And why is it re-
tailers cannot sell the products of the
loom and the soil to the ultimate con-
sumerS? Simply because these con-
sumers do not possess the money with
which to buy. The farmer has not
money to buy the clothing he needs.
Consequently the retailer Of clothing
can make but limited sales, and as his
sales are restricted he is perforce
obliged to limit his purchases of the
merchant, who must in turn cut down
his orders of manufactured goods.
And so, when he got down to the root
of industrial stagnation and trade de-
preston, we find it is the impoverish-
ment Of the farmer. Until we do
something to better the condition of
the farmer and his ability to buy,
trade depression will will not lift.
And as the farmer is worse off than
ever for money, as his products have
brought him less money this year
than ever before, we are not surprised
when we read that 1.-THE moderate
trade revival which followed the last
presidential election has been disap-
pointing, in that, aside from the
Christmas demand, business has been
more unsatisfactory for a month past
than at corresponding period in
many years" Such is the report we
read in Bradstreet's and when we
turn to the Philadelphia Press, pa
per that was especially vociferous in
predicting swift business boom the
moment Mr.. Mckinley should be elec-
ted, we read these omnibus words:
'Prices steadily fall. The revival Of
III NONCIl UCI Has Slul-
ply Increased stocks. Sales did not
come" Consequently, manufacturers
who borrow money to extend produc-
tion, counting on the sale of their pro-
ducts to put them in funds with
which to meet such inde ebtedness, find
themselves much embarrassed. As
day after day passes without bringing
them an opportunity to dispose of
their products their anxiety grows, for
every day brings nearer the due-day of
the notes they issued. in order to get
the funds to increase production in
expectation of an anticipate demand
which has not materialized.
All this we foresaw; of the dangers
Of building upon the promised revival
OF prosperity that the gold organs as
sured US would follow Mr.. McKinley's
election. we warned manufacturers
both before and after that event. We