The news & observer., 1897-08-18
RECOGNIZE THE NEW ERA.
Conditions Have Changed and We Ought
All to Recognize the Fact and Adjust
Ourselves to Present Conditions.
To the Editor:

4 q bttt EsAltNIs
With the close of the war the South
entered upon new era. From pastoral
people we were by process Of evolution,
produced by already existing conditions,
transformed into n great manufacturing
pcople, With cherished hopes crushed
families ties broken, gaunt poverty stalk
ing abroad, this was the day of sore
trials" hut strong in the consciousness of
her rcctitude. strong in the faith of the
natural advantages she possessed in raw
material fuel aud watcr-power, favor
able climatic conditions, moderate cost
OF Living, an intelligent body of wage
carriers, anxious to earn an honest live
lhood. inspired by an energy equaled only
by the demands made upon il, giant-like
she arises from the environments by
which she is surrounded to take her place
among the manufacturing people of the
earth. The material result Of the impetus
contributed by these varied forces
working in harmony has been to place us
lin certain lines of heavy fabrics and
heavy yarns, etc.l. in the van of the man
ufaCturing interests OF our whole country,
millions of money being invested, until
now, throughout our whole southland, in
city and village, may he found the hum
and hustle of machinery. For twenty-five
years this new and increasing force has
been gradually tending to create and es-
tahish a scale of production unknown in
modern times, Prices for goods. rewards
of effort, our scale of living, were such
as that we might look down with pity
and with a degree OF contempt upon the
corresponding conditions in the older
In
thing would sell, any amounts would be
taken up at a fair profit. The gait be-
came rapid. High pressure was the rule
If depression came there was plenty OF
fuel TO start the fires of speculation. But
every epoch must have its immutable law
of change. This season of careless, riot
Gus prosperity is no exception to her rule
With the close of the eighties it was ta-
pering down, and by 1898 it had about
come to an end.
From this history of these twenty-five
years important lessons are to be learned
Many have doubtless profited by them
Many have failed to grasp them. Many
there are who have failed to see in the
cautions, restricted business of the past
three years other than the prevailing con-
ditions of periodical depression, which
have occurred during the past twenty-five
years, assigning with each recurring sea-
son some different reason for its failure
to pass away. Next season they have felt
the rush will begin, buyers will be hun
CRY, orders will be satisfactory, every
thing will again be lovely on the liberal
and expansive scale of the greatest coun-
| try on earth. We believe that men who
are entertaining these expectations and
are waiting for the return of good times
as measured by the standard of past eX-
perience are waiting for impossibility.
We believe that a crisis has now been
reached in our manufacturing history,
| but it is not one of black despair, but it
is period requiring greater care, greater
economy; period of stronger cOmpeti-
ton, one in which old machinery and easy
going methods find no place, period in
imical to speculation, one demanding
economy in personal and business expen-
diture, and it may prove to be a period
in which we may have to disabuse our
minds of the idea that we are to re-
main peculiar people apart from and ex-
empted from the laws that govern other
countries. There has been a strong tend
ency to look down from immeasurable
height upon "pauper Europe" and to feel
that economy and conservatism and fore
thought SAVIOR Of meanness and pusillan-
unity, that a cheap coat means cheap
man. One result of this attitude is that
any evidence OF the necessary tendency
toward the world level has been resented
and all sorts of legislative devices have
been invoked to ward off the inevitable.
One ascribes these conditions to the Sher-
man act, another to the tariff, another to
the outflow of gold, or something else
which is solely responsible for these ills
with which we are beset, totally disre-
garding a system Of wasteful and ill-reg-
ulated production, reckless price-cutting,
of over-trading, of unwarranted national
and personal extravaganza. We again re-
peat that the lesson to be drawn from the
foregoing is that the country must come,
and is coming, to business methods which
govern the rest Of the world; that the
law of supply and demand must prevail.
with that of demand occupying the chief
seat in the market places; that the en-
ployment Of old fashioned machinery and
the making Of worthless goods will be
improbable; that manufactured goods
having merit in them must be sold at a
profit, and let This supersede the present
motto "beat out your competitor at any
cost" and we would emphasize the
point that hand to mouth buying, both in
raw and manufactured goods, which has
caused much complaint among the larger
dealers for the past three years, is no
transient result Of passing depression,
but is come to stay and must be reck-
oned with. Those very people who need to
have their attention directed to these con-
siderations may consider us pessimistic
and discouraging. 1t should be neither.
We are gradually approximating to the
world level in prices. Is not this the peda-
gogue that is to take us by the hand, to
| lead us to the rich schools of commerce
that are open to us in South America,
China and other inviting fields, which
we might enter at will? We hazard the
opinion that within our borders we have
the machinery and appointments to fur
nish textile fabrics for not only popula'
ton of seventy millions, but of a hundred
millions, and We thing the time is not far
distant when we will be compelled to
seek a market in these distant places
from our surplus stocks, and one which
there is reason to believe might be made
highly remunerative. Doubtless much is
expected from the tariff changes now IN
progress, but this is only experimental.
Give us market for our goods
which will absorb our raw material and
our unemployed labor. In this we think
we will find more relief than in all the
political theories that can be deduced.
J. M. NOME.