Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-02-11
n rs AM RosH.
An Expert Begins Again That Old Talk'
OF Over Supply

| An Expert Begins Again That Old TALK
/ OF Over Supply.
There is no more egregious blunderer
than the so-called qualified expert.
Expert testimony has become the laugh
ing stock of our courts. By gazing too
long on one special branch of a subject
the experts Judgment becomes warped
till his own speciality assumes undue inn
portance in his eyes. Its details are
magnified and his views of other lines of
thought are proportionately narrowed.
Nowhere do we find more striking
example of this truth than in the
science of finance. A recent editorial in
| the Philadelphia Press affords a good
instance. The Press prides itself on its
keen financial editorials, which are
written by one of the best informed
men in the country on some phases OF
| the question, but one who bases his
views mainly if not entirely on the con-
| dition of affairs on the various stock
exchanges.
In discussing the present situation he
says: THE capital so long in hiding has
begun to move into new enterprises.
| In November, state, county and munich
pal bonds sold to the amount of $34, 600,-
900 and the New York banks expanded
their loans Sos, 100000 in the same
months, etc. This return of capital to
active use viii quicken every form OF
industry, ETC."
This is the stock brokers' idea Of
prosperity-a demand for bonds and a
plentiful use of borrowed money. But
as we read on in the same editorial we
find other statements which the writer
has apparently overlooked in his desire
to be prophet of prosperity. He says:
Last week, as for a week before, the
general course of prices was downward.
Wheat fell three cents a bushel, recov-
ering a cent on Saturday. Corn lost
half a cent bushei during the week.
Lard and pork both fell. Cotton lost
ar eighth of a cent pound" etc., etc.
Hides have fallen seven and one-fourth
per cent. in two weeks. In fact the
general course of prices Is downward.
Railroad earnings are also low for No
vember and show no signs of advance
as yet"
Trying to account for the anomaly of
low prices and prosperity he goes on to
say that with the exception of wheat,
which is abnormally high, owing to the
famine in India, as every one knows,
there is an over supply of all the COM
modities. Grain, cotton, sugar, coffee,
etc., have all been piling up while the
demand has not increased. In some
cases prices have been held UP by COM
binations of manufacturers, but in
such cases sales have fallen off pro-
portionately. Meanwhile the treasury
deficit for the year is Sal 100000
Thus we have a condition of ''pros-
perity" where our national income is
too small by SAL 100000 TO meet the de-
mands upon it and our national re-
sources are being lowered by n decrease
in our earning power as measured by
the prices of our staple commodities and
the earnings of our great railroads and
factories. Is not this prosperity tho
prosperity of the spendthrift who Is
spending more than his income and in
ringing each year on his capitalp Every
months shows a growing black storm
cloud of debt, while lowering about like
vultures after carrion are the keen faces
of the pawnbrokers waiting the end
which is sure to come. This is the only
prosperity that we can find evidence of
in the Press editorial and it COMFORTS
so thoroughly with the expectations of
all bimetallists that our only disap-
pointment arises from the inability of
the writer to appreciate the situation
he has himself described. Western
Rural