The times., 1898-08-14
Good Reasons for Prosperity.

Good RensOns for Prosperity.
Commenting on the business situa-
tion as it exists at the dawn of peace,
Dun's Review for this week remarks:
Prospects of peace have had curious
influence on business contracts, no,
quite explainable on common sense
grounds. Nobody really feared disas-
ter, or exhaustion of national re-
sources, and nobody feared that any
body else was afraid of either Yet
orders unusual in number and size
have been placed since Spain asked for
| peace"
We can account for some surprise in
certain quarters that the conditions
are as they are shown to be in hum
dred flattering ways. The ante bellum
opinions of Duns Review were sick
lied Ger with care by the generally
pessimistic views of Wall Street, and
other influences welded TO the peace
with -dishonor policy. 1t is hard even
now for people so affected previously
to realize the splendid material revo-
luton which the war and its results
have brought 10 America.
Before the Maine was destroyed by
| Spanish treachery, the people of this
! country were living in a state of COM
mercial and industrial congestion, and
| of sullen and hopeless discomfort.
! Financial oppression. monopol;stic
! greed and robbery, vicious fiscal legs
| lation, and the domination Of old dry
l
! clusion had brought the Union to a
condition of deadlock. The very ex-
| istence of its agricultural class. as an
| intelligent, free. and prosperous yeo-
manry was threatened by the ccmpe
| tition of foreign countries in outside
markets. and the destructive over
| loading of our home market. Industry
| was paraIyzed and the wage earn.n
army pauperized by monetary contrac-
tion and the inability of the great
| farming population to consume the
products of our manufacturing plants.
Enterprise was dying, and confidence
| in the future was all but dead. Wealth
was fleeing in panic from losing invest
ments in productive adventures, and
the agencies of transportation, and
seeking safety in securities based on
taxation, or, when that was not posi-
ble in the unjust stewards" buried
| boards of the safe deposit vault.
Almost as quickly as Aladdin chang
| ed squalid misery and gnawing want
into jeweled luxury and fabulous
riches by rubbing the enchanted lamp.
the war with Spain has relieved our
economic congestion, started the
wheels of industry, clubbed to death
the old backwoods ideas and policy of
provincial segregation from mankind,
and arrayed Columbia in the glorious
robes of an empress. ruling over splen-
| did possessions in the oceans of the
| Occident and the Orient, and mistress
of a navy and of commercial power
and possibilities never even dreamed
| of six months agoi
| 1t is because the American masses
| realize at a glance that they have
| ability and opportunity for expansion,
/ and for the creation of markets for
| the vast surplus production of their
| teeming activities, that confidence in
| the future is restored, and people are
no longer in terror of a constant dimin-
| uendo movement in prices, wages, and
| chances in the struggle of life.
The American West Indies, the
American East Indies, the American
| Hawaiian Islands; these, and the as
surance OF an American Nicaragua
| Canal, are amply sufficient causes and
| bases for all the exuberant evidences
| of faith in our future and magnificent
| ultimate destiny that are now found
cropping out in every direction. All
| these things denote the joy and con-
| fidence that necessarily come to wise.
energetic. and conquering people, who
see their loved country, always pc
| tentially great, but long the fettared
and gagged slave of ignorant pro-
vincialism, burst its bonds and stand
| forth before an astonished world as
/ one of its greatest imperial powers.
| recognized and respected as such by
| all the states. princes and potentates
of the planet.
We are quite certain that the Gu
rious influence" which the prospect of
| peace" has had on business is entirey
explainable ION common sense
| grounds"