Evening star., 1899-04-13

through boards of trade and commercial
clubs expended vast sums of money for the
purpose of controlling foreign trade The
individual concerns of the United States
have never been able to compete against
these advantages, and the combination plan
is the only one possible under the present
commercial system of this country. Under
the combination plan the interests of a par
tfcular line of business are consolidated and
then the stock of the new organization is
| underwritten by financiers and the capital
secured from foreign countries upon this
credit. This entails an expense which is
the amount paid to the underwriters asso-
citation for the credit thus given. that places
the American combinations under disad-
vantage. but not great a disadvantage
as operate against the individual concerns.
The American boards of trade are not sub
sidized, and consequently cannot expend
the money necessary to the carrying out of
their purposes that is constantly and profit
ably used by the boards of trade and COM
merciai organizations of the cities of the
old world
There is a new boom on in the south,
said A l.. Gaylord of Memphis, at the Ma
tional. 1T differs very materially from the
period of wild excitement that prevailed
from 1881 to 1890, and is therefore not
nearly SO well known. The south is no
longer trying to build cities in sage fields
and worn-out cotton plantations, nor is it
| er gagged in removing bankrupt manufactur-
ing concerns from the north and allowing
them to lie idle after brief and unsuccess-
full effort to infuse life into them in the
south A trip through Tennessee, Alabama
Georgia and the Carolinas will disclose the
fact to any intelligent observer that the
small industries have all started up and are
running on full time. There are still a
good many large mills vacant, and win he
until after the concerns have gone through
the bankruptcy courts and had their affairs
completely wound up. But the pipe works
are running on full time, and small
Germs of this kind are being established all
over the south. More attention is being
paid to lines of wooden manufacture and
KNIT goods than ever before in the history
of the southern states. The cotton indus
tries have been on something of a boom
for the past two or three years, but in the
lines of metal working business in the
south has not been good until lately. Now
there is every sign of increased activity in
all branches
Washington has had a sample of what
the people of the western prairies expe-
rience all of the time said A. L. Matlock
of Kearney, Neb, at the Shoreham "On
the far western prairies the wind blows
constantly. In the winter it blows cold and
in the summer hot. There is a peculiarity
about this that / have never seen explained.
As the states become populated and the
sod is broken the wind constantly de-
creases. L have heard my father say that
when he went to Ohio, great many years
ago, that state was SO windy that ii was
almost impossible for people suffering with
throat or lung diseases to live in it, / re-
member when / was a boy. living in the
state of Illinois, on the round prairie in
Champagne county, everybody suffered
from what was called the prairie sore eyes
caused by the dust which was constantly
thrown into the faces of pedestrians. l re-
moved TO Iowa, and stayed there until the
wind had almost subsidized. 1 now live i'm
Nebraska and there is identicaIly the same
wind that formerly prevailed in Ohio In
diana and Illinois, and which has not been
Known for a number of years in those
states. The nearest approach | have ever
seen to the Nebraska and Kansas winds
east of the Mississippi river has been in
washington during the past two weeks"
THE movement in favor of building gov
ernment penitentiaries will meet with a
good deal of opposition throughout the
country said c. r. Atlee of Huntsville.
Ala, at the Metropolitan. THE present
system of making contracts with certain
state peniteniarfes for the confinement of
United States prisoners is very unsatsfac-
tory, and government penitentiaries will be
even more so. The trouble is that men who
fenses are transported to very considera-
BILE distance from their homes and their
families can never get to see them. To take
a man from Alabama to Ohio or New York
adds very greatly to the hardship of his in
carceration upon his family. The peniten-
tiaries with which the government has con-
tracts have convicts for short terms from
several hundred miles away. The only sat
isfactory SOLUTION to The people would be
to have contracts with the penitentiaries in
all of the different states and confine the
convicts in the states in which they are
convicted. The trouble has been much
greater than has ever been popularity sup
posed, as those who are usually convicted
of federal offenses are poor men whose
families are never heard of and their hard |
ships are therefore never known"
1.-THE old-tine yearly credit system will |
probably be revived to a very considerable |
extent said R. L. Burton of Chicago at
the Riggs. within my own recollection the
southern states had an almost universal sys-
tenn of credit. The yearly system obtained
in the middle west for great many years. |
1t is the system upon which nearly all of
the Central and South American business |
is conducted. Credits grew shorter and
shorter on account of fnancil depression |
and the lack OF capital on the part of |
wholesale houses with which to carry on |
business with extended credits. 1t is reoog-
nized that the yearly settlement system |
creates very much larger volume of trade |
than can be done with short credit, but |
there Is soma increase of hazard. Conse-
quently the jobbing houses have increased |
discounts and cut prices in order to obtain \
cash until there is q very small margin of !