BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-01-24
SAN JUAN, JANUARY D
American Prosperity.

American PrOopeTlly.
Attention has been again called to the
outlook for American business prosperity by
some recent remarks of the London Times.
These observations were not wholly optimis.
tic. and they have added some interest 10
discussion which had already been in peg
ress for some time. There is no reason for
supposing that the sTimes" has any special
means of judging the American stu stion
in fact. the average reader of the remarks
rsferred'to is most likely to be impressed
with the fact that he has heard them all
before. But the s.T,mtsn has not lost the
repu alton Of say ing the last word on xe'ghty
subjects, and in any case it belongs to the
class Of critics in whose judgment Americ
aus have an abiding interest.
What the ssTlmes" has to say, in brief,
i, that, for the time, American industry
has gone as far as is safe, or even farther,
lin employing its credit resources, and that
our huge ''trade balance" takes acc,un9
se'ely-, of commercial operations, and not OF
international finance Neither of these
conclusions will surprise Americans who
witnessed the striking movement OF inter
national exchange last autumr, or who
have read the long series of dissertations on
our sinvisible foreign debts" The Times
goes on to hint, in ra her more general
terms, at ssseveral pieces OF evidence in the
year just endt indicating thet the economic
situation here is not altogether SO good as
1t appears to those who merely scuss the
surfsce.v We are more interested in these
scattered spieces OF sy:drnce,n at some OF
which we can guess They bring up the
general question Of the state of American
prosperity.
What ID prosperity, and what are tie
Trustworthy signs of iis We presume some
people would answer that an advancing
stock market is the safest index But tee
trouble with the stock market is that it
sometimes foreshadows rather than r,f.c 8,
and 10 sometimes moved by causes. peculiar
to itself. The fall in prices, after the
climax Of the stocbjobbing craze, last May,
was not witns 90 to industrial relapse, but
was rather q wholesome corrective to an
unnatural and dangerous position.
Some pscp'e think that rising prices for
commodities are the sign Of prosperity, and
1t Ia quite true that advance in some markt
rs in the market for stocks, usually accom-
pan'es the development Of prosperous times.
Bat the trouble with this barometer Of the
situation, IS Nith the other, is that it can
not, in the nature Of things, 60 on rising
indefinitely, and that iis 0rn rise is apt,
moreover, to bring about consequences that
will seriously mar the prosperity which
actually exists. An excessive advance in
stocks must, in the medern order Of things,
- - ffxf In xwHfaA .
heavy borrower from other markets, Which
may recall their loans at an awkward NO
msnk An ticessivs advance tn eommod-
i,ies sill achieve the same urfortuaAss result
10 . different way; dfst, BY ssatting oai
producers from torsign markets, and, fai lly,
IN sxtrsms eascs, b. cutting od svsn koms
consumers Sach rssnlis, 10 either securities
or produce, would mean something veu
a asssnt from prosperity.
A riss IL prices 10 not . nssssssry in
cidsna ef prcspeIit,; 90 tie s9nusry, loa
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