The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-21
IMPROVING BUSINESS.


I | the real test of business conditions /:
not found in the import and export rec
| ords. OF much more Importance is the
: internal trade. Not only is our popu-
Iation increasing with a commensurate
It increase in the sum total of internal
n trade, but the trade is increasing at
faster rate than the population. 1t is
irnpossible to know exactly the amount
of the inland commerce of the United
E States. Still. the government has COM
= puted it in a way to give at least an
. approximate total year by year. 1t
amounted to $1,000, 100000 in 1870; to
$50. 600, oO0, 900 in 1900 and to 500, 900, 000.-
600 in 1903. 1t is claimed by the Wall
i Street Journal that this latter figure
i exceeds the total annual international
| trade of the world. 1t is showing
which carries home the thought that
| the circumstances of our inland COM
merce are well worth looking after.
Other publications in the East are
| noting with pleasure and surprise an
upward tendency in industry and COM
merce. The New York Sun recalls that
a year ago the experts We're predicting
that the country was in for long
stretch of hard tines and it says they
must feel surprised to find that now,
fright in the midst of a presidential |
campaign business has the contrariety |
to disregard all rules and show signs |
of Improvement The Railway World |
asserts that the uncertain and dubious
feeling which was found among rail
road managers a short time ago has
given way to confidence and optimism"
The trade papers of every sort have
taken on a more cheerful tone, and the
belief throughout the entire East is
that business will show increased ac-
tivity from now on. Accounting for
the ease with which the financial
operators are getting over their trou-
bles, the Railway World says:
High prices have undoubtedly saved
us from disaster To whatever cause
this firmness of prices is due, and the
rapid increase in gold seems to be the
most reasonable explanation of their
the influence of stable
prices in protecting the country from
he worst effects of financial collapse
las been most salutary. If commodity :
prices had fallen as they fell in pre-
7ious seasons of depression, the mar :
in of safety on loans and fixed charges
lar
lumber of bankruptcies followed by a
period of liquidation could
ardly have been avoided. With prices
rInly maintained, however, and the j.,
urchasing power of productive indus
ry still intact, the period of liquidation
yill not be seriously protracted.
The Kansas City Journal in comment
1g on the above says:
ppreciation of how generally the scare :.
E hard times had distributed itself
trough the East. 1t is the first time
the history of the country when al
ghtening of commerce and finance on o7
ae Atlantic seaboard has not been felt fo
the West. 1t brings home fe
double fact: first. that the West has W
cen uniformly prosperous, and, sec NJ
nd, that it has become to some extent w
dependent of the East. The state of pa
ansas is an example. Up to within ar
lite recent times it was always a w
'oblem with Kansas how to get money Tt
lough from the East to handle her co
lrvests. In the last year or two, how DO
-er, she has handled the harvests with sic
II own saved capital and the condi- re
ons of the Eastern money market
i've not bothered her at all. Some
ing of what is meant by saved cap NC
AZ can be seen in the banking re- IN
rts which showed that before the he'
heat harvest of 1904 had commenced u
e Kansas banks We're holding more
an s100, 100000 in deposits.
And Kansas is not an exception by
y means. The West has been pros
fous in every part almost continu-
sly from the day of the first inaugu-
ton of William Mckinley. The great c
tivity in industrial pursuits, due to to1
e gold standard and the protective tn
riff, made itself felt in the West mi
rough an increased demand and high
prices for Western products of every !
aracter. It could not be expected, of cal
urse, that good markets and high f,c
ices would continue to prevail if the
lstern manufacturers were plunged
to a period of prostration or stagna- s
IN. The West has no delusion about pm
e independence which relieves it from Tb
e effects of every depressing inf1u- be-
ce throughout the Eastern region. 1t wi
lderstands fully that its good crops M M
ID ready money do not insure a con- IF
luance of great prosperity. but only Sh