The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-01
1909 AND 1904.

Carolina and the American Republic. The
crops have been large and the prices
good. 1t has been an exceptionally good
year for farmers. What their farms have
produced have generally brought good
prices, except in the case only Of their
tobacco. That exception is not due to
normal conditions but to the unfortunate
fact that a trust fixes the price. There
does not reach the farm. When good
times bless the rural homes, there is
Improvement in every line of business and
stability in the nations financial condi-
ton, for it is the amount paid for farm
exports that determines the balance of
trade. High priced cotton has not only
South, but has blessed every section of
the country because it has given to the
United States a heavy cash balance in
it's current trade. Our chief dependence
for being on the comfortable side of the
balance of trade is upon the cotton of the
South. When cotton was selling at five
result of having to export gold to pay
the balance of trade against us. High
cotton makes Europe send gold here to
give us the cash balance. Of course, cot
ton mills have suffered temporarily from
high cotton. The price of manufactured
cotton goods did not go up correspondingly
is an upward tendency and when the
price goes up, as it surely will, high
cotton will be a blessing to manufacturer
and farmer alike, as it is also to every
interest of the South and to the whole
country in securing to it heavy cash
balance in its current foreign trade. The
outlook for 1904 is for remunerative prices
for cotton and for good profits for cotton
manufacturers. Cotton growing and cotton
manufacturing mean much for North Caro-
Ina. The State depends chiefly upon the
cotton farm and the cotton mill. If both
prosper, there is smile from Cleveland
to Currituck and plenty in ten Thousand
homes.
In the industrial world-the domain of
manufacturing and mining and commerce
the year has been one of general pros
perity There have been labor troubles
and financial reverses, stocks have tumbled
and companies based upon water have ex
perienced rough seas, but honest concerns
have generally earned fair dividends on
the real capital employed. Wages in
many industries have been advanced and
there has been employment for all who
were willing to work. There is need of
panding manufacturing plants, for Amer
lea can manufacture much more than its
own people demand.
The year 1903 marked progress toward
the acceptance of arbitration of inter
national questions. Two important mat
tiers that might have produced war in
the last century have been arbitrated and
all parties have acquiesced in the find
ing. On the twelfth of January leading
men will meet in Washington to cele-
brate these victories of peace and to set
influences in motion to lessen the posi-
tilities of the hell of war Every advance
in securing the arbitrament OF diplomacy
instead of the arbitrament of the sword
is a fastening of the time when plows
and pruning hooks will be put above
swords and the implements of warfare.
The year 1904 opens auspiciously. The
wild fluctuations in stocks and bonds dur
ing the past year have made many men
apprehensive of the future. prominent
Connecticut Democrat is so impressed
with the dark side of the picture that
he has written to the New York Times,
expressing the opinion that lit would be
a misfortune for the Democrats to elect
the next President, because, as hard times
were sure to come during the next year
or two, they would be held responsible
for them" His pessimism will not cause
tie "unterrifed'' to surrender the hore
they have OF winning the Presidency TINS
year. The period of imitation OF stocks,
and of converting water into securities
and of boom towns and boom industries,
(which began with the Spanish American
War. is now over. The stock market
panic of 1903 was the result. Liquidation
had to come 1t is believed that 1T Is
at an end. Trade journals leaders in
finance and>in commerce, and those whose
opinions are worth the most are conf
dent that the year 1904 will be "a fairly
normal year. They do not expect record
breaking prosperity, but normally pros
porous year. Such years ere to be desired
more than years when booms turn mems
heads and financiers are able to sell white
paper for the same price that gold com
mands. We have had too much of that
and the stock market panic of last year
was its natural product. Normal years
periods when there is employment tor