The daily sentinel., 1905-10-07

w nave seen nothing quite so well
written or so logical upon conditions
throughout the country, as the fol-
lowing from the Wall Street Jour
nal II is well worth anyone's while
to-read and it will pay for a short
study.
It is not easy to pick flaws in the
4 business situation. The fundamental
thing is the fruitfulness of the soil.
( The wheat crop is the largest but
one, the corn crop is the greatest on
ecord, the oats crop bigger than
With the exception of one year,
she cotton crop not phenominal, but
a'ill Ia sc and with a prospective
value at will enrich the South
these are the chief foundations of
national prosperity Add to this the
great output of gold, of iron. of coal
and Of copper, the immense activity
of the iron and steel trade, and the
great traffic of railroads and the
enormous clearings of banks, and
there is an aggregate showing of
prosperity such as no other year in
our records can match.
On its negative side the situa-
ton is extremely good. There is no
widespread over speculation either in
securities or land; there is no over
promotion and underwriting: there
is no wholesale floating of new com
Dfinltos isNEl NIt STOCK market all
things considered, is acting as it
should act We have passed out of
the long period of abnormal money
market conditions into a period of
active money but so far as can be
seen there has been no oyerestimat-
ing or overstraining of credit in ways
that lead to inevitable disaster The
dollar is doing full duty, working fun
time, but is not worked beyond its
fIf 40 af fNa
markets of Europe and America now
knit together in a close inter-reiation-
ship, the reserves of one money center
are constantly supporting the credit
cf all.
Abroad as at home the situation
is higlit with promise. The great
fact is peace between Russia and
Japan, and though peace loans may
be necessary as the aftermath of ihe
war, yet no one can estimate how inn
mense viii be the harvest OF peace
for the leading commercial nations.
Al over the world there are signs
OF awakening, and as the fondonl
Statist says money is abundant and
cheap in all leading countries, ane
the production of gold is on larger
scale than ever before"
Not the least of the good thia2s
in the business situation is the plain
conscience, which is beginning to re
gard with Indignation every dis
closure of graft in business and poll
tics. This points to cleaner and
sounder business methods.
There is, however. one feature of
the situation which is distinctly un-
favorable, and that is the high prices
that prevail. These are the ineyit-
able result of the imitation that fol-
lows an immense output of gold
Moreover, they are in large measure
sign of the very prosperity that we
have described. Better to have the
high prices of 19O5's prosperity than
the low prices of 1893 S panic II is
true that the higher cost of living
is counterbalanced in some measure
by the Increase in incomes of the peo-
pie. Labor is better employed and
better paid than ever before and al
though there are rumblings of war
I in the anthracite coal fields. a settle
ment is still more probable than
strike The labor situation Is on the
4 whole in better shape than In years
4 Nevertheless. the fact remains that
[ there are multitudes of people whose
incomes are practically reduced by
reason of the increase cost OF living
In this connection 1t might be worth
/ a critical study to investigate the ef-
Il feet of this Increased living on in
comes derived from bond invest
ments II must he true that many
people whose living expenses have
been Increased find their surplus at
the end of the year available for re-
Investment has been materially re-
dueed This is perhaps the only
flaw in our otherwise nawless bust
ness situation.
Nevertheless the fact remains that
If anyone. let his income be what II
may, and let II be derived from bond
Investments or from labor, VIII throw
over some of the luxuries to which
he has been accustomed and which
now constitute so imposing part
of the cost of living. he can save
money with which to make money.
There are years in which a man may
not save because he cannot even
earn but there have been but few
or no other years when the oppor-
tunity for making money was as
In,