Lewiston evening teller., 1907-10-03
Resume of Wall Street
By Henry CIews

in price, A liberal corn crop had been
pronounced at good prices, but unfor-
tunatvly frost during the middle of the
week inflicted some injury, Corn and
cotton are our two heaviest crops and
as these are still exposed to more or
less injury from frost, it is premature
to be oVerconfident regarding them.
Prosperity Is Lopsded.
our farmers, however are sure of
profitable season. They are out of
debt and in a position to hold for good
prices. Europe is likely to be a free
buyer of our agricultural products,
which at the current level of values
will be an important factor in our in
ternational trade balance and should
provide a liberal supply of commercial
bills. our working classes also with !
few exceptions are well employed at ,
good wages, so that with these two |
favorable factors, it does mot seem !
probable that the country will have to
face this year anything more than a
moderate recession in business activ- !
: l(A. II SHoulu not De IOTSOltetl, now !
ever, that we are in a state of class
| prosperity, not general prosperity. Our
farmers and our laborers at present are
! the most prosperous classes in the
! country, but it cannot be said that
their prosperity is universal. The
wealthy classes have suffered enorm-
. Gus losses and professional classes are
suffering from high cost of living, with
no chances whatever now of securing
compensation through better returns
for their labor Our prosperity, there
fore, is not well distributed, and this
being the fact, a further readjustment
must be inevitably faced; more likely
by levellng down than by levelling up.
Genuine prosperity consists in abund-
ance and not in scarcity, and in ad-
vantages which can be shared by all
rather than by yielding exceptional
profits to favored classes.
Reaction Confined to East.
The reaction in business, such as it
is, is still confined to the East. In the
West and South, there are no signs of
recession beyond the caution induced
by high rates of interest and the policy
of restraint adopted by banking inter-
ests. Last week, for instance, the
cIearings at New York increased "a per
cent; at Boston 25 per cent, and at
, Philadelphia 6 per cent. In Chicago,
they increased IA per cent during the
same period; at st. Louis Is per cent
OrIa ~
: road earnings, however, testify to the
, large volume of business in all parts of
the country. In the third week of
September 80 roads reported gross
! earnings of $9,500,000, an increase of
6 about 10 per cent over last year; and
~ roads reported earnings in the first
, week of September of 10,2OO,O00 an
increase of nearly per cent How
much of this gain is due to the stop
page of rebates, passes, and other
abuses is not known, but there is every
reason to believe that the volume of
> traffic is fully as large, if not larger,
, than the enormous volume of year
ago. There is less complaint of a
shortage of cars than last year, but
lnlS is pTODdDly uue TO lne railroads
q having improved their facilities during
the interval.
, Stock Markets and Politics.
, AS to the future of the stock market,
, if no more unfavorable developments
p occur, the present reaction should soon
reach bottom prices; but any serious
D injury to the crops through frosts or
+ important recession in business or any
O other disturbing factors would be
I quickly reflected in renewed liquida-
, tion of securities. The government is
showing less aggressive tone towards
+ the railroads and trusts, which will en-
. tcourage the restoring of confidence, at
any rate 1t is probable that the market
has received and discounted the worst
shocks from this quarter. Neverthe-
less, it will be important to watch the
political situation and the anti-corpor-
t sttion movements of the government
; HENRY CLEwS.