The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-01-05
PROSPERITY RECORD
BRADsTREETs ANNUAL REVIEW
TELLS OF GREAT GROWTH.
Record Crops and All But Record
Prices for Farm Products, Big
Mineral Output and Lively
Real Estate Speculation and
Building Activity the Factors.

Real Estate Speculation and
Building Activity the Factors.
New York, Dec. 31.-Bradstreet
annual summary of industrial and fin
ancial conditi ms In the united States.
Gays in part:
Nineteen hundred and six was . very
remarkable year. And yet this char
acterization appears incomplete in
view of the fact that old records were
retired and new ones set up, in the
disproving of old proverbs, and the
predictions that 1905 was so favorable
that better results were hardly to be
expected the following year. Not the
least remarkable feature, too, was the
fact that the apparent draw backs-aud
there were mum ber-did not retard
the onward movement, and the course
OF events, commercial. industrial and
financial, viewed from the vantage
ground of achieved results, was a
grand, triumphant march of progress.
Concisely stated, 1906 saw very IA
vorahle crop yields; a record output
of cereals; close to highest yields and
record values of other farm products;
unprecedented activity in all kinds of
mining, except coal; enormous outputs
Of precious metals; land speculation
assumed enormous proportions, build
ing activity surprising the wonderful
record OF 1905; unprecedented totals
of foreign trade; an unparalleled i'm
migration; SURPRISING totals of clear
ings and railway earnings; employ
ment active and labor scarce as never
before; a record volume of the circu-
lating medium-money-proving alto
gether inadequate for business pur-
poses, and finally, and what is per
haps the most remarkable development
of all, the reaching in time of pro-
found worlds peace, of a wartime
level of prices of commodities without
the slightest effect upon the demand,
which, throughout the year, pressed
hotly upon the supply and caused from
the beginning of the year to its close
general complaints of backward deliv-
cries of goods. After even a cursory
review of the results, indeed, one is
impressed with the inadequacy of ad-
jectives to give full expression to the
wonderful development Of the year
now drawing to close.
Drawbacks Do Not Affect Progress
Of the drawbacks, Interruptions, and
what, in some years, would have
proved to have been absolute checks
to progress, there we're several we'll de-
serving of mention. Mild weather
has not unusually been associated in
the past with present or future good
trade or crops, and yet the country
had the mildest winter in years. Later
on in the year the greatest city on the
Western coast was leveled by earth
quake and fire, shock to f1ancial cir
Giles which might have oeen fatal in
an ordinary year. Legislation of q
somewhat radical character affecting
railroads and large corporations, with
numerous prosecutions of companies
and individuals, was a marked feature
resulting from the previous years
moral agitation and uplift in state
and nation, without any, apparently,
other than beneficial effects on the
country at large. Tight money at
home and abroad put strain upon
general business which resulted in
strlkiingly little friction, judging from
failure returns, the most noticeable
effect being feeling of conservatism
which proved to be beneficial. Con-
Rressional and state elections had lit
tie effect, the general conclusion being
that the people we're "too busy to talk
politics. !"
Effect of Car Shortage
Transportation congestion of the
acutest kind, resulting in loss OF trade
and some actual suffering where fuel
supplies were concerned, perhaps ar
rested, but certainly did not check
progress. Strikes were numerous but.
except in the coal, molders' and print
ing trades, not of long duration, owing
to spirit of compromise and yielding
on the part of employers, who realized
that the cost rs we'll AZ the country's
standard of living, justified larger
compensations.
Some occurrences which made the
year an especially notable one, the
final effects of which have not yet been
worked out, were the immense specu-
lation in and advance of land values,
which, with the building activity in
some sections, was claimed to be dam
Rerous to continued prosperity. High
money gave check to this, rs it also
did to the enormous volume of specu-
alton in mining shares, which divert
ed attention from the other markets,
notably grain and stocks, and to Ger
tain extent from cotton, though the
Letter ahowad great activity through