The Washington herald., 1910-01-02
Country Passes Through Period Of
Large and Profitable Bust
ness Exhaustion.

large az usual, tney nave SoiQ at NiBHtI
prices and the returns to the farmers
have been enormously profitable. Mining
has made big strides forward, manu-
! facture has increased, traffic upon the
| railroads has been such as to vastly en-
large the earning power of the lines,
banks have larger deposits, and money
has never been so plentiful at so low
rates of interest in a generation.
| OF the general business of the country,
Bradstreet has the following to say:
Nineteen hundred and nine may be said
in many respects to have equaled and in
some directions surpassed the most san
guine expectations entertained al its out
| set. In fact, It viii take rank as a
remarkable year in a decide which has
! seen great changes and wonderful prog
/ ress. For one thing. II witnessed
processes OF recuperation and repair. mi
| tiated IN the second half of 1905 carried
to a triumphantly successful conclusion.
Also, while it will probably not be classed
as a boom year, Il saw many records
/ of financial and industrial achievement
exceeded, and at its close, two years after
? worldwide financial panic, the progress
made has been so great that many Of the
scars made by that CONFUSION have been
/ effaced, and the country seems TO have
been placed IN stronger position than it
/ ever before occupied.
/ Progress Against Obstacles.
Great progress is often made against
/ great obstacles. and 1898 was not free
from unsettllng and disturbing influences.
While its outset found the business world
/ cheerful 10 the point Of optimism. there
were some evidences of uneasiness as 10
the reality OF all the improvements
shown in the year following the 1857
panic.
! Certainly the tariff revision. then i'm
! pending, was not az the outset regarded
as a helpful element There was. in fact,
/ good deal Of repression evident early
because Of tariff. crop, and trade uncer-
tainty. and reduced public purchasing
power. and later the remarkable advances
Of securities and commodities to hitherto
unexampled heights. furnished ground for
/ conservatism, which was no doubt bene-
! fetal In preventing excuses apparently
inseparabIe from great forward steps in
American trade, finance and industry.
/ W!thal, however, there was evidenced an
almost inexhaustble capacity for looking
on the bright side of things which made
! for fresh triumphs and for a virtual new
! birth Of aggressiveness in pushing enter
prises forward toward successful futures.
The events Of the year tended to con
! firm earlier impressions that the great
/ collapse Of 1897 was a purely financial
affair, not involving any great weakness
in the business and industrial structure.
Work SkiIIfuIIy Done.
Whatever may be said OF the merits OF
the years tariff revision, there IS no
! denying tia; the work WAS skilIfuIly
I done with a minimum Of unsettlements
/ 10 trade, and with uncertainty as 10 this
+ removed in mid-year. the optimism in
! the stock markets, the ease Of money,
/ the preparations for and good results
/ from abundant harvests, the steady
monthly reduction in business mortality
and failure damage the expansion IN
( leading industries the boom IN that read
/ fest OF al, rsady-money producing trades
/ building-and the preparations made 20
/ an the void in the consuming markets
made by two years of repression in buy
/ ing. all combined to cause a great on
/ ward surge In all lines Of trade. which.
/ despite the steadily increased cost of all
/ that enters into human consumption, re-
suited IN a total trade turnover which
! VIII compare very favorably with the best
that was Witnessed in previous years OF
I abundant prosperity
That great backlog OF all Of the coun-
try's griqultUre-prospers as
never before, not so much in the mat
/ ter OF quantity. because bumper crops
f. were few. but in the matter of financial
returns, which, indeed placed the farmers
/ of the country in a class by themselves.
/ L is true that the price advances bore
/ hardly on the consuming classes. and
there was shown in the utteranceS Of
| public men and journals a disposition 10
question the reality or ali the apparent
benefits that flowed from high prices
Some Results of Year in Trade.
The crops of the year. taken as
whole. were abundant though few OF
them broke the best records OF the past.
Yields Of foodstuffs were large. wheat
and corn showing next-to-record produc-
ton, and yields Of oats, rice, sugar. pOta-
toes, and tobacco broke ell records, while
cotton and hay fell from the high level
yields OF the preceding year.
The high prices ruling. however, placed
: the aggregate returns 70 the farmer at
points never before reached. While ease
of money no doubt helped toward encour-
| aging speculation in commodities, the
high records OF prices at time of heaviest
movement showed demand waiting closely
on supply, if indeed not actually surpass-
ing it. and this, too, in a year when.
owing 10 high prices Of our fOOdstuffs,
foreign demand was cOnspicuOUsly small
and exports fell below those Of the three
preceding years.
| Large imports previous to tariff re-
vision were partly, no doubt, due to
desire TO anticipate this legislation. but
the record breaking arrivals Of foreign
goods. not all Of them raw materials for
manufacture. in the late fall, swelling
the countrys import trade to unprece-
dented totals indicated an expansion Of
| consumptive demand surprising all expec-
tations In the leading industries the
story was one Of large. in some cases
record. expansion.
Metal Production Expands.
Iron-ore and copper production broke
/ all records, while that Of pig iron equaled
the best, and building expenditures
showed Il phenomenal gain ove- 1905. even
only about 30 per cent Of 1907. while
7
ceeding 1907 b. IS per cent, and liabilities
were less than half those Of 1908, and
only about 90 per cent Of 1907, while
! II per cent in excess Of 1906
Bank clearings testified to the eXpan-
sion in all lines in a gain of 3 per cent
over 1908, and OF Il per cent over 1907,