Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-12-19

that Mr.. Vanderlip's description may
fit promotions but that the iron trade
is not Frustrated.
After making some allowances for
differences in point OF view. and for
the fact that capital has been de-
scribed as the most daring as well as
the most timid of world forces there
seems to be room for qualification of
some Of the statements made alike as
10 the business patients condition and
| the diagnosis of the cause thereof,
| this, too, without undertaking the fact
| that the past year has seen more pro-
| ceedings designed to make certain
| lines of business odious or legally I'M
| healthy than any prior year in the
countrys history, says Bradstreets.
| As TO capitals timidity, however. the
totals of new fiotations authorized or
| issued in 1911 compare we'll with the
largest record totals of the past, al
| though it was year when weather
| conditions as a whole were unfavora-
| BILE, when crops were generally below
| the average, when prices of commodi-
| ties, especially foods, were high; when
several tariff bills were passed through
| Congress. and when one particular in
dustry, cotton goods, was disorganized
by almost unprecedented movements
of raw material prices Despite these
drawbacks it is reported that the num-
Der of individuals. firms and corpora
tons in business at the middle OF the
present year was greater by IS per
cent. than the total of twelve months
ago and that only five years of the
past thirty show larger number of
new emharkations on commercial seas.
But-and here is point possible bear
ing on the question of profits and the
launching Of new enterprises-the num-
Der in business increased 81 per cent.
in the ten years from 1901 to 1910.
Whereas the population gained ap-
81 per cent. In the pre-
ceding decade, that from 1891 to 1901,
the increase was Is per cent, while
the population gained approximately
20 per cent.
Unless most signs of business move
ment are misleading. trade and indus
try have measurably improved of late.
the latter part of the year. by the way,
showing quite apparent progress, Ger
tainly the cotton goods trade is be-
ginning to see light after a long sea
son of discourag cement and the iron
trade, as the result of an open mar
ket for steel, has recorded the largest
accession of new orders for over a
year past.
If an opinion might be hazarded re-
garding the present conditions of trade
It would be to the effect that this
country, and in fact the world, is. and
for some years past has been, in the |
midst of great economic changes, the |
ultimate outcome of which it is difi-
cult to forecast. For one example of ]
these it might be worth While to cite
the higher cost of many commodities,
which has brought great strain alike
upon consumption and production and
reduced profits 10 minimum The
very trust prosecutions themselves,
from one point of view, can De deemed
effects rather than causes, being large
ly the more or less futile efforts of
public men, whether they are styled
statesmen. politicians or demagogues.
to provide legal cure-alls for condi-
tons, the remedies for which, in the
very nature of things, must be sought
outside of mere lawnlaking.
The fntility of efforts to get rich
quickly has often furnished a theme
for philosophers, and the effort to
make the business patient get well
quickly" by tie mere enactment or the |
repeal or amendment of laws will pro-
badly share the fate of previous eff
forts in that direction There seems |
to be no royal road to renewed actiy- |
ity in the direction of a business boom
and in some lines it would really seem
necessary for the country TO grow up |
to the industrial capacity already !
made and provided. For one thing. a |
real effort to cheaper costs of produc- |
ton of food would appear necessary.
Furthermore, the census returns OF in
crease of manufacturing capacity in
the past decade would bear exa,nina-
ton. Until a number of natural eco |
nomic obstacles are removed. and un- |
Ill this comes about by the slow and |
perhaps painful processes of patient
effort and the lapse of time, it would |
seem that the business world must be
content TO put up with present eondi- |
tons, where supply waits upon de- |
mand, and, moreover, where actual
distributive trade and consumption are
not really as inactive as some ness
imistic observers would appear 10 be-
lieye
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