The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-07-16
A VERY HOPEFUL
BUSINESS OUTLOOK
lEditorial Boston Globe, Nan ID

Editorial Boston Globe, May 49,
1t is the concensus of opinion Of some
Of the keenest and most far-sightec
men that the United States is entering
on an era of prosperity that will com.
pletely Overshadow even the great per.
iOds Of business prosperity that have
already come to this country since the
civil war. They assign many sound
reasons for this prediction.
The first-and the one which is the
most significant to many Of them-is is
that we have already gone through 3
season of business depression for the
first time in our history without a
panic. The old-time spectators who
could always scent panic and make
money out of it are completely con-
fused. They have seen a financial state
Of affairs never before known. They
have seen the banks full of money dur
ing a business depression and no par
ticular call for the money on any side.
They have seen Europe throw back
into this country from $3.50, 600, OO0 to
$500, 900, 900 worth of securities and
have seen these securities absorbed and
the gold sent to Europe without any
particular fuss. That would have
meant another panic in the stock mar
ket at least a few years ago.
They have seen tariff enacted lower
than the Wilson tariff. and yet they
have seen raw wool, one of the best
tariff barometers there Is, sell higher
than ever before.
They have seen delicate railroad
situation, that would have created a
financial panic at any time in the past,
studied and pondered over in a way
that has simply taken the breath from
SPECTATORS. The people have refused
to become excited over it. They want
it settled everywhere, but they want il
settled right.
Why? Because the railroad industry
is not the one dominating industry of
the country any longer. While fnan-
ciers have been juggling railroads the
past % years business men have been
building up other great enterprises all
over this land.
This is bigger country than it ever
was before. Its potential possibilities
are being more and more realized in
every direction. The farmers have be-
come scientists, and the arid lands and
the swamp lands are being reclaimed
everywhere and being made to yield in
sucn abundance as was never known
before in the history of farming.
In the South, malaria has been con-
quered and the rich swamp lands are
no longer the terror they were. lrri-
cation and dry farming have brought
new prosperity to the West and South
west. Water power is being conducted
over wires hundreds of miles where
formerly it was all but wasted. The
oil lands and the mineral wealth have
burst the bounds of former monopoles
and opened up vaster possibilities than
ever before, and the inventive genius
of the American has never been idle.
New miracles are daily being wrought
by invention.
Why, then, have we had a business
depression in the face of these things?
Simply because a great many people
thought we ought to have it; we should
have it and must have it; it was due.
1t was largely a mental state. There
was no real need of it. or for it. Busi-
ness men see that more clearly now.
But many of them are more satisfied
apparently because we have had it.
And they have learned something.
They have learned that you cannot
have panics unless there is tight
the reserve is tied up,
as it was for the past so years--tied up
when it was most needed. This busi-
has been valuable, then, in that it has
demonstrated to all the people the wis
dom of the present system of flexible
currency. The old conditions have dis
appeared forever. Panics need not be
feared.
AS Mr.. A. W. Douglas, of st. Louis,
said at the Economical club a few
nights ago, there has been curious
phenomenon during this
business epression-the people-the
common people-have been optimistic
through it all. They left their money
IN the banks. The common people had |
more confidence than the so-called |
inanciers, and when the common peO-
pie have confidence you can't have |
lanics.
So now that the lesson has been
earned, and that the greatest crops
n the history of the country are in
light, it is up to everybody to forget
he mental depression, start in quickly |
md get aboard the prosperity train
hat has been simply standing still on
he tracks waiting for the engineer to
Ill up for long run. Uncle Dudley.