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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
has been quietly making money in a moderate degree
for at least a year, and In now ready to spend it."
The Times then alludes to the more cheerful tone
in the iron and steel trades, asserts that mills long
idle are resuming, and points out that the renewed
confidence in the railroad world has operated strongly
to bring about such happy results in these trades.
To quote again;
"There has been a beginning of the long delayed
work upon railroads, and the impression has been
given that it will be continued. As this involves the
use of considerable quantities of iron and steel in
various forms, the mills feel the effects of it. The
views of Mr. Swank, the Secretary of the Iron and
Steel Association, in connection with this phase of
the situation are both interesting and encouraging."
Such statements should at least wreath the faces
of our friends, the Fittsburg music dealers, with
smiles.
The Times asserts that the financial outlook is good
and that capitalists are now ready to invest the vast
sums of money that have so long lain idle, and claims
that the hope that the next session of Congress will
cause the suspension of the coinage of the silver dol-
lar is relieving business men of a good deal of anxiety.
It is not altogether sure that Congress will do its
duty in this respect, and it calls upon business men
to use their utmost efforts to relieve the country of
this evil and nuisance, and adds in conclusion :
"They could not do anything that would aid the
return of prosperity so effectually."
The New York Tribune of August 31, remarks ed-
itorially :
"There has been improvement in many branches
of business during the past week. The dry goods
merchants rejoice in a brisker trade than they have
seen for some time, and the buyers from the South
and West have been so numerous, and so well satis-
fled with the prospects of trade in those sections, that
prices have been firmly held, with a small advance in
some kinds of woolen goods, while the advance of
the previous week in cotton goods was well sustained."
It calls attention to "the improved tone in the iron
and steel Industry," and remarks upon the fact that
the relations of capital with industry are generally
less disturbed. It reviews the unpromising condition
of the grain market, the unfavorable tendency of the
foreign markets for grain, the recent reaction from
higher prices in the oil market, the advanced prices
in the provision market, the unsettled condition of
the coal trade and the (at that time) somewhat dis-
couraging aspect of the railroad world. But the open-
ing sentences which we have quoted show that the
Tribune is not disposed to be despondent over the
outlook.
The New York World, in a recent issue, speaks
very sensibly in this wise:—
the natural advantages possessed by our people and
our country are very true, the causes it assigns for
our business depression are forced, being written
from the stand-point of a magazine essayist, rather
than from that of a practical man of business. The
Century is of the opinion that:
"There seems to be no reason why this country
should not now be continuously prosperous. Our
acres are broad, our soil is productive, our mines are
rich in all the minerals, our means of communication
are ample, our factories are supplied with all the
most improved machinery; why should we not have
universal and uninterrupted plenty? * * * * * *
With such resources as we possess, all our industri-
ous people ought to be living in comfort, and the
wheels of our industrial machine ought to move
steadily and industriously forward.'
Passing on to the fact that in spite of our unpar-
alelled advantages we are subject to periods of ex-
treme business depression, the Century endeavors to
solve the riddle as to who is responsible for our
epochs of commercial disorders by pointing out two
of the several classes of the community who are en-
gaged in a "stupid conspiracy" against our commercial
welfare. It then places a large share of the responsi-
bility upon the laborers, saying:
"The workmen who strike when the market is stag-
nant, and when there are but small profits to divide,
may be safely reckoned among these witless de-
stroyers. To shut up the mill or the mine that gives
them a livelihood because it will yield them only a
livelihood when the condition of the trade is such
that additional expense of production means bank-
ruptcy to the employer, is a species of fatuity quite
too common among workingmen. * * , * * *
* * It is also a question for economists whether
such strong combinations of capital as now exist,
using their accumulated power, are not actually forc-
ing the rate of wages down to a point at which all
trade is injuriously affected; whether, indeed, the
present depression of business is not partly due to
this cause.
* * * * *
"Wage-workers are consumeri of goods, and they
constitute a considerable share of the population. Is
it not for the interest of the producers of goods that
there should be as large a class of consumers as pos-
sible, with plenty of money in their pockets? When
labor is poorly paid trade must be dull. Combina-
tions of capital to force down wages are thus aveng-
ed, to a certain extent, by the losses of trade. To
what extent this occurs we are not wise enough to
tell; it is clear, however, that a reaction of this sort
constitutes no insignificant factor for the present
depression."
We must contend that the difficulties arising be-
tween capital and labor have little effect in causing
depression in business. Business once depressed,
the contentions between employers and the employed
may increase the general demoralization, and the Cen-
tury itself strengthens our position by putting the cart
before the horse when it says, "the workmen who strike
when the market is stagnant." Just so, but we thought
"The Financial Chronicle in its issue of Saturday that the Century was endeavoring to show the cause
last refers to the Clearing House returns, which aro of this stagnation and consequent business depres-
regarded as an unfailing barometer of the rise or iall sion. Instead of saddling the workmen who strike
in the volume of business, as follows :
and the employers who cut down wages with the re-
"A considerable K»in at Now York (over $42,000,000) and some
sponsibility, let us lay the blame upon the accursed
improvement at most of the other cities during the week briun
the aggregate clearings for the whole country up to $771,062,294,
gambling, or to put it more delicately, "speculative"
a total exceeded only once since the third week of January.
propensity of the American people, together with the
"In comparison with the corresponding six days astounding lack of honor and commercial morality
of 1884, the total exchanges record an increase of
$117,621,376, and the truth of these figures is attest- shown in the reckless thievery by official of financial
ed not only by the oral statements of prominent institutions, which are the direct causes of most of
merchants, but by a gradual hardening of prices for our commercial woes.
most commodities, by increased signs of life every-
In speaking of the "speculative" propensity so
where apparent in the wholesale dry goods district,
and by more numerous applications to banks for dis- common to the American people, we mean, not only
counts. The clerical forces of some of the leading the mania which leads people to throw their hard-
wholesale houses are busily engaged far into the earned money into the whirlpools of Wall street and
night packing and shipping goods to the West and
South. It is noticeable that the demand is chiefly other centres where commercial "skin-games" flour-
from those sections where the crdps are largest, the ish, but also that insatiable greediness which leads
South especially coming forward as a large buyer. to the extravagant increase of facilities and the es-
The enormous cotton crop, to say nothing of cereals, tablishment of new concerns, for which there is no
bids fair to lead to such a revival in the trade and
industries of the South as will exert an important in- room unless some one else is force to the wall,
fluence on matters here. On the other hand, a vast inevitably leading to demoralization of prices, and
amount of Northern capital is likely to find its way all the evils which follow in the wake of over-pro-
into Southern enterprises during the next twelve duction.
months, as many believe that the South and South-
west at present offer a better field for operations
If there is one business maxim more than another
than either the West or Northwest, where the influ- which has helped to bring about panic and ruin, it
ence of overtrading during the boom several years is:—
ago is still felt to a greater or less extent. It is to
"There is always room at the top of the ladder."
be hoped that the present revival of business will be
gradual in order to check any tendency towards ex-
Encouraged by this delusive bit of sophistry, men
cessive production, which always does much to shor- rush in where they have no business to be, where the
ten the period and detract from the stability of the
field is already fully and ably occupied, pushing,
Improvement."
jostling, elbowing out those who have come before
The words of the concluding sentence are words of them in what it pleases them to call " a spirit of
wisdom, words which we trust our readers will lay to healthy competition," struggling at no matter what
cost to their neighbors to reach the top of that delu.
heart.
The Century Magazine for September has, in its de- sive commercial ladder.
The sands of time for the past three years are
partment of "Topics of the Times," an article treat-
ing of "Some Causes of the Present Depression." It strewn with the wrecks of crafts that have sailed for
is well wrltt«n of course, and while its remarks upon a haven in the music trade.
What the American business gambler wants is a
"boom." Then if he is a disatisfled employee, he
rushes into a cut-throat competition, having set up
an establishment of his own, or if he is already in
business for himself, he increases his facilities, and
gluts the market with his goods.
Then comes the day of reckoning, and as in the
past two years, after the spurt which lasted from
1879 to 1883, these "pushing and enterprising" com-
petitors sink by the way involving many worthier
than they in ruin.
It is well for us all that there is some truth in the
theory of the "survival of the fittest," rather than in
that of the "survival of the cheekiest."
Is it not better to have eight years of moderate
prosperity insuring a further legitimate growth and
progress, rather than four years of "boom," and then
four years of pitiable depression.
If we are fortunate to feel a revival of trade this
fall, lot us bear in mind our late experiences, for as
Mrs. Micawber says in Dickens' " David Copper-
field :" Experientia does it.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Notwithstanding that we lay ourselves open to the
charge of being long-winded in this article, we pro-
pose to present notes concerning the revival of busi-
ness from various parts of the country which we
have carefully gathered. What we have written and
extracted may be read carefully by the man who
wishes to reflect upon the subject, or its salient
points may be taken in almost at a glance of the eye
by the hasty reader.
The Troy Iron and Steel Works have been organ-
ized from the old Albany and Rensselaer Iron and
Steel Co., with a capital of $2,500,000, of which at
least $1,000,000 will be left for working capital. The
officers of the company believe that there is a strong-
er tone noticeable in business circles, and by the time
all their Improvements are completed, which will be
in about one year, they expect to have three thou-
sand men at work. They will make varieties of mer-
chant steel as well as steel rails, and they are putting
up blast furnaces capable of turning out 150,000 tons
of pig iron annually. A force of about two hundred
men is at present employed, and $650,000 will be ex-
pended on furnaces, tracks, piers, etc. The officers
are, Chester Griswold, President; Erastus Corning,
Vice-President; and Seldon E. Marvin, Secretary
and Treasurer.
General Manager Swank of the American Iron and
Steel Association in Philadelphia, on September 2,
says in a review of the business situation :
"On July 1, at the beginning of the second half of
the present year, we were compelled to say that the
depression in business in the country then showed rio
signs of disappearing. Two months have passed ahd
now, at the beginning of September, we are gratified
in being able to say that the tide has at last turned
and that general business is surely improving from
day to day. There is a more hopeful feeling prevail-
ing in business circles in all large manufacturing and
business centres The demand for manufactured
products has perceptibly quickened and in some lines
prices have slightly advanced. The feeling of con-
fidence that did not exist two months ago, and which
is now everywhere visible, can be directly traced to
the increased business which the two months have
brought. If we attempt to discover the influences
which have created the increased demand for manu-
factured products, we will all probably agree that a
leading influence is the better feeling that exists in
railroad circles. * * * * *
The mills in Penn-
sylvania and in other States are well supplied with
orders to December and some of them into next year.
Inquiries are numerous. To sum up, there is a re-
vival of confidence, an increase in the consumption
of nearly all manufactured products and a strong
tendency to higher prices, in many instances higher
prices having already been realized. Business is cer-
tainly better and in wool and woolen goods, steel
rails, gas and other pipes, and some other specialties
it is much better. The tide has turned."
J. B. Montgomery, of Oregon, who built the
Willamette Valley Road and sold it to the Northern
Pacific, was in New York the first week in August, and
said:—"We are begining to feel the effects of our
wonderful increase in the wheat production. We
shipped out last year 250,000 tons of wheat or its pro-
duct, flour, This year we will have 450,000 tons to
dispose of. This is equivalent to 15,000,000 orlG,000,-
000 bushels, from a population of only a quarter of a
million. Oregon's agricultural prosperity grows with
such rapidity that the mind scarcely oomprehends it.
The evidence I have just given you indicates almost