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Show WHAT'S THE MATTER7. l, M Business men complain that money has not H been so scarce or accommodations hedged about H with so many difficulties as at present, since the H country began to emerge from the panic of 1893-4. H Can some seer or revelator explain the cause? H The foreign trade of the country was never more fl prosperous, and a foreign trade insures a prosper- H ous domestic trade. The crops have been fine. H Cotton will bring the Southern planters $200,000,- M 000 more than last year's crop did. All the gran- M aries of the North and West are bursting with the M bounties of the harvest. The iron trade is slug- M glsh because for eight years the great railroads M of the country have been relaying their tracks and " M adding to their rolling stock and that work is pretty well finished. But the main fact stands out that the soil and the mines of the country never made a better showing than last year, prices were never higher nor trade more active and still a feeling of depression and apprehension of trouble ' to come fills the land. Can anyone tell the reason? M The squeezing of the water out of inflated stocks H is given as one reason. But that only affected tho H speculating class, and then a vast proportion, prob- H ably 50 per cent of those stocks were never sold. If a company were to incorporate a mine with H 1,000,000 $1 shares and the mine should prove H valueless, it would be easy to say that another I million was lost. But if it transpired that only 25,- t fl 000 hsares wore ever sold and that these brought B only 25 cents per share, the loss would not seem fl so heavy. So in the East. There were incorpora- I tions which aggregated hundreds of millions, but fl all the stock was not sold, not even all the steel fl trust stocks. It is a mystery what makes the de- fl pression outside of Utah, it is still a greater mys- fl tery here. More treasures from the mines, more fl sugar, a market for all manner of farm produce, fl splendid crops; no disasters; why should there fl be depression here? Looking forward, all the fl indications point to increased products, increased H ! Pjf , I transportation facilities, greatly increased bust- ) ' ' '' 1 j : ,j ness. Ill Some people have a belief that an impression It I 'j fixed on the minds of a host of people becomes I contagious and spreads out in all directions, and r 1 1 impresses other hosts. It is possible that, like a I cold wave, the last autumn's financial troubles k i I., ( 1 1 i in the Eastern cities made an impression that B r ill moved west and is giving the whole country the H I I i "fill blues? We admit that is not a very reasonable B j I i J : I theory, but who can give a better one? Surely on B I ' I M II 8 face ae coun:ry was never more filled with Bi ! I'll Iff promise than at this very moment. |