crown CU Home > Libraries Home
[x] Close window

Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Use your browser's Print function to print these pages.

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 55, no. 1400: January 12, 1895

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031148_015_00000071

Text version:

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.
January 12,1895 Record and Guide. 37 ^ _ ESTABLI5HED-^MRRPH21V>1B68. DevGieD to f{ol Estate .BuiLDiffe %ciroposed ciu'reney reform is for the purpose of creating a boom in business for 1895 and 1896, it will be a flat failure. Before the War of Rebellion, when we had the specie basis banking system, whenever the tariff was reduced prices declined aud hard times followed. The banks then had to resort to every ingenuity and cunning device to get their notes in circulation in such a way so as to prevent their sudden return for redemption in hard money. They then could not inflate the currency and start a boom in business by their money alone. It was only after a protective policy had been adopted and business was improving tbat specie-paying banks flourished. Then they could issue any quantity of their currency, which stimulated business and made high prices. Now we have a low tariff, distressed business and declining prices. Any system of State banks that would issue currency based on gold or anything else, could not get large quantities of their notes out in the channels of trade, and therefore the at¬ tempt would he a faihire to boom business. If more money is required at this time to create better busi¬ ness, why is there now a surplus over legal requirements of thirty-five million dollars idle money in the banks? Should Congress abandon the plan for an elastic currency and enact a law to issue bonds to withdraw the gi'eenbacks and treasury notes from circulation at once, the result would be a contraction of the currency disastrous to all business; business men iu that event should prepare for one of the most serious de¬ pressions in modern times. There is anxious inquiry as to the proper time to invest money. It is one of the facts of trade that when the depressions which follow commercial panics reach their lowest limit they afford tbe best opportunity for. safe and profitable investment. It is there any evidence anywhere that we aie at the lowest in this depression ? Is there any property which is not depreciating in value except gold 1 I au swer—none. Are prices so low that they cannot go lower ? Does the lower tarifi' Republican success in the election and failure in the corn crop indicate a turn in the tide of depression for the year 1895 ■? I answer—no. There is not in view a single prospective happening that would advance prices, except very short crops of grain and cot¬ ton in 1895 ; however, in that event, railroads and general trade would be adversely affected. There cannot be prosperity in the future without advancing prices in general all along the line of production and manufac- tuxe. An average crop of grain in this country this year with fair crops abroad, prices at Chicago for wheat after next harvest will go down to 40 cents a bushel; prices for corn nest fall will decline to 25 cents a bushel; fat hogs, $3 a hundred pound gross nest packing season. Prices for wool, cotton, iron, cattle and horses will be on the down grade during the present year; common sheep, after the wool is taken off nest spring, will sell for what the pelt will then bring in the markets—25 cents. To the ansious inquirer the year 1895 will not be the proper time to make investments in property or to engage extensively in business enterprise. We have not yet seen or felt the depths of the depressive effects of the gold basis with low tariff iu connection with our growing national debt. ^ ^^Zc^.'t.tjLje.^ '^^■T'z^o'X^eA^ Ddndas, 0., January 1,1895. arg^ -the