Ebook Business Barometers Used in the Accumulation of Money

A study of past disturbances leads to the conviction that no severe depression has occurred which was not preceded by loud warnings. These warnings ought not to pass unheeded and in order to recognize them promptly; it is necessary that accurate statistics be furnished. Much im provement has been accomplished in the last few years, though it is to be regretted that so much of our statistical information is fragmentary or inaccurate. Official and private publications fur nish much valuable information. They include voluminous figures of deposits and loans of banks, movement of specie, exports and imports, railway earnings, wholesale prices, and the con dition and probable yield of crops. A Vital de feet in many of them is the omission to give, for purposes of comparison, similar figures for pre vious months and years. Another defect is the absence of uniformity in the methods and classi fication employed. These comparative statistics would afford a means of determining the trend of events, and give warning when prices are nu naturally high or any branch of business is overdone. It is also note-worthy that we do not sufficiently consider statistics relating to thecourse of affairs in foreign countries, the in?u ence of which upon our own condition is of the utmost, importance, by reason of the enlarge ment of our trade and the closer international relations of modern commerce. Other statistics, which are inadequate or lacking and which would be of great value, are those pertaining to the employment of labor, capital invested in new enterprises, amounts expended in new con~ struction, volume of production in the various kinds of manufactures, and statistics of state banks and savings institutions similar to those pertaining to national banks. After making due allowance for the insufficiency of statistics, it must be said that the failure to pay sufficient at tention to those already available is equally to be regretted.