CLEARING-HOUSE RETURNS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Clearing-house returns are perhaps the most accurate barometers of business conditions accessible in other than census years, and the fact that reports of the transactions of the clearing-houses of the United States have been compiled since 1886, and those of New York City, its great business center, since a much earlier date, enables us to present data by which to compare business conditions during the years in question. It will be seen by an examination of the table that the business of the New York clearinghouse averaged during the Democratic years, 1885 to 1888, but $30,000,000,000 a year, against an average of more than $40,000,000,000 per annum in the preceding four years. The reports of the clearing-houses of the United States for the earlier years are not accessible, and it is not practicable therefore to compare the Democratic period, 1885 to 1888, for the whole country with that of preceding years, though the fact that the years immediately following it showed a large increase in the business of the clearinghouses of the country as a whole suggests that they doubtless shared in the depression which is plainly shown in the column which gives the returns of the New York clearing-houses. For the Democratic and low-tariff period, 1893 to 1896, the reduction in clearings both in New York and the country at large is very strongly marked, the average for the four years, 1893 to 1896, for the entire country being $51,000,000,000 a year against $65,924,000,000 in 1898, $88,909,000,000 in 1899, and $114,190,000,000 in 1901, or more than double those of 1896. The total for 1899 was practically double that of the calendar year 1894, the year in which the Wilson low-tariff law was put into operation.

We have but little room among our people for the timid, the irresolute, and the idle; and it is no less true that there is scant room in the world at large for the nation with mighty thews that dares not to be great.-Theodore Roosevelt, in speech at Minneapolis, September 2, 1901.

America has only just begun to assume that commanding position in the international business world which we believe will more and more be hers. It is of the utmost importance that this position be not jeoparded, especially at a time when the overflowing abundance of our own natural resources and the skill, business energy, and mechanical aptitude of our people make foreign maikets essential. Under such conditions it would be most unwise to cramp or to fetter the youthful strength of our Nation.— President Roosevelt, in message to Congress, December 3, 1901.

Clearing-house returns of the United States, showing depression in low-tariff and Democratic years.

[From the Statistical Abstract of the United States.]

The first essential of civilization is law. Anarchy is simply the hand-maiden and forerunner of tyranny and despotism. Law and order enforced by justice and by strength lie at the foundation of civilization. Law must be based upon justice, else it cannot stand, and it must be enforced with resolute firmness, because weakness in enforcing it means in the end that there is no justice and no law, nothing but the rule of disorderly and unscrupulous strength. Theodore Roosevelt, in speech at Minneapolis, September 2, 1901.

The most vital problem with which this country, and for that matter the whole civilized world, has to deal, is the problem which has for one side the betterment of social conditions, moral and physical, in large cities, and for another side the effort to deal with that tangle of far-reaching questions which we group together when we speak of “labor." The chief factor in the success of each man-wage-worker, farmer, and capitalist alike— must ever be the sum total of his own individual qualities and abilities. Second only to this comes the power of acting in combination or association with others.-President Roosevelt, in message to Congress, December 3, 1901.

MONEY IN CIRCULATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1860 To 1900. [From official reports of the Comptroller of the Currency.]

Bank exchanges last year for all cities reporting in the United States were $118,533,294,485. In no other year were these figures ever approached. Exchanges were enormously swollen by the gigantic stock dealings at New York in the early months of the year. Every city reports an increase, though the cities outside of New York probably reflect the normal gain. Below is given total

exchanges at all cities in the United States reporting; also at New York and cities outside of New York for the years mentioned:

There has been something more than a normal increase in payments through the banks, and it is quite as marked as in the year 1899 over 1898. Omitting the New York figures, which are so enormously swollen by stock speculations, the record for the year is very striking. Payments in settlement of trade balances were larger than ever before. The year 1892 was an extremely busy one, and the record year for bank exchanges up to that time, but it was far outclassed by last year. A number of smaller cities

are now included that did not report in 1892, but making allowances for this there has been an enormous gain. That the course of bank exchanges last year may be followed, the usual comparison of average daily bank exchanges each month for the thirteen leading cities of the United States is given below:

The year 1899, the best year up to that time, was a very busy and prosperous one. Exchanges were heavy, not so large in midsummer as in the other months of the year, as is usual, but far above every other year up to that time. In 1900 there were some reverses, and in the early months of the year exchanges were Jess than in the preceding year; as the time for the Presidential elec