SHAKESPEARE PLAYED BY PEASANTS VICTOR L. WHITECHURCH "WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO" (Illustrated) - OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN 39 94 - BOOK COLLECTING, THE SPORT OF MONEY KINGS THE NORTH DAKOTA MAN CROP (Illus.) FRANK PARKER STOCKBRIDGE AN AIR LINE OVER GERMANY (Illustrated) LLOYD-GEORGE'S ENGLAND (Illustrated) TERMS: $3.00 a year; single copies, 25 cents. For Foreign Postage add $1.28; Canada, 60 cents. Published monthly. Copyright, 1912, by Doubleday, Page & Company. 1118 Peoples Gas Bldg. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, N. Y. PRESENT PRESIDENT OF MARSHALL FIELD & COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, AND ONE OF THE FOREMOST MERCHANTS OF THE WORLD, WHO BELIEVES THAT "THE INDICATIONS OF THE POINT STRONGLY TO AN INCREASE OF ACTIVITY" IN AMERICAN BUSINESS (See page 65) G THE MARCH OF EVENTS OOD times are come again. The staple crops are big; and they will bring good prices, for the left-over supply is not large. The yield of corn is greater than ever before nearly three billion bushels; the wheat yield is almost the top-notch; the potato crop is the largest in our history; and cotton approximates last year's great yield. The farmer has a good year and those who depend on him and those who serve him and those who exploit him under our wasteful system all now have money; for this money quickly gets into circulation. Laborers and merchants, bankers small and great, the railroads and the steamships much of it goes to these; and in its travels it keeps the wheels of trade in motion. Corn, wheat, cotton the earth has done most kindly this year in producing them; and this is the first great index of prosperity. Another such index is the iron and steel trade, which also points to a general revival of prosperity. When great crops must be hauled, the railroads must put themselves in order; they must have more cars; they must have more rails, more locomotives. All wheels turn as soon as a great harvest is gathered, especially in a year of good prices. And there are other indications, too. Our exports, in spite of the greatly increased home consumption of our foodproducts, mount higher and higher; ocean freight-rates have been increased, and it is impossible to charter steamers enough. The westward stream of immigration also is again swollen. Laborers now come from Europe in great numbers when we have much work for them, and many of them go back when we have dull times. In spite of an increase in steerage rates, they are coming to us now in great swarms. Farming land keeps rising in price in spite of its having doubled its value between 1900 and 1910. And (quite as important as any other fact) men have become tired of waiting for commercial confidence to be restored. They seem, by a common impulse, to say to one another: "Let's stop waiting for something to happen. Let's go to work and make and buy and sell"; and when you and all your neighbors and all their neighbors of every craft and calling from one ocean to the other have this impulse, then what we call prosperity comes to pass. Copyright, 1912, by Doubleday, Page & Co. All rights reserved |