Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1907-08-31
C0MMERCiALREPORT
CHICAGO BANK GETS OPINIONS
FROM OVER The u. S.
Prosperity on the Flood Tide-crops
Excellent and Business Is on a Sound
Basis-None May Deny lt-consen-
sus of Opinion in Thirty Thousand
Replies from Nations Doors.


Crop and Business Report" Of the
Commercial National bank, one Of the
most careful and at the same time
one of the most powerful financial
institutions of Chicago. The report
is made up from replies to several
thousand letters of inquiry sent out
to correspondents and others. and
represents opinions of bankers, bust
ness men and crop authorities in the
west and southwest:
eve endeavor in this summary to
present to the public an answer to
the question which all men are ask.
ing: is the business situation sound
and the outlook assuring? This an
swer is drawn from a composite pic
ture of conditions as graphically de
scribed in letters from thousands of
banking, manufacturing and merchan-
dizing correspondents throughout the
country. Not far from 10000 separate
replies enter into the picture before
us and the defniteness of the image
is remarkable. There is no vagueness
or blurring about it. 1t is clearcut
and incisive.
''The overwhelming preponderance
of evidence is that the business sit
uation is sound and satisfactory. Not
one of the thousands of replies mega
tives this conclusion in de-
finite terms. That there has
been a marked easing down from the
tension of the spring and winter
months of the year is generally ad-
mitted, but it is admitted without a
trace of regret or misgiving. The
country had been rushing ahead at a
whirlwind pace until the tax on credit
and capital accumulations compelled
a respite. The demand for goods to
meet instant needs. or to replace
other goods destroyed by wars and
calamities, or to provide for the GER
tain needs of the future, has been I'M
precedented.
"To meet this it has been necessary
for the manufacturers and distribu-
tive agencies of the entire world to
employ almost every available unit
Of money and to put into action every
pOtentiality of credit. The result is
need exposition. The strain on the
money centers Of the world has been
very great. In ordinary times the
stringency of one country is Offset or
relieved by the plethoya Of annthar.
| through the cUmmonrlaces of the
mechanism of exchange. But it has
been different since the peace of
Portsmouth. There is no easy money
IN the civilized world today.
ITO suggest an idea of the urgency
of the demand for capital to expand
and equip the productive capacity of
industry so that it may be on a par
with the fast-increasing consumptive
demand for the things of modern life
we call attention to the world phe-
nomenon of stagnation in the purely
speculative department of affairs Re
Gently we have seen a record low price
| for the British consolidated debt
'ocnsOls'-indicating that the rewards
of capital in industry are so attrac-
tive as to prompt withdrawal of funds
even from the acknowledged chief of
Investment securities. The same phe-
nomenon in its application to the fund
ed loan of all governments except our
own-and for this there is a special
and artificial reason-and in its appli-
cation to the bonds and shares of the
exchanges, is a further light on the
tension which is everywhere felt in
money affairs.
at is a curious and striking fact
/ that In all the thousands of replies
which enter-into the picture of the
business situation before us there is
hardly a reference to the speculative
/ lethargye which contributes so large
part of the news from day to day.
And yet it is a trusm that the secur-
ity markets exist merely as governors
of the supply of mobile capital. OF
necessity their activity must decline
when economic forces drain from their
stocks of stagnant capital. When the
mobile capital of the world is needed
in productive enterprise or in distribu-
! tive service 1t must necessarily de-
sert the stock exchange, and inevita-
bly, wane before the necessities and
overlapping importance of Industrial
activity.
The bankers of the country, with
few exceptions in the far west, report
an extraordinary demand for funds in
all lines Of business activity. Inter
est rates are very firm everywhere,
and in the central reserve and larger
reserve cities the inquiry for funds so
much exceeds the supply that money
is described as very tight
Business is generally reported to
be good in volume, making an excep-
ton for the great hesitancy in the
metal markets, especially in copper
and the alloy metals. Voluntary con-
cessions in the prices of these ma
terials have made buyers wary, and
they are generally waiting in the hope
of further forced declines.
'The high cost of materials and Ia
Dor. and especially a certain ineficien-
cy of labor, are noted by some Of our
informants as unfayorable factors in
I tho cfft,.Ffor,