The Washington times., 1911-04-16
Special Financial

cars standing idle on sidings reached
the very heavy total Of 3B,527, which,
| compared with a surplus Of 45.3l5 in the
country a year ago.
| The manner In reporting car, shortage
or surplus Is so much more carefully
performed now by the committee on
car efficiency of the American Railway
association that recently these reports
, have been included among the various
indexes by which financial men deter
mine trade tendencies A year ago, be-
| tween March and April, idle cars in
creased from 1876 to S4,s87, whereas
now the trend is the other way. As q
matter of fact, the reason that the re-
cent surplus was so large as 2s.5S was
due less to inactive business than to the
increased capacity Of cars and greater
efficiency In loading. 1t is interesting to
note that the reduction In car surplus
reflects In gross railway earnings.
which. for the first week of April. show
gain of $SS, ,1s1, or Is per cent. as COM
pared with year ago. and the second
week in April gives still better results.
Winter Wheat Conditions.
While the condition Of winter wheat.
shown by the agricultural report of
S3.3, Is below the ten-year April average
Of $50. there has been an advance Of 8
per cent, as compared with the Decem-
ber showing. and the condition now is
2.5 better than in April, 1910. The area
sown In winter wheat is 100000 acres
above that Of the preceding year. As
yet, of course, there Is no information
as to the amount of wheat winter
killed." and, in consequence, the esti-
mates Of the crop at this time are not Of
great value but IL seems quite clear
that, taking the Increased area Into con-
sideration, winter wheat promises fully
as large q harvest as last year.
The final outcome Of winter wheat will
be determined this year, as in all other
years IN the worlds history, by the
circumstances and happenings between
now and midsummer. but as a matter
Of record II may be noted that the pres
ent indicated yield Is for a harvest of
a1, ,H5, 900 bushels against 200 last
year.. There, assuredlS, seems nothing
disa strous in such a showing Of pros
pective abundance, but the commodity
market professed disappointment over
the Government figures, because the
condition was net up to expectation,
and wheat prices hardened. 1t is who'll
" likely that some overenthusiastic eS-
Inmates Of winter wheat conditions re-
suited in an oversold condition of the
commodity. and that covering operations
were Influenced by the failure of the
certainly nothing in the condition re-
ported or in later crop advices, to cause
alarm.
Our Expanding Credit Balance.
As clearly indicated by the returns on |
foreign trade for March. made public |
by the Bureau of Statistics on Friday, |
the United States is transacting an |
enormous international business inde- |
pendent Of Wall Streets apathy. The
total exports for the month. valued at |
s161 s24,5 ,563. are the largest for March on
record. 1t is not as satisfactory to find |
al xka
of the month in question amounting to /
s139, ,0A, ,73s. while failing .697 below
the record breaking total OF $162, 999, AS |
for March. 1910. are with that single ex- /
ception the largest for the month In the |
history. 1t Is to be borne in |,
mind. however. that always. heretofore,
imports have been grossly undervalued- |
At the present time the figures are prob i
ably closer to true foreign values than
ever before. while the true import values
In former years were probably much |
greater than the Government returns in
dicated.
however. the result Is favorable as
SIS. The corresponding month in 1910
showed excess imports of $19,341,57S.
By comparisons with last year the
country is s42,221,403 better of as a
March During the nine months of
the fiscal year to date exports have
exceeded Imports by S440.961. .453,
which has been exceeded but four
times in fifteen years. 1t Is only when
one contrasts this with the same nine
months of the preceding year that
the remarkable change In foreign
trade becomes apparent for the
credit balance a year ago was but
II6S, SO, ,672, or the smallest In fifteen
years, and gold was literally pouring
out to meet our debts abroad. Our
credit balance on merchandise account
alone at this time Is $272,3S9,781
larger than last year. and II Is very L
much larger than that actually II one
takes into account the proceeds Of
sales left on balance in Eu-
rope, and the amount of money d.
rectly loaned by America abroad.
Steel Orders and Business.
OF course 1t was not to be expected
with the Congress IN special session
and with railways practicing rigid
economy, that the volume CT steel