The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-01-02

Nineteen hundred and ten was, on
the whole, a disturbed and rather dis
appointing period in American trade,
finance end industry. It~was year of
agitation, of attempts to work out pol
itic-economic problems. of declines in
quotations OF securities, of imitation
and later of unsett!ement and finally
OF weakness in many commodity
prices, of industrial unrest and cur
tailment, OF repression in consumptive
demand, of numerous strikes. of poll
teal overturn approaching the proper
tons OF landslide. and of changes in
long established channels of domestic
and foreign trade. Withal, and in
spite of many drawbacks, but probably
because of the momentum acquired
in the previous year of tremendous
activity, of upbuilding and of recup-
Grafton, 1t was a period of immense
agricultural effort, crowned with not
able success in some instances, as re-
CARDS quantity, and of record outputs
in many lines of manufactures. II wit
| messed the floating of large new is
| sues of securities, while at the same
| time it saw a volume of financial liq-
! uidation which in other years might
| have caused CONFUSION. 1t witnessed
a vast expansion of banking transac-
| tons, record totals of loans and de-
| posts and close TO record bank clear
ings, and yet fewer failures than in
| though the volume of failure damage
| was above the normal, being exceeded
| only in years of vital stress.
In assigning causes for the disturb
| ed conditions which pervaded the
body polite and economic throughout
the first place will probably have to be
accorded to prevailing high levels of
all prices, whether of securities or of
commodities. The first invited attack
because of extravagant manipulation
before the year began while the height
to which commodity prices rose in
the opening months of the year con-
stituted a burden which gave rise to
bitter agitation and resulted ultimate
ly in far reaching effects, primarily
upon consumption, thence upon out
put and finally upon profits. In the
little dissent from the statement that
an immense business was done at a
| small. in some instances disappearing,
margin. OF this the generally conced-
ed small net results reported obtained
by business men and by manufactur.
ers and the lessened net earnings an.
nounced by the railways are striking
present examples.
Declining prices of securities, high
prices of food. meat boycotts, de.
mands for higher wages by railway
and industrial employees, talk of cor
poration prosecutions, this in turn I'M
settling confidence and preventing
the floating of new security issues for
improvements, all made the earlier
months of the year a veritable win
ter of discomfort" Excessively large
expenditures for food naturally less
ened margins of earnings available for
purchases of other necessaries and in.
creased the pressure upon public Off
Gals to embark upon prosecutions to
which the term frustrating became
applied. Spring brought some relief
in the matter of lowered prices, but
the weather and crop uncertainties
and manufacturing curtailment, fore
ed by high raw material costs, caused
conservatism in business. Continued
governmental activity against certain
corporations and threats of injunc
ton suits against the railways, which
were seeking to recoup themselves fol