Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-01-01
Bradstreet and Dun on Record and Outlook

- to 50 per cent. but more abundant sup
plies in the fall helped resumption to
practically full time. north and south.
Later. talk Of renewed curtailment was
heard. Much wooden and worsted mill
machinery was idle early, but lower
prices OF raw material from the new
clip allowed assumptions. Much for
eign wool was re-exported, and some do
nestle products also found q more profit
able outlet abroad than was possible at
home. Bituminous coal output was inter
fered with by strikes from April onward,
but shortages Of supplies were not felt
severely owing TO quieter industry. Coke
production showed progressive curtailment
as the year advanced. Increased friction
in Industrial lines was evident despite
numerous wage advances by railways and
Industrial lines; the number Of strikers was
doubled that Of 1909 and only exceeded by
the record suspensions Of 1903. Immigrs-
ton was 10 per cent beyond 1909, though
not equallng the 1907 record. Building ex-
pendltures fell 5 per cent below the enor-
nous 1909 aggregate.
CIearings and Failures.
Financial measures OF the years turn
over showed only a slight shrinkage.
Thus. clearings fell only 1.S per cent below
the record OF wv 1Ilh lOba was hpW-
ever mainly at New York, where the de-
crease was s per cent, while the rest of
the country showed a gain Of per cent.
Explanation OF the loss at New York is
partly Punishable by the decrease OF %
per cent in stock transactions and Of 81
per cent in bond sales as compared with
1909. Still, IL might be noted that clear
ings as a whole were nearly per cent
larger than the 1906 total and nearly
double those OF decade ago. Failure re-
turns were Irregular. These we're 1S per
cent fewer than in 1909 and IS per cent
more than in 1905 though Is per cent more
than in 1907. Liabilities, owing to the oc-
currence of some large suspensions, were
Is per cent larger than in 1909, but 50 per
cent less than in 1905 and less than half
those Of 1907 the record year Of failure
damage.
Looking Forward.
High prices of most products, and espe
cially foods and raw materials. have been
sort OF endless-chaln burden to labor,
to manufacture and to trade generally
which free buying Of some generally es-
teemed non-essentiais has not entirely con-
cealed. Perhaps the best evidence that
American markets were out Of line with
the rest Of the world was the reduction of
our export trade in food products which
one time constituted our strength in for
egn trade. Coincdently, imports broke
all records, this giving rise TO the remark
that the United States was a good place to
sell in but not so favorable a country 10
buy in. In this contingency 1t has I'm
doubtedly been fortunate that our export
trade in manufactured products and in
raw cotton has more than made up for
declines in breadstuffs and provisions.
1t will hardly be confidently claimed that
home demand for food products is suffi-
cient to take up the surplus productions of
the country in a year such as this just clos
ing and in view of foreign competition
! bred Of large crops in the rest of the
worlds surplus producing countries
American participation in this trade is
hardly possible at present price levels. The
situation of affairs would seem. indeed, to
point TO liquidation being necessary in costs
of production, and past liquidation in the
stock market may, perhaps. find a counter
| part in natural products which seem to
! have advanced more largely than manu-
featured goods, having possibly been at
fected by the speculative spirit so much in
evidence in securities markets in 1909 and
which, perhaps, found it's mainspring in
the excessive supply of cheap money in
that year. II any such movement toward
cheaper costs continues It is hard to see
! how labor can avoid contributing thereto.
In this connection a test may perhaps be
made OF the theory advanced by many,
that the Increased supply of gold in the
world has made for a permanently higher
range of all prices. Pending an approx
mately final settlement OF the tariff ques-
ton, for which one offered solution is the
permanent commission plan, something like
repression OF the country's obviously large
productive capacities TO fit the compare
lively narrow channels of small and fire.
quent buying for actual needs, rather than
large and confident anticipation of future
wants. would seem in keeping with the
conservatism manifest in so many lines
Period of Progress.
period OF peaceful progress and of gen
uine cooperation in the restoration of nor
NAL conditions Of expansion in the coun-
try's activities, would seem necessary II
the general community Is to reap the bene-
fits Of the prosperity always present in a
country possessing the magnificent advan-
tages of this one, but which. like all com
paratively new, couptries. experiences
growing pains that to some unsettled minds
pass for serious ills of the body itself
Quiet conservatism and level-headed treat.
ment of the problems apparently pressing
for solution are to be enjoined II the coun.
try is to reap the fun benefits o. the re.
adjustments already in evidence and those
TO be met with, and. it is to be hoped
satisfactorily made in 1911