The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-05

Warehousemen throughout the city re- port that business in nearly every line of trade is now more active than it has been in several years.
 As the warehousemen diagnose the con dition, and they have their fingers on the pulse of the business world, this re- vival is not local, but quite general.
 we regard our system of warehouses as indicating the conditions of trade, much as a barometer indicates weather conditions" was the way the situation was stated by William H. Gibson, presi- dent of the F. c. Linde company.
 Many manufacturers have no place to store their manufactured product and must place it in warehouses pending sale. That is true of a great many lines of manufactured goods, and the movement in and out of warehouses indicates busi- ness conditions.
 'Iabor day appears to have been the turning point for the better. Since La bor day business all through the ware house has been very much improved; much more active, particularly,in in the line of provisions, dried fruits, green fruits and hardware.
 "Where we found our business to be weakest was in dry goods and cottons. and their state was a good indication or the state of the mills
 In the last few weeks even those trades have shown very marked improvement. This was not so much in the matter or raw products as in that of manufactured articles.
 "Take. say white goods. manufac- tured for domestic trade. These have shown A very great increase in act1V- ity. Nearly all these goods are now coming to us in cases marked Tor shipping, showing they have been sold for future delivery.
 q presume the skirt trade IS more highly indicative of increased demand than any other. Our business shows that all the manufacturers of mems shirts and underwear are exceedingly active.
 "We hear very good accounts from our wholesale friends as to condt- tions of trade throughout the country generally, particularly in the south and west. They say that New York is the only place in the country where the people still appear to have bad livers. But even here there has been decided improvement"
 The arrangement of the traffic agree ment between the Chicago and North Western and the Northern Pacific may be far more important matter than the average Wall street man realizes It may pc lilG pi eC oHP OA the most important railroad deals pull ed off in recent years. For long time the Hill interests have contemplated a modification of the present method of controlling the Burlington.
 Joint ownership of the last named road by Great Northern and Northern Pacific will not be permanent. Plans have been considered TOT sale or Northern Pacific's equity in the Bur lington to the Northern Pacific. but standing in the way of such a deal has been the difficulty Of providing Northern Pacific with a Chicago con- nection. This difficulty to some extent disappears now that the>Northern Pa cific has concluded an arrangement with North Western.
 Perhaps that is the cause of the re- cent heaviness in Union Pacific-that large interests have seen in the North western-Northern Pacific arrangement a far more important development than outsiders have recognized. The sale of Northern Pacifics equity in the Burlington to Great Northern would supply Northern Pacific with large amount of funds which it could use to advantage. Until very recently there were rumors of q pending bond issue by Northern Pacific, but within the past few days President Elliott has stated that no financing will be necessary. That in itself appears to convey an in- timation of a deal.
 At the meeting of life insurance pres idents here recently it was brought out that $435 100000 was being borrowed by policy holders on their policies. The insurance conclusions which were drawn from this are of less economic significance than the distinct implica- tion which is afforded of the strain im- posed by living costs on even thrifty individuals, for thriftlessness and ex- travagance are not denoted by the possession of life insurtnce contract.
 Natural
 From the Chicago Tribune.
 You've been making speeches all through the corn belt" said the polit- ical manager "Do you notice any re-