Arizona republican., 1912-05-08
Bache's Weekly Review of Trade

Obstacles to Trade Revival Considered. ,
 The various operations of a business revival have been proceeding satisfac- 1 torily; slowly, it is true, but quite steadily. Its progress has indeed been a matter of some amazement to many observers, as it has been made in the face of apparently many obstacles, part of them supposed to be of con- siderable magnitude. First of all, the presidential election. Years when this unfortunate procedure is under way in the United States, business hesitates and awaits the outcome. This year the procedure has had no effect upon business a year; too, when the bon fires have been kindled uncannily early and the most unusual and disturbing conditions have prevailed. The preSi dential primaries in their abnormal and unsatisfactory workings, have all the effects of q painful miscarriage with the agonies of travail still to come. Their farcical operation, which came to notice in Illinois and then in Penn | sylVania. has been working toward a l climax which was reached in Massa- chusetts. Whenever such comforting machinery as this Massachusetts pri- mary law is used to get at the will or 1 the people, the results will be negiig- | ibio If it had been a real election, | Taft would have swept the state. As l it was, he swept only part of 1t, the 1 dust and dirt of all the parties was l collected in the broom, and the broom ! broke This sort of an operation is l nonsense and as representing our in- sttutions, holds the American people
 up to ridicule. The business world has ] looked on with considerable interest, l but unaffected by the event, and the 1 political situation is not as yet dis turbing business.
 The Labor Obstacle.
 1 Another obstacle which might be
 viewed as adverse to a business re- viva1 is the labor situation. Neither
 has this apparently had great weight with the progress of business. The settled conviction seems to be that
 some way out will be found with ref erence to each of the problems of this character which presents inself This
 view. early maintained, has proved
 true so far and will probably continue to do SO
 It is to he contendcd that the labor | situation has never been 1iquidated 1 since the panic of 1907 and for a long time a liquidation with revision of 1 wages downward was looked for. This
 did not materialize and now we are getting a revision upward. The de mand of the locomotive engineers, hay ing been passed on to arbitration, the railway firemen now come forward | asking for still larger increases. There is said to be a rivalry between the two l organizations. A strike of pressmen
 has been started in Chicago. It is per 1 haps unfortunate that at the first sign of business prosperity, the trades un- ions take the opportunity to jack up l their prices before the business com
 munity has begun to realize many new
 profits. The danger in an this is that prOprietOrs, anxious to take advantage of reVivinG volume, will make settle l mentS with the workers at such high 1 CT figures as will make impossible any profit, even with the business increased heavily. We shall then be continuing
 as we have been for two years, doing
 a large business without profit, and
 the ultimate result of this must be dis
 astrous AS far as the railroads are
 concerned, if these demands of the
 workers turned over to arbitration ar
 met even in part, there is but one
 remedy on an economic basis, and that
 is to permit the railroads to raise rates.
 which, in fact. should have been done
 long ago
 Tte Market.
 The most important contribution Of
 the week was the report of the Steel corporations business for the quarter,
 which showed earnings of $17,S26,973 for the period ending with March-the
 smallest with one exception in the his
 tory of the company's business. Near | Iy all of the $6.343,7S1 required for . dividend on the common stock was un~
 earned, but the dividend was declared
 out of surOlus Such action would in-
 dicate a belief in future earnings suf-
 ficient to make up this deficit, and, il
 the payment was made on this belief $ the directors of the company must see ? continued prosperity for steel and X iron.
 5 The present production of pig iror
 is at the rate of 29,OOO,OOO tons per an I num- It is a question whether the de I mand will steadily keep pace with this lproduction, and. inasmuch as furnaces are being blown in constantly in antici-
 patton of the continuance, we shaI probably before long have some lul
 and possibly sagging prices later on 1T
 the summer. This is perhaps to bC expected after July 1st rounding out