Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-11-07
GOOD CROP CONDITIONS ARE GIVEN
FOR AIDING THE MONEY MARKET

{ than any other crop raised in the
United States. and the enormous eX-
, port this season will be of great bene-
fit in promoting the import of gold
from Europe.
One reason for the great activity in
the Wall street loan market during the
closing days of September was the
heavy increase. in the amount which
has, to. be disbursed this year in con-
nectioll with the October first pay
ments. Altogether $173,O00.OO0 will be
paid out in connection with these ma
turing obligations. 1t must be remem.
bered also that there is considerable
volume of short term notes which fall
d,lee before the close OF the year. A
large number Of these issues have al
ready been provided for, but there is
still a good deal of financing to be
done in connection with the large pay
ments which invariably have to be
made towards the close of each calen
dar year. The New York banks have
not large surplus reserve. but there
is no reason to look. for undue string
ency in the money market or for such
an advance in discount rates as would
really bring hardship to commercial
borrowers. While trade is as active as
it is today merchants will have to
borrow heavily. and there Is every
reason why the banks should afford
them all the accommodation that they
are entitled to. It takes a great deal
of money to operate the immense steel
plants and other manufacturing inter-
ests on the rush order basis" which
is being followed at many industrial
centers With gold flowing to the
United States from Europe and with
the treasury possessed Of sufficient
working balance to permit of large
deposits of government funds with the
banks should occasion require 1t, the
money market would seem to be fairly
we'll protected at this time against any
very startling advances in discount
rates. &a +..
1t seems clear that the production of
spring wheat corn and oats will this
year break all records. The money
valuation of all the crops. both the
major and the minor crops. has been
estimated to be largely in excess OF
any previous total. Conditions in the
northwest. especially in the territory
which suffered severely from deficient
crops during two successive years. are
immeasurably better now than they
were year ago. In no part or the
country has improvement been more
pronounced. The changed conditions
in those states show how wise it was
for the banks and other interests to
which merchants and various smaller
business men in the northwest were
heavily indebted one or two years ago,
to carry the accounts over into the new
crop wear. In this way whole COM
munities have been benefited. and in
stead of forcing ruinous liquidation 1t
has been possible for vartually all OF
these interests to materially reduce ii
not to wholly wipe out the indebted
ness which has been hanging over their
heads for many months past. Adop'
ton of such a policy materially re-
lieyed the tension in the northwest.
Politics has not been an important
factor in business affairs this year but
there is likely to be material expan-
sion in general trade as soon as the
elections are held. This is because
great number of enterprises are usual
" held up pending the outcome OF
presidential contest, or until 1t is
known how the next congress Will
stand. It seems fair to assume that
the campaign will end without any I'M
favorable developments to unsettle
business affairs. and that the present
struggle will pass into history as being
one Of the most interesting that the
country has seen and at the same time
one which has really offered the least
nossih1e disturbance TO general trade.
A notable feature of the present situa-
ton is the continued prosperity of re-
tail trade and the. very satisfactory
volume of business which is being
done by department stores in most OF
the important cities in the United
States. Many Of these establishments