The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-01
RELIEVED AT THE YEARS EkD Little Regret Is Felt on the
 Exchange BUSINESS IS SOUND
In Some Lines Production Reached New High Records But in Almost Every Case It Was at the
 Expense of Profits

New York, December si--Relief rather
 than regret Is felt in Wall street at the
 passing of the year 19l1 It has been a.
 year of decided unsettlement In both
 finance and business. Activity in almost
 every line has been repressed. Trading
 on the stock exchange dwindled. At no time, however, were there threats of wide-
 spread disaster. The condition was one of dull suspense rather than actual retro gression. Business was sound, but the characteristic American vim was lacking. The memorable feature in the year from the Wall street viewpoint was the crisis in the struggle for the readjustment or "bg business" to the requirements Of law In the spring the United states supreme court rendered its epoch making decisions in the Standard oil and Amer lean Tobacco cases, enunciating the rule of reason" Tho latter part of the year | witnessed the unprecedented spectacle of | the dismemberment of these huge corpo- | rations.
 | The movement was carried further by 1 the filing of the suit for the dissolution | of the United States Steel corporation | and by proceedings against several small
  | contended were operating in restraint or | trade. In other occurrences there were | evidences of the tendency toward more l rigid control of large business interests | by the government.
 | Early in the year the interstate com
 merce commission rejected the plea of the | railroads for a wholesale advance Of | freight rates, a decision which caused an | upheaval on the stock exchange. Agita- l tions of political questions having to do with the affairs of corporations was | continued. With a presidential campaign | in the coming year there appeared to be l little prospects that the trust question
 would be allowed to slip into the back ground.
 The effect of this movement was felt | perhaps most keenly in Wall street | Large new business ventures were post 1 poned until the promoters and bankers l should be able to foresee with some de- ] gree of certainty what were to be the fu- ture conditions unuder which the business was to be conducted The passing needs
 of the country were sufficient to support most lines of trade on q fairly active basis, but there was little of initiative. In some lines of business the produc- ton reached new high records but in al- most every case it was at the expense of profits asSprices tended toward lower | level .> . | buSihteS idlhAtH4 TN FfStd q Ptia WI ' ] esef fslo. In the eloaf,Es Es-~Met tl sof N . i, sear there. yiere siSIs of 2 buFf1ffSs ft)- | vival. although tliey wore not sufficiently general to indicate how far this i'm 1 provement may be expected to extend. 1 The years crop record showed some thing of the same irrcgularity. Weather conditions were mixed and the early promise of unprecedented cereal crops on which Wall street based high hopes was not borne out owing to the drouth. The cotton crop increased. and according 10 present Indications the yield has far over topped all previous records. There was decrease of per cent in the value of the six cereal crops.
 A bright feature of the year was the growth of foreign trade Exports ifl- creased II per cent over the previous year, with especially heavy gains in steel products Imports fell off per cent, making the balance of trade in this cotln- try's favor correspondIngly high. The ef- fects Of thecs conditions upon trading in securities was decided. The volume of
 business on the stock exchange fell orr
 20 per cent from that of 1910.
 Money rates were abnormally easy. The
 year ended with call money at per cent,
 and with no sIsn of the customary year
 end furry. This condition was largely due to the restriction of business and the
 consequent lack of demand for funds.