The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-02
.0PPORTUNE TIME
 ID REVISE TARIFF First National Bank Issues
 Monthly Review MONEY DEMAND GOOD Business Hampered By Car Shortage. Cannot See How Extra Session
 of Legislature Can Be
 Avoided
MONEY DEMAND GOOD


 commercial review of date December ?. is as follows
 Tt is now definitely known that there will be an extra session of Congress next April for a revision of the tariff down. ward. Owing to the enormous crops, there is such activity in all lines of trade that it's momentum will be felt for months to come, and some recession would prob ably be rather a benefit than otherwise
 ''The foreign trade of the country for the month of October broke all records and exports for the first 10 months of the year show an increase of over s20o,- o00,000, compared with the same months of last year. and about $440.00o000 over 1910. Should the revision of the tariff be completed and the new law effective by July, 1913, as is the expectation of Chair man Underwood of the ways and means committee, it seems likely that the tariff throughout. the country as little as did the recent presidential campaign. The attitude of President-eect Wilson and of the democratic leaders. on the tariff is we'll understood, and the party position was clearly defined in the platform in July. From the time the progressives held their convention in Chicago in Au- gust, it was evident that a democratic victory was as certain as any future event could be, yet the present remark able volume of business began to gather headway about that time, and expanded steadily during the campaign. In our opinion crops have more to do with prosperity than politics, and should we have bountiful harvests again next year we expect a continuance of good times regardless of tariff revision. If on the other hand the crops of 1913 should prove to be short, a recession of busi- ness would naturally follow.
 Car Shortage
 Transportation facilities continue to be taxed to the utmost, and business is still being hampered by lack of cars The car surplus disappeared in Septem- Der, and the net shortage of cars on November 1 is reported as being 51.259 against car surplus November 1, 1911, of 1887. Cotton scored an advance of nearly s5 a bale during the month of November, and conditions seem to in- dicate further advance, as the mills are all very busy, and those who have not yet provided for their supplies are beginning to show some anxiety. "The Steel corporation is said to be op erating at 95 per cent of it's capacity, which is about as near full capacity as is possible, and it's orders are believed to reach well into 1913. Independents gen orally are in the same position
 Money Rates
 "THere has been a strong legitimate demand for money during the month of November, and rates have been higher than for many years past. These rates, which have been caused partly by busi- ness activity in this country and in Flu rope, and partly by the war in the near east, have prevented any material ad- vance in the stock market, and makes underlying conditions much stronger than would be the case with stocks aver aging 10 to 15 points higher than present quotations High money rates will likely continue through December, but after the first of the year they Will doubtless relax materially.
 Money shipments to the west and south have been unusually slow in re- turning to financial centers, owing partly to congestion of traffic, and there will probably be no return movement until after the middle of December. Birming ham continues to grow as a financial center, and we estimate the total de- posits of all local banks on November 30 to be not far from $24000,000.
 As to Clearing House
 'The clearing house gives no definite idea of the volume of our banking oper- ations, it's figures being limited entirely tween banks. These exchanges show a large increase during November over previous months, being $14,334072 against 12,024,553 for November. 1911.
 There is no reason why our clearing house should not reflect banking condi- tions more accurately, and compile sta tistics which would be of great value, including figures showing the currency shipments Into Birmingham from reserve cities, and out of Birmingham to banks throughout the state. Our own incom- ing shipments of currency from the first of the season. September to November 3O were $lS19.000 against $1,374,000 for the same period of 1911, and our outgo- ing shipments to country banks during this time have been $1,757000 against $1, ,137 600 last year. which figures reflect the increased volume of business and in- dicate that there is vast volume of money in the country districts of Ala bama, which in due course will drift back to Birmingham and other local financial centers. thence to large reserve centers like New York and Chicago.
 Pay rolls in this district for the first three weeks of December will be unusu-