The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-21
BUSINESS SEEMS ID IGNORE POLITICS
 --- Different From Past Presi-
 dential Years
 LONG TERM BONDS Snec;alists Renort Cotton Seed Oil In
IG TERM BONDS
Specialists Report Cotton Seed Oil In- dustry Delayed by Seed Freezing. Building Returns Show
 Healthy Gain
Fly PRESTON C. ADAMS


 New York, April 2o.-tSpecial)A re Lmarkable feature of the business situa-
 tion in the country is the minor place oc-
 cupied by politics this year in the discus
 sion of conditions For a great many years there has existed a superstition that the year of a presidential election business must be held up until after the elections. It made no difference if the
 result was practically certain, it was un- safe to make any commitments until after the votes had been counted, and the wise business man must confne his 1 operations to absolute necessities.
 While unquestionably some of this feel ing still exists, and is hampering in a
 degree the national development of bus mess. there is not nearly so much of it as there has been In past presidential | years.
 The most curious part of 1t is that there has not been a presidential election for
 great many years which was so much
 in doubt Not only is it uncertain who is
 to be the candidate of either of the par ties, but there is even more uncertainty
 as to which of the candidates finally nominated will be elected. Yet we find business going on quietly but confidently 1 in all branches and the efforts of the pol
 tieians to get up a scare fall fiat. 1 An observant traveller for a New York
 woolen house, who has just completed 8 four. weeks trip through the central west and northwest. says of the business
 and political situation in that part of the
 country: "I have never known so little concern about the presidential cam | paign as I found mong business people. Their primary thought is to get ahead | with business, after several years of
 holding back Politics of the presidential
 variety is quite secondary"
 l As a matter of fact we are coming to realize that about nine-tenths of the
 scare over politics is flap-doodle What ever platforms and orators may say, no
 political party in this country will be SC radical as 10 interfere unduly with legiti-
 mate business. for the very simple req
 son that political parties desire above
 all things to remain in power and no party can hold power which recklessly
 and needlessy interferes with legitimate
 business. The people are beginning to | realize this and hence the lack of infu- | ence of politics over business this year. 1 Nearly every banker says that 1t is pos
 sble for railroads 10 sell long term bonds | If they are willing to pay the rate of in-
 terest demanded by investors, and that
 it were peter policy to do so than con tinue using notes, which in the end may
 become a more costly form of financ- , ing than long term bonds at high rates of interest.
 The question arises whether bankers en-
 courage the borrowing railroad corpora | tons to issue notes, whether the rail-
 road corporations insist upon pursuing that policy. Possibly as in So many | other things, expediency determines what
 shall be done, and academic considera- l tions are lightly touched upon or waived.
 A railroad needs so much capital at | once. It has to sell something. He con-
 suits with the banker as to what can be | most readily sold. The banker admits
 that notes can he sold very readily and a | note issue 1t is. The volubity with which notes have been issued insures | a great deal of refinancing ahead. More
 than $2O00 00,000 of railroad notes will ma ture next year. That will probably be the minimum for several years, because | two and three year notes have been | issued in the last 12 months on larger
 scale than ever before.
 | Cotton seed specialists report that the | campaign of converting this product into crude oil and other articles of trade has 1 been considerably delayed by the sever | ity of the winter, during which seed was frozen where exposed and otherwise rem dered unsuitable for being put through the manufacturing process. This delay
 has thrown the active period of seed crushing some weeks iater than usual
 Owing to the big yield of cotton. the seed supply Is unusually large. A New York fruit exchange member has just figured the total at 7.222,o0o tons. com pared with 5t75.000 tons as the official figures of 1s1o-11 and 4.4so0o0 tons for | 190910 6
 Crude oil mills this year paid on the