The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-30
Figures Now Being Com
piled Show Enormous
Trade Strides
STEEL EXPORTS ARE
STILL INCREASING
New York's Automobile Statistics
Show Enormous Increase in Num-
Der of Machines Licensed
During the Year
by HOLLAND

New York, December 29.-(Special)
Nearly year ago the friends of the
former speaker Of the house, commonly
known as Uncle Joe" Cannon, met him
at a farewell dinner in Washington. He
was the guest of honor and it was in
recognition quite as much of his personal
qualities as of his career as speaker tina t
this tribute was given to him.
Late in the evening a warm personal
friend of Uncle Joe had a chat with him
respecting business conditions. He Gid
not look out upon the future with any
enthusiasm He was confident that the
country was entering upon an era of great
business depression and possibly of seri-
Gus financial disturbance. He Illustrated
his point by making several prophetic
statements. Among others was the as
sertion that within year so per cent of
the automobiles in the United States then
| In commission would be out of commits
sion and there would be a heavy falling
off In the automobile business, which, in
his view, was one of the best barometers
of prosperity in the United States.
Report From Albany
The year has passed and there came
from Albany a day or two ago a report
issued from the office of Mitchell May,
who is secretary of state 1t is as unemo-
tional and as unsentmental as any of
the tables in an arithmetic. 1t states in
concise figures that in the year 1913, ex-
cepting the last two weeks. of which
there Is as yet no record possible, there
mas been an increase in the number of
motor cars registered in the state of "a
7 aar
the previous year The increase over the
record made in 1911 was SO per cent The
state OF New York received thus far In
1913 from fees paid by the owners or oper-
ators of motor cars $1.27500O. This was
S250000 more than was received in 1912
and 100000 more than was received In
1911.
That this increase was not entirely due
to those who use motor cars exclusively
for pleasure driving touring was dem
onstrated by the fact that little over
1900 commercial vehicles were licensed
and registered in 1913 as against $500 IL
censed in the year 1872 These motor ve-
hicles are exclusively used for business
The Past and the Future
The gloomy prediction which the
former speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives ventured to make a year ago
and the complete refutation of it, at least
SO far as New York state is concerned,
through the authoritative statement which
has just been made by the secretary of
state is not an exceptional case of mac
curate forecast
A year ago many We're the predictions
of serious business reverses. 1t was some
times said that there was likely to be a
falling off in our export trade in manu-
factured products which would be ap-
palling. Some business depression has
bo ortt nh
been ups and downs in various parts of
the country. Newman Erb, who is The
successor of Edwin Hawley in railroad
enterprises west of the Mississippi river
has recently returned from the northwest
and has been glad to report to his
friends that business in that section of
the country is fairly prosperous. New
York bankers who have recently re-
ceived reports from the south have
learned from these statements that busi-
ness in that part of the country which
borders the Atlantic and the eastern gulf
has been excellent.
The story of the year as a whole (which
official statistics may tell soon after
January Will be found not to justify the
very gloomy predictions that We're made
a year ago. 1t is observed that business
men are looking more into the future
than they were at that time. Their eyes
are set straight ahead.
Growth of Steel Exports
This is in part because authoritative
statements show how greatly relatively
speaking, business has advanced in 1913,
at least in some of the most important
lines of trade. There is no higher au-
thority on export trade than is the pres
ident of the United States Steel corpor-
alton, James A. Farrell. Therefore his
recent statement about the increase in
our expectation of steel and iron prod
ucts is accepted without any question.
He said publicly a few weeks ago that
the exports of iron and steel from the
United States have increa sed since 1903
II ON $4,000 tons. round numbers, to
nearly 100000 tons, these latter figures
being those of the export trade OF 1912.
The money value Of these exports was
in 1909 just million short of hundred
million dollars, whereas in 1912 it was
little over three hundred million dollars.
All of the authoritative reports for the
present year show that this trade has
not decreased, but has increased pro-