The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-01

greater or less degree in almost every line of trade. The railroad situation has
 not improved. Net earnings declined for a considerable period, and now gross earnings have been declining The freer movement of metals and general mer- chandise will help the railroad situation in a measure but genuine relief cannot come to the railroads until the 1914 crops begin to come in. Even good crops may
 not wholly remedy the present unsat- i isfactory conditions unless some method is found by the railroads or the inter- state commerce commission to enable the roads to get a higher rate per ton per mile on freight. Fortunately for the roads, the cost of matorials is less than it was a few months ago and they would
 now be in a position to buy new equip ment and supplies liberally were they able to finance such purchases. sFinanc- ing by railroads was accomplished dur ing January to the amount of S4,O00,Wl compared with S76,000.000 for January Of last year. Industrial financing being smaller for the month than last year by s16o00. GOO. probably helped the market for these securities. Railroad securities gen orally will look better to the investor when the railroads can snow better net profits on operation.
 Building operations for the month of January showed a gain Of about 10 per cent over the same month last year. all i though they were smaller for New York, l Philadelphia, San Francisco. Los Angn1es. Newark, Cincinnati, Baltimore and New Orleans. Big gains for the month were shown by St. Louis. Seattle, Portland, 1 Pittsburg, Minneapolis, Grand Rapids, l Duluth, Detroit, Denver, Columbus, Cleveland and Albany number of
 other leading cities showed fair gains.
 F-w January call for careful analysis on the part of all business men. Only for the | year 1910 did the aJnuary failures ap- 1 proach the figures of January, 1914. in 1 total liabilities which last month amount l ed to over S39 000000. A larger number
 of failures was recorded in January, 1912 and 1908, but the total liabilities for each i of these months were considerably less l Mortality was heavy in manufacturing 1 lines and % failures of manufacturing
 concerns, having liabilities of more than l $l00000, caused the total to swell to un- usually large figures There were fewer 1 failures In brokerage lines, as well as l in groceries and meats. In foundry and l machinery lines failures were fewer In number, but in foundrles, total liabilities l were greater. As similar conditions are l reported for Canada, the situation is not 1 a local one but is still further evidence i of the general business house-cleaning l which has been going on for sometime
 and is apparently not yet completed.
 Railroad gross earnings TOT the cal endar year 1913 for all roads set new l high record at $3,201 100000, the highest
 previous showing being s3,04G, ,000,0O0 in | 1912. These figures would prove mislead- l ing were it not mentioned that the gain 1 made by the railroads was experienced 1 during the first nine months of the year. | From October 1 to December 31, gross l earnings declined materially. Net earn 1 ings showed the first falling off in March,
 gain for April and May, followed by a 1 steady decline throughout the balance of l the year. The railroads added about 1 per cent to their mileage during the year l Gross earnings for January, so far as ] reported, totaled s67, ,000,O0O compared with l $71,000,0O0 for January of last year, de-
 cline of per cent.
 Pig iron is moving and prices show
 an inclination to advance, although the advance is slight as yet
 1 Coke prices are a little harder, while l the coal trade, particularly bItuminous 1 is exceedingly quiet.
 | q, is easy to say that the business l for the later months of this year will depend largely upon crop conditions because we all know that this must
 be true. This year, however, even more
 depends upon the crops than Is usually
 the case. Business is slowly, but sure
 ly, improving and easier money Is
 helping general conditions. The vol
 ume of business which will be shown
 on the last day of this year to have been transacted during the 12 months | will be largely affected by farm pro- 1 duction. Present reports indicate good
 soil and plant conditions over practi-
 cally the entire winter wheat, rye and
 oats area. There are few million | acres which were planted to provide ] early spring pasturage, and 1t Is not | expected that we will harvest much
 more than 32,000.000 acres of wheat and 250, GOO. 900 acres of rye. Allowing