The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-31
BUSINESS STILL IN
 WAITING ATTITUDE
Lack of Developments at Niagara Keeps Things AL
 most at Standstill


 issued is in part as follows:
 The lack of developments in the Mexi- can situation has kept things almost at
 a standstill for the past month, the only real war news being the meeting of the peace conference at Niagara Falls The
 nations of the world are watching this
 conference with great interest because 1 either an old American policy is to be well | established or a new American policy is 1 to be the result of the deliberations of | these envoys.
 The work of Congress has received less 1 than the usual attention recently, the Panama canal tolls repeal being the most
 discussed question, wholly overshadowing prospective antitrust legislation and
 rural credits legislation.
 The preparations for the operation of 1 the regional reserve banks are going for ward and bankers predict that it will not | be long until these institutions will be in l actual operation.
 l The outflow of gold is causing little comment because the balance of gold | movement for the fiscal year to date has l been greatly in our favor and the gold | now eagerly demanded by European | countries is not really needed in this l country.
 | Bank clearings for April totaled $15,000- ! 000,0O0, a gain of more than per cent over the corresponding month of last year. It | must be remembered that because of dis astrous floods year ago, business totals were reduced and clearings therefore re- l stricted. For the current year to date, clearings are practically the same as last year and somewhat more than l per cent l above two years hgo The gain in clear 1 ings in New York city alone for the l month of April amounted to per cent, practically all of which came from mer- ] cantile transactions there being no real 1 stock exchange activity during the month. Total money in circulation on May l | was 8. 476 000, coo compared with $3,4o0 0C0,- 1 900 a month ago and $3,S5i GOO, 900 a year | ago. Total money in the United States Is s, ,790 000, ,0O0 compared with $3,7I4.000,000 a month ago. The per capita circulation of money is $3520 compared with $3499 a month ago and S3456 a year ago.
 l Dividend and interest disbursements for the month of May amounted to S115,- 0CO 600, compared with $113,000,000 a year J ago. Of this amount. dividends were $35,- l GOO, GOO, compared with $32, 000,000 last year
 and interest totaled SS2,000,000 compared with $S1,000,000 for April, 1913. June divi- dend and interest disbursements are esti- 1 mated at $117000,0O0, compared with $113,- l 000OO0 a year ago. Dividends will be some | what less and interest payments consid- | erably more than in June of last year. | There is material for careful stuly in l the foreign trade report for April. For | the first time since August 1910 our im- ports exceeded our reports, leaving an | unfavorable balance of trade. The decline | in exports is largely accounted for by declining prices abroad. The decline in l prices of manufactured articles in sev- eral European countries has been great, | which has stimulated our imports and 1 caused decrease in our exports. We arc l buying their products because they are | selling at low prices and they are not | buying ours to so large an extent because | we have not met their price levels. Dur 1 ing April, SIS per cent of our total im-
 ports came in free of duty compared with
 the effect of tariff reductions and
 good business men will not jump at con
 clusions, but will give careful consider
 ation to our April foreign trade state
 ments. sitting and analysing it to see just
 what kinds of merchandise we exported and imported and learns the real cause in | each case of the increase or decrease. Some manufacturers in this country have fl either shut down or curtaled production and are not in position to accept all of l the business that comes with the result 1 that merchants and consumers must buy | foreign merchandise or go without. Re- | tail merchants stocks are woefully de- l pleted and, given a reasonable summer | demand for all classes of merchandise, l imports are bound to increase. Both inn l ports and exports of Iron and steel have | shown decrease for the year and a | great decrease compared with the 10-year | average.
 l Building operations for April in 150 prin- cipal cities were only SS5, ,0o0 900 compared | with S100, 000,000 for the same month last year. Total operations for the year to date in 140 cities outside of New York were s222 OO0,000 compared with $240,000, ,00O
 a year ago, and for the city of New York the total this year has been $49,00J,0o C onl- pared with $6O000,000 a year ago.
 | The reports of the railroads for the
 month of March showed a light gain in
 gross over March, 1913. and this. added
 to the fact that March, 1912, showed a
 gain of $13,OG0,0O0 over 1911 and March,
 1913, made a gain of $11,0O0,O0O over 1912,
 makes even the small gain this year over last of considerable importance. The
 gain in net in March this year of s3,O00, GOO over March last year mas less meaning because March, 1913, showed a falling off
 in net of s4,OO0,0OO The gain in gross for March, although only S660,O00 for all the railroads in the country combined, is in-
 dicative of an improving situation. for, not since September, 1913, have we had a
 months report showing an increase in
 gross earnings over the corresponding month of the previous year. Reports so
 far in for the month of April indicate a de-
 crease in gross earnings in April as com pared with year ago.
 1 The total number of idle cars on the first
 of the month was 229000 compared with 40. 900 idle year ago. In spite of the un-
 usuallyusually large number of idle cars, l there are points in the country today where shippers are unable to obtain cars promptly, some railroads having so ma- l terially curtailed operations as to make | 1t difficult for them to get the empties to
 the shipping points, Aside from this,
 equipment buying has not been as small
 as current reports would indicate, pur-
 chases of freight cars turing April total l ing nearly 10000 and new freight cars pur-
 chased from January 1, 1913, to this date make up a larger number than for any previous 16-month period with one excep- tion. The railroads have the cars but many roads lack men to handle them, and they are not disposed to put a on more imen in order to get more business when the business cannot be handled at a profit Pig iron production for April was 2,27O GOO tons compared with 2, 752, 900 tons a year ago and 2,34S,000 tons in March of this year. The average price of pig iron at all markets is somewhat lower than at the beginning of the year.
 The thrilled tonnage of the Steel corpo- ration at the close of last month was AFT. .000 tens compared with 4,754,000 tons at the close of March. On May 1, 1913, the thrilled was 6,979.000 tons. April orders were low, bookings averaging only 3S per cent of capacity.
 The tide of business has passed the low ebb and in a number of lines unusual ac- tivity is in evidence. Copper and tin 1o exixrt