The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-01-03
REVIEW or THE
BUSINESS YEAR
More Cheerfulness in the Closing
Weeks Says Bradstreet

Extracts from Bradstreets Review
Of the business year, with forecast,
are as follows:
Nineteen hundred ana thirteen was
u wear of disquiet and disappointment
alike in foreign ana domestic finance,
trade and industry The disquiet was
world wide, though until the latter
part of this year not so much in evil
dencc at home as abroad. Disap
uoiutment was keen with those who,
with knowledge of the many politicO-
economic domestic problems pressing
for solution. were hopeful that the
exceptionally strong position of this
countys producing and consuming
interests would render immune To, 1.-The
MIA, of the larger financial forces dom
mating the world i'm the year just
closed and making for depression in
finance and trade. Reviews of last
wears gents would prove incomplete
IL sight were lost of the many resem-
dances it bore to 1902 and 1903. just
erich mans" or silent panic" oc-
Cured. Then congestion in the Sc
curtics markets was in evidence, the
phrase financial indigestion" was
coined the results of much injudicious
capitalization of industries were mani
fcst-Grs, in collapsing stock market
prices and later i'm depressed trade
and industrial nditions-numerous
strikes and bank suspensions occurred,
aud all the usual aftermath was pre-
scented of an extended financial or
credit situation being readiusted.
It has been frequently and with JUS
ticc said that the Balkan war and its
attendant evils did not cause bat rath-
er urccipitated and revealed the world
wide financial strain of 1913. 1t must
with equal justice be held that most
observers failed to adequately meas
ure and forecast the effects, direct ana
Indirect, of the war which starting in
October 1872, drcnChed the Balkans
and European Turkey in blood. con-
ycrtcd eastern Europe into an armed
camp, caused boarding of gold IN Aus
tria France and Germany. put prac-
IDEAL period To- the European financial
and commercial boom. and in steadily
widening circles reached INTO and af-
trrtcd the finances and trade of cuun-
tries thousands OF miles away from
and apparently unconncctcd with the
bo-j,ltieG. No country proved inn
munc, and all felt the strain of an al
ready greatly uycreNtondcd credit sit
uatou inability to borrow new loans
and difficulty in getting old issues re-
funded Brazil ana india, Germany
and Austria France ANA England.
canada ana Mexico, as we'll as the
Iuitcd States, were affected, this
,uuglry, perhaps least of all, because
al cur wonderful export trade balance,
rushiOning the impact upon US of the
outer worlds forces. once again our
i'm the family of nations
brought home 10 us the real interde-
pcudcuce of the countries, and when
49," confidently expected relief for our
own financial needs from our enor-
nous export balance. instead of gold
supplies paid us in settlement OF these
balances we received back our own
securities, which as i'm other Years OF
general strain sold most readily Ia the
worlds markets. Indeed, as the re-
suit OF tErec-cornerCd exchange oper-
ations, we found Ourselves paving 9TH
81 nations balances in markets whore
cur own trade interests required pay
Iuouts to- instead of disbursements by
as. Of the worlds chief circulating
The worlds financial difficulties
hulllcd large in our list of problems.
but there was no lack Of items of do
mcstiC concern In a session of Con
-rcss remarkable for its length, two
much agitated and frequently fought
over questions were forced TO con-
fusion The tariff was revised, but
It's enactment, by the way, was coin
cldent with shrinkage instead of the
predicted enlargement i'm our import
trade, and coincidentally an income
tax law was put in operation for the
FIRST time since the civil war period. |
The currency measure, designed To
take the place of an outworn and
often discredited system. also became
"A law. The Union Pacific Southern
l'aCiiiC railway merger was dissolved, |