The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-03-01

Diplomatic exchanges passing be-
tween this Countryz and England and
=silfs country and Germany are creating
some business unrest and doubt. It
is notrfenaarkable that during the pro-
=.eress of such a gigantic War the bust.
ness men OF neutral countries should
keen an ear to- the ground constantly.
This is merely business caution, but
aflIeS scout who Keeps his ear to the
pround all the time VIII not reconnOf-s
ter many positions or make many re-
ports Al Reasonable caution is to be
a3mnajended but constant listening
f9r the thunder Of trouble Is sunneces-
sary.
The anticipation of trouble is almost
a1xxavs more serious than the realiza-
Fright over the Cotton Situation
sa4ased. the creation of the Cotton Pool
Fund. The Pool was dissolved be-
cause applicationss for loans were so
few demonstrating that the Pool was
-probabay unnecessary
The Financial Editor of one of our
leading publications stood before an
audience some time ago and. treHD-
IingIys and fearfullys outlined the pos
sibles consequences of a demand on the
part of Europe for immediate payment
Of our entire Indebtedness to her. As
less tharf s per cent. of that entire In
& {Iehtedness was due only that amount
could have been demanded and such
fears were ground1ess-s We passed
tfrou gK- the period of settling our cur
rent obligations without serious con-
sequences and we are creating credit
balance with Europe at the rate of
more than a billion a year II the
foreign trade conditions for the re-
fnafnder of this calendar year should
continue as they have started, Europe
will either pay us during the yean or.
owes Us at the end of the year more
than q billion dollars To offset this,
She may, if we force the prices of
American securities high enough, I'M
load those securities on which she has
tfres epportunfty to take profit.
Otherwise she must settle with US IN
gold. A careful following of stock
nnarkets D@eratio4is and of large pri-T
vatesssalesof sec9ritiesss during the past
few months gives no indication that
European investors are dumping their
American holdings and it is not reas-
enable to suppose atF1ats they will sell
them until prices reach a higher level.
The leading financial journal. of Eur.
ope states: Instead Of being a debtor.
for immediate payments, America is
rapidly becoming, if she has not al
ready become. a creditor for innmed-
late paymentss''s7 Hfag EeIa &sa
The numf1er7of unemployedgi lis being
rapidly redueed but with the reduction
unemployment will come wage re-
auctions and, unfortunately, the work
eEs of the Country must accept a re-
duced wage as the investors of the
Country must accept a reduced return
on their 1T III y1eestme iriz the form Of
dividends On the whole, the labor
world is at peace with the employing
world and the number Of serious
strikes is very SMALL Wage reductions
have been mt. into effect Inv koyre Gov,
Germs, notably IN lumber, cotton, steel
paper and en1broid cry lines Tt is pos
sible there may be a few wage in
creases but the tendency for the re-
5ir1aindef of the wear VIII 11aturallv be
toward lower wages in those lines
where wages have already gotten be-
s7terlSa a-eof4lt Justified tv present con-
dftions. a.iy-ssg.rs
During January, Bank Exchanges
+o+aIe.3 only I 2 bI1iiov (zoIIo,-s 11-,-,-,S
ed With iiIi6,3 f,fs, = q
4 decline Of almost i = 43er cent me
decrease in New york (!Ttvv sr1,. e. % 1,eT
cent. and for the remainder of the
Country,sS9 Aper cent These. figures
are for the cities usually. used San
index ,Clearings for the Central Pc
serve, Federal Reserve and Reserve
dollars COMPARED viii IL billion dol
lars for the same annonfE, last yaey.7
Business Failures for :Jan1,na1.v NM
bered 1902 with liabilities of SO mil
lion dollars. couauared Will, ROC foiI
l1res for the same month, asxt vea, 11;+1,
LIABILITIES of 81 million do s "a YIN
Financing for January By large cor
porations amounting to 145 million
the same month last wear and e,.i-
of 3S million dollars over December
More than SO million dollars of This
amount was new issues and half. of
the total amount was in bonds. the
bulk of the remainder being in sbor+
term notes, with issues of only 8 mil
lion dollars in stocks. 4
Dividend and interest pavrnents fo,
February will be 100 million dollars
com pared with 90 millions fo,. 7+I,o
same month last year. Nearly "a nil
lions of the amount is for interest. This
compares with 81 millions in Interest
a year ago and A millions. in f1ivi-