The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-03

try would be by such action, plung- ed into a period of almost unbound ed prosperity. Orders on hand and thrilled for goods to be shipped abroad are estimated by various au- thofities all the way from a billion to billion and a half of dollars in value. NaturaIy the sale of this quan- tity of goods and commodities and the bringing of this much money or credit into this country would stim- ulatee local or home demand to just that amount. Some of these Euro pean orders will take months to fill and we are just now beginning to feel the commercial effects and bene- fits of the European war. These benefits will increase as the weeks pass, and faster than they have been increasing because we are rapidly add ing to our facilities.
 The export trade, commonly re- ferred to nowadays as war orders means approximately that the same amount of domestic trade will imme- diately follow it. We are even now beginning to feel a. considerable growth in domestic demand which. can reasonably be depended upon to stead ily increase. One arge manufactur- ing concern doing usually a business of over 50 million dollars annually and which is not accepting any s'war orders is doing business at present at the rate of more than 5 million dollars a year. There are numerous similar evidences of the healthy growth of domestic business
 Bank clearings for April exceeded IS billion dollars. an increas eof near ly one pei cent. over the same month last year This is in the face of the fact that the establishment of the Federal Reserve banks would natural ly make a, material reduction in the showing of bank c1earings because of the new method of clearing in the Federal Reserve cities.
 Business failures for April were something over 1,8OO in number com in April of ast year. The total lia- biities of the failed concerns were ap- proximatey 39 million dollars com pared with liabilities of 19 million dollars for the concerns faiing in April, ,41914. This failure record on it's face would look bad were the as sets of the failed concerns not con sidered in conjunction with the lia- bilities. It is customary to talk about the number of concerns failing and the total liabilities, leaving the cerns failing in April with total lia- bi1ities of 39 million dollars had as- sets of over 20 million dollars, while those failing in April of last year. with liabilities of only 19 million dol lars, had assets of only eight million dollars.
 The new securities issued by large corporations in April total 154 mil lion dollars compared with only 57 million dollars in April of last year. Approximately one-half of these se- curities cover maturities, the remain ing portion represent new issues.
 Dividend and interest disburse- rnents for April were 164 million dollars which was exactly the same as April of the previous year. Dis bursements for May will total 125 million dollars compared with 115 millions year ago. Dividends for May will be 8 million dollars com pared with 33 millions a year ago and interest 82 million dollars which is about the same as last year. This sain of 10 million dollars in diVi- dends was made entirely on railroad stocks, the increase in railroad and public utility dividends being Is mill lion dollars and the decrease in in dustrial dividends about five million dollars s4
 Net earnings of the steel corpora ton were over 12 million dollars for the first quarter of this year com pared with less than millions for the preceding quarter. Earnings for the first quarter of last year were Is million dollars
 Sales of. stocks on the New York exchange in April aggregated 21 mil. lion shares which represented the greatest months activity since Janu- ary, 1910. Sales of bonds tota1ed 109 million dollars compared with 54 mil lion dollars in April of last year. This was the largest months sales of bonds since January, 1912.
 Money in circulation in the United States on the first of May amounted to. 3,493 million dollars com pared with SAYS million dollars a year ago. The per capita circulation was SEATS compared with $35.2O a year ago. The Federal government estimates the present population of the United States at 100, ,441.00O. Leading gov ernment officials in recent patriotic speeches have referred to our go millions of people, They should now discover that we are a nation of more than 100 millions.
 Our March exports fell only one million dollars under a 300 million dollar total. which compares with exports of only 187 millions for the same month of the previous year Our imports for March were only 15S compared with 183 millions in the same month last year For
 
 ance of Al million dollars, while a year ago in the same month we created a favorable balance of only five million dollars. It should be es- pecia1Iy noted that our imports of gold for March exceeded our exports by 25 million dollars. This is the fourth consecutive month in which our imports of gold have exceeded our exports, clearly indicating a. strong flow of the precious metal to-
 
 at the thirteen principal customs dis tricts from March 27th to May 18th were, 374 million dollars and imports for the same districts and for 4the same period were 241 million dollars making a favorable balance of trade for these districts alone of 133 mil 1 lion dollars. As these districts nor rnaIly handle all but about 10 per cent of our foreign trade the balance in favor of this country for the pe-