The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-29
payment for commodities bought in the United States by belligerent nations.
A Great Domestic Industry

payment for commodities bought in the
 United States by belligerent nations. A Great Domestic Industry
 Some years ago James J. Hill spoke incidentally of the magnitude of the | amount which was then spent by the American people each year in the pur
 chase of automobiles. MT. Hill won dered whether this might not have a ten
 dency somewhat to affect the securities
 market. The late George Westinghouse. about three years before his death, spoke with something like wonder of the | amount which he estimated was required for the upkeep of American automobiles
 each year. His estimate was that the aggregate was not far from s300, ,o00 900, and he said that with the growth of the 1 automobile industry and of the use of the automobile, the yearly upkeep in the course of three or four years should be considerably larger. Nevertheless MT. Westinghouse did not agree with MT. Hill with respect to a somewhat disturb ing influence upon other domestic indus try On the contrary MT. Westinghouse
 was persuaded that the automobile in- dustry and the upleep of the cars would furnish one of the most powerful incen- tives for maintaining and increasing
 many lines of domestic industry.
 It is now the opinion commonly held in the financial district that MT. West inghouse was right For it is believed
 that it Is in no small measure due to the automobile industry that American business life has been maintained as well as 1t has in the last two or three years of relative business stagnation. It is possible in a general way to trace the movement of funds from the great au-
 tomobile manufacturing plants to wage
 earners and from them to those who sell tho rios of life nd also n 1n-
 mestic industries whose products are re- quired in the manufacture of automo- piles. In the long run, the industries and the wage earners receive much the
 largest part of the money expended in
 purchasing automobiles or the amounts
 required for upkeep.
 In midwinter Henry P. Davidson of
 J. P Morgan X Co.,, who is now greatly
 occupied with the stupendous interna-
 tional financing under way. spoke of
 the business situation in the United
 States as it was in late September of
 last year. He thought the time had come
 when it might be reported that just
 as the leaves were turning in the au-
 tumn the United States Steel corporation
 was operating only between 30 and 35 per
 cent of it's capacity. That was an ap-
 paling situation, for it illustrated the
 condition in which other steel manu- featuring companies were placed. and it also illustrated general manufacturing industry conditions
 MT. Davidson also said that there could be no better symptom of the be- ginning of revived prosperity than would be found in the monthly reports of the Steel corporation. For instance, if the corporation was able to report month
 after month that it was using more and
 more of it's capacity, even though the monthly increase was slight that could
 be accepted as a favorable symptom. A few weeks before Norman B. Ream died, he said that if there were gradual in crease month by month in the utiliza- ton of the Steel corporations plants, then it could be assumed that general business conditions were beginning to im- prove. MT. Ream was of the opinion that the wiser part for the Steel cor poration was to conserve its manufAc-