The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-05
BIRMINGHAM TRUST AND SAVINGS CO.'S
 MONTHLY REVIEW
Bank Clearings for January Show Large Gains and Conditions Materially
 Bettered

The monthly financial and commercial review of the Birmingham Trust and Saw
 ings company as issued yesterday. is as follows:
 We are glad to be able to report that conditions which looked so hopeful at the time our trade report was issued a month ago have not only been maintained but
 ma terially bettered. While some import ant lines may attain much higher points ! of activity before they recede, the a5-
 g~egate of all business cannot increase greatly. The majority of the heavy lines of manufacturing and trade are operat- ing at capacity and some of them under l such a strain of over-production as can
 not be long maintained.
 1 It is much safer not to expect any heavy increases over present totals in either foreign or domestic trade and it 1 is reasonable to expect within the next few months some decline from the present , volume of transactions. Factories cannot | run on a three-shift basis or on any night and day basis indefinitely, and once we | are through the excitement of the present boom in trade, we will naturally settle down to a more stable and permanent basis of operations.
 | Bank clearngs for December again | showed large gains, aggregating over $20, l coo, GOO, coo compared with nearly $13,000,- | 000,000 in December 1914, a gain of 61 per 1 cent. New York city alone reported an 1 increase in clearings of S9 per cent, and | for the country outside of New York the | gain was 30 per cent.
 Business failures during December num- | bered 1644, compared with 2025 in Decem-
 Der, 1914, and liabilities totaled only lit- | tie more than S29, 0Oo,OO0, against nearly | $35, ,000,o00 the previous year. However, the assets of the concerns failing in Decem-
 Der were less than s7,OOO,0OO, compared
 with $19,C000 600 in December, 1914, so that l the net liabilities were practically the | same for the two months.
 i Gross earnings of railroads continue l large, and as the railroads are still pur- ] suing the policy of economy made neces- | sary by the lean months in the early part | of the year, are affording gratifying in
 creases in net earnings as we'll The l gross earnings of 164 railroads in Novem- 1 Der were S2l8 000,O00 a gain of nearly 27 per cent over November, 1914, while net
 earnings were over s1O4, ,0O0, 0O0-$44, 600 O00 or 71.5 per cent larger than for Novem- l Der, 1914. All sections of the country | shared in the increase. Early returns | for December show gross earnings of SS4, l 000,000, against $63, ,000, GOO in December of | the previous year. a gain of $21, ,0O0, 0G0 | or B per cent Only one minor railroad of | the 46 reporting shows a decrease in De- cember gross earnings compared with De- cember, 1914.
 Net idle cars on January 1 numbered ! 46, 955, compared with 3S, ,199 on December l l. all increase of S756 cars during the
 month. Idle box and coal cars both in-
 creased heavily during December | The production of pig iron in December | was 3,203000 tons compared with 3037, ,00t tons in November and 1,516,000 in Decem 1 Der 1914 There were. 295 furnaces in bla s | on January 1, an increase of eight fur
 naces during December.
 l Commodity prices have continued l their upward climb, and on January 1 l according to Bradstreets index, reached
 a new high level. During December 1 51 commodities advanced, 37 remained | stationary and 19 declined
 | Dividend and interest disbursements | for January were s269,00O,00O compared | with $242,000,000 year ago. Divi-
 dends made up $105, 900, 900 of the Jan
 uary total compared with S91,000, 900
 in January, 1914, while interest pay
 ments were $15S,000,00 compared with 1 $151 ,000, 900 last year
 | Maturities in February will be near l ly $33,000,00O compared with $46,000,-
 GOO in February, 1914. Tn no month this year will maturities be as large
 as they were in the corresponding | month of 1915
 l December building operations at 160
 cities aggregated over $6S,000,000 com-