The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-08
(Bradstreets.)

a, fitting heir to the year which saw
the outbreak of the greatest war in
all the worlds history War was in
deed the main compelling cause of
most of the years activities, and it's
effects can be traced in almost every
American trade, financial and indus
! trial. happening of the past seven
teen months. When to this was adj
ded a second year of bounteous crops
sold Nat excellent prices, there existed
a combination such as neither this
nor any other country had previously
| experienced. A review of the year
ltd915 must of necessity, therefore, re-
fer back to a certain extent to the lat
ter part of 1914, which saw the in
| lection of the most disturbing occur
renee of modern times, but which, oW-
ing to this tcountry'ss fortunate posi-
dons likewise saw the, beginnings OF
the Improvement growing into the
greatest boom in trade ever Witnessed
Looking back now to the opening of
the year. 1915, one may see clearly that
the doubt and indecision reflected in
the opening months of the year were
not warranted; that Improvement
slow, hating or irregular as it look
/ ed at times, was even then clearly
and still spared from participation in
hosti1ities, had already embarked on
the most marvellous expansion seen
in this or any other country.
1915 may be said to deal with three
great movements. First of these
was the immense demand, begun be-.
fore the year opened, for cereals,
meats, wire, autom obi1es, horses,
clothing and a variety or other pro-
ducts that practically swept the coun-
try bare of surplus stocks of staples
of all kinds, and especially of any
sort of ready-made war material,
whether for offense or sustenance. An
example of this was the taking up OF
every surplus bushel of the greatest
wheat crop in the scountry's history
at close to the highest prices ever
known The second period may be
said to embrace the marvellous diver
sion which occurred in our Industrial
forces, which, lacking occupation of
a peaceful kind, turned toward the
strating1 the adaptability of American
Manufacturers mechanics and arti-
sans, and giving g. vast. incentive to
the production of all kinds of metals.
whose. output alone would place the
year in a class by itself. With the
inm ense expansion in industry shown
in the first half of the year. unemp1oy-
meflt, which had declined steadily
from high levels at the outset of the
year, practically ceased to exist, skill
ed labor. became scarce, and the COM
monest kind of common labor rose in
demand. The third period may be
said to have been coincident with the
final realization by the business world
that the immense foreign demands
could not go on without a vast inf1u-
ence upon purely domestic trade, and
this latter branch of business, posi- bly,
repressed early in the year by fear
Of our involvement in hosti1ities, slim
uIated by the large earnings and swol- |
len pay rolls of Industrial centers. and
buOyed by the gathering of the great
est food crops in history, bringing un-
earnings to farmers, surged
forward in the fall months in q veri- |
table ground swell of purchasing
which found stocks of goods bought
on previous conservative lines all too |
small to satisfy demands. Decreases |
shown in the earlier months of the |
year were in many cases made up by
the advance in the fall, but the years.
results, in distributive trade as a whole |
are hardly up to the best of previous
years
These three great movements were |
closely interviewer with each other
and with auxiliary movements of a
great stock market boom, unexampled |
export trade, unheard-of imports of
gold, unparalleled ease of money and |
a frecord-breaking high level of prices.
Speaking generally, the great rush of
foreigners for American food and /
rea dy-made war supplies inherited
from 1914 was over by the first quar-
ter of the year, having modified for
the production of war material, were
fully embarked on the manufacture |
of munitions sF,xnnorfs of the Iaf-
a.. ,eaota7 their erea1ast height In |
T7111v I,11+ c,3tinI7af7 t11aI,aa fteI. at bi5h
49, yuI,iIa +I,e t-rea+ a 55,zar.es in
domestic trade was reserved for the
1+,T7 ~,,3d early. winter tho vear
1900 -,Z+T, q roI,,poe Of holiday ira de 1
J, 49, s~1,ef65re ,alfaT7ia1a5
7 s7kf'fss-s -. - q4,.e4
N :
Financial circles had very taVof-
able year. Securities markets We're
active, interesting and prohtable after