The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1916-12-07

RECORD
GREATER
Business Continues to Show
Tremendous Gains Over
the Last Year
so SAYS FIRST NATIONAL
Review Just Issued Indi-
Gates Continuous Up
ward Trend

November's business record, like
that of other months, is far better than
the record for the same month last
year, according to the First National
banks review Of business conditions,
just issued.
The business story Of the past
| month is in the main a repetition of
| that of most other months in 1915;
in other words, high record marks in
many lines Of trade, established sew
eral times during the year only to be
surpassed the succeeding month, have
once more been set up. That business
has attained the enormous totals re-
corded below in spite of the fact that
some factors are at present seriously
| hampering its advance, speaks elo-
quently to the size and extent Of COM
mercial and industrial operations.
Bank clearings at 1862 cities in Oc-
tober totaled nearly $4,000, ,000, 900
compared with $50, 900, 900 900 in Oc
| tober, of. last year, a gain of 81 per.
! cent. Excluding New York city, clear
ings were almost SO, 100000 COM
pared with $7,000.000,0O0 a year ago.
gain of q per cent. This is new high
record for bank clearings for any one
month. OF the 162 cities, 1913 made
new records for October clearings and
81 cities made new high marks for any
month.
Trade Balance.
Our favorable balance of trade con-
! tinues to mount to hitherto unap
preached figures, totaling $34S,0O0,0 900
in September compared with $S11 ,000,-
600 in August, the previous high rec
| ord. and $149,000,000 in September
| 1915. Our September exports of mer-
| chandise amounted to $513, 900
compared with $300.000.000 in Septem-
ber of last year and September i'm
ports were $164,000,000 compared with
$151 100000 in September, 1915.
| Building operations in October at
| 163 vities were $SS.000,000 compared
| with S72,000,000 in October a year ago,
a gain of 23 per cent. The October
| total sets a new high record for that
month.
The cut Of lumber in September
totaled 1867 ,000. 900 feet compared with
| 1.052000.0 900 in September of last year
and shipments We're 1,012, ,000,0 feet
compared with 1923, 100000 feet in the
| same month last year. This is a re-
turn to the condition existing in the
entire first half of 1915, when the cut
of lumber for each month was larger
| than the shipments, and Is a reversal
of the situation in July and August
when shipments exceeded the cut.
! The September cut was composed of
9T9,000,000 feet of, soft woods and 49,
| 100000 feet OF hard woods compared
with 9S4,OOO,OOC feet of soft woods and
| 100000 feet of hard woods, the cut
in September, 1915. September ship
ments consisted of 925,000,OO0 feet Of
soft woods and S7,000,000 feet Of hard
woods compared with $4,000, 900 feet
OF soft woods and S0.000.000 feet OF
hard woods shipped q year ago. ~
| Gross earnings of 46S railroads in
ISeptember totaled 333 million dollars
teompared with 294 million dollars in
September. 1915. gain Of 13 per cent,
and net earnings totaled 124 million
dollars compared with 112 million dol
lars in September OF last year. a gain
of IL per cent. Gross earnings of Al
railroads in October totaled so million
dollars compared with II million dol
lars in October of last year, a gain of
6 per cent. The movement of cotton
in recent weeks has been considerably
larger than during the corresponding
period of last year, while the move
ment of grains has been much smaller
than a year ago. Railroad earnings,
both gross and net. do not show such
large percentages of increase when
compared with a year ago as in pre-
Vious months of this year. as COM
parison Is with somewhat larger fig
ures than has been the case.
The railroad car shortage has grown
considerably larger since our last re-
port and bids fair to extend over a
longer period than ever before known.
There was a net shortage of cars on
November /, of 10S ,010, compared with
a shortage of 60.697 cars on October /,
and 1888 cars on September /, when
the car shortage first became manifest.
There were 1887 locomotives ordered
In October compared with 26S in Sep
tember and 234 in October of last year,
October rail orders totaled 172 thou
sand tons compared with 1s1 thousand
tons in September and 400 thousand
were placed in October for 20.942 rail-
road cars compared with 1851 cars
ordered in September and 25.452 in Oc-
tober, 1915.
Production of pig iron in October
totaled 3,509 thousand tons compared
with 3,202 thousand tons in September
and 3.125 thousand tons in October
last year. The October production
marks a new high record for any
month in the history of the trade The
daily rate of production in October
was 113 thousand tons compared with
lot thousand tons in September and
101 thousand tons in October a year
ago.
The untitled tonnage Of the steel
corporation made new high record
on October 81 passing above 10 mill
lion tons for the first time, totaling
10,015 thousand tons compared with
9,523 thousand tons on September 80
and 6,165 thousand tons on October
81, 1915.
Shipments of anthracite coal in Oc-
tober were $50 thousand tons COM
pared with $3.50 thousand tons in Oc-
cite coal at tidewater shipping ports
on October 81 were 271 thousand tons
compared with 36S tons on September
I30.
| Transvaal gold production In Octo-
Der totaled 792 thousand fine ounces
compared with 772 thousand ounces in
lSeptember and 79S thousand ounces
| in October of last year.
Commodity prices continue to rise
with the result that Bradstreet's index
i stood at $3.50 on November /, com
pared with $12.04 on October l. and
$10.38 on November /. 1915. The No
Ivember index figure marks new
thigh point for this compilation. AL
Though commodity prices have for
some months surpassed all previous
records, the trend seems still to be up
ward, at least for the immediate fu-
ture, indicating a retrograde move
lment early in 1917.
4 October business failures numbered
aI1,247 with liabilities of IL million dol.
liars compared with 1,476 failures in
IOctober a year ago with liabilities OF
l21 million dollars. Assets of the con.
Icerns failing In October were ffve mil.
llion dollars compared with eight mil.