Bisbee daily review., 1916-12-24
GERMAN BUSINESS BOOMING DESPITE
 RIG0RS 0F WAR
Many Institutions Declare Big Dividends, Labor Is in De- mand at High Prices and Everybody Busy.

| Associated Press 1.-The business sit !
 uation in Germany beginning the | | third year of the war is more satis- ! factory than could be expected in | view of the long continuance of the | war and the practical stoppage of the | country's oversee trade Business is i naturally upon restricted basls. eN- i | cept where mlnisterlng directly or ln- | directly 10 requirements created by |
 the war: but that basis appears every | | where to be a sound one. The num- 1 Der of business failures has. kept re
 markedly small. having ranged con | siderably less than before the war. i 1 The employment of labor is also more | | complete than before the war began. ] { The number of unemployed workmen
 reported by about 40 labor unions is only 2la percent of the total which is |
 also the figures for the corresponding | time last year.
 There is a big demand for skilled | lahorers in the coal and iron indus 1 tries, in machinery shops of almost I all descriptions, in the chemical trade,
 and even in shipbuilding In some of 1 these industries production IS neces- sarily restricted below the require
 ments of the market by reason of the scarcity Of laborers. Large numbers
 of the 1.650.000 prisoners of war have i heen put to work in various capacities
 and this has tended to relieve the
 nressure for help. Most of these men fall of course under the category of
 unskilled labor, this being especially |
 the case with the Russians. who con 1
 stitute the great majority of prisoners |
 of war: but considerable numbers of l ] them have been found serviceable 1
 workmen in coal mines. ill some of the l
 work of iron companies. and other in |
 dustrial callings. Probably most of l 1 them. however, have found employ |
 mont on farms. where they have con 1 | trituted largely toward relieving the ! felt scarcity of labor. Women gre al i so everywhere doing much of the |
 worl, done bv men before the war. Perhans the best sections of husi-
 ness in Germany are to he found in
 the coal and iron industries, tooether
 with the subordinate or related
 eranches of the latter. The nrodUc
 tion of coal is greater than at any
 tinne since the war began. and this is
 also true of both iron and steel. The
 industrial demand for coal is heavy,
 Cl, nh l
 ficnlt to satisfy on time the reduire-
 ments of the trade The production
 coke. whinI' has been artifciallv stim-
 ulated by the extraordinary demand for the bv-products. is now actually at higher rate than prevailed before the war. Contrary 10 the case with all the
 ally countries. the prices of coal and coke have been kept within moderate hounds: the advances are in no cases more than go to 75 cents a ton.
 Prices in the iron trade have been marked up much more sharply. es- nacially in those branches of the trade where free competition rules A strong upward tendency prevailed throughout the first half of 1916. and it finally reached such point that the government made it known that it was considering the question of fixing maximum prices. This stopped a fur ther rise in the home market. but ex- mort prices for steel bars and structur sl goods have just been further rais- ed There is a big demand from Switzerland. Holland and Scandinavi- an countries for German iron and steel. Germany being now the only country from which supplies can be obtained at all.
 The shiD-building industry, too. is well-emDloyed in building, not only for the navy. but also for the com marine. Not few shipping companies are already taking care to hiring their tonnage up to the heavy renuirements that are expected after the war Shinbnilding concerns are even enlareing their capacitv in view of present and expected future de
 mands. The increased demand for new vessels has just induced the Stue cen Sohn Yard at Hasburg to under take the enforcement of it's plant. Other concerns are issuing new capi- tai for similar expansion. Recurring to the iron industry. it may be men, toned that there too the tendency is seen to build annexes to existing works and to absorb coal and iron mines on the part of the big steel 
 In such lines of German business as are dependent upon foreign supplies of raw materials, production is neces- sarily upon a much restricted scale. This is true of all the textile branches of leather. rubber, and some others.