New Britain herald., 1916-08-12
Especial to the Herald.)


 New York, Aug. 12.-The stock market is contending with a series of perplexities such as the war, labor troubles, poor crop reports, foreign liquidation, imitation in commodities,
 the Mexican situation, the presiden- tial campaign. etc. The volume of business has been more or less re- stricted by the large number of va cation absentees, but the general undertone has been confident and is improving in spite of the conflicting tendencies referred to.
 The crop situation is anything, but
 satisfactory. The governments Au-
 gust report for wheat indicated a
 yield of only 654,OOO,0OO bushels,
 compared with 1,011, 100000 bushels
 last year, and 72S,000,0oO bushels for
 the fiveyear average ending 1914.
 This is decrease of OO,000, ,OOO bush-
 els, compared with the July report.
 For corn, the outlook is simply fair,
 the government report indicating a
 crop of 2,777, 100000 bushels, com
 pared with 3,O55, 5,OOO,OOO bushels last
 year and 2,732,000,0O0 bushels for
 the f1ve-year average. Oats figure at
 1,274, 900, 900 bushels, against 1,540,-
 900, 900 bushels a year ago. Here is
 decrease of nearly $50, 100000 bush
 els in the three principal grain crops.
 So far as money value goes. the loss
 of quantity in wheat is being very
 largely offset by the rise in values.
 The same is true of corn, but not of
 oats, which are lower in price than
 a year ago. It is just as well to re- member that real prosperity consists in abundance and not in high prices, which invariably come out of the public and limit expenditures in other directions. Dear bread will not al- leviate social unrest. On the other hand, the farming classes who are still the backbone of the country, will not suffer financially for the reason that they will get almost as much in money and in some instances more for this years crops than for last years yield, of which considerable surplus still remains and which will be benefited by higher prices. Wheat has already advanced more than 50 cents per bushel since June, and might have gone still higher had it not been for the more favorable weather reports of last week. The harvest is close at hand. and as Au- gust IS 1ISQuSuIly d month or deter ioratiOn the next two or three weeks may have an important bearing upon the national yield. Suffice it to say that in the long run, neither the United States nor the world at large can profit from short crop, especial ly when yield is curtailed by war in other countries. The cotton crop also promises to be light, not much over l2, 100000 bales and but little in ex- cess of last year. The present price s, however, about 5 cents above a 5ear ago, and with consumption run ,ing perilously. close to production ! growers are seasonably certain of ] .ood profits.
 An interesting feature in our for ! ign commerce returns for the last iscal year was that out of total mer- i handise exports of S4,353, 1000, | nore than half. or $2,65S, 100000 | consisted of manufactures which | loubled their amount in he past 1 welve months. Of foodsuffs our ex- ports were S976, 100000, compared 1 with $961, 100000 last year, while of l raw materials our exports were l s586, 100000, against $510, 100000 a 1 year ago. This increase in exports 1 of manufactures is extremely sign1f- i can't. For some years the tendency i n this country has been decidedly l towards larger exports of manufac- i lures and smaller exports of food 1 stuffs; this being natural sequence l