The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-01
General Trade Conditions
and
Business Forecast
Issued by The Connecticut National Bank)
Business Forecast

issued a month ago have not only been !
maintained but materially bettered. |
While some important lines may at
tain much higher points of activity DE
fore they recede, the aggregate of all
business cannot increase greatly. The
majority of the heavy lines of manu-
featuring and of trade are operating
at capacity and some of them under
such a. strain of over-product1on as
1t is much safer not to expect any
heavy increases over present totals IN
either foreign or domestic trade and
it is reasonable to expect within the
next few months some decline from
the present va1une of transactions
Factories ca nrpot run on a -three-shl1t
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
AQf operations.
The customs revenues fell from
284 million dollars in 1914 to 206 mil
lion dollars in 1915, a drop of more
than 27 per cent. We note that this
decrease, like all other unpleasant
things, has been attributed to the
war. That the war had very little
to do with it is evidenced from the
fact that our imports in 1915 were
only SO million dollars less than in
1914 and, taking the average rev.
port duty on this difference would
have been less than four million dol
lars, which does not account for the
IS million dollar decline in duties col
lected. The average duty collected
on all imports in 1915 was lib per
cent, while in 1914 it was 1880 per
cent The notable fact that our inn
ports in 1915 were 1,756 million doll
lars in spite of the war compared
with 1,789 millions in 1914 and 1,793
millions in 1913 should not be lightly
passed over.
Bank cleafings for December again
showed large gains, aggregating over
20 billion dollars compared with near
" 8 billions in December, 1914
gain of 81 per cent. New York city
alone reported an increase in clearings
of SO per cent. and for the country
outside of New York the gain was
80 per cent
Business failures during December
numbered 1,644 compared with 2,025
in December, 1914, and liabilities to-
tailed only a little more than % mil
lion dollars against nearly 30 millions
the previous years However, the as
sets of the concerns failing in Deem
Der were less than seven million dol
lars compared with 10 millions in
December, 1914, SO that the net la
bilities were practically the same for
the two months.
customs districts for the four weeks
ending january 1 were 500 million
dollars, and i'm ports were lao million
dollars, leaving an export balance for
the 10 ports of 1872 million dollars
This compares with exports for the
entire country in December, 1914, of
246 million dollars, imports of II
millions and a favorable trade bal
ance of 1872 million dollars. The
districts handle som ething over 80
per cent. Of our foreign trade so that
their business is a good index of what
our total exports and imports were in
December 1t is well at this time to
again remind ourselves that speedy
and effective measures must be taken
toward the establishment of perman-
ent business with the neutral nations,
if our foreign trade is to remain large
and profitable after the close of the
war; 1t would seem that the longer
the war lasts, the less able the great
powers of Europe will be to make a
strong re-entry into the commercial
world; but the only safe course for
the United States is to be prepared to
meet keen and strenuous competition
at the end of the war. So far we
have made little more than begin
ming.
Gross earnings of railroads continue
large, and as the railroads are still
pursuing the policy Of economy made
necessary by the lean months in the
early part of the year, are -affording
gratifying increases in net earnings
well. The gross earnings of 164 rail-
roads in November were 278 million
dollars, a gain of nearly 27 per cent.
over November. 1914, while net earn
ings were over 104 million dollars, "A
million dollars or 71.5 per cent. larg
er than for November, 1914. All
| sections of the country shared in the
| increase. Early returns for Deem
Der show gross earnings of "a mill
! lion dollars against 8 million dollars
| in December of the previous year, a
gain of 21 million dollars or 80 per
! cent Only one minor railroad of the
As reporting shows a decrease in De-
cember gross earnings compared with
! December, 1914.
| Net idle cars on January 1 number
| ed i46,955 compared with 38,199 on
December 1, an increase of S,756 cars
| during the month. Idle box and coal
cars both increased heavily during
December.
| The production of pig iron in De-
| cember was 3,203 thousand tons COM
pared with 3s037 Thousand tons in
| November and 1916 Thousand in De-
| cember, 1914. There were 295 fur
naces in blast on January 1, an in
| crease of eight furnaces during De-
| cember.
The untitled tonnage of the steel
| corporation on December 81, 1915,
| was 1906 thousand tons compared
with 7,189 thousand tons a month
previous and 1887 thousand tons a
| year previous
! New steel plants under construction
| for 1916 will have annual capacity
| of 1895 thousand tons. representing
| the output of 81 new furnaces. Only
| 10 blast furnaces are under construc-
! ton, representing an annual capacity
! Of 1,75O thousand tons Of pig iron.
Shipments of Anthracite coal for
! December were $40 Thousand tons
| compared with 6,297 thousand tons in
| November and 5,7O2- thousand tons in
| December, 1914. In 1915 anthracite
| shipments were 66 million tons COM
| pared with 68 million tons in 1914~69
| million tons in 1918. and 81 million