The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-06
U. s. STEEL FTSURES
By HOLLAND

stands in imperative need. That would
 not have been possible-had the corpora-N | ton been broken up as the department of justice at Washington has asked the courts to command that it be.
 Another feature of this statement which has occasioned much comment | is the fact that it's net earnings for az single quarter are far greater than itss
 net earnings for the entire year of i 1914. Whether the statement made tho
 other day is to be considered as identi- 7! flying the high water mark of the pro- duction of this corporation, it is cer-Z | tain that the statement made for the last three months of 914 indicated a
 low water mark not only for this cor poration but for general business con- ditions throughout the United States. | In two and a. half years the corpora-R 1 tion has leaped from almost nothing in | the way of net earnings to an ncomes which, if it be continued for 12 months, 1 will reach approximately $600,000, ,000s, But prosperity of that kind is no mora | than symbolic or indicative of general prosperity in the United States, stimuli 1 lated, it Is true, by war conditions. | Our international trade for the 13 months that ended June 30 approx1 imately s10,000, ,000.000 is regarded bH the experts here as fairly good indica1 | tion that the trade in the present fiscal year will be of money value equal to $10000,0 100000 and perhaps in excess 1 of it. The balance of trade in favor of 1 the United States in these two yearss 1 should go far towards meeting the eN-' 1 traordinary demands of the government l upon the people for subscription 10 1 loans. Furthermore, it seems to be tn common opinion that the apparent bal-s ance of trade in our favor is approx | imately the real balance. That view is based in part upon the fact that otha% ] nations have been compelled to send | to the United States to aid in payment of balances. Before the European war began our favorable and visible trade balances was heavily cut into by va rious items, such, for instance. as travellers credit which sometimes amounted to $10G,000.000 a year; also 1 by freight and insurance rates and by our payment of interest upon the i Americane securities that were held abroad. But in the past fiscal year there have been practially no travellers credits issued and our payments to for | eign investors in American securities
 on account of interest must have been greatly lessened since many millions 1 of these securities have been absorbed l by American investors.
 | There Is one feature contained in the report of our foreign commerce which | is gratifying for it shows that in the Hast fiscal year there was large in 1 crease in the money value of our inn ports The hope is expressed that this increase will be continued in the pres ent year, although we are to have no imports from Germany and of course 1 have sold nothing, to speak of, to Ger
 many The greater part of the imports reflect the top speed at which our man,A ufacturing industries are now operatN ing, because almost all of the commod- lities imported were for material which our manufacturers needed.
 The record made by our foreign trade together with the statement made pub 1 lie by the Steel corporation and by
 other we'll known conditions in the
 world of industry and trade, are re-
 garded as sufficient to justify the con-
 fdence of the Secretary of the Treasury,
 MT. ,McAdoo. in his ability to float in ] November new loan of $3,000, 000, 900,
 even though the rate of interest be liked at 3h per cent