New-York tribune., 1918-11-21
WALL STREET OFFICE:
Mills Building, IS Broad St.

Is the world entering upon an era
of syndicated buying, and perhaps
selling as we'll! simultaneously yes
terday came reports of huge cop
per combine by big companies in this
country for sales abroad under the
Webb law, which permits such COM
binations, and a parallel combination
of the commissions representing the
four nations of England, France,
Belgium and Italy, formed to pur-
chase copper for their respective
countries. 1t is we'll known that the
copper sold to the Allies after Sep
tember, 1916, has passed through a
single large seller. This worked SO
admirably it is now proposed to con-
tinue this arrangement in peace
time. A defensive combination of
foreign purchasers would be an al
most inevitable reaction to this pro-
posal Would trade and industry
gam thereby? Here would be a
highly practicable plan for that
"stabilization" of prices which SO
many regard as an ideal condition.
If large contracts could be secured
that would enable the companies to
,ol y,lo
basis and guarantee certain level
of wages. Would the so-called mar
ginap producer then regulate prices
any less than he does to-day? 1t
seems doubtful. The copper would
still have to be mined by a great
number of companies, large and
small, and then distributed to great
many buyers, large and small. Since
copper comes from all over the world
and ocean transport will now grow
faster than ever the product Of the
high-cost mines would, in the long
run, continue to fix the price.
The next government loan is to be
made a short-term security "in order
that it will be- attractive to the banks
in case the new loan is not fully
taken by the public" This is recur-
renee to the practice which in the
judgment of the British Commission
appointed to consider the subject is
precisely the agency which has been
most potent in sky-rocketing prices
in England and in enormously in
creasing the cost and burdens of
the war. Our Federal Reserve Board
has very succinctly defined imitation
as an increase in money and credits
which results in no corresponding
expansion # production and trade.
1t simply Is prices. We know
that produc,. N in the United States
is practically at maximum. The
total has not substantially increased
in three years. Every dollar Of bank
expansion now simply means in
creased pressure upon prices. The
higher we send prices the smaller
the possible volume of export trade.
The Treasury Department stems
still unable to rid itself Of the at
fractions of "easy money"
In the eighth month of government
al operation Of the railways, for
August, an ideal month, the average
number of locomotives in service was
557 more than in August, 1917. That
is an increase of 1.9 per cent. The
average number in shop for repairs
increased by 8.5 per cent. The aver
age number of cars increased 34 per
cent, but the number in shop for re-
pairs increased 1876 per cent. This
fairly tells the condition of railway
equipment. If, as some very compe-
tent people believe, the year Of 1919
will show great expansion, and not
contraction, in the volume of trade,
this means that, unless large orders
have already been placed for equip
ment, the railways will be less able
to meet this increased traffic than in
1917.
The operation Of the railroads is
also crippled by the diluted efficiency
of it's labor.
The new tables compiled by the
Federal Reserve Board show that
farm products, including cotton,
have increased by $50 per- cent over
July, 1914. But mineral products,