The Washington times., 1919-12-29
BOERSIANER'S
COM MENT ON
BUSINESS
BY -BoERsIANER.

BY BOERsIANER.
The tax law recognizes the sale or
the purchase Of securities or the sale
and purchase Of securities as separ-
ate and entirely unidentical trans
actions. To establish losses {for taxa
tion purposes) you may sell your
stocks or bonds and Immediately re-
buy them.
Or you may give orders to buy or
sell at the same time. Or to make
sure Of replacing your holdings you
may buy first and then sell To jan
uary 1 1t matters not when or how
the trades are made.
But there is to-be -doubly-sure
safety first idea among masses Of in
vestors that values sold for loss reg
istration purposes should not be
bought back until after the turn of
year. Nothing in law or logic war
rants the notion, yet 1t prevails and
it's prevalence Is likely to be ex-
pressed in the markets next week;
markedly in the rails. where the losses
have been severe. the very severity
of which makes for a deeper reluc-
tance on the part of investors to ac-
cept permanent loss on an invest
ment that Is near retrievement; In
some public utilities like Peoples Gas
and in Government bonds.
Replacements More PreAaAle.
The requirements are more prob
able. in the general belief OF a re-
newed boom, now that labor trouble.
are allayed, the Edge bill Is law, the
railway problem nearing soiuticn--
and, of most immediate imporc--now
that money Is quite certain to be i'm
possible Of manipulation In New Ynrk.
One may readily anticipate the OBJ
vious objection that the program of
liquidation must proceed to other
lines, to stored commodities, to land,
etc., etc. But the second part may
be found much more difficult than
the first.
It is one thing to persuade some
New York bankers not to lend Honey
to the Stock Exchange; 1t is another
to try to prevail upon Interior bank
ers not to renew time loans on Sow
or illiquid collateral. AS well try
to dissuade the high wage Garner and
the profiteer from paying war
prices for things they buy ana CO
not need, or. indeed. really do rot
want
Would Drop 80 Per Cent.
II the discussion were successful
living costs would drop so per cent:
1t were a sovereign remedy for the
raging outrage of exorbitant prices:
would make retail clothiers think
thrice before contracting for ready.
to-wear garments into next autumn at
scale which will demand 500 q suit
Of the individual purchaser.
Common sense is uncommon in
quantity and in quality during a
mania The Government, in the per-
sons of the Federal Reserve Board
m fch 70
try on normal commercial and
financial basis. 1t Is a highly COM
mendable motive. But you cannot
preach moderation effectively at a
saturnalia
The postwar economic fever must
run its course-in stocks, in com
modities. in land values, in every.
thing. Where it is temporarily cooled
1t must, later, break out afresh more
hectical: which is saying that the
fertility will not wane until the world
ceases to live on abnormal credits
and begins to pay for what IL bor-
rows-in sum, starts to pay for the
war.
May BE Year Hence.
- That time may be year hence
and may justify retailers in arrang-
ing for imperishable commodities and
merchandise to be sold late next year
at even higher prices than the present.
These contractors may be courage
ously prescient. Still, 1t would seem
that discretion were the better part
of valor even here: for while there
cannot be such thing as overproduc-
tion for at least two years the in
evitably lower exports must steel on
the terms of home consumption.
The outgo has continued high, COM
puted in dollars, because of the full
fllment of contracts made months
ago at the then going prices. A
safer comparison will be in the early
months of next year.
In the meanwhile all the western
European countries are pulling them
selves together as best they NAV.
The allies are consistently pursuing
the policy of reparation which must
soon ultimate in serious economic
aggression. On the Continent this
hurtles against an in
consistency.
Insist on Initial Payments.
While the allies have besought a
three years remission of the interest
on their American obligations,
France and her continental comrades
have insisted on Germany's remnant
store of gold and on other initial
payments.
That. however, is not so important
to the United States as the free rein
given to all enterprises and entire
preneurs in western European coun-
tries. The slogan to producers is
Work" to promoters. DO as Won
please, and go as you please, but do
much and go rapidly" There will be
no governmental curbs or legal tram
mcls. Unity of national action is de- |
sired; an object lesson to American
States attorneys, to the Attorney
General, to the Congress.
When all the other countries are |
grooming themselves for a hard com |
race it is extremely inoppor.
tune for American legislators and |
to be devising means and |
ways of impairing efficiency in lead !