The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-26
TRADE NOT HAVING /.
ITS SUMMER PAUSE
Usual Slow Down of Season
Has Not Made Appearance
This Year.
BUSINESS STILL GROWS
Expansion Is Continued, With
Little Sign Of Abating
in Any Section.
STILL GROWS


One OF the chief features OF the iriT
provement ia business, which has been
lin evidence for the last several weeks, IL
the lack OF curtailment in that expan-
lsion during the summer. In normal
times the summer usually Is a period OF
slowing up activity. in Rll lines. and
business generally is at It's low point
until early fall. The present season.
however, is against presidents and busi-
ness continues to show growth and ex-
pansion with little apparent let-up.
"The really noteworthy feature Of the
business situation" says Dun's RevieW,
"is not the fact that activities are en-
larging, but rather that the expansion
continues with so little sign OF abate-
ment during the summer, when dis
tinct pause Ia usually witnessed. Yet
dispatches from every section or the
country and from nearly every trade
and industry emphasize the absence OF
the customary seasonal hating, and the
weeks advices should remove all doubt.
If any exists, of the declslveness an(
widespread scope Of the after war re-
vival.
'Retarding elements, such as the dis
daieting labor unrest and protracted
wet spell along thetAtlantic coast, have
not been without influence, but Their.
Is no general slackening OF progress, an6
new records in magnitude of transac
tons and in prices are not uncommon.
Where immediate wants have been
largely filed by recent vigorous purchas-
ing there Is less eagerness among buy
Ard nd
sellers are obliged to seek an outlet
for their products and not few of
them are booked ahead as far as they
care to be with markets almost daily
turning more sharply in their favor.
Fnvor AIIoting Outputs.
Many manufacturers find In the AL
lotment of outputs the only solution of
the problem of coping with require
ments, as production does not increase
fast enough under present labor condi-
| tons to reduce disproportion between de-
mand and supply that exists in many
quarters. The drain on stocks of raw
materials and semi-finished and finished
articles is not alone of domestic origin
but also emanates from foreign sources,
and additional contracts of Importance
for overseas account have been closer
| in iron and steel and other leading
branches Of industry. Because of its
bearing on the export outlook, the I'M
settlement In International exchange has
loccasloned wide comment and prompted
discussion of likelihood of curtailment
of European purchasing as means of
correcting the abnormal situation Yet
foreign buyers are largely dependent on
markets here for urgently needed com
modities and continued heavy move
ment of American goods abroad is
clearly foreshadowed.
Virtually no market exists on hides
and skins and finished leather within
the ordinary meaning OF the term. With
each weeks passing conditions become
more phenomenal, and 1t seems not to
be question of price but of obtaining
urgently needed material. No one would
have ventured to assert early in the
year that in July domestic hides would
sell above so cents, but there appears
to be no limit 70 the prices tanners will
pay for raw stock or shoe producers and
exporters for leather. OF significance in
its bearing on the general situation Is
the Belief in the trade that Europe, be-
cause of the depletion of cattle supplies
there during the war; must depend al
most entirely on North and South Amer
lea for hides for some time to come"
Activity Is wonderful.
Trade continues large and industry
active-wonderfully so, indeed in view
| of midsummer influences, the vacation
season, further shading of small grain
crop estimates, the very unsettled con-
dition of labor, especially in building
lines at some large centres, the contin-
uance of the partial tieup of large part
of the Atlantic coast shipping and the
virtual embargo on export trade exer-
cised by the prevailing low level Of an
the foreign exchanges" says Brad
streets State of Trade.
Trade is especially active in the sur
plus crop producing areas OF tho trans
Mississippi region, where modification Of
early large wheat and oats crop pros
poets seems without effect but It Is also
active on the Pacific coast, where crop
returns show little or no impairment, and
at the South, where a recurrence of rain
has made for renewed complaints az TO
the cotton and other crops.
Still there Is very little to choose be-
tween reports from these sections and
from the Eastern Industrial centrea
where buying at retail is active despite
the spell OF rainy weather experienced
recently and the poor reports as to crops
affected by flooding. sprouting in the
shock, &c. Staples and luxuries seem
active, and virtually the only complaints
are of slow or partial deliveries of goods
or of inadequate supplies of materials for
manufacture.
Collections are apparently Just as good
as trade, but It might be noted that fall
, ures have shown a good sized increa Sc
and are the largest for many weeks
Prices are strong as ever. The food
price range is again higher, with grains
leading, but with live stock stronger de-
spite the flood of half-fed cattle reported
coming from drought stricken regions OF
, Montana, North Dakota and Idaho
Dairy products are also stronger. New
, high levels for corn and oats and live
hogs are features"
GERMAN TOAN TINTED UvAv1