The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-02-17
Liquidation and Business.

For the most of last week conditions
favored a slowing up of business and
continued liquidation in the stock mar
ket. The severe storms depressed trade
while impeding transportation. The
threatened labor crisis on the railroads
helped along the further reaction in
railroad securities and not until Satu
day was the possibility of railroad
strike so far removed that the securl-
ties market showed a marked recovery.
| To the decline in the stock market high
money rates contributed and the indus
trials, such as oil and motor trucks,
fell off most sharply. Sterling exchange
rallied during the week to a point Is
cents above the low record but the
rate is still about 80 per cent below
normal.
Since November, when the stock mar
ket decline began, the depreciation in
prices has been very notable. From the
high record of 1919 to the low record of
last week these declines in shares must
be noted: General Motors IFS points,
! Mexican Petroleum 1929, Studebaker
l694, Marine preferred SO. American
| Wooden 4oIs, Steel common goa, Atehi-
SON 81, Chesapeake s Ohio 2lh, Great
Northern 32h, Illinois Central 23is,
Northern Pacific 3lss, Reading 2s1s,
Southern Pacific 27H, Union Pacific
1917. Railroad bonds have gone down
proportionally, some OF the best grade
bonds now selling about as follows:
Atchison General As 74A, Atlantic
Coast Line Is 74Is, Chicago & North
-, Goa Ti1tnaia Tapfru1 Re.
funding As So, Louisville & Nashville
Is so, Norfolk 4 Western As 74A,
Northern Pacific As 1874, Union Pacific
first As so. Railroad bonds and shares
of course have been badly affected by
the uncertain future of the railroads
under the congressional reorganization
bill, but they have responded also to
the more general influences making Tor
denation of the market in the past
four months beginning with the federal
reserve boards first step in Tightening
money rates and in checking specula
| ton
The fall in the prices of securities
! this winter has been big enough to
amount to something. Had the fall
been crowded into a week there would
have been an old fashioned stock mar
ket panic. The experience OF pro-
longed decline, together with the Sc
we're downward movement and violent
fluctuations in foreign exchange has at
| least been educational, for there is to-
day much more general understand
4 ing than there was last summer and
autumn of the fictitious nature OF the
feeerish prosperity OF 1919 with its
steadily rising prices both of securities
and of commodities and the reactions
upon labor and wages caused thereby.
There is to-day a more prevalent feel
ling of caution. This of itself perhaps
compels a slackening Of enterprise, ow-
ling TO the expectation OF lower price
| levels to which reduced exports caused
| bv the great depression in the ex-
changes may contribute
| Whether our exports are substan-
TALLY declining is hard TO determine
with any precision. The week by week
! fluctuations in exchange rates may slg-
nifty little. 1t is reported in New York,
however, that for some time past there
have been few orders placed here by
/ European buyers for anything but ac-
report that the talk of wholesale can
cellations is without foundation and
also there is little danger of any con
siderable quantity of American mer
chandise being shipped back from Eu.
rope. The dry goods and textile trade
lis developing a more conservative atti-
Itude and auieter conditions. The iron
and steel industry, however, now has
untitled orders enough to keep 1t busy
1 for nearly the rest of the year. While
some crimbling Of commodity prices
! is reported. Bradstreet's index number
AT the end of January was higher than
ianv previous month on record. The
London Economists index number on
The same date also showed the highest
price level on record in Great Britain
Secretary Houston's statement last
week on the condition Of the treasury
was reassuring factor, especially his
announcement that the last OF the
floating indebtedness would be paid of
to-day. when the final issue OF loan
certificates. about S60,0n0,000. will be
redeemed. With reasonable economy in
lappropriations by Congress and gov
eminent expenditure. Mr.. Houston
seems justified in feeling that the
ltrcasury's future - comparatively
bright. This is an element in the stu
lation making for stability and strength
because the federal reserve system can
now function on the normal lines de-
signed for IT, Hitherto il has been used
largely as a war making machine. re
rardless Of sound banking principles,
a. the war emergency required. If that
period is over. an important turning
point has been reached with the govern
,nent and the banks headed in the right
direction. Springfield Republican.