Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-12-25
TURN FOR BETTER IN
BUS|NESSOF NATION
SEEN BY OFFICIALS
All Danger of Collapse of
Credit Situation Has
Passed, Government Ex-
perts Declare
By DAvrDALAwRENcE
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal.)
(Copyright g1920l

w bCC. Gt'-I AAS
worst is over. A turn for the better
in the business situation of the coun-
try has come. Government officials
generally are glad to be able to send
Christmas message to the Ameri-
can people that all danger Of a col
lapse in the credit situation has
passed and that from now on, a
steady return to normal conditions
may be expected.
Every bit Of evidence gathered
here confirms the view of officials,
that with the exception Of individ-
ual cases, where bad management or
imprudent financing has caused some
concerns to hang by an eyelash, the
entire business outlook is favora-
BILE
The process of readjustment is not
over. Perhaps some of the most
Painful changes will come when the
price of labor is gradually brought
down, but in the business world it.
self the bottom has been reached
and the future is by no means as
dark as it was a month ago. Letters
received rom bank officials in varl-
Gus parts of the country indicate
that the turn came in the last six Or
seven days and that the improve
ment is substantial and sound.
HI Buying Christmas
The reports received on Christmas
buying indicate that the strike which
the consumer started several weeks
-age~against the purchase of any,
thing except absolute necessities was
broker by the Christmas spirit and
that most retailers will have cleared
their shelves pretty well by the end
of this year.
OF course the danger in reducing
theJ cost of labor always is the pros
poet of a strike. But in many cases
the employers would welcome the
chance to be rid of an overhead cost
on labor altogether for a few weeks,
so the wise laboring man consulting
with the housewife and noticing a
decline in the prices of food and
clothing will, it is believed here, be
ready to accept lower weekly wage
rather than insist on higher one
and run the risk Of not getting any
thing at all during the winter
months.
But an abrupt change in labor
prices is not expected. Certain
classes of labor which have been
paid at war prices will have to come
down. All this may be stubbornly
fought by the labor organizations
but the alternative may be no work
at all.
The Lucky Individual
Already requests to accept a cut
has worked out successfully in sew
eral lines Of business, and while ev-
erybody wants the other fellow to
come down, and nobody wants to
bear the brunt of the reduction him
self or herself, some reduction in
labor costs is inevitable. The bust
ness man who wisely made his prices
on a basis Of the average cost for a
period OF normal years is the lucky
individual nowadays. Yet few of
them were able to do so unless they
sacrificed profits altogether during
war years and the number who did
that is very small.
Perhaps the most optimistic in
Washington are those who see in
the falling prices of building mate
rails the answer to the labor ques-
ton. High rent, it has been contend
ed, has been the backbone Of every
demand for increases in wages. The
shortage in houses has been nation
wide. Some building materials are
back to pre-war prices. But building
on a general scale will not be re-
sumed until labor comes down, too,
for anyone wanting to build a house
and sell it several years hence for
at somewhere near the original cost
will not build at war prices of labor
If the purchasing power of the dol
lar should gradually increase, the
average workman will not be justi-
fed in asking for the retention of
high wages, but the trouble will be
to make the average man accept that
line of reasoning until the dollar ac-
tually does buy as much as it used
to do.
Storm Is weathered
The trouble about the readjust-
ment of economic conditions is that
things do not move uniformly and
naturally reductions in labor cost
will be resisted. In the sense that
a fall in labor prices is yet to come,
the painfulness of the economic sit
uation is not over, but with unem-
ployment so extensive, the resump-
ton Of large business operations
after the first of the year will tend
| toward the relief of those who are
getting no wages at all and who
believe in the practical philosophy
that some kind of job is better
than none.
The big fact Is that the financial
world, which makes possible the con-
tinuance of manufacturing opera
tions, has passed through its crisis
and that while buying will be con-
servatice, the return to normal has
at last begun on a basis that has
removed the wrinkles of anxiety on
the faces of government officials and
made them feel that nation has