Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-06-20
FINANCIAL DIGEST

THE WEEK IN BUSINESS

Some hopeful signs were seen las
week in the financial and business world
although there continued to be evidence!
of weakness in certain lines. One of ths
reassuring features was found in an
nouncements of some of the leading rail
roads that their customary dividend
rate would be adhered to, notwithstand
ing the admittedly low ebb of railroad
business and the decidedly unattractivt
money market when it comes to financ
ing new issues from which new equip
ment and improvements may be pro
vided. Following the cut in the dividend
rate of one of the leading lines few
days ago, there had been rather strong
belief In financial circles that other line:
would follow this course, and among
those included in this forecast was the
Great Northern. Intimation was also
had that the same might happen with
the Northern Pacific road, but both pre-
dictions were faulty. since both roads
last week adhered to their former rate
when they declared their quarterly dis
tributions.
Great Northern Goes On.
may not have any large effect on the
dications are that it did not on North
ern Pacific, but Great Northern stoch
rose five points during the week, after
it had gotten down to 64H, the lowest
mark it had sold at for years. There
were suggestions, however, that what
ever recovery was made was due to pro-
fessional trading rather than substan-
tial return to the market of an invest
ing public which has been notably alb
sent from the purchase of shares for
some time, especially in anything like
real earnest.
There can hardly be said to be rea-
son for investors to hesitate in buying
either of the rails mentioned with the
present dividend rate being observed
1t means a return of better than 10
per cent at present levels, and it can
readily be forecasted that one of two
things will happen when anything like
easy money in plentiful supply is again
at hand. Either the price of such stocks
will be advanced sharply or there will
be a lot of shares go to new owners,
making for an active market.
Silver In Dumps.
Silver once more was in the dumps
during the week, and but for the Pitt
man act governing the purchase of sill
yer, it is wholly matter of conjecture
as to what would have happened. 1t
went to so cents an ounce as it was.
But the Pittman act provides that the
director of the L. S. mint must buy
silver to the extent of $271 100000 to
restore to the currency of the nation
the money which was melted when the
large shipments went to China and
other countries of the orient. Now, with
the normal production of silver in the
United States. it would take the mines
four years to restore that sum, so it
would seem to be absolutely unneces-
sary for any producer in the United
States to sell his output for less than
dollar an ounce within that period.
The policy of the mint has already been
defined to mean that for silver to be
sold at the fixed rate, it must have been
mined and refined in the United States,
and required affidavits which may be
at the mint are sworn to by
the seller.
London Rate Reacts.
The force of the rate fixed by the
pittman act was reflected in the world
market after the director of the mint
had announced his purpose to buy all
offered. The London rate reacted about
II cents from it's low mark, but later
sagged back almost to the former record
,ow for the current season.
Apathy continued to be the outstand-
ing feature of the wool market and
there was almost complete lack of
interest from the buyers Of the raw
WOOL the mill situation still being far
from satisfactory. There are many idle
spindles and mills which are operating
on a curtailed basis. There was a slight
ly more settled state in the London mar
ket, and quotations on the Boston mar
ket still fail to show any runaway moves
ment, so that the products have nothing
to fear from the present waiting atti-
tude of the market. In fact, comparison
ct the prices ruling with the prices
year ago gives a favorable angle to the
grower Of the wool.
Relieve FIockmasters-
There have been active steps taken to
bring about a combination of interests
that will make possible suitable financ-
Ing Of the grower until more positive
stage OF the market is entered and ac-
tivities of last week should relieve the
of Montana of any cause
For worry, which some Of them had be-
ieved to exist.