The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-23
GOTHAM'S GLOOM HAVING EFFECT
 ID SOME EXTENT
Price Journeys to Middle West to Get First Hand Information on the
 Real Conditions
By THEODORE H. PRICE

I impressed by the published Stateme n
 of man from Dubuque, la. who sait
 that New York is the most depressed
 place in the country at present ant
 that it's gloom is adversely affecting
 sound and business would be good were
 1t not for the propa ganda of pessmi sn
 which originated in the metropolis
 determined to come west myself ant lind out how the people there inter-
 preted the outlook. This is telegraphed
 from Cincinnati, from which place as
 center l have had opportunity to ac-
 quaint myself with affairs in the great
 industrial sections known as the Ma.
 honing and Miami valleys.
 l Undoubtedly there has been some
 slackening of activity in the automo-
 bile and tire business. At Akron the
 tire factories have let go d number of
 men variously estimated at from 5000 to 3o,000. The unemployed are not l however, in evidence, and 1 am told that they have gone farther west, where
 they readily obtain employment as | harvest hands. On the other hand a
 large paper manufacturer at Hamilton, O., says that he is still short of labor and that he finds 1t difficult to get the l men that he requires, though he ad-
 mits that the talk of unemploymen
 is making those who are on the job a little more efficient.
 l Among the steel mills a shortage of | labor is. still talked of, but the com plaint there is chiefly of inefficient 1 railway service. As one manufacturer | put it, While 1t is taking the maxi
 mum effort of every man that has anything to do with transportation to
 enable us to get raw material in and | finished products out, we are, In one way or another maintaining full oper- ation. It requires, however, two or | three times the effort that 1t takes in l normal times to accomplish the same results"
 CAN'T ACCEPT ORDERS Another man, whose product is a w-priced article, in which the cost of transpotra tion is an important fac- tor, said that since the advance in freight rates became a certainty he had nov been able to accept any orders rom distant points because his com pet1tors nearer to the great consum- ing centers were able to underbid him. This man predicts a great change in the industrial map of the United States because of the localization that the higher cost of transportation will com pei He maintans that the cross haul
 
 ucts will shortly be at an end and that except in the case rof very high-price articles each manufacturers business VIII hereafter be confined to a zone that will be limited by the freight rates charged He attributes the recent falling off in his own business to the operation of this factor and insists that the railroad will have less long haul traffic in the future. Itis point well worth considering.
 Among merchants and security deal. CTS, as in the east, there is a general feeling that credit has been unneces- sarily restricted, that rates of interest are unwarrantably high, and that busi- ness will pick up just as soon as money IS easier The bank officers ques- toned were almost unanimous in the opinion that money would soon be more abundant and some of them were in fact disposed to hold the east rather than the west responsible for the pres- ent scarcity.
 There is an unusual apathy in re- gard to the presidential campaign, and only one man out of the many with whom talked even mentioned the for eign situation. or the encoura ging news now coming from Poland. Confidence Tn thu future seems absolutely un- disturbed, provided the necessary transportation and credit are to be had and if these two essentials are not pro- vided an effort to punish those re- sponslole for their lack is almost cer- tam totollow. Generally, the feeling is that the west has done it's mart: that 1t has produced good crops that it is ready to buy freely and that any depression will be fictitious and un- necessary.
 My news gathering orgahza ton in | New York will supplement these ob- 1 servations with brief statement of | the happenings recorded there. I should | consider myself poor observer of American affairs if did not occasion ally get away from the metropolis and | us mistaken assumption of omnis. ! cience.
 WORST IS PAST With the decisive reverse administered l to the soviets last week, the European | horizon has cleared appreciably and the | progress of the commodity markets to- | ward new levels applicable to post-war | conditions is not likely to be impeded by | more severe storms than it is already | meeting. The smoothness which bumper 1 crops, with their accompaniment of | cheaper food and plentiful purchasing | power, are imparting to that progress is , better appr eciated by business men, who. 1 when the cptmists first began to preach | could see only bumps ahead, and re i, turning confidence Is more general
 Though the imber of shares traded in on the Stock exchange last Week was | small, the bank clearlngs to Bradstreet's consequently I show decrease of I per cent from last 1 year the general business turnover con l tinues above that of 1919, as an increase | of 6.3 per cent in bank clearings outside | of New York show. more general dis position to readjust prices accompanies the belief that many commodities have already reached their postwar levels. This is especially true in those markets l where declines started early. such as silk, rubber wool. hides and fietals. except ! iron and steel. which are firm with slight 1 fluctuations.
 With possible European war demand | now improbable, transportation shortage remains the controlling influence on grain prices, which are thereby prevented from Ending the level indicated by the supply [ Cotton. in the most sensitive period of the l year, has declined to new low prices for | the present movement as much in re sponse to the quietncss that still persists ! in the goods market as to crop reports. which continue gooi for this critical sea- son.
 the former to Pc for Cuban raws and the | latter to Sc for Rio 7s which is about at 1 .he pre-war level. Silver issfirmer on in- creased buying in the east. Approximately 6,5o0 immigrants are ar- living daily at Ellis Island. and steamship report that all their accom- nodatons are booked for the next year. and warn our authorities to prepare for ! record rush. Coincident with this an