The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-03
BUSINESS LOOKING
 ID WASHINGTON AS
 IDLE FARLEY ENDS
Conference Can Do Nothing But Resolve and Congress May Be Disappointment
 Says Price
By THEODORE H. PRICE

Ky THEUuOkE H. PRtCE
 Editor Commerce and Finance, New York. Copyright, Theodore H. Price Publishing
 Corporation, 16 Exchange Place, New Nork).
 tion of American business is again focused upon Washington. Much is expected from the unemploymen con ference and Congress. Disappoint- ment will probably follow the action taken. The use of treasury tonic" as a cure for the unemployment evil has been wisely inhibited by Presi dent Harding and the conference can hardly do more than resolve and rec ommend. As to Congress 1t is i'm . possible to pass a tax bill that will please any very large proportion or those who are separated from their money. It is. however, reassuring to learn from MT. Hoover that the un-- employment has been exaggerated and that not more than S.500.000 persons are out of work. The conference will probably hasten the automatic read . justment of our industrial machin- cry by which they will be provided with jobs. The real trouble Is the overgrowth of our city population and unemployment will probably be a recurring phenomenon until people are. driven back to the country. In this aspect 1t is not an unmixed evil.
 But as dissa tisfaction with Wash inEton is normal in the United States, 1t Is hardly pessimistic to anticipate 1t and the outlook otherwise Is quite as cheerful as 1t was last week.
 If optimism in the index could make prosperity we shouldl have nothing to complain of, for the newspapers are still unanimous in proclaiming the advent of better times.
 Trade Volume Increases
 Of the facts as far as they are as certainahle 1t may be said that in the main they support the optimistic pre- dictions. The prices of some articles are up and others have declined, but the volume of trade is increasing. Bank clearings show this. So do the ..individual debits' reported by the federal reserve banks. The dollar value of the August sales in the de- partment stores of the New York federal reserve district Is only 5.2 per cent below last year, whereas prices show an average decline or fully 80 per cent, and the number of individual sales in August was lS.2 per cent greater than in August, ls2o. The great mail order houses report a better business and the savings banks
  900 new accounts and increased their deposits by about $252,00000o, or nearly 10 per cent, during the year ending June 30, 1921.
 This accumulation may partially explain the growing ease or money and the advance in Liberty bonds khich have continued to move up ward during the week and are now an average of nearly per cent over the low prices of the year. When II is considered that it means an ap- preciation of about $1,250,000,0O0 in the value of the issues outstanding some idea of it's significance may be had Other bond issues have been correspondingly strong.
 The government has now sold nearly $10O, 100000 of the railroad equipment trust notes 1t held on per cent basis and they are being re- sold to the public at price which yields the ultimate buyer about 5,st per cent. There are about $200, ,o00,0 0o( more of these obligations in the treas ury vaults. If they are disposed ol the war finance corporation will be ir position to give the railroads nearly all the financial help they require. in- dependently of congressional acton
 Railroad Earnings Increase
 Mir. Meyer deserves commendation for the skill with which he has man. aged the financial operations incl dent to this liquidation. Railroad ne' earnings are meantime improving Traffic is increasing and in the stock market railroad shares are at last com mencing to reflect the better outlook for the transportation industry. En- thusiasm has been somewhat re- pressed by the threats of labor trou- hle and the attitude of the Pennsyl- vania railroad toward the labor board, but strike seems improbable and years of peaceful litigation will probably be necessary in order to de- termine whether the labor board can enforce its decrees or not. While the question is in the courts the railroads will be called upon to determine whether they will accept Professor Ripley's plan for railroad consolida. ton which was formally submitted for their consideration by the inter state commerce commission las week.
 It contemplates the creation of 1s super systems and the complete re- making of the American railroad map. Its acceptance is not compul' sorry, but the interstate commerce commission intimates that govern