The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-25
Excess exports. .S132. .0O0. .OOO

Excess exports. 32,000,OO0 1 It will be noticed that these fi,ures show a reduction of 53 per cent from last year in the value of our exports and oz per cent in the value of the goods inn ported. They have been widely con- mented upon as indicating an ominous decline in our foreign trade but they should not be so interpreted for the de- cnne Tn prices that has occurred since March, 1920, is about equal 10 the per- centage of reduction shown and the fact that both exports and imports have di- minlshed in value in about the same proportion makes it clear that it is sim- ply case of revaluing a trade whose ! volume by weight or measurement is probably unchanged. The net gold in- ports for the month were $1O5 900 coo which is within $27,000O0 of the excess of merchandise exported over imports. from which it would appear that the world is getting down to cash basis in so far as it's trade with the United States iS concerned.
 This difference of s27, COG. GOO is probably offset by our tourists expenditures abroad and other invisible payments such as freights due foreign shipowners, pre- niums due foreign insurance companies and remittances sent to their relatives
 
 here The aggregate of these remit tances is especially large just now as the low prices at which francs, marks, lire etc., can be bought is tempting many of our foreign born residents to send their savings to Europe, where their value seems to be so much greater than here.
 HOME TRADE ENCOURAGING
 The reports and statistics of our do- nestle trade continue to be encoura ging According to the credit clearing house wholesale pur rchasse for the week ending April 22, had a money value that was only 6.3 per cent below last years fig ure. This of course, means that more goods are changing hands. The weeks bank clearngs as reported by Bradstreet are 30 per cent under last year, which indicates an increase turnover as the percentage of decline in dollars continues to be less than the percentage of decline ir prices. The March report of the chamber of commerce of the United States notes an improvement in the auto mobile industry, the shoe trade and the demand for building materials.
 Mir. Teagle the president of the most important of the Standard Oil organiza- tions, says that the worst is over' and many other prominent authorities are one by one joining the ranks of the op- timists.
 
 the steel industry, the coal business and especially the shipping trade, where an attempt to reduce seamen s wages has added to the troubles of shipowners. The railroads, too, are still on the sick list as the number of idle cars continues to increase. It is, however, probable that the railroad crisis was passed last week when the national wage agreement was abrogated and further relief is expected when the railway labor board shall de- eide upon the question of wage revision and reduction that are now before it.
 FREIGHT RATE STATUS
 The farmers are meantime petitioning President Harding for lower freight rates and w. Jett Lauck, economist for the railroad brotherhoods, has been as- serting that a group of New York cap- italists acting through directors under their control, have conspred to bring about a deflation of wages and prices, while they were at the same time mulc- ting the railroads by compelling them to pay excessive prices for their repairs and equipment to concerns in which the aforesaid capitalists are heavily interest ed. As ammunition in his fight, MT. Lauck has made certain statements that are, it is plain, based upon the charts and facts presented by Senator LaFol- lette in a speech of his that was printed in the Congressional Record of March IA. 1t may as we'll De au.nltteu that since New York is the financial center of the country, those who control it's capital are naturally attracted here and into asso- citation with each other. It may also be admitted that amongst capitalists as well as among labor leaders, there is con stant tendency toward combination and the standardization of power, the differ ence being that combinations of capital are subject to many laws passed to pre- vent their abuse, while labor combines are not as yet under legal control. When it shall be made illegal for MT. Gompers to be the head of all the labor unions that are included in the American Fed eration of Labor then the right of MT. Morgan or his partners to be directors in the corporations they have financed may be questioned.
 Meantime it remains to be proven that those who exercise the financial power to which they are legally entitled, are using it improperly or progressively and in this Senator LaFollete and MT. Lauck have failed.
 CHARGE NOT SUSTAINED It is maxim of law that it is nec- essary to prove a motive in order to prove a crime and the charge that the capitalstic conspirators in New York have brought about the worldwide de- flation of prices and of wages that has nearly bankrupted some of them and has cost all of them heavily, can only be sustained upon the theory that they were nPANN 0pERA MILL