The Washington herald., 1921-10-01
GAIN In FOREIGN
And DOMESTIC
TRADE EENOTED
South American Cables
Show Resumption
OF Buying.
PACKERS REPORT
BETTER BUSINESS
Reserve Board Shows Big
Improvement in Credit
Conditions.

others and covering different felds,
give promise OF relief from. the
business depression which has
gripped the nation for the past
year OF more.
improvements are noted in the
| September cables from South Amer
lea to the Department of Commerce.
Brazil, Chile. Mexico. Peru and
Paraguay report that stocks of
&C DDS in warehouses have been
greatly depleted. and Indications
point in a resumption of buying in
various lines.
The September statement OF the
Federal Reserve Board. reaching as
Il does every section Of the country.
lends decided emphasis to the fact
that business conditions inside the
nation are on the upgrade and oper-
ating from a sound basis.
Credit situation Improves.
This fact Is further borne out In
the report from Armour and Com
pany. stating that conditions In the
meat packing industry have taken a
distinct and definite turn for the
better.
A noteworthy feature In Septem-
Der has been the decided improve
ment in the credit situation. states
the Reserve Board report In the
cotton regions liquidation of credit
has been rendered possible by the
marked advance in the price Of cot
ton. which has carried practically
all contracts above 20 cents a pound.
At the same time Improvement in
Wholesale and retail trade has been
expected as a result of the increase
In the ability Of the farmer 20 settle
his accounts both with banks and
with dealers. The greater abund-
ance OF funds in the cotton raising
districts Is reported as having been
reflected in larger wholesale trade.
Textile Orders Increase.
The effects of liquidation ex-
pected from the advance in the price
to appear In the condition state
ments Of Federal Reserve banks. On
the other hand. the advance in
prices, not only OF cotton but OF
other agricultural products has had
certain sindirecy results.
The textile industry has not yet
boaght freely OF cotton at the new
price level which has been estab-
lished, but such mills as possessed
a stock of low-priced cotton have
attracted a considerable volume of
orders.
In the grain growing districts,
the output has continued to move
steadily to distributing points and
has also gone abroad In consid-
cradle amounts. This grain move
ment has been practically the heav-
lest on record. Heavy movement of
livestock has also been noted and
prices have weakened.
Adva,1 In steel Trade.
While attention has been largely
concentrated on the agricultural
side of business development dur
ing the month, manufacturing has
also continued to show a whole
some Improvement in many lines.
The advance in iron and steel
trade first noted in August has
Keen sustained during the month Of
September in certain lines, notably
In pig iron and light products such
as wire and sheets, In which price
advances have occurred. Although
orders fell in August an advance
has occurred sirce that time.
Steady Increase in the numbers .
of men employed has taken place.
In this connection should also BE-
noted the Improvement Of the rail-
way industry.
Railway Earnings Gain.
The net earnings of Class rail-
ways for August were about S7O,-
100000 and on many lines the~rate
Of earnings is near the level TAX
en- as standard in the transporta-
tion act. Textile manufacturing
has been well sustained during the
month, and the boot and shoe in
dustry has been notably active.
There is still. however. hesitancy
on the part Of distributors to place
forward orders, although a large
seasonal increase In certain lines of
wholesale trade coupled with re-
placement orders have resulted in
advances
The epd of the harvesting and
crop-moving season may tend to in
crease the number Of unemployed.
but such tendency lis likely to be
offset by growth in demand on the
part Of manufacturing industries.
Roads Add to Employes.
Railroads have begun to Increase
the number of their employees to
some extent. This is especiaIly
noteworthy in the Far West and is
emphasized int the reports received
from District No. 12. .(San Francis.
co,) where II holds true also of
general public utility undertakings.
The fact that building contracts
reached record figure for this
year promises larger employment
in that direction during the. au-
tpmn.
The statement from the meat
packing industry. sounds a note of
positive assurance of turn for the
better. -
shows Upward Trend.
The month of September has given
much evidence that the meat pack.
ing industry has made a definite
and positive turn away from the
conditions which had been depress-
ing business operations over a
period of year and more. There
were elements that entered into the
trading during the month which
caused business to lose some ofs-the
aggressiychess OF recovery which
had marked its operations for, the
previous two me nths. but the fact
that trading bases did not reach a
lower level than had existed the
PREVIOUS month proved that the re-
adJustmen9 Of the packing industry
had followed sound economic plans.
No deyelopments have become
Ce~finsed on Pace Too.