New Britain herald., 1921-08-27
WEEKS REVIEW AND
 IMMEDIATE OUTLOOK
Henry CleWs, New York Financial Expert, Gives His Opinions

New York, Aug. 27.-Adjournmen of congress for four weeks has set period to the immediate prospects of legislation. Failure to enact the rail- road relief legislation and inability 70 bring the tax bill to a definite stage of development are the outstanding points of regret among the business community. It seems, however, req sonably certain that both matters will be attended to no distant date alter | be attended to at no distant date after | can doubtless be given to the details | of pending measures during the re- cess. If so, nothing will be lost by the postponement. While more or less of a formality, the fact that Germany has now finally signed a treaty of peace removes another uncertain factor from the situation and ought | to have a favorable effect on senti ment.
 | Improvement of Railroad Earnings, That the railroads have at last definitely started upon a movement | toward better things has been evident for some weeks past. Earnings re- ports made public during the past few days again confirm >the views prevl- ously entertained on that subject and | ports of traffic movements. Despite, I therefore, some setbacks which have been suffered by the railroad Issues in Iconsequence of the unexpected post pOnement, of the refunding bill, the | real basis of confidence in the future | of the securities remains unchanged, or, if anything, has been strengthened. | A cloud on the horizon is seen in the apparently hostile disposition of the l American Federation of Labor in re- spect to the readjustment of labor costs, particularly as affects the rail | roads. This is a situation which must evidently be worked out during the coming months. -.--.~- --,r-. Trade Readjustment.
 | Price indexes indicate quite clearly that, so far as money values of com npdities are concerned, the general rIadjustment movement is about over What remains to be done is an equal ization of prices among themselves, some of them being evidently out of line with the general average. This, | however, is not likely to be long de- ferred. Meantime. further industrial | dividend suspensions show that there are still postponed results of the de-
 pression which have not yet fully ex-
 hibited their influence and are still to | be developed, while in the some group l of factors are to be mentioned the Ipoor statements made public during the past week by the copper com panies. Most of these long ago sus- pended dividend, but overhead charges and fixed expenses continue, and the loperating results of the past quarter show that they have been running still further behind with thus for no ldefnite prospects of improvement In the steel trade, slightly better pros poets may prevent the industry from
 reaching the same depth of depres- sion as the nOn-ferrous metals. It still remains true that the most hopeful symptoms in the present situation are found in the manufacture of textiles, shoes and other imm ediatelv consum-
 able commodities. In these a satis- factory autumn trade is now confi-
 dently predicted.
 Helping the Farmer.
 Passage by congress of the agricul-
 tural credits bill definitely brings to | a practical stage the plans for further ing the exportation of farm products !by government financial assistance
 Under the new measure, the war finance corporation may make loans
 either to Americans or foreigners on
 the strength of collateral consisting of securities or products of known value which, however, must be within the
 United States. This greatly broadens the powers of the war finance corpora tion, and since it is permitted to dc
 business with banks, really converts
 it into a kind of central banking insti- tuition with restricted powers or field
 of work. Belief that this and allied
 measures may materially assist the
 movement of American goods to for
 eign countries has been influential in
 holding up foreign exchange quota
 tions which might otherwise have
 gone to lower levels. How far tn:
 farmer himself will be actually aide5 l by the new bill may be questioned but if operations under it should be
 active, it may easily serve to strength
 en the course of foreign exchange
 On the other hand. continued specula tion in marks and other currencies has
 tended to render exchange quotations