New Britain herald., 1921-08-20
WEEKS REVIEW AND IMMEDIATE OUTLOOK
Henry CleWs, New York Financial
 Expert, Gives His Opinions
(Special to The Herald

ment of the terms of tax reform by | the House Ways and Means commit | tee continues the series of remedlcal l business measures to which. Presl I dent Harding and his administration | have devoted themselves from the l beginning. The new bill redeenns 1 the promise to repeal the excess profits tax, removes the transporta- 1 ton taxes and provides :. better. ad- 1 minlstration; and while there will be | disappointment at the increasing of l the corporation income tax instead | of the development of some new course of revenue such as the sales tax, the changes now proposed must be regarded as of great value to business from the psychological point | of view. The new bill will undoubt- edly be revised more or less ex-i | tensively in the senate. Meantime
 the process of getting away from war
 taxes has at last begun, a fact which will prove Of utmost encoura cement O many enterprises. :
 l Pending Railroad Measures.
 The uncertainty of congress as re- lizards the $500, 0,00O,000 railway re- funding bill has been an unquestion- able disappointment to the market; lyet through all there has been a de- cided undertone of confidence that l President Harding's influence with the legislative body would win the lday. Even though action should be deferred for a few months, as pessi- mists predict, the railroads, if as 5ured of ultimate success, can wait with confidence. Distinct and con- l tinued improvement in car loadings
 for many industries, and estimates Iof net railroad earnings for July, which now run as high as o,000,- 900 to s5G,000,000, show that the greater confidence in the transpor-
 tation outlook lately expressed is proving to be well justified. Termina- ton of important strikes and further iadjustments of rates, particularly on Iexports, promise still further pro- gress in earnings.
 l The Business Outlook.
 l Steady movement of crops to market and to points of export con- Itinues a dominating feature in the business situation. A tendency to- ward better prices for many pre- !ducts, notwithstanding temporary ups land downs, is the natural result of
 strong export demands; while early marketing, induced by the necessity of meeting past bank loans, is ap parently tending to reduce the need for credit in the farming regions and to produce an unexpectedly good supply of funds for current pur- Ichasing. Indications continue to inn prove in the textile trades, practical fly normal conditions being predicted for the autumn and winter in these directions. Some pessimists in the steel trades forecast a continuance of depression extending into the autumn and winter in their own line of business, but improvement in building conditions as we'll as in hallway demand seems likely 10 bring Irecovery sooner than is thus pre- ldicted. Varying conditions in cor Iporation earnings are reflected in
 the reports of General Motors and some others which show improve ments over last year, as contrasted with discouraging earnings returns
 in other cases A very hopeful ele- .ment in the existing outlook is the remarkable maintenance of the }purchasing power of the consumer in iretail lines. This is illustrated by the growth of dry goods business in the Chicago district in an amount estimated at 35 per cent above last y
 parts of the country have shown a
 substantial improvement which has | brought July transa ctions as report ed by the Bridge Builders and Struc-
 tural society to about one-third of shop capacity
 Money Banking and Exchange.
 | Federal Reserve officials have given every assurance that the general banking position was never better. Meantime, the continued inward flow
 of gold is raising the general reserve lposition of the banking system ipra ctically to pre-war levels. This influx, which during the past week
 has again added several millions to our net gold, is now involving a
 movement from South America . Combined with fresh German repara-
 ton payments and speculation in !exchange, the situation as regards , the purchasing power of foreign
 currency has been growing so serious s as to give rise to the administra,- tion's tentative proposal for an ex-
 change conference to be held simul- taneously with the disarmament con 4 ference. The rapid depreciation of < the mark and of the various cur
 rencies of Southern and Eastern f Europe adds force to the suggestion Such a conference might result in
 | improving some contemporary con-
 ditions, although ultimate correction N of the restoration of governmental
 solvency throughout Europe. Mean
 time the continued absence of any c definite system of financing foreign ' trade and the growth of our one
 sided 'favora ble" balance almost un- o avoidably tends to make exchange
 quotations less table than they
 otherwise would be. The needs o1
 l Europe for our food stuffs will rather
 ltend during coming months to ac-
 Icentuate this state of things.
 n Market Review and Outlook"
 Midsummer dullness in the stock n market has continued to be charac-