Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-11-06
TRADE STAGING
COMEBACK, SLOW
BUT STEADILY
Colfax Claims Reports
of Government Show
Business on Upgrade.
Money Is Not Being
Wasted but People
Are Not Poor, Claim.
By HARDEN COLFAx
Special CORRESPONDENT Of Great Falls Tribune


Washington, Nov. 5.-Government
agency reports show that business is
apparently taking the upgrade, but its
speed is not yet very striking. Better
times are at hand, however. and the
depression has had a result more i'm
portant perhaps than those depres-
sions of the past, for there is evident
real desire this time to make GER
tain, if possible, that business slumps
be avoided or minimized in the future.
Studies of the phenomena of bust
ness depressions are being made
probably with greater care than ever
before. There has been disposition
in the past to consider panics, de-
pressions and the like as something
in the nature of acts of providence
and beyond control. Now business is
being conducted on more scientific
principles and the control of business
activity is not considered necessarily
impossible if the problem is attacked
in the right way.
Avoiding Panics
Already the means have been found
for avoiding panics. IL the federal re-
serve bank system had not been in
operation it is almost universally con-
/ sceded that the slump from which the
country is emerging would have been
instead of a slump. distinct panic.
Closer watch of business conditions.
greater care in determining statis-
tically the factors that go to make up
those conditions and q better under
standing of fundamental economies,
will do much to prevent trouble in the
future.
Buying is picking up but it is the
buying of necessaries not luxuries.
The demand for medium priced goods
is obvious in practically every line.
The buying power of the public has
diminished, the depression already has
made heavy inroads into war time
savings, particularly in the case OF
persons who have been UNEMPLOYED,
and money is not being wasted these
days. Economic authorities expect the
demand for shoes and for medium
priced clothing to continue. For house
furnishings. the demand is yet only
fair, and for goods in the semi-iuxury
class. such as monographs, pianos and
Improvement, the medium priced
articles still have the call.
Merely Reaction, Claim.
An interesting theory has been ad-
yanced by certain close students of
economic conditions-a theory that the
slump just ending would not, under
normal conditions have been consider
ed a slump at all, but that it was
merely a reaction from business
boom, initiated in the early part of
1920 for which there was no sufficient
foundation. The business activity which
began at that time was based, accord
ing to that theory. not on fundamental
Improvement in conditions but on
psychological conditions. Psychology
carried things certain distance but
lasting foundations could be not laid
On wind As result. when conditions
did return to bed rock, matters looked
much worse by comparison than they
would have otherwise.
Farmer Must Help.
Undoubtedly the world is poor. The
debauch of five years of war must be
paid for, and the productive energies
of the earth, as manifesed IN agri-
cultural production, are all that can
be relied upon. to restore the economic
equilibrium. The farmer must be en-
couraged to continue raising normal
crops Business men have learned from
their recent experiences to proceed
cautiously in making extensions, to
buy consistently instead of waiting
for abnormally low prices and to ex-
tend credit judiciouslv
These things in themselves will be
helpful for future stability.