The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-01-03

year, and if a description were sought in
a phrase, it might be said to have been
the last word in irregularitY. 1t was a
period of liquidation during which the
boom of 1919. punctured in 1920, was
pretty thoroughly debated Commodity
prices as whole, continuing the reaction
of 1920, though at slower pace We're re-
ducCd to the lowest level since 1916 of
half the distance from the 1920 peak,
while retail prices fell about one-fourth,
on the average. Crops, except corn, were
short, and farmers returns the poorest
since 1914.
Industrial outputs were reduced, and
values of sales were cut not merely to
the bone but to the very vitals of bust
ness. Some classes of securities, rail
way stocks for instance, reached the low
est average points IN almost generation.
Foreign trade values dissolved like the
mist before the sun, giving rise to quer-
les as to what had really become of inter
national trade. The rallies shown We're
generally slow in most cases, and some
of the gains were not entirely held. Few
lines of business had as good a year as
they did in 1920, itself a year of strain,
and the reSiduary legatee of the silk
shirt extraVagances of the first year of
peace. Inventories. badly slashed in the
last months of 1920, were even more
greatly reduced in 1921. 1t was a year
with an unprecedented number of fail
ures, and with liabilities of failed con
Germs towering above anything prev
iously known.
And yet, like the individual who was
described as being not wholly bad, 1t
developed redeeming traits and features
as the year advanced the lines first to
feel the depression leading in the work
of recuperatiOn and repair The genesis
of improvement in some lines, in fact,
was discernible almost at the outset of
the year certainly found things better
the summer was well advanced before
showing the first signs OF rallying.
Improvement is Gradual
With the progress of the wear, favor
able features asserted themselves in in
creasing number, the financial markets
improved, money released from trade,
where some of it had lain long in the
form Cf frozen credits, sought investment
in fixed interest paying securities, for
cign exchange rose, wheat exports broke
all records in volume as did building
construction in value. and the close of
the year certainly found things better
in many lines than at the beginning.
Still. the lesson was again brought home
more closely, apparently, than ever to
the people of the United States, as in
deed to the people of the world, that
while there may be vital necessity for
war. there is little profit in it. The last
weeks Of the year were gilded by the
apparent agreement of the nations to try
to find way out of the mOraSS of arma-
ment, with all that this implies in the
way of reducing expenditure for war and
waFlike materials, to the end that crush
ing taxes may be reduced.
Al least three big features stand out
in a review of the past twelve months.
One, the progress, not perhaps complete
in all cases. made in dehatiOn of costs of
many kinds. without which no real i'm
pTOVen}ent was or Is possible: another,
the perceptihle Improvement in the inter
national political and financial situation,
which. however, leaves much still to he
desired and done, especially in the cen
trail Europe; third, this despite all criti-
cIsm to the contrary, the demonstrated
high. indeed snerlative. importance TO
the country of the federal reserve bank
ing system. This proved in 1920 and 1921
as in 1914 and 1918. the real sheet anchor
of American business, those who doubted
and the few who will doubt having before
them the recognized fact that what was
The biggest. if not the most acute, crisis
in the history of America was thereby
prevented from running the traditional
American course and eliminating in com
mercial disaster greater than was ever
before experienced.
Like Army Skirmishing.
The events Of the wear, the many coun-
ter currents experienced, the hopeful adj
Yances made by some lines, and the APP
BdIenJIF continuous retreats SHOWN DN
others, probably find best illustration in
the military simile of an army which
las been. perhaps, defeated but not rOut
ed, and which reinforced, returns to the
battle, iGregularly perhaps, but with
steadfast purpose to achieve its original
aila.
In year filed with big events of good
and bad import. only few striking ex-
amples may be cited. One notable feat
ure was that about the first of the bust
ness divisions to r8lly were those figured
most DrominentIrsin the eXtTavagances
of 1919 and were FIRST to feel the unfavor-
able influences of 1920. We refer, of
course. to the textile and kindred indus
tries. generally spoken of as the apparel
trades. Most of these went through their
worst experience in the last months of
1920, when ShutdOwns followed the buy
ers strike of that year. Many of the So
called barometer industries. notably iron,
steel, coal, lumber and transportation,
did not show much, if any Improvement
until the late summer, but these had
r"en aTono the last to recognize the
facts in 1920 and apparently il took them
as it did the anuarel trades, nearly a full
year to get down to a working basis.
This and the refusal CT a great many
retailers to set their houses in order in
the year 1920 when depression first
doomed, and later finding that the re-
dnced purchasing power of the masses
of the population had prevented their
unloading unWleldY stocks of goods, We're
REGULARLY regarded as brakes on the
wheels Of progress In this connection,
it would seem as if the larger retailers.
DEPARTMENT and chain stores, found it
both advisable and easier to move faster
than did others.
Prices Partially Stabilized
The high peak of commodity prices as
Indicated by Bradstreet : Index Number.
which, as frequently explained. is the
sum total of the prices per pound of 90
articles of common use, was reached on
February /, 1920. viz $40 $500. From
that date to January !. 1921. the Index
Number, with one trihing exception. that
of May I following the outlaw switch
men 5 strike. which created a state of
artificial famine, dropped quite steadily,
the decline in eleven months being Just
short Of 40 per cent. In the next five
months, or from January | to June l.
the dron was Is per cent In the next
SIX months the rise was : Dpr cent In