New-York tribune., 1922-10-15
Factories Going Under Full
Steam, With Unemploy-
ment Problem Vanished
and Workmen in Demand
Tariff Is i'm Good Favor
Democrats Accordingly Are
Not Going Into Details
as TO Revision Downward
BY Carter Field


steam, with the unemployment problem
vanished and workmen in demand, but
reports from all over the country.
pouring in constant stream to the
offices of the big fire insurance COM
panies here, indicate that the whole
country is enjoying boom Of the most
substantial sort.
hartford claims to be the business
barometer of the United States. New
Workers may be shocked to hear this.
and officials of the Federal Reserve
Board down at Washington may figure
that they are closer to the business
pulse than any insurance men could
possibly be. Be that as it may. 1t
sounds very, reasonable when the fire
insurance men point out that mer-
chants do not pay insurance premiums
on goods which have been sold, and on
the other hand that they do not dare to
cancel insurance on goods which they
have in storage, even if they are pre-
tending for some private reason to have
empty warehouses.
Up here they believe that the nightly
reports of insurance on goods of all va
rieties, coming in from all over the
country, tell'the most accurate story of
the country's actual condition that can
possibly be obtained.
All of the reports indicate very great
business activity. They indicate aston
ishingly small stocks on hand on the
part not only of retailers but of whole
salers. Cancellations of insurance all
the way down the line--iashing on
and off, first at the manufacturer or
importer, then with the jobber and
wholesaler and finally with the re-
taller, for all the world like moving
electric sign-indicate that Old Man
Ultimate Consumer is close on the
heels of production and clamorinp for
the wheels of industry to be
speeded up.
Millions in Insurance
For example, just before the Ford
ney- Nc cCumber tariff bill went into ef-
1ect there was a tremendous pouring
| OF goods into New York and other At
lantic ports from Europe for. the. pur
pose of getting the goods into the
country before the increased dutie3
went into effect. This big influx Of
goods was duly noted at Hartford. In
surance to the tune of millions. was
taken out on it jim New York ware
houses and storage places at the other
ports. These policies were quickly
Cancelled and new policies were taken
out for the same goods at other. places.
NOW these gos&s, 81 far as Hartford is
concerned, hav. di,appeared. That
means, according to Me inevitable
logic Of the. insurance.. tHsN, that they
have been divided intH lesxs 60 small
that special insurance hs.y, not been
taken out on them, which in turn
means that they have passed into the
hands OF che ultimate consumer.
Inc same sort of reports place the
stocAs OF goods on hand everywhere as
at very low ebb. The wise old exne,-ts
1s! mere say that what has happened is
thls-that every one nearly has been
figuring for some time that the bottom
OF prices had not been reached. and
therefore every one has been buying
from hand to, mouth. = The j recent
strike and the final settlements made
in them drove home the realization
that the bottom had not only been
reached but passed, and that prices
were now on slow but sure upgrade.
Hence mad scramble to beat the ris-
ing market by getting in early has now
set in. y
They point out that the waiting for
the bottom period lasted from early in
1920 when the first attempt at deia-
ton :, was $, made, until passage of the
tariff bill and the checking Of the
downward wage revision movement
came almost together, so that for two
years and half the country has
really been getting ready for pros
perity wave.
Enthusiastic Over Tariff
AS to the tariff bill itself, the people
up here are pretty nearly enthusiastic.
Connecticut is manufacturing bee
hive, and If any factory is in danger
Of being closed down by foreign COM
petition neither it's owners nor the
workers realize it. Indeed, there is
humorous saying going round that "if
anybody is kicking about the tariff it's
his own fault" or, to put it the other
way round, If anybody wanted, an I'm
crease in the duties on his products
and said so it was promptly put on
A few Of the industries which are
insured prosperity, as they see it, by
the new tariff are the manufacture Of
clocks and watches, hardware of all
sorts, woolens, brass, safety razors,
silk goods, machine tools, hosiery and
underwear, hats, guns and revolvers,
plumbers supplies, refrigerators, auto
mobile parts {the spokes Of nearly. all
the automobiles in the country are
said to be made here) and wire, espe-
cially for telephone and electric light
ing. In fact, they claim to make nearly
everything here somewhere between
Rhode Island and New York except the
wooden nutmegs for which the state is
famous.
Wages have been increased pretty
we'll up and down the line through the
industries, land the chief fear is not Of
falling off of orders but Of labor
shortage.
Increase in Employment
One Of the prosperity indexes to
which some Importance is attached here
is the sale of electric power. There
are four big power companies in the
state, all of which report enormous in-
creases in the sale of current in the
last eight months. One of them, the
writer learned to-day, had boosted it's
sales from $4,000, goo to $4,000, 900 kilo-'
watt hours in that period of time.
Touching on the disappearance of un.
employment, the Stanley Works, which
manufacture house and building hard
ware down at New Britain, has 1000
men on the job to-day, as compared
with 1900 one year ago. The Arneri-
can Hardware Company In the same
town has now 5000 men employed, an
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