Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-05
Better Business
to Continue, View
of Bond Company
BY WELLs.D!cKEY COMPANY.

SSVts SIN
General business conditions in thi.
country continue to be of a highly sat.
isfactory character and the steady i'm.
proyement which has been taking place
is destined to continue. Those VIII
have a broad vision are not dismayet
by any immediate events for it is con.
fidently expected that most of tn,
u~nfavorable factors in the situation to.
day are OF a transitory and temporary
character and that the major upswins
VIII continue to greater heights.
/. Ihere is only n disturbing factor
in the local situation which has no
been discussed, and that refers tt
labor. It was not SO long ago thai
the country as a whole was concerned
with unemployment figures, but this
has been reversed recently and more
and more is being heard of a possible
labor shortage. Certain it is that q
number of industries have already fel,
she pinch of an inadequate labor sur
ply, although reports on this subject
have not been general. A great deal
of the labor difficulty at present is due
perhaps as much to a maladjustment OF
labor as to an actual shortage-malad-
justments coming as an aftermath Of
a drastic readjustment period. During
the period Of liquidation factories were
closing down or were running at q
small percentage of capacity. Labor
was thrown out of employment and
sought work elsewhere, with the result
that the normal flow of workers from
one industry to another was seriously
interrupted. These Embellishments of
supply still continue so that the prob
lem of labor in this country is q real
one.
Car Shortage PerpIexing
The question of a car shortage is
still looming large and if business n
tinues to expand at its present rate the
shortage may become q serious handi-
cap during the balance of the year. Car
loadings are undergoing a substantial
increase from week to week and are
running considerably higher than the
loadings Of a year ago. One important
factor i'll the shortage is that of bad
order cars. The cars out of commits
sion today and in repair are substan-
tally higher than at the same time a
year ago. this a direct result of the
shopmens' strike. While the total
number of cars has shown a slight in
crease during the past year, the num-
Der in actual operation has been d.
minished to quite an extent. Naturally
the railroads are making every effort
to bring their bad-order cars back into
operation and no doubt heavy inroads
will be made on this total during the
next few months.
In the security markets the greatest
interest at present so. far as the invest
ing public is concerned has to do with
the recessions in bond prices. This
has not been great by any means, but
still it is q decided change in tread as
compared with what prevailed a num-
Der of months ago. Whether Or not the
present recession presages a tighter
money market or comes entirely as a
direct result of the offering of $780,
100000 United States treasury bonds
is hard to say. It is quite evident,
however. that while the new govern
ment loan was heavily ov~ersubscribed
there is a large volume of these bonds
still on the market in ar u~ndigested
condition. This naturally has had its
influence on security prices generally.
There is some little evidence Of bond
sales on the part of industries who
need additional capital in their bust
ness, although it is thought that the
aomunt of corporate investments being
disposed of at this time is so small
as to exert little if any market in
fluence.
The Bond Market
During the earlier part of the week
the trend Of the bond market was gen.
orally downward. with the new United
States treasury bonds selling as low
as S99.50. The whole market reacted
in sympathy, although the rails gener-
ally held up just a little better than
most of the other investment groups.
Later in the week there was evidence