The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-09-11
STEEL INDUSTRY
 SHOWING SIGNS
 OF IMPROVEMENT
Reports of Railroad Traffic Movement Reasonably Sat- iSfactory-End of Strike
 Brightens Outlook
Rx An.nc,atesi Presa

New York, September 1O.-With soft coal production reaching satis- factory levels and with the hard coal strike practically settled. interest in business and financial circles has centered during the past week in the extent of industrial recovary and the prospects for fall business.
 The steel industry, perhaps the chief sufferer from the strikes, shows signs of Improvement. The 50 per cent of capacity level of operations to which the industry was reduced by the strikes, has been bettered slightly and a further gain is expected. With a continued restriction of fuel and car supplies, however. the trade Is moderate In It's anticipations. A re- turn to a SO per cent basis this fall Is considered more likely than a full recovery to the 75 per cent basis reached In the early summer. Opin- lon differs as to the probable dura- ton of existing higher steel prices but most observers consider six months an adequate allowance.
 Traffic Satisfactory
 Reports on the railroad traffic movement continued to be reasonably satisfactory. The latest available re- turns. those for the week ended Au- gust 26. show total loadings Of S91. .000 cars. a figure which tops the previous high record for the year by some l3,000 cars. Coal loadings, the statistict for which are obtainable for later dates, are good and indicate a movement of this commodity at rate close to 10000, 900 tons a week. While the added demand for equip- ment on account of the resumption of anthracite mining will be partly met by use of hitherto inactive roll- ing stock belonging to the hard coal roads, the opinion is held that |. also will offer test of the acute ness of the car shortage. Financial quarters meanwhile believe that the Railroads are getting their shop situ- ation better in hand and that the transportation difficulty will not be as serious as recently was believed.
 No Upward Tendenciy
 Publication on September of values for two of the principal indices of commodity prices failed to disclose any upward tendency One of the indices fell one-half of l per cent while the other remained prac- tically stationary. Farm products, such as grain and meat, continued to give ground rather sharply, and aside from metals and fuel the other groups moved but little. Partly for this reason, less credence is given talk of an imitation boom during the fall. The belief grows that the price ad- vances will be confined to commodi- ties In which a temporary and abnor- mai situation obtains and that the comparatively low purchasing power of Europe and our agricultural dis tricts will be a damper to any false boom. According to this view moderate but spotty improvement in business Is on the cards.
 Crops Little Changed
 Crop prospects remain little changed. The department of agri- culture has revised it's corn crop esti- mate downwards from 3,0l7 ,000,0 900 to 2,875. .000.0 .000 bushels. The revision had been amply anticipated by the trade. however. and the department has placed the yield of wheat some 13,000.000 bushels higher at 81S.000.- 900 bushels. The latter figure com pares with an actual crop last year of 7s5,oo0,o0o bushels. The returns show that supplies will be plentiful European crops are reported to be short, but while a fair volume of Eu- ropean buying has been going on 1t. has been insufficient to stiffen prices in this country. It is pointed out that there is an obvious differ ence between what Europe might like to buy and what that continent will be able to pay for.
 The reserve ratio of the federal reserve system shows anothe. mod crate decline. but the loss is attrib- uted to holiday demands for cur rency. Monetary conditions remain practically unchanged.