The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1922-05-15
THE WHEELS OF
INDUSTRY ARE MOVING
Manufacturers Record.)

a greater extent than for a good
many years. Building contractors are
finding an increasing and almost an
incessant demand for their work.
Building materials are tending to
higher prices and to an increasing
scarcity of supply. The demand for
lumber grows apace and the trend of
prices is upward. In some sections the
supply of skilled. labor is scarcely
equal to the demand, though there is
still large amount of unskilled la
Dor out of employment.
Highway improvement is proceed
ing at rate which must soon tax
the facilities of highway contractors
and the people who supply road-build-
ng equipment. With the certainty
that the country has entered upon an
era of highway building of which as
yet we have seen only the beginning,
there is vast volume of business a.
head for highway workers.
The demand for pig iron, long DOR
n1ant to such an extent that the in
dustry seemed almost dead, is in
creasing, and the advance in steel
and pig iron has not iessened the de-
mand for these materials. Indeed,
people always buy on a rising market
and cease to buy on declining mar
ket. No sooner had the country come
to a full realization of the fact an
nounced many months ago by the
Manufacturers Record that the entire
financial policy of the country had
been reversed, and that President
Harding's boast that lowering dis
count rates and thus stimulating the
credit facilities of the country was
one of the most important actions of
his administration, than the far-see-
ing people of the country began to
get ready for business.
With every decrease in interest
rates there has come an advance in
the price of government bonds and
in the general security market, full
filling in that respect every state
ment which the Manufacturers Rec
ord has made during the past two
years. The demand for new securities
has been so tremendous as to aston
ish the country and show the enor-
nous buying power of the American
people.
Co-incident with the lowering of
discount rates and the advance in
the stock and bond market has come
a betterment in farm conditions with
higher prices for agricultural prod
ucts. The War Finance Corporation
has continued it's active operation of
lending money to assist farmers and
livestock raisers, and in many cases
the very fact that this corporation
was prepared to advance money for
these purposes has caused local banks
to loosen up in their credits, and thus
the money actually loaned by the
War Finance Corporation has been
only one of the benefits derived from
its operations.
Business is not yet by any means
at full tide, but it is moving forward
rapidly, and when it reaches full tide
every transportation facility in the
country will be heavily overtaxed
with larger volume of freight than
can be handled, and the manufacture
ing interests and the building and
construction work of the country
will likewise be fully taxed.
All Of this condition can be hasten
ed by lowering of freight rates,
which would stimulate the volume of
traffic exactly as the lowering of dis
count rates stimulated the revival of
confidence and building operations.
High discount rates and high freight
rates have been burden on business.
The tide has turned. The surge is
on. But if we would reap full meas
ure of prosperity we must hasten
the plans for better financing of the
agricultural interests on safer and
broader foundation than agriculture
has ever had before; hasten the low
ering of freight and passenger rates.