The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-01-01
ACCOMPL EASEMENTS. ARE UNEQUALED IN
 THE NATIONS LIFE.
Year Stands Supreme in Bright Annals of American Industrial and Commer-
 claI Achievement
ny HAYDEN coLFAx
Special Correspondent Of The Age Heral
 Copyright, f92l. by The Axe Heraid)

Copyright iS2i. by The Arc Heraid.)
 Washington, December 31.--Nine- teen twenty-one goes into history to- night with record unparalleled since American industry began. For all its faded hopes, it's heartburn ings and its business reverses, the year stands supreme in the bright annals of American industrial and commercial achievement. Within the space of it's 2 months we have done something the like of which no people have ever done in 12 months time before. We have squeezed out the wartime imitation of almost everything entering into our eco homie life
 The process has been uneven, as the figures bear witness. It is not yet wholly complete, but il is very nearly so. Here and there, like peaks in mountain range stand towering costs and prices They soon will fall, top pied by the forces which have nearly leveled all about them But the gen eral level of all commodities and pricest, averaged as a whole, is not far from the figure it should be, al lowing for the natural and reasonable upward trend that inevitably comes with peace and prosperity
 All this has been accomplished without panic, in one-tenth the time or less that readjustments have re- dulred in the wake of other great wars. Great Britain, after the Ma poleonic wars, spent many years in industrial upheaval and unrest. The United States was in industrial fer ment for more than a decade after the close of the Civil war The prog ress that then required 10 years to accomplish has been accomplished or very nearly so, in ia2l
 sii price. props
 one year ago today the average price of everything for salo in the United states-farm products food clothing fuel, metals, lumber build ing materials chemicals, house fur nishings and manufactured goods was little more than double what the average was in 1913 During 1921 the price dropped e-four lh. the de- partment of labor says, until today tba avaropa r.. lace thap ,na and anR- half times the 1913 average. The nor mai peace time increase would carry the average to not far from one- fourth above the pre-wsr price. as- sumlng that national prosperity were unchecked, so that today general prices are less than one-fifth higher than they would be had there been no war imitation.
 Perhaps the most remarkable show ing of the nations vigor is written in the history of it's finances for 1921.
 A year ago, almost to the day, we reached the peak of imitation. as measured by the amount of money in circulation. At that time there were more than three and one-third bil- lion dollars Of federal reserve notes in actual circulation. The lending resoq rces of the banks had been taxed severely, certainly far past the line of prudence and almost to the verge of danger. The federal reserve ratio stood at i5 per cent. a figure that the framers of the reserve law hardly dreamed could be reached when they placed the danger line, which they forbade the banks to cross, at 70 per cent. The chief national banks of the country had rediscounted borrowers notes to the extent of nearly three bil- llion of dollars. of which more than billion was largely on Liberty bonds. Here and there the regional reserve
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