Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1922-01-04

first year of peace. Inventories, bad
ly 'slashed in the last months of 1920,
were even more greatly reduced IN
1921. 1t was a year with an unpre-
cedented number of failures, and with
liabilities of failed concerns tower
ing above anything previously
known.
HIGHLIGHTS
At least three big features stand
out in a review of the past twelve
month One, the progress, not per-
haps complete in all cases, made in
defation of costs of many kinds,
without which no real Improvement
was or is possible; another. the per-
ceptible improvement in the inter
national political and financial situa-
ton, which, however, leaves much
still to be desired and done, espec-
tally in central Europe; third, this
despite all criticism to the contrary,
the demonstrated high, indeed super
lative, Importance to the country of
the Federal Reserve Banking system.
This proved in 1920 and 1921, as in
1914 and 1915, the real sheet anchor
of American business, those who
doubted and the few who still doubt
having before them the recognized
fact that what was the biggest, if
not the most acute, crisis in the his
tory of America was thereby prevent
ed from running the traditional
American course and eliminating in
commercial disaster greater than
was ever before experienced.
In a year filled with big events of
good and bad import, only a few
striking examples may be cited. One
notable feature was that about the
ly were those which figured most
1919 and were first to feel unfavor-
able influences of 1920. We refer,
of course. to the textile and kindred
Industries, generally spoken of as
the apparel trades. Most of these
went through their worst experience
in the last months of 1920, when
shutdowns followed the buyers
strike of that year. Many of the So
called barometer industries, notably
iron, steel, coal, lumber and trans
portation, did not show much, if any,
improvement until the late summer,
but these had been among the last
to recognize the facts in 1920, and
apparently it took them, as it did
the apparel trades, nearly full year
to get down to, a working basis. For
this latter, the reluctance of the re-
lated lines of organized labor to
recognize and meet the situation was,
according to- common report, partial
ly responsible. This and the refusal
of great many retailers to set their
houses in order in the year 1920
when depression first doomed, and
1o4a +Lo+ +I1
chasing power of the masses of the
population had prevented their I'M
loading unwie'dly stocks of goods,
were ponularly regarded as brakes
on the wheels of progress. In this
connection. it would seem as if the
large retailers, department and chain
stores, found it both advisable and
easier to move faster than did 9TH
ers. Because of reduced purchasing
power among the. greater part of
their clientele, the mail-order houses,
who naturally cater largely to the
agricultural sections, appeared to be
hannpered in their efforts to get on
a solid basis of good sales at the re-
duced prices.
PRICES PARTIALLY STABILIZED
The high peak of commodity prices
as indicated by Bradstreet's Index
Number. which, as frequently ex-
planned is the sum total of the pric-
es per pound of 96 articles of com
mon use, was reached on February 1,
1920, viz. $20.8690. From that date
to January 1 1921, the Index Num-
Der, with one trifing exception, that
of May 1 following the outlaw
switchmen's strike, which created a
state of artificial famine), dropped
quite steadily, the decline in eleven
months being just short of 40 per
cent. In the next five months, or
from January / to June /. the drop
was 16 per cent. In the next six
months the rise was per cent. In
other words, the rise in the last half
of this year was little less than
half the decline, but this rise was
no mean factor in the crystallizing
of favorable opinion in the latter half
of the year as pointing to a probable
of prices after the drop
from the top of 40 per cent. The
net decline from the peak on Febru-
airy 1. 1920. to December /, 1921,
was 46 per cent.
CROPS AND LOW PRICES
The crop outturn in 1921 was lit
tie else than disappointing ALTHOUGH
corn had wonderful season. and the
yield. despite insect and warm
weather damage in the fall, was the
secand largest ever known. Such
unanimity in estimates of reduction
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