Norwich bulletin., 1922-10-16
CONNECTICUT BUSINESS IS
 SFIOWN IN HILL sKI

CONNECTICUT BUSINESS IS
 SHOWN IN FULL SWING
 As a result of study of conditions in Connecticut. Carter Field under Hart ford date wrote to the New York Tribune of Sunday as follows:
 Prosperity radiates from Hartford. Not only is Connecticut working under full steam, with the unemployment problem vanished and workmen in demand, but reports from all over the country, pour ing in constant stream to the offices of the big fire insurance companies here. in- dicate that the whole country is enjoying a boom of the most substantial sort. Hartford claims to be the business barometer of the United States. New | Workers may be shocked to hear this. and officials of the federal reserve board l down at Washington may figure that they are closer to the business pulse than any | insurance men could possibly be. Be that as it may, it sounds very reasonable when l the fire insurance men point out that merchants do not pay insurance premi- 1 Inls on goods which have been sold, and on the other hand tHat they do rfot dare i to cancel insurance on goods which they 1 have in storage. even if they are pretend ing for some private reason to have | empty warehouses
 Up here they believe that the nightly reports of insurance on goods of all va ! rieties, coming in from all over the coun- icy, tell the most accurate story of the i country's actual condition that can possi- bly, be reported.
 1 All of the reports indicate very great business activity. They indicate aston 1 islringly small stocks on hand on the part not only of retailers but of wholesalers. I Cancellations of insurance all the way b I, 41, a at the manufacturer or importer, then with the jobber and wholesaler, and final ily with the retailer. for all the world like a moving electric sgn-iiidicate that Old Man Ultimate Consumer is close on the heels of production and clamoring for the wheels of industry to be speeded up.
 Millions in Insurance.
 For example, just before the Fordney- McCumber tariff bill went into effect :. there was a tremendous pouring of goods into New York and other Atlantic ports from Europe for the purpose of getting the goods into the country before the in creased duties went into effect This biz influx of goods was duly noted at Hart i ford. Insurance to the tune eof millions was taken out on it in New York ware. ; houses and storage places at the othel ports. These policies were quickly can, celed and new policies were taken ou
 for the same goods at other places Nov these goods, so far as Hartford is con \ cerned have disappeared. That means according to the inevitable logic of thu 3 insurance man, that they have been di : vided into lots so small that special in 3 surance has not been taken out on them which in turn means that they hay,
 passed into the hands of the ultimat consumer.
 The same sort of reports place tn I stocks of goods on hand everywhere as a very low ebb. The wise old experts her, say that what has happened is this-tha
 every one nearly has been figuring fo some time that the bottom Of prices hat
 not been reached and thSrefore ever, one has been buying from hand to mouth
 The recent strike and the final settle ; ments made in them drove home tn realization that the bottom had not onl, been reached but passed, and that price
 were now on slow but sure up grade
 Hence a mad scramble to beat the risin, . market by getting in early has now SC
 in.
 They point out that the waiting for tn n bottom period lasted from early in 1920
 when the first attempt at defation wa | made, until passage of the tariff bill an the checking of the downward wage re
 vision movement came almost together, S
 that for two years and half the countr.
 has really been getting ready for a pros k perity wave.
 : Enthusiastic Over TarfT. As to the tariff bill itself, the peopl tup here are pretty nearly enthusia stic y Connecticut is a manufacturing beehive ! and if any factory is in danger of bein : : closed down by foreign competitio U neither it's owners nor the workers realiz Il it. Indeed. there is a humorous sayin
 going round that 'if anybody is kickin e about the tariff it's his own fault" or, t : put it the other way round, if anybod $ wanted an, increase in the duties on hi A' products and said so it was promptly pu C on.
 Fl A few of the industries which are ir
 sured prosperity, as they see it. by tn ' new tariff are the manufacture of clock . and watches, hardware of all sorts, WOO = ems, brass. safety razors, silk goods, ma T chine tools, hosiery and underwear, hat
 guns and revolvers, plumbers supplie
 refrigerators, automobile parts df i.spokes of nearly all the automobiles oI the country are said to be made ilert Fl and wire, especially for telephone ar . electric lighting. In fact, they claim ss make nearly everything here sonewheH 7 between Rhode Island and New York e:
 cept the wooden nutmegs for which u
 state is famous. Ill Wages have, been increased pretty we
 up and down the line through the indu
 tries, and the chief fear is not of fallir . off of orders but of a labor shortage.
 Increase in Employment.
 One of the prosDerity indexes to whi,
 some importance is attached here is t
 sale of electCic power. There are fo 4 big power companies in the state. all
 which report enormous increases in |
 sale of current in the-last eight montt
 One of. them. the. writer learned toda
 - '-3nrfed it's sales from 59,OOo.OOO