The Brunswick news., 1922-07-11
cLEws SEES sErrTR TIMES.


banker and head of the great bank
| ing house of Clews and Company.
For many years. Mr.. Clews has beer
giving to the public weekly trade let
ters. which for reliability and accur
acy are among the best in the country
While Mr.. Clews is inclined to b.
cheerful always. he does not color hi
statements in the least and alway.
manages to give concise compend
ium Of the general commercial situa
tion.
He thinks that conditions are i'm
proving and in his weekly letter o.
Saturday, July q, he says among 9th
er things. the following:
''One of the striking things men
toned by the Board, and confirmed by
various other business reporting
agencies during the past day or two
is the decisive advance in prices. The
average level of wholesale commodity
prices is now up fully ten points since
the first of May, after a period of fully
eight months during which there was
little or no change in the average
level. One effect of this noteworthy
advance in prices has been greatly sto
stimulate many classes of business.
The most far-sighted operators are of
the opinion that business require
ments must be contracted for in adj
vance very shortly if the various lines
of trade are not to find themselves
confronted with losses due to price in,
creases resulting from the general up
ward movement, which they must
cover in order to safeguard them
selves against loss due to increased
expense of protecting their contracts,
The price advance is not confined to
the Ufinited States, but appears to be
developing in other countries as well
Experience shows that such move
ments in commodities usually operate
to advance levels of security values,
so that the increase in commodity
prices may be counted upon as one
factor in working toward the further
raising of stock-market activity. The
most notable increases in prices hav;
been seen in steel and iron building
materials, agricultural products, and
a variety of other allied lines.
Money conditions continue reassur
ing. Now that the first of the mont.
requirements are well disposed of, .
large volume of dividend disburse
ments has gone into the hands of in
vestors and will form the basis o.
fresh demand for investment seeur
tiles.
Owing to practical failure of the
railroad strike, the stock market ha
recovered from holiday lethargy more
promptly than anticipated. Many o
the leading railroad shares have
shown striking advances, and the buy
ing has been of a strong, though spe-
culative nature. For some time past
there has been a growing opinion that
the railroads were about to get their
long delayed share of prosperity. Dur
ing the war they suffered more tina,
any other division of the security ma!
ket and profted less. Operating con
ditions have lately much improved
Car loadings for week ending June 2
were S77,S00 cars, an increase of II
| 600 over the previous week and 1872
600 more than year ago. While tt.
roads are facing lower rates, the lat
| er should be affset by expansion o
| traffic and the forthcoming readjust
ment of wages, justified by the fac
that railroad workers have since tht
war enjoyed relatively higher wage
than any other class of labor. Spe
culation in oils has settled down t
less sensational proportions; and al
tention is now being diverted to tn
| better class of industrials and raj
roads, which are expected to be tn
first to benefit from trade expansion
| A factor of further encouragement
he easier condition of the money ma
1et, now that the withdrawals for Jul
disbursements are returning. Ten
porary setbacks are not unlikely, du
to the desire to take profits, but th
outlook is for stronger market
he long rum