The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-09-18
FREIGHT RECORDS
 IF PAST TWO YEARS
 ARE BEING BROKEN
Heavy Industries Making Bet ter Recovery From Strikes Than Anticipated-Steel
 Mills Receiving Coal
By Associnted Press


 New York, September 17.--Reports received in financial and business quarters during the past week in- dicate that the heavy industries are making better recovery from the effects of the. strikes than. had been anticipated
 Soft coal output Is running close to i0,00o.00o tons week and sup plies are such that the steel industry which falls in the lowest class of priority. now is receiving sufficent fuel to run at SO per cent of capacity, a 10 per cent increase in two weeks. More blast furnaces are being blown in and the trade expects all of An- gusts losses in this respect soon to be made good. The limiting fac tor in steel works operations now Is a scarcity of freight cars.
 With soft coal mining resumed. the railroads are carrying the largest amount of freight in nearly two years. Car loadings for the week ended September 2. total 92,000, an increase of 41.000 cars over the pre- vious week. Part of the gain is due to the accelerated movement of soft coal; nevertheless, the volume of general merchandise carried also has continued to gain. The present trae- fic has been exceeded only during short periods in the autumn of 1920.
 Car Supply vanishes
 Accordingly 1t is not surprising to find that the supply of idle cars is reaching the vanishing point. With the partial settlements of the shop mems strike, with gains in working forces reported on other roads, and with the equipment companies push ing their operations. the opinion is held In financial circles that the TO- pair situation should improve grad ually and that while car shortage Is inevitable, the railroads will move a very large portion of the freight offered during the fall.
 Cotton consumption is encouraging August's takings by our domestic mills amounted to 527,ooo bales. the largest in any month since June, 1920. The latest total is e9,000 bales greater than that in July and was recorded before the recent restorl- ton Of previous wage scale went into effect. The showing suggests one reason why the manufacturers were willing to restore the higher wages. It may be assumed, in addition, that consumption has increased still fur ther since work was resumed in a number of New England mills.
 Wheat Continues Weak
 Wheat prices continue weak under the influence of crop receipts, hedge selling and the continuation of fav- crable wea ther. Official estimates place the Canadian crop at close to 400. 100000 bushels, a figure which i,- dicates an exportable surplus of nearly 300,000,000 bushels. This show ing naturally has it's effect on the price of United States grain. A fair amount of foreign buying is taking place, but this buying is not suf- ficiently strong to more than check the decline. and usually is followed by weakness in the foreign exchanges when the corresponding commercial bills are placed in the market
 2 A somewhat similar condition ex- fists in the case of cotton, although this commodity recently has felt the supporting force of unusually bull ish private crop reports. Some quar- tors seem tp believe that this years yield will amount to only 0,000, 900 bales as compared with the govern nent's September 1 figures of 10,- 575.000 bales In any event, 1t is con sidered that the price of American farm products is suffering materially on account of unsatisfactory eco homie conditions in Europe.
 After several weeks of slight de- c1ines, the reserve ratio of the fed eral reserve system has come to a standstill. It has not. however, as yet showed the usual recovery from Labor Day demands, possibly on ac- count of the proximity of the tax date. New capital issues are in- creasing after a period of summer in activity and this movement is ex- pected to cbntinue. It is thought that the next week or two should show whether the money market has reached a,turning point.