The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-18
CROSS CURRENTS FAIL TO HOLD UP
 PROSPERITY WAVE.
Satisfactory Business Of Railroads Reflected In
 Dividend Payments
By WALTER B. BROWN Editor New York Commercial Leaaed Wire to Age-Herald)


 . NEW YORK, June 17-One very < is whether the railroads, now that going to keep it up. The New York Central evidently thinks so, or it's directors would not have advanced . the dividend rate. It would not be < good strategy to increase the rate only to have to reduce it later. Car loadings are heavy and will grow still heavier now that the crop move ment Is beginning. Ample prepara- tion is being made for this move 'ment in the accumulation of cars at grain shipping points and there is not likely to be repetition of the unhappy experience of last year, when grain was hauled to the rail- roads and piled up for days and sometimes for weeks before it could be moved. The roads have done mar vicious work in procuring new equip ment and repairing old, and are now able to meet the situation.
 The prosperity of the roads will depend upon the continued prosperity of the country. In fact, they are so interwoven that one depends upon the other. It is just as well, therefore, to give some consideration to the con dition of business. It is true there Has DeeI SOlnt ldlltnS OlI III the ue- mand for lumber, but this demand has been abnormal and has led to abnormal production. This Is merely a parallel condition with the post ponement of projected building op- erations in order to overcome the present congestion in the building in- dustry. In like manner there has been falling off in the thrilled orders of the United States corporation, partly due to this same cause, but also to some falling off In the export demand.
 Fight Higher Prices.
 On the contrary the demand for copper is likely to increase as re- suit of the Australian loan, the theory being that there is tre- mendous amount of manufacturing held in allowance because of Austra- lia's lack of buying power. It is true also that one of the large textile mills has shut down one of it's plants temporarily. This Is explained by the fact that wholesalers are not taking cotton goods as freely as expected on account of the higher prices asked, which in turn are due to the increased cost of raw cotton, to say nothing of the increase in labor costs.
 Distributors do not know how the public will accept these higher prices and are timid because of their fear of another buyers strike. They need not be, because the public will have to pay these advanced prices or go without. The higher costs are due to supply and demand. and there is sufficient buying power available to meet them, whereas the buyers strike of two years ago was the re- suit Of an attempt to work off high priced inventories upon the public when raw materials were declining and there was an increasing lack of buying power.
 At this time of the year there Is apt to be slowing down of indus try. It Is between seasons when manufacturers have disposed of the spring goods and have not yet made up their minds as to fall supplies. The hesitancy of distributors above referred to Is factor on the con structive side in that 1t shows an unwillingness to accumulate top heavy inventories and hence to avoid imitation. rtfs
 Money Plentiful.
 Money is plentiful, but there is no deslre to take advantage of that fact to swell credits beyond actual needs One of the best barometers of busi- ness conditions is the bond market. mere was slowing up in the de- mand for new issues a short time ago, but It was only to the extent Of natural hesitancy to see whether there was actually anything in this cry Of secondary depression. Of late there has been a willingness to provide capital and the manner in which the Austrian loan was over subscribed many times within 15 minutes after the books were opened was proof that the investing public was ready to help Europe whenever satisfactory terms could be agreed upon. It is estimated that within the next few days fully S200,00O, ,O0O will De offered by various corporations and municipalities, and they would De apt to be withheld if there were any indication of unwillingness of investors to take them at this time Naturally the governments offer of SloO,OO0,O00 short term treasury notes was quickly oversubscribed. If there had been any hesitancy there the outlook for other flotations would have been dubious and 1t would have suggested lack of confidence in the general business position. There are stlll no complains of cancellations or or accumulations of supplies. These Will De danger signals, major or minor, as the case may be, but their absence at the present time should remove any cause for immediate anxiety.
 It IS too much to expect that in- dustry can be kept at high speed all the time. It's activity has been above the normal, but there should be no complaint if it drops back to normal. as IL IS doing in some directions