The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-23
INDUSTRIAL SPEED STILL |S FASTER THAN NORMAL PACE
Renewal Of Building Con- tracts Retutes Assumption
 Of Buyers Strike
By WALTER B. BROWN, Editor New York Commercial


 NEW YORK, July 22.-It Is begin ming to be understood that the de- cline in the stock market was out of keeping with the slowing down of industry such as has occurred. In- dustry was going at too fast pace. It was abnormal. All it has done has been to drop back toward nor nal. but it is not there even yet. How little justification for assuming there was a buyers strike because there was a pause in the placing of new contracts for building opera tions is shown by the fact that the slight recessions In the prices of building materials have made 1t pos- sible for contractors to resume and projects that were held in abeyance are again being brought forward Had they been definitely abandoned, it would have been a serious factor, but as was pointed out at the time, they were merely held in abeyance. It was a constructive factor and was simply distorted Into a bear arBu- nent for market purposes. If the in- dustrial outlook were as bad as the market manipulators would have us believe, then those who are under taking new building operations are sin gularly misled in backing up their convictions with their millions. That we should have had a slowing down from the feverish activity was nat ural and desirable, but that we should have business depression seemed entirely illogical. It may come in the future, but it Is not yet in sight.
 Greater Effort Required.
 It Is true also that greater selling effort Is required to move certain lines of goods, but it would be sur prising if here and there there were not some miscalculations as to con- a r 2 no evidences as yet that the country is overStocked In fact, the lndlca- tions are all to the contrary. In the textile trades 1t is not a question Of being overstocked, but rather of hes itancy as to whether buyers will ac- cept the higher prices made neces- sary by the higher costs of labor and of raw materials, Instead of anticipating the demand, distributors are waiting for 1t to develop, as they did last fall, and in the end there was rush to buy which the mills had difficulty in keeping pace with. The chances are there will be repe- tition of the same experience this year. The people need the goods, and with labor well employed they have the money to buy them
 oil Industry Hard Hit.
 One industry is without doubt un- dergoinG more or less demorallza- tion The unprecedented production in the California oil fields has upset all calculations and has made 1t nee essary for the midcontinent reflners to suspend operations for the time being Reports of salt water in the California fields have been received, but have proved to be exaggerated and do not as yet indicate that the flood of crude has reached it's peak. It is some thing no one can tell any thing about until it occurs. In the neantime it leaves oil stocks in precarious position and places them in the class of highly volatile ser curities.
 Expect Greater Activity.
 New bond offerings have fallen to - minimum, which is to be expected at this season of the year Invest ment bankers are looking for an in crease in activity in the fall months and are making their preparations accordingly There should be ample funds available for such new financ- ing as may be necessary. It is noteworthy fact that sthe banks have not had to make demands upon the Federal reserve to anything more than a nominal extent. There are no complaints of slow loans or any of the indications that precede stringency in the money market; 1hee advance in the discount rate of the Bank of England has had no effect here. It was pointed out that the action by the British bank was mere ly following action already taken here by the advance of last Febru- ary and there was no reason why we should follow with another advance.
 Considering the industrial sttu- ation outside of it's relation to the stock market, it may be regarded as quite satisfactory. II is experiencing natural variations in production and demand, but there is nothing to give rise to the belief that there is to be a slowing down to a point where there will be serious unemployment or a drop in prices of commodities beyond the customary fluctuations. There Is no reason for anxiety Tn either the financial, the commercial or the industrial world.