, 1923-04-16

american business has certainly
| walked upr' according to the statisti-
| clan. The Babsonchart showed
nearly 1000 900 men out OF employ
went a year ago. Today II shows
practically no unemployment Where
| the blast furnaces were then being
| banked-nsw furnaces are now being
| started and premiums are being paid
| for prompt steel deliveries. Tho cop.
per Industry is showing activity for
! the first time for several and
many of the miners hav been given a
wage increase OF so cents 4 day.
Building is still booming and the 1928
figures will exceed any previous year,
Notwithstanding tho big volume of
1922.
The most remarkable change in
sentiment I find right at home here
in New England A year ago the
mills were cutting wages n great
numbers OF workers were out on
strike. To-day tho mills are working
overtime and the largest concerns are
advancing wages. OF course. this is
an unhealthy sign for the long pull
because II is due only TO h artificial
barrier or immigration. On the other
hand. increased wages are a great
temporary stimulus to trade. The
purchasing power of many cities is
simply the total of these cities pay
rolls. Increasing wages in New Eng
lands mills OF 12b e cent. increases
the purchasing power OF tho commu'
mites to almost a corresponding
mount. This means that these man
u%facturing centers will-during 1928
be the best PAGES TO send statesmen,
because most w-ags-workers spend al
they get. Moreover. such statesmen
should be sent TO these cities at once,
because tho present boom can not be
long lived. II is not based on n firm
foundation. Many OF these men now
getting an increase in their wages will
be out OF work before 1924 is ended.
while coming north last week
from my winter home at Mountain
Lake In the beautiful Ridge Lake Sec
ton OF Florida 1 saw cotton being
planted in Georgia. 1t Is evident a
the south is very happy with the pres.
emit price OF cotton and that a larger
acreage will be planted n 1923. Corn
planting has started in the southwest
and the seeding Of oats Is seen
throughout the south and southwest.
Winter wheat, doubtless. was killed to
some extent last month In Illinois, In.
diana. Missouri and Kentucky: but
these fields will soon be rep'anted-
for ever tho farmer is feeling better
than he has felt for some years in
spite OF the fact that he is not yet out
OF the woods. His great difficulty
was that the price OF what he had TO
sell went down so much more than
he price of what no had to buy. What
the farmer wants Is higher produce
prices or lower merchandise prices.
Now TO have merchandise prices 90
up still higher in 1923 as everything
indicates will be the ease, the farmers
must get higher prices for their 1928
crops or else there surely will be an
other collapse in 1924. We can not
get good business by ~disregarding
either tho Multiplication Table or the
Ten Commandments.
1.-THE Ruhr Invasion II also help.
ing spring business over here In
America For tho first time in history
except during the Great World Wal
we are shipping coke TO France and
Germany. Japan, which had ordered
great amounts OF steel from Ruhr
mills. is now turning to the United
States. Europe. which last year had
turned again TO production. is now
busy playing politics and watching
the exhibition OF a war pageant staged
n the Ruhr valley. While Europe is