Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-04-14

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14.-Roger W. Babson is very opti-
mistic on the immediate outlook.
Since returning from his inspection
trip, he has been going through the
mass of reports and figures which
accumulated on his desk during his
absence. These statistics are ever
more encouraging than he had anti
cipated.
American business has certainly
woke up" according to the statisti-
clan. 1.-THE BaDsonchart showed
nearly 100000 men out of employ
ment a year ago. Today it shows
practically no unemployment. Where
the blast furnaces were then being
banked, new furnaces are now be-
ing started and premiums are being
paid for prompt steel deliveries. The
copper industry is showing activi-
ty for the first time for several years
and many Of the miners have been
given a wage increase of so cents
a day. Building is still booming
and the 1898 figures will exceed any
previous year, Notwithstanding the
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 and great
numbers of workers were out on
strike. Today the mills are work.
ing overtime and the largest con
Germs are advancing wages. OF
course, this Is an unhealthy sign
for the long pull because 1t is due
only to the artificial barrier on i'm
migration. On the other hand, in
creased wages r a. great temper
airy stimulus to trade. The purchas-
ing power of many cities is simply
the total of these cities payrolls. In
creasing wages in New England's
mills of ~ IL per cent, increases
the purchasing power of the COM
munities to almost a corresponding
amount. This means that these
manufacturing centers will-during
1923-be the best places to send
statesmen, because most wage work
ers spend all they get. Moreover.
such statesmen should be sent tc
these cities at once, because the
present boom cannot be long lived.
1t is not based on a firm founda-
ton. Many of these men now get
ting an increase in their wages will
be out of work before 1874 is end
ed.
while coming north last week
my winter home at Mountain Lake
in the beautiful Ridge Lake Section
OF Florida, 1 saw cotton being plant
en- in Georgia. 1t is evident that
the South is very happy with the
present price of cotton and that q
larger acreage Will be planted in
1898. Corn planting has started in
the Southwest and the seeding of
oats is see throughout the South
and Southwest. Winter wheat,
doubtless, was killed to some extent
last month in Illinois, Indiana, Mis-
souri, and Kentucky; but these
fields will soon be replanted-for
even the 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 diff
Guilty was that the price of wheat
he had to sell went down so much
more than the price of what he had
to buy. What the farmer wants is
higher produce prices or lower mer-
chandise prices. Now to have mer-
chandise prices go UP still higher in
1923, as everything indicates will be
the case, the farmers must get high
er QflCeS LOT LHelI 1870 CTOpS OF
else there surely will be another
collapse in 1924. We cannot get
good business by disregarding either
the multiplication table or the ten
commandments.
''The Ruhr Invasion is also help
ing spring business over here in
America. For the first time in his
tory, except during the great world
war, we are shipping coke to France
and Germany. japan, which had or
dered great amounts of steel from
Ruhr mills, ie now turning to the
United States. Europe, which last
year had turned again to produc.
ton, is now busy playing politics
and watching the exhibition of a wal
pageant staged in the Ruhr Valley
While Europe is INDUCING in this
luxury, she must eat and live. Hence
France and Germany are again buy
ing goods in America, as the ex'
port figures to be issued shortly
by the Department of Commerce
will clearly show. How long this
situation will last, no n can tell;
but it is helping us here in the
United States.
Spring business is also being in
creased by the belief that congress
will not be in session again until
December and then for only a short
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