Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-09-02
LABOR DAY BRINGS
PROSPERITY SIGNS
FOR ALL OF NATION
Quickening Markets and Bet
ter Prices Certain, Out
look Indicates
BY HARDEN COLFAX
copyright, 1924. by the Consolidated Pres
Associa tion-Special Leased Wire
TO The Atlanta Journal.)

u
DOWNRIGHT. 1924. by the Consolidated Press
Associa ton-Special Leased Wire
to The Atlanta Journal)
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30-The
wear swings into the homestretch
with its fastest going ahead. Seldom
before, government and private IN
vestigators agree, have conditions on
the eve of Labor day given finer
warrant for anticipating better busl-
ness.
Labor is employed to average de-
gree, federal employment service re-
turns indicate, and the demand TOR
more is steadily gaining. The slump
of early summer is giving way to a
revival that is expected to wipe out
unemployment, save in the clerical
line, within sixty days. A labor
shortage by mid-November is among
the possibilities seen at Washington.
The railroads touched their high
point of traffic movement in the
latest week for which returns are
available, that of August 16, with
record of 952,S88 cars hauled during
the seven days. The million car
week will be back again within the
next 80 days, returns to the AmerI-
can Railway association indicate
Meantime railroad stocks are still
rising on the New York exchange,
and half a dozen companies now
paying no dividends probably VIII
break into the dividend class before
the first of the year.
Farmers Better Off
The farmer is in better shape IL
nancially now than he has been for
forty-seven months, the department
of agriculture announced today. the
department measures his condition
not so much bv the size of his crops
as by their prices and his ability to
buy other commodities with what re
receives.
Almost all the farmer buys, to
paraphrase the departments state
ment, has gone down in price and
almost all he sells has gone up. AS
a result his buying power today is
reckoned at SO per cent Of what it
was in 1913. In the bleak days of
1921 it dropped to about 60 per cent.
Cotton alone of the chief crops
has lowered its selling price, but
| the lowering process was accom-
plished by a heavy yield,
Cotton looks like the biggest crop
with the biggest income in five
years." the department. states. The
chances are, private authorities say,
that cotton prices will drop still
more; even so, the south seems as
sured, beyond doubt, of an unusually
prosperous year.
NIron and steel production. accord
ing to preliminary returns, picked
up in August. Early in July, gov.
eminent figures show, the industry
was down to about forty per cent of
capacity. Today so far as can be
appropriated, it is running at from
SIS to SO per cent of capacity with
a deferred demand of large proper
tons Three fourths capacity output
| is regarded as possible within sixty
days.
Auto Market Reviving
Automobile production has turned
upward again, according to figures
compiled by the National Automobile
| Chamber of Commerce, after dis
heartening decline lasting since
| March. Better business is anticipated
in this $5,000,0 100000 industry; but
| few persons expect production to
equal the 1928 figures for the re-
naming four months of 1924. A 20
per cent reduction below 1923 fail
output is nearer to the probabilities
Coal production is coming into its
own, Geological Survey reports indi
cate. \ $4,000 ,000-ton stock, one
of the largest in history, has been
assimilated to large degree, it is be.
! lieved, and the usual fall pickup
! shows signs of commencing. Output
| is still below the figures of early
! 1924 months. A 10000, 000-ton week
is looked for within 30 days, how
ever, in the trade. Stiffening prices
have buoyed the hopes of operators
| and sales agencies.
The so per cent advance in hog
prices within the last few months
has swept millions into the treasures
of the packing companies, most eff
which carried considerable stocks of
meats bought at low prices. The
advance also spells better profit for
the farmer, and an upward climb in
! living costs to the consumer.
Conditions in the hide, leather and
shoe industries have materially i'm
proved during the summer, depart
ment of commerce reports show.
Hide prices ha 5e advanced % per
cent and still are rising. Shoe man
ufacturers, after several months CT
near idleness, are reporting steadily
! increasing sales.
Money Gluts Market
Money remains a glut on the mar
ket with interest prices in the slough.
! Thy have dropped so low, govern
ment authorities admit unOffiCially,
that there is hardly a chance of their
! going lower. Present conditions.
these observers believe, are breed
ers of initiation. How soon initiation
will come, if it comes at all, they
will not predict.
The period of recession has been
more severe than has been generally
realized. REIMBURSEMENT of values
! has worked to the disadvantage of
many trades in its quickness and
sharpness. Now that it is about
over, officials here are willing to adj
NIT that for a month or two this
year it looked as if business were on
the verge of another 1921. 1t has
pulled through, in the light of pres
ent optimistic reports. more quickly
and in much better shape than was
expected
The next swing of the pendulum,
economists here assert, will he in the
other direction-tOward initiation. 1t
is on IFS way now, but how far 1t
will so. no authority here can say
When itehas spent its force another
period of'minor readjustment may be
expected. The movements toward
good business and business mot so
good may continue severa' years
more, in the opinion of Washington
officials who say that they inevitably
come in the aftermath OF every great
war.