The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-28
Men And Markets
 Bu P. Y. B.
By P. F. B.
The largest Christmas mail in history

By P. F. B.
 The largest Christmas mail in history
 again brings up the matter of an in.
 crease for the postal clerks and mall
 carriers and suggests an analysis of the postoffice as a business institution.
 Examining revenues, we find that AZ per cent of the income Is from first class mail. Second class matter yields 5.5 per cent, third-elass 7.6 per cent, fourth class, or parcels post, li per cent, and miscellaneous 1l6 per cent. On the expense side of the books we find that the postoffice dollar Is spent as follows: To postmasters, S.S cents; postal clerks, 20.4 cents; city carriers Al cents; transportation, 24.o cen.s' rural delivery, 15 cents, and misceLla- neous, TIA cents. All of which saoms s a net operating loss of 6.9 per cent or about $40, ,000, 900. Postal employees are asking for pay increases that are on the most part reasonable, but the situa- tion, psychologically, is, the same as request for more pay from any great
 business that Is losing money. one nes-. Itates to increase an already sizeaple deficit. On these grounds President Coolidge stood against the request. ihe postoffice department now comes TOT ward with a proposal to meet the in- creased operating costs by increasing postal rates on practically everytnins but first-class mail. This would mean fenough more income to pay pete. peter wages but it would impose a burden of, increased expense on those who use the mails. On the ground that the post office Is a public service another pro- posal would allow for as large an increase as is necessary to be paio out of general taxes like the. expenses or any other department of the government; rr1A- Sa tt doubtless be settled faitly, and in the meantime, the American public and American business can be thankful TOT an exceedingly efficient service.
 Call money at per cent, the highest rate on demand loans since April s' attends the liquidation Of some $3o,- GOO ,000 in loans by New Xork banks tnis week. Reserves were unsatisractory al the close of business last Saturday and it was deemed advisable to remedy the situation at once. Many expect easing of rates after New Years in accord l ance with the usual seasonal trend, while others believe that our current commercial expansion will take up all slack in the money market and that we may expect a higher level from now on. In any event, stiffening in money rates will tend to act as brake on speculative trading and may be ex- pected to slow up price rises in Wall street.
 The agricultural committee recently appointed by President Coolidge to study the problems of the farmer from an unbiased point of view and to re- port it's findings and recommendations | for government action, will go to work on January 5. The cattle industry will | be the first branch of agriculture to be studied and new system of federal aid to cattle raisers is expected. Co., | will have the attention of sub-com- mittee. If the government is able to do anything to better the economic condition of any group Of industry, that betterment can be accomplished most effectively through nonpolitical analysis and non-partisan recommen- dation.
 Copper and zinc both reached new high prices this week. A decline Tn the production of zinc sent prices to 7.6O cents a pound in the East St. Louis market, while copper was quoted in the New York market at 14.55 cents for immediate delivery, the highest price since the summer of 1923. Cop per for far western delivery was quoted at 14.7 cents, which is perilously near the '15 cent copper" which the optimistic members of the industry have been hoping for all year.
 Cotton spinning is increasing. The latest government report shows 37,000,- GOO spindles in place at the end of November, 1924. Of these about 31,- 100000 are reported as having been active some time during that month. While November productive figures show activity at 2 per cent under the same month last year, the same fig ures show that improvement has been under way since July. So far, the i'm provement has benefited southern mills most. They are now running about "A per cent ahead of the figures for New England, but this is due more to the fact that certain grades of goods have been in demand than to sectional advantage.
 Overlapping estate and inheritance taxes should come in for attention, while we are at the business of tax reform. Under existing lawsI the fed eral estate tax is collected on estates over $5O,000 then state taxes, which may be overlapping are imposed. Sev eral states may tax the same inheri- tance on different grounds and while each individual tax Is reasonable the combination is exceedingly unfair in many cases. Taxes imposed on non- resident heirs are especially burden some. A more uniform practice should be adopted by all states.