Evening star., 1924-08-16
BY STUART r. WEST.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, August 16.-During
the first half of the past week the
stock market went on with the re-
adjustment called for by the ex-
tensive and rather too enthusiastic
advance of the two months preceding.
At the low figures reached on We'd
nesday, the regular leaders OF the
list were off four to five points from
their top. 1t meant the undoing OF
quarter to a third of the entire
rise since the first week of June,
when the market turned from the
prolonged depression of the Spring.
This was a sufficient reaction to
correct what speculative excesses
had crept in, and to satisfy the OBJ
lection that the Wall street move
ment had got too far ahead Of the
recovery in trade. The market after
this readjustment was in shape for
a renewal of it's interrupted advance,
and 1t was this which occurred in the
latter half of the week.
Idle Money Factor in Rise.
The governing impulses in the Wall
street rise remain, as they have been
right along, the pressure of unem-
ployed money for investment, and
the complete Transformation in the
agricultural outlook as compared
with three months ago. The stage
has been reached where owners or
money capital feel impelled to take
more risks. This is because the re-
duction in Federal Reserve discounts
has forced interest rates on private
bank balances down to a level which
must be described as prohibitively
low, and second. because the higher
grades Of Government and corporation
bond investments have reached a leVel
which is prohibitively high. In TINS
there appears one part or the eA-
planation for the advance IN railway
Industrial and public utility shares
which have longtime record for
dividends.
Farmer Needs No Political Help.
The second part of the explanation
lies in the conviction that the e1-
traordinary reversal in the agricul-
tural States has taken away whatever
misgivingS there were about the
presidential outcome, while promising
an increased buying power on the
farms that will react powerfully Tor
the good of business in general.
Nothing was more effective as an ar
gument during the intervals in the
last three years when Wall street was
depressed than the bad state of the
wheat farmer, and in scarcely less
degree of the raiser of live stock.
All this, by an astonishing stroke
of good fortune on the part of ma
ture, has been changed. 1t can be
said no longer that the farmer is
paying high for what he needs. while
selling low. The turnabout whereby
farm prices have had their violent
rise has been attended by a lower av-
erage for non-agricultural products.
1t is tragic that the politicians, at
the beginning of an election cam
paign, should be deprived of their fa-
vorite argument. Yet anybody who
could contemplate the present prices
of corn and corn-fed animals, along
with the IS cents a bushefrise since
the end of May in wheat, and still
declaim about the need Of assisting
the farmer" would have to be de-
void both of common sense and
humor.
Trade Is Definitely on Mend.
There is no question about general
trade being definitely on the mend
after the sharp relapse of the Spring.
Railway car loading statistics indi-
cate the largest movement Of the
year so far, and this is not due to
the increase in the haul of any one
set of commodities 1t is the result
partly of an earlier movement of
grain to market enticed by the high
prices, ana parity 10 an all-arOunQ
pickup in the general business VOL
ume. The week has brought further
recovery in other essential articles
outside of the farm staples. Copper
sugar, rubber and hides and leather
have been working higher, and this
increasae in the price index after
over of three months of continuous
decline Is decisive proof of the
change for the better.
Imports Exceed Exports.
The advance in the foreign ex-
changes, carried further during the
last week. has been due in part to the
satisfaction over the prospect of
economic settlement abroad. and in
part to a more favorable trade rela-
tion with the United States. The July
figures showed for the first time in