Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-05-19
THE first quarter of 1925 registered
/ the largest volume of railway tom
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1 the largest volume of railway ton
mage and the largest volume o
payments through banks ever recorded
in the corresponding period of an,
year. The year started with many ex
pressions of confidence by prominen
people in the business world, and al
though these expressions may have
produced exaggerated expectation
they have been we'll justified by thi.
time. The first month had not passet
before murmurs of disappointment
were heard, and these have been swell
ing until they seem to be almost thu
dominant note, but disappointment il
chargeable as much to expectations a!
to realizations. Everything in the
world is good or bad by comparison
with something else, the state of bus.
mess being no exception. The state
of business last summer was bad and
the conditions not such as to encour-
age optimism for the future. A de-
cided change had come over the scene
by the end of the year, and the expires.
sion of confidence at that time signi-
fed relief from apprehension and q
belief that conditions had improved
fundamentally.
That the world had reached an
ideal state of equilibrium with price
relations nicely adjusted, purchasing
power everywhere restored, all ready
for an unhampered flow OF products
into consumption. nobody had any
right to believe. The conditions had
become better than they were, although
with much yet to be desired. That sit
uation remains true. It is idle to even
talk about the outlook for prosperity
without giving thought to the requis-
lite conditions. There is no mystery
about prosperity. 1t is simply state
of free and ready exchange of goods
and services, wherein everybody is able
to use the purchasing power which
exists in his own labor, in buying
the products and services Of others.
1t is not something which IN modern
industrial society sny individual or
group can enjoy Independently, for
modern society serves itself by organ
lied effort and exchange, and no sec.
ton of it can either market its prod
ucts or supply its needs unless other
sections are doing likewise.
The Disruption Of Pries-Relations
We have often endeavored to en-
phasize that the instability of business
since the war has been mainly due to
to the disorganization of industry the
world around and the disruption of
price-relations incidental to the vio-
lent changes in wages and prices. 1t
is a common saying that the indus
trial capacity of the country is over
developed, and therefore cannot be
employed continuously to the full. It
is doubtless true that certain indus
tries were over-developed in proper
ton to the others under the stimulus
of war demands, but the main diff
Guilty is not in the amount of produc-
ton, but in the price relations. There
is over-production in many instances,
at the price. There cannot be free
and full interchange of products unless
the price-relations are right for it.
1T is not difficult to look over the
Industrial situation and name features
of it which are drag on prosperity.
The conditions in the coal industry
are an example. It was over-stimu-
lated and over-developed during the
war and has not adjusted itself to nat
ural or economical peace conditions.
An enormous economic waste is
going on, which is"a charge upon all
industry. Wage rates are very high,
but owing to the amount of unem-
ployment actual wages are low, and
the purchasing power of the miners
as a body is not proportionate to the
cost of coal to the other industries.
A similar condition has existed in
the cotton goods industry, where, ac-
cording to a recent report of the Bur-
eau of Labor, wage-rates in 1924,
averaged Isl per cent of the 1913
level. Cotton goods are bought by the
masses of the people, most of whose
incomes have not been increased Isl
per cent, and of necessity they have
bought less either of cotton goods or
something else. Moreover, owing to
in the cotton goods in
dustry these wage-rates, although eff
fective in the price of cotton goods,
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