Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-02
BETTER BUSINESS
OUTLOOK IS SEEN
BY TRADE EXPERT
Frank Greene Comments on
Recovery in Industry After
Market Panic.
POINTS TO Improvement
IN STEEL MANUFACTURE
Says Nations Interests Are
Tackling New Problems in
Period of Recovery.

ming of February, says Frank Greene
In his March / review of business con-
d1tions in Nations Business, published
by the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States.
Credit for the improved business tone
must be given, he says, to a psychology
cal experiment-the rally of business
leaders at Washington-which took up
the first strain, and after that to the
easing of money and credit, reflected In
the creeping advance in the stock mar
ket in January and early February.
1t seems possible to say, therefore"
he adds, that the trade ship Is now
forging ahead on its voyage and, all
things considered, is making fair prog
ress in view of the severity of the
storm that 1t successfully weathered
two months or so ago.
New Problems.
"In some quarters a fair amount of
surprise has been expressed that past
troubles did not do the injury and that
newer problems do not appear to hold
the threats against business that
seemed possible some few weeks ago.
In fact, the level-headed attention now
being given to some new problems gives
promise that these will be met and
solved when, II and as they present
themselves.
Two comparatively new factors
forced themselves upon trade attention
during January. One was the execra-
BILE weather in the Western two-thirds
of the country, the other the coming
to wide public notice Of the defiation
in variety of foods or raw materials,
visible some months ago in the price
compilations, but obScured or ignored
by the attention bestowed on more ex
citing things.
"As to the character of the weather
In the last half of December and good
part of January, it need only be said
that in the larger part Of the country 1t
has been such as to have offered q
check to business in the best of times.
Only those who happened to pass
through wide areas of the country west
ward from the Alleghanies to the Paci-
flc slope are able to give clear idea
of the combination of unreasonable
warmth, heavy rains, overlooking rivers
and finally the sub-zero weather that
afflicted q large area of the trade terri
| tory of the United States from before
Christmas to the fourth week of jan
uary.
I'm the general feeling Of pleased sur
| prise at the market rally shown in the
| steel industry, by which mill output
was pushed up from 40 to so per cent in
December to rs to IS per cent in jan
uary and comparing with IS to 80 per
cent in February year ago, sight ap-
parently has been lost Of the fact that a
| good deal Of the business booked In
January was the result of the banking
up Of potential demand in the last two
months of 1929, its release being facili-
tated by the making of slight conces-
sions in price, which thawed out q good
many otherwise frozen orders.
Automobile Trade.
1.-THE automobile trade, which despite
some talk to the contrary seems to have
| imbtbed some consolation from the
well-attended shows, has bought quite
freely of the lighter forms of semi
finished steel. The backbone of the ton
mage output in January, however, seems
| to have been past heavy orders for rails
and cars. Buying Of structural steel for
heavy construction. the active purchas-
! ing by implement neutrality-suspicious.
combined takings. added to the volume
Of small purchases to provide for the
| myriad Of lighter operations which use
this product-made up good-sized gem
| eral aggregate.
I'm the lighter lines of industry the
chief activity has seemed to be in shoe
manufacturing, the output Of silk and
rayon and mixtures thereof with wool
and cotton, which have gone into
dresses, hosiery, bathing suits and a
variety Of other manufactures.
Building and its kindred trades,
lumber, cement, brick and plumbing
and sanitary ware, have been depressed
even below the normal seasonable VOL
| ume by the combination of past over
building, bad weather and the rather
slow thawing out of the money and
credit situation as 1t affects this i'm
portant group of industries. The coal
trade has been benefited by the
weather, but there has been apparently
plenty to spare for domestic needs and
| for use by industries.
The combination Of large stocks of
copper and slackneSS of foreign demand
| has forced curtailment of production in
leading Western mining centers. It Is
becoming evident, however, that with
the passage of Winter and the recent
appearance Of good orders for electrical
materials for Spring work, buyers and
| sellers. may agree on an attractive basis
| for business in this product, which is
one OF the conspicuous exceptions to
the downturn In commodity prices, now
the subject OF much remark.
Wholesale and Retail Trade.
"In wholesale and retail trade the
| pace set suffers by comparison with
that shown in the steel and some other
! industries. The textile trades, Of course,
bulk large in those branches of distri-
button. While broad silks have done
| fairly well, the weakness in cotton
prices, which, like those of wheat,
seem to have become entangled in the
Farm Boards operations, was a bar to
business, January seeing a very general
shading of cotton goods prices, which
seemed to check buying Foreign and
| domestic buying of cotton for the sea-
| son Is now well below the like period
year ago, despite the fact that it sells
cents a pound below that date. Cot
ton mill curtailment over the year end
ovaI De al