Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-16
BY LuLIUS H. BARNES.

| Chairman of the National Business Survey
| Conference.
|HE mobilization of business lead
ership last November in behalf
of business stability was pri-
i marily based upon new philos-
ophy The panic in security
! prices had shocked and alarmed every
one. The air was full of rumors and
| eXaggerations, mostly inaccurate. The
danger was that hesitant confidence
and enterprise in business leadership
would shrink employment and earnings
in a mistaken self-preServation. There
| was danger that through fear of I'M
employment the great buying public,
which suStains all industry, would Sus-
| pend its orderly living.
The new philosophy was that Ameri-
cans, in and out of business, provided
with accurate information stripped of
! alarmist eXaggerations, would possess
| the common sense, courage and pru-
dence which would shorten and limit
| any i'll effects. We now are justified in
saying that, with the passing of Winter,
America rode out the storm with less
distress than then seemed possible
Have Weathered Worst of Storm.
To the business men of America the
Spring of 1880 marks the end of a
period Of grave concern. They have
now weathered the worst of the storm
which came in the wake of last Au-
tumnS crash on the stock market The
collapse in security values is now far
enough behind us to take an inventory
of our efforts. We can now subject the
wild rumorS of the Winter to the test
of actual conditions. And we find, be-
yond any doubt, that once more the coll
Lat 4~v1 Is 49, 1S~Rr~-
people has come to the rescue, and that
American business is steadily coming
back to a normal level of prosperity.
There is still much to improve-too
much unemployment to absorb in
spots-but at present the trend is right.
Before me is comprehensive sum-
mary of business conditions as of March
/, supplied by ITO trade associations. 1t
would be Illuminating to the most
casual reader. For it shows at glance
that there are few bad spots in Ameri-
can business as another Spring ap-
proacheS, and that recovery from the
admittedly bad weeks of late November
and early December Is clearly under
way. True, an index figure for the
whole picture would fall somewhat
under the same figure for 1929, but it
must always be remembered that 1929
was an abnormal year. During the first
nine months of 1929 American business
was pilfng up the largest aggregate
earnings in our history. Even without
the stock market collapse there might
have been recession in 1880. If we
can hold it within a narrow margin the
extraordinary construction plans for
the year, set In motion by President
Hoover, will help take up the slack
and another economic crisis will have
passed,
Finance Is Sound.
The summary before us shows that
American finance is sound-far more
sound than in the excessive imitation of
year ago. Since December there has
been an ever increasing demand for
sound securities, with a marked shift
from stocks to bonds and notes; yet
average stock prices have advanced Is
per cent. Savings deposits. which were
drawn upon during November as in
vestors sought to protect the falling
values of their securities or to make new
investments at the lower prices, have
shown an increase every week since
December /, except for the week directly
following Christmas. An adequate sup
ply Of mortgage money, though still
cautious. is available for sound projects
Although installment finance has suf-
fered somewhat, the finance companies
report a volume of business above the
same period in 1929, and an amazingly
small number of delinquencieS for a
Winter of such stress. New life insur-
ance, another accurate barometer of