Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-21
NEW ERA FORECAST
FOR TRADE BODIES
J. ]. 0'Connor Tells Mortgage
Bankers Ways to Stop
Friction in Business.
Special Dispatch to The star.


DETROIT, September 20.-"The 5000
trade associations in the United States
are on the threshold of a new era of
development which will be characterized
increasingly by efforts to reduce waste
and moderate the frictions of COMPETE
ton" said John j. O'Connor, manager,
finance department, Chamber of Com
merce Of the United States before the
Mortgage Bankers Association ConVen-
ton here.
True, the basis Of profit will always
be the correctness of the individuals de-
ctsion to buy or sell at q given time.
But there will be increasing recognition
Of the interdependence OF business units
more determined efforts to restrain the
too-ardent or incapable or reckless profit
seeker who endangers not alone himself
but the whole business community.
The conviction will be established
generally among business men that
those things that are not in the public
interest are not in the interest of BUSH
ness, and that any of our business which
heedlessly pursue practices conducive to
recurrent widespread unemployment
great waste and periodic distress are the
proper concern of business as a whole.
II serious paternalfstic and economic ad-
ventures are to be avoided. Such BUSH
ness today is infinitely closer knit than
ever before, and such union does make
for strength"
Hoover Conference Praised.
Mr.. O'Connor traded the accomplish
ments Of the national business survey
conference called by President Hoover
last Fail, pointing out particularly the
truce between capital and labor, in
creases in capital expenditures, adj
vancement of construction work and
anti ,k,s1-.
greater confidence. He stated that "the
whole movement has been characterized
by sane, deliberate effort to assist con-
structively without dependence upon
uneconomic measures"
Volumes might be written upon the
elements OF weakness and strength dis
closed in various business lines during
recent months" Mr.. O'Connor con-
tinued. I'VE have learned that closer
examination must be made of methods
Of dealing with the problem Of over
production. While we know that pro-
duction in many important lines fiuc-
tuates at times rather widely, we are
coming TO recognize the fact that con-
sumption Of those same lines goes on
at more uniform rate than produce
ton. Business Is coming to realize the
Importance of attempting an approx
nation Of practical stable limits of con-
business has yet to learn about our old
acquaintance, the law Of supply and
demand"
Mortgage Still Favored.
"The mortgage is still the favored IN
strument of finance" said Mr.. O'Con-
nor IF our agencies of realty finance
continue to perform their functions in
a way to merit the approval of sound
builders and investors, without sue
cumbing to the ever-present temptation
to seek immediate and temporary prof
its, and If they develop only contracts
upon which full performance may rea-
sonably be expected, public service of
special benefit at this time will be rem
dered. The mortgage banker is today
laced with a hard set of conditions in
order to find the proper balance be-
tween safe stimulation of desirable con-
struction and overstimulation of build
ing that would further unsettle values
in homes and income properties and the
obligations based upon them. In one
OF our largest cities q study of home
finance recently revealed that fore
closures had increased steadily in the
past 10 years.
Closer Cooperation Needed.
'The interest OF the first mortgage
house cannot be isolated from that of
the home buyer. Greater discrimination
with respect to market problems and
supply problems is indicated for gen.
eral betterment of all interests. bill
lion and half dollars Of first mortgages
and first mortgage bonds upon city
properties sold to the investing public
by mortgage bankers annually have an
enormous influence upon business gen.
orally.
Cooperation between such agencies
OF realty finance as mortgage bankers,
building and loan associations and mu-
tual savings banks with associations of
real estate men, contractors, material
manufacturers, insurance companies and
architects, together with the friendly
Interest Of governmental and general
business agencies, must be further de-
veloped If real progress toward stabili-
cation in the construction industry is
/ to be made. This support seems at
last to be on the way"