Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06
WEST COAST GAINS
STEADILY IN TRADE
REVIVAL PROGRAMS
Business Becoming Stabilized
Under Influence of Better
Credit Conditions.
RECENT MERGERS ASSIST
RETURN TO PROSPERITY
Opening of Natural Gas Fields Elk
pected to Benefit Bay
District.
BY CHARLES F. SPEARE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 5.-During
the hectic period Of stock market spec
ulation last year one brokerage house
with wide connection on the Pacific
Coast did a daily business of 100000
shares, which Is evidence that people
In San Francisco and Los Angeles and
in between are not unlike those of New
York, Chicago, Boston or Detroit when
the seasons of easy money making in
securities come around.
This, however, was q higher per-
centage OF the total daily turnover of
that period than Is being shown today,
for while the Pacific Coast Is following
the share lists carefully and respond
ing to some of the "tips" that come
over the wires, it is skeptical of the
present rise and has been taking advan-
tage Of this weeks advance to a new
high point in utilities and rails to real
ize profits. This simply represents a
crosS-section of the attitude Of the
country, which has seen in the last
two months a trebling In New York
Stock Exchange sales and an advance
in all three of the major groups of
stocks to the highest average since last
November.
Put In another way, there has been
a recovery of As per cent in the indus
trials, OF SO per cent in the public
utilities and of nearly rs per cent in
the rails from the bottom Of the trough
last Autumn.
Business Trend and Outlook.
In no other direction has there been
improvement comparable with that
in junior securities. It is beginning to
ha FnNn0nfzad iyN khie - 4.
world, as elsewhere, that while business
Is better in fact and In sentiment than
1t was in January, it has not moved
ahead in March and In the first week
OF April In proportion as 1t had been
expected to do under the stimulating
effects OF low money rates and rising
quotations for stocks.
The first quarter of 1880 has passed
and has been one of sterilization. The
second quarter now being entered should
reveal the benefits to industry of a six
month rest from prolonged Specula-
tive spree and from restrictive policies,
both as they apply to the production
OF Merchandise and to the expansion of
manufacturing and distributing facili-
ties.
Although this Federal Reserve dis
trict has experienced less effect from
the national business and speculative
disturbances than any other, and is one
Of the white" spots on the commercial
map, bankers here are frank to say
that they look for a slow improvement
because they believe the country is still
overstocked with goods and also on the
historical ground that there never has
been a quick rebound from a decline
OF such proportions as we have recently
witnessed. The urge of cheap money
to speculate shows its results in rising
loans.
Steady Progress on Coast.
San Francisco is proverbially a con-
sentative town, and no more so than
in her business life. She is inclined
facilities. One finds in her steady
progress, but no overdevelopment or
overpricing of values. Like the rest Of
the Pacific Coast, she has witnessed In
the past 10 years-more especially in
the last yearS-a rapid change In her
industrial life, as increasing population
has encouraged the setting UP of fac
tories for the fabrication or assembling
of articles consumed in this territory
or to be shipped to the Far East.
There can never be complete eco
nomic independence in California, as
she Is too far from the supplies of raw
AlhOCA4 oAo QUILL IldAC SLCdJ
centers possible. Each year sees many
additions to the list OF companies that
provide the people of this State with
their daily needs and their luxuries. A
great squirt in this direction is pre-
dicted with the opening up of the nat
ural gas fields in the Kettleman Hills
district.
The Kettleman Hills district means
to San Francisco what those of Signal
Hill and Ventura have meant to Los
Angeles for many years.
The spirit of combinations and new
financial or corporate alignments has
become quite strong on the coast and
brought forth this week the big merger
of North American Co. properties with
those of the Pacific Gas & Electric.
The United States Steel Corporation
and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation
have within few months absorbed the
two leading iron and steel manufactur-
ing plants on the coast. There is daily
gossip of mergers of food and dairy
companies, shipping lines and chemical
manufacturers. Out of the present oil
situation is bound to come the elimina-
ton of a number of the smaller pro-
ducers who have been a thorn in the
flesh of Standard Oil of California, the
Union, Shell and other large producing
and marketing concerns.