Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-11
Trade Trend and Outlook
President of Great Northern Railway Believes Return
Of Better Times Is Assured by Initiative of
American People.
BY RALPH BUDD,
President of the Great Northern Railway.
As Told to Jack Burket.

President of the Great Northern Railway.
As Told to Jack Burket.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
MINNEAPOLIS, January 10.-In
such a period as business is now going
through it is natural that many misgiv-
ings should be expressed for the future
even to the point of questioning
ing to recover its full measure of pros
perity.
One has to recall events only about
is months in the past to realize then
exactly the opposite feeling prevailed,
and that opinions were being advanced
to the effect that the country had
reached a stage in its development
which had established standards of
living and measures of business ac-
tivities which could not be expressed
in terms of former activities; that
formulas had become obsolete and new
rules should be applied to suit the new
conditions.
New Era Boys"
Advocates Of this now discredited
line of thought were not confined to any
branch or kind of business, or to the
lower officials or employees. Heads of
large institutions, such as banks and
IdlIIOduob WCIc ulCAuucO
Advocates of this theory are some
times referred to as the new era boys"
They foresaw expansion along various
lines to an indefinite and what is now
known to have been an impossible ex-
tent
The pendulum has swung from one
extreme to the other, and 1t seems
reasonable to believe that the doleful-
ness of the prospects some people are
now seeing and the utter collapse they
are predicting are as unjustified as was
the chimerical optimism of the year
1929.
The initiative and inventice genius
learned from the old teacher, expert
ence, however Is of great value and
may be worth all it Is costing. This
generation probably will never forget
that the law of supply and demand
and the rule of basing prices of COM
mon stocks on earnings are as unfail-
ing and constantly operative as the
more obvious law Of gravitation.
But the natural resources Of the
country are undiminished; the great
factories and transportation facilities
are fully available, and the hundred
and twenty odd million people of the
country can be supported on as high
a level OF living as ever was possible.
The initiative and inventie genius
which brought within the reach of the
masses what formerly were considered
Injuries unattainable except by the
rich land are still unobtainable lux
uries in most countries) are unimpaired
today, and will figure in the future as
effectively as they have in the past.
The march of progress has not been
stopped by the mere withdrawal of
some of the overly optimistic outrid-
ers and heralds whose enthusiasm car
ried them too far into the realm Of
imagination, nor by the shrinking re-
treat of pessimists who see no future
prospect except retrenchments and
lowering standards of living.
Victims Of Efficiency.
There is no denying the fact that by
the year 1929 the machinery of produc-
ton and distribution had expanded be-
yond the facilities for consumption of
goods. To some extent the people of
the United States had indeed become
victims Of their own productive eff
cheney. During the last IL months,
however, stocks of goods of all kinds