The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-11-30
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER
United Press STAFF Correspondent
lCOpYrlRht. 1871. By United pressl

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30.-Feel-
ing that 1892 will bring some bust
ness recovery is prevalent among
leaders in various sections.
Business throughout the country
appears to be convalescent.
1t apparently is gaining. But it
still is weak and requires time.
Everywhere, in a tour of a num-
Der Of important centers as far west
as Kansas City, business men al
most without exception were en-
couraged, ana confident of a bet
ter year ahead
They expect better times, but not
q boom. And most of them hope
there will be no such boom as 1929
again. AS Henry Ford expressed it
to this correspondent, the country
will enter decade of prosperity
not apeculative-but a sounder pros
perity that will make past pros
perity seem small by comparison.
A patient does not come out of
the hospital and start turning
handsprings. Still he may be able
to go back to work and earn-if not
his top price-at least a reasonable
living out of which he can build
sounder future.
Two Things Guide
Two things, on close examina-
ton, appear likely to control the
recovery.
One is foreign trade, which af-
fords, not only in cotton and wheat,
but in some industries, the margin
between good times and bad, the in
dispensable outlet for the surplus
and coverts red ink into black for
American business and agriculture
The other thing, pratially depend
ent on this foreign trade, is the
price of raw commodities. Real
prosperity rests partly upon raising
wheat and cotton at profit, for
on those two things vast areas in
the United States depend for liveli-
hood. 1t rests also on a profitable
condition in oil, copper, coal and
lumber for each of these determine
the economic fate of large groups
and many communities.
Primary Wealth Sources
These are Americas primary
sources Of new wealth-the things
that are taken out of mother earth.
II other business is built upon
them, upon the transportation of
them, sale to those who need them,
conversion of them by factories into
flour, bread, cloth, gasoline.
The millions of persons who buy
the products of Americas factories
are all dependent on them in the
final analysis.
This is elementary economics, but
it was forgotten two years ago by
a nation which had its eyes glued
on stockholders which were grinding
out in their inflated quotations more
fiction than all of the printing
presses of the nation combined
America has learned-temporarily
at least-that the stock market can
be a cruel deceiver, and that it reg
istered its highest prices at the
very moment the whole world had
already started over the precipice.
That wild downward ride began
some months before, when commo-
dity prices began to drop, unnoticed
in the frenzy of climbing stock
market.
Trading on l. o. US
This is the biggest change that
has come over the thinking of
America in these two years of de-
pression-the realization that wheat,
cotton. oil and other raw materials
are the real pace settlers and that
when other business goes off on its
own, it is trading on I. o. US for
which an accounting can be delayed
only temporarily.
In the light of this, the whole
story of what is going on today and
the future, as best it can for fore
seen is told in the fact that wheat,
cotton and oil prices have risen
somewhat. They have not gone up
nearly enough They are better
only by comparison with prices at
their worst
Foreign buying, equally important,
shows some ir1DrOVament according