Evening star., 1936-03-24
CLIMB PREDICTED
IN RETAIL TRADE
Association of Credit Men
See Buying Wave in
Coming Weeks.
BY EDWARD C. STONE.

cause Easter comes week earllet
than last year. declares the March
bulletin of the National Association
of Credit Men received here today by
the Washington association. Recovery
forces are slowly but surely at work,
the present demand for goods being
impressive, the bulletin adds.
The building industry upturn is
particularly important because private
contracts are showing an increase big
enough to more than offset the decline
In public works. Residential building
is also upward in trend, giving en-
ployment to many people and using a
wide variety of commodities. Auto
mobile production and sales are gain
ing, steel operations are up SIS per cent
OF capacity and electrical power pro-
duction is ahead of this time year
ago. the report states
One of the brightest spots in the past
two years has been in agricultural
areas. The new farm act will continue
to send flow of cash to the farmers.
Instead of being based upon contracts
DlilO plOouSCi, IAAC iAS" Rio-
gram offers cash for voluntary cooper
alton by farmers willing to aid soil
conservation by taking land out of cul-
tivation or shifting from such crops as
cotton, wheat and tobacco to grass
crops. with the purpose of preventing
erosion and building up the soil.
The review says the number OF un-
employed is uncertain on account of
lack of data 1t adds that while this
is a presidential year, reports indicate
that general business recovery will not
be greatly affected by the campaign.
As recovery advances. there is slight
increase in commercial fraud, more
cases having been reported to the
national association than in number
of wears. In conclusion, modernizatlon
of the bankruptcy act is referred to as
one of the most vital matters IN
which the association is just now &C
lively concerned.
Dead Account Holds Surprise.
Can any Washington bank beat
this? While going through a ledger,
E. A. Davis, president of the Wood
ford Bank e. Trust Co., Versailles,
XIV, noticed several old accounts of
depositors who had died or moved
awav. and he made an effort to give
these balances to their rightful
owners.
Among others was one in the name
of Harrison Phillips, an old Negro.
who had an account prior to 1928"
l1o 0o
had a son, Grand Phillips, living in
the county, I sent for him to come
and get the balance.
He arrived greatly excited and con-
fided that the Lord had answered his
prayers for some means with which
to pay his life insurance, which was
due. He asked what the balance was.
and when informed it was 1921, ex-
claimed that it was the exact amount
he had been praying for, and pro-
duced the premium motive to substan-
tiate his statement"
Store Collections Here Lag.
During February, collections in
Washington department stores totaled
269 per cent of the bills due the first
of the month, the Federal Reserve
Bank of Richmond reported today.
This compared with 289 per cent for
the whole fifth district, 90 per cent
in Baltimore, "a per cent in Richmond
and 80 per cent in a group of other
stores.
Stocks of goods on hand at the end
Of February were 8.6 per cent higher
than on the same date in 1885 and ia
per cent higher than in January this
year. the report said. Stock turnover
in Washington was more rapid than
in any other large cities in the district
and ahead of the average for the whole
territory. Trade, as already noted
was 1862 per cent better in February
than year ago and 15.2 per cent
higher in the first two months of 1886
than in 1885.
Riggs in big Bank" List.
The Riggs National Bank of this
city is included in a list of $50 of the
largest banks in the English-speaking
world just compiled by the California
Bank at Los Angeles. Riggs stands
134th in the list, deposits being given
as s87,947,725. This was some time
before the last controllers call which
showed deposits had passed the
$94.000.000 mark
The survey states that the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York is the
largest bank in America or Great
Britain, although it seems odd to in
clude a reserve bank in such a list.
The Midland Bank of London is sec
ond largest, with the Chase National
third; Barclays Bank. fourth; Lloyds'
Bank, fifth, and National City, sixth.
The report adds that the largest
banks IN the United States increased
their deposits by about II per cent
during the last year. The report does
not cover purely savings Institutions.
Safe Deposit Meeting Called.
The March meeting of the safe
deposit section of the District Bank
ers' Association will take place tomor-
row evening at o'clock in the board
room of the American Security S
Trust Co. Several important safe
deposit problems are down for dis
CuSSion.
The Suthern Railway Co. has ap-
piled to the 1. c. c. for authority to
borrow s4,859,00o from the r. F. c.
to provide funds for retirement at
maturity May /, 1886, of a like
amount of Virginia Midland Railway
general mortgage IS. The Southern
asked authority to nominally issue
S4.859000 of its first consolidated
mortgage SIS to pledge for the r. F.
@. loan pending the time that the
bonds might be placed on basis
better than S per cent.
The City of Oslo Norway has filed
a registration statement with the S.
E. C. covering $6,500,000 AZ per cent
sinking fund external loan bonds ma
turing 1855. According to the regis
tration statement net proceeds will
be applied to refunding on November
!, 1886, at 100 of s6.080O00 per
cent sinking fund gold bonds, due