Evening star., 1937-12-18
CREDIT SELLING
DECLARED SOUND
InstaIIment Volume Is Not
Excessive, According to
Federal Expert.
By EDWARD C. STONE.

CuCl al INHCI Is
By EDWARD C. STONE.
lnstallment selling is not being car
ried to excess and has not reached
dangerous proportions, declares Will
fred L. White, chief of the marketing
research division of the United States
Bureau of Foreign and De mestic Com
merce.
The volume of sales for 1887 will
no doubt be greater than the total
volume for 1886, he said, but the rate
of increase is not likely to be as great
as in 1886, when it was 25 per cent.
The yearly volume for 1887 now is
estimated at s4,500,0 100000.
The bureau, Mr.. White said, esti-
mated 1886 retail sales to be IA per
cent greater than in the previous
year. Estimates for 1887 will show
substantial increase over the figure
for 1886 and installment sales will
share in the increased volume. In
summing up his views the Govern
ment official concluded:
r. During 1887 terms have been short
ened and down payments have been
generally increased. Although there
has been a significant recession in
general business activity, total monthly
retail sales appear to be running
slightly ahead of year ago for the
Nation as whole
If unemployment spreads much
further, however, these sales will de-
cline, and in such case experience
shows that installment sales Will de-
cline more rapidly than either open
credit or cash sales.
The more conservative lnstallment
policies of retailers, sales finance
houses and banks. which were adopted
late in the summer or early In the tall,
should reduce losses to buyers and
sellers alike to a minimum.
Bank Group Names Officers.
Group 6, Virginia Bankers Associa-
ton, elected the following officers at
the annual meeting just held at Tap
pahannock:
Chairman, Judge E. Hugh Smith,
president of the Bank Of Northumber-
land, at Heathsville; vice chairman,
John T. Duval, vice president, Bank OF
Gloucester, at Gloucester; secretary,
". w. Sanders, cashier, Northern Neck
State Bank, at Warsaw, and treasurer,
F. P. Eastman, cashier, Bank OF Mid
dlesex, at Urbanna.
The following were selected for
nomination as a member of the Ex-
ecutive Council of the Virginia Bank
ers' Association; j. S. Phillips, cashier,
Bank of Essex, at Tappahannock, and
George w. Sheppard, president, Com
mercial State Bank, at Fredericksburg.
Closed Banks Make Progress.
The week has seen two more closed
banks in Washington make plans for
early payments to former depositors,
the Departmental Bank ant the North
Capitol Savings Bank.
The latest per cent payment to be
made by the Departmental Bank will
bring the total to IS per cent. Re-
ceiver John F. Moran is making prog
ress. This will be the sixth per
cent payment, and will amount to
more than $4,000, to be divided
among 4,U39 claimants.
The North Capitol Savings Bank is
about to pay 614 per cent as the third
dividend to creditors. making 31A per
cent returned to depositors. The pay
ment will total $57,700 to be distrib-
uted among 5,857 former patrons.
Although the totals are not very
large, the payments come at par
nf
the funds will be distributed sometime
next week, according to present plans
The District National, Seventh |
Street Savings and Washington Saw
ings Bank are also making dividends |
payments, under Receiver Justin H. |
Wardell.
Bottom of Slump Held Near.
Leonard P. Ayres, Cleveland econ
omist, in looking at 1898, says that it |
seems probable that the bottom of |
the present slump in industrial pro-
duction will be reached in the first |
half of next year, for operations have |
been curtailed so rapidly that in many |
lines we are already producing less
than we are consuming. The recovery
from that low point is bound to be
much slower that the descent to it
has been. The Federal Reserve index
of industrial production reached 12l |
year ago. Its average for this year
Is about ITO. A plausible estimate OF |
its average for 1888 might well be
that it would not differ from the 1885 |
average of 80 by more than six or
seven per cent.
There is not much use in trying to |
make many definite forecasts of the
course of business in 1888 for the |
outcomes depend on decisions that |
will be made in Washington, and on
policies that will be adopted there.
We have all the economic requisites !
for prosperity. We have the men, |
money, materials, and markets, the |
economist asserts.
Financial District Gossip.
The annual spring meeting of the
executive council of the American |
Bankers Association will be held at |
the Edgewater Gulf Hotel, Biloxi, Miss, |
April Ills. -..
Permit for the construction of a |
radio telephone station in the vicinity
OF Norfolk has been issued to the
Chesapeake g. Potomac Co. of Vir-
ginia. It will give Norfolk coastal
harbor communication system similar
to those now operating in Boston,
New York and Miami.
On the whole, Washington bankers
are pretty we'll satisfied with the re-
suits of the past year They could have
put out a lot more money in loans if
there had been demand for it.
Washington brokers are more cheer
ful on the outlook as the end of the
year approaches. That will mean the
end Of selling to establish losses" It
is also felt here that the steel outlook
is better and that an upturn in the
steel rate will mean the upturn in a
good many different stocks.
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