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Show k Economic Highlights l Industrial News Review H;ippcnKs 1:lt A f foot, the Dinner rails, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. Nation- al ami International Problems In-n In-n separate from Local Welfare. 1 . oOo Business in 1933 has presented a rather eccentric spectacle. The year began with practically every industry at a low ebb. Then, directly following ( Mr. Roosevelt's ascension to office, a wave of optimism caused increased production, plant expansion, heavier-than-average buying. During the summer sum-mer there was constant contraseason-al contraseason-al improvement, largely due to the 13( great enthusiasm that greeted the NRA when it was created. Early in j the fall a let-down started and busi-25; busi-25; ness conditions of all kinds got steadily stead-ily worse. Industries which had visions vi-sions of reaching the production levels u of a few years ago found themselves again at the bottom. Now, on the basis of very recent reports, improvement is again appearing. Heavy industries, which have been most backward of all lately, are feeling it especially 35s an excellent sign. This is largely due to the fact that surplus manufactured manufactur-ed supplies, which resulted from the ,1, great upshoot in activities last spring, have come fairly close to being eliminated. elim-inated. A constantly mounting num-5, num-5, ber of corporations are resuming dividends divi-dends to stockholders. Others, which were so fortunate as to have only reduced re-duced dividend payments, are increases increas-es ing them. A survey of current busi-22 busi-22 ness, mainly based on government re-2j re-2j ports, follows: Commodity Prices Are continuing their upward trend. Retail prices cpff have advanced more rapidly than wholesale prices in spite of strong consumer resistance to higher costs. Domestic Trade Has continued to ex-pand, ex-pand, but not as much as usual sea-sonal sea-sonal experience would indicate. Department De-partment store sales have risen, and j advertising lineage in all manner of periodicals has increased. However, the sales showing is still unsatis-cia'd unsatis-cia'd factory.. . Em: Employment Here the most favor-i-pi able experience of all has been had. and t For a late month factory employ-co'or. employ-co'or. ment was 25 per cent better and hat t;- factory pay 37 per cent higher than p a year before. Each month shows definite increases in both fields. Black sign is the increase in strikes lis et and other labor disturbances, which lidsys have prevented still greater gains, d audi During September, for example, it a sps is estimated that strikes cost the irty)b country 5,000,000 working days as compared with 500,000 in June. ?sb, !:- Finance The bond market has be-ou: be-ou: come increasingly firm. At this price:: writing, the stock market is like-dies, like-dies, wise strong. Public confidence was demonstrated when the recent $950,--.ti 000.000 issue of new treasury cer-vln cer-vln tificates was over-subscribed in a few hours, stilling the fear that there has been a let-down in federal fed-eral credit. Foreign, Trade Exports have shown a greater than seasonal increase, -" (Continued on last page) |