Show GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT According to the bureau bulu of statistics there la Is a gradual Improvement In the traffic situation of ot the country Slowly and sadly we are recovering the RoosEvelt panic According to fig Zig figures figures ures at hand the tIle coal textile and slice shoe trades show a considerable upward trend from the depressed condition pre prevailing prevailing veiling during the early part of 1908 Movements of livestock provisions and grain on the other hand suffered I a acon considerable con check Building operations maintained a high record characteristic of the earlier months The traffic situa situation situation tion as measured by the number of cars handled by various traffic associations associations associations also shows a turn for the better though the April figures for the current year are sUIt still almost 10 per cent below those reported two years ago Evidently the home market is ever over overtaking taking production so far tar as cattle hogs hogsand hogsand and wheat are and the price of meats and flour is steadily advancing advancIng ing leg in consequence Other articles are arf high because combinations have been I formed to make them so Just how much more Is to be tacked on It Is Im tin Impossible possible po eIble to foretell but to use a rail railway railway railway way magnates expression It will be 00 beall all the traffic traffie will boor boar reading food foodstuff stuff uit for traffic As regards the business of the rail rall railroads railroads roads the American Railway association tion reports the total number of idle cars within the country at the end or ot orthe orthe the month as compared with on April 29 9 1908 1008 when the largest number of Idle oars ears was reported since the late depression depres lon began and 8 idle cars at the end of the the preceding month The number of cars ears handled in all aU parts of the country during April by demurrage e bureaus and ear car service associations Is reported as compared with and for or April 19 8 and 1907 1901 The total for the four months of the year 7 while about hair bate a million short abort of Df the corresponding 1897 11 record was 1188 about 17 per cent larger than the number handled during tnt first Tour lOur months of the preceding year Traffic on the railroads is the true tru index of the prosperity pro perl and there are a large number of idle cars on the sidetracks The only ORly redeeming feature of Df the present situation Is IB the tbt item of building operations While there is 18 doubt regarding the real value of or stock and bonds the money of or the country is being put into real estate and magnificent buildings something real and tangible As the amount of cash in the country is practically un unlimited unlimited unlimited limited great good will ultimately re result suit sult from its having been turned away from front purely speculative channels Ac According According cording to E H Harriman aad and J T J Hill Hili the end of the present depression depre slon in the east depends upon the wheat crop cropin cropIn cropIn in a great measure In the west eat well cut along crop or no DO crop |