OCR Text |
Show iiiliii VP! SOUD BASIS o Excuse for Pessimism, as General Conditions Show Improvement. 50VES SLOW, BUT SURE Incouraging Feature of Situation Situ-ation Is Steady Decline in Cost of Living. The business letter of the Salt Luke jcr.riiy & Trust company for May ;,, out that while the business of P country has not shown the rapid Varjivnier.t that was predicted there . n0 occasion for pessimism. General .-ditions throughout, the country, it Uhott'ii. are on a sonn basis with Revival of optimism progress is cer-lr. cer-lr. enconragiiiff feature of the situa- is the steady decline of the cost ' living. The commodity index of ad-treet's shows a marked reduction ; th"( cost of necessities of life from st of a vear ago. rhe letter follows: JThe expected revival in business nivitv has not developed to the -extent" that was anticipated early Jin the vear f.nd there is a certain v.inoiii'.t" of disappointment noticeable notice-able in various quarters over tho . jlovrness of conditions to assume, isdii'al activity. While it is true that business has been unexpected-It unexpected-It Jull. there is nevertheless no ..ie.wuse for any feeling of apprehension. appre-hension. General conditions throughout through-out the entire country ore on a sound basis and all that is neces-: neces-: ?arv is a revival of optimism and ".faith. :st of Living. ". Bradstrcet 's reports indicate clearer clear-er that the cost of living is steadily "jj 4ho decline. For instance, the ''omraodities index figure for Feb--'nary stood at 8.S619 compared ":rith' 9,4592 for February of last fear and 9.5462 in December 1912 when it rracheil the highest point nvorded. Many articles of food Mich us cereals,' butter, eggs, fruit, etc., are lower at wholesale, though meats continue high owing to tite scarcity of livestock. Department stores all iivit the couiil.iv havu reduced priees on many items anil while it will take some time for the ultimate consumer to reali.o tho decline, because retailers are slower in lowering than in raising prices, competition will, in tho course of time, produce the desired results. World's Gold Supply. The latest report of the director of the mint estimates tho world's stock of gold on the first of Jiin-uarv, Jiin-uarv, 1913, at $8,4Sli,7(l().0i)ll as compared with $4,8-11,000,000 on January .1, 190O. an iucreose of 7f per cent. Of this increase S."9,:ii)0.000, or nearly oue-fourth was secured by the United states, which on Jaiiuarv 1, 1913, was credited with 'M,87!.500.mM as against a little over $1,000,0(10,000 on Januarv 1, 190U. Franco and India came second and third with respect to the increase, the latter gaining no less than $351,800,000 in the thirteen rears. Tho next largest gain was bv Argentina, then followed the United Kingdom, Knssia. Germany, Egypt, Canada and Brazil, which last, named country coun-try raised its stock of gold from practically nothing in 1900 to $12.T,000,000 at the beginning of 1913. Items of Wealth. Xo better evidence of the thrift and prosperitv of this country can be found than tho fact that thero are at the present time in the United States almost 18,000.000 savings sav-ings depositors whose deposits aggregate ag-gregate nearly $7,000,000,000, or approximately ap-proximately '40 per cent of the total bank' deposits of the United States. Tho mutual savings banks of this country have $1,800,000,000 invested in securities, of which nearh- $800,000,000 represents railroad bonds. Life insurance companies com-panies also hold enormous masses of securities, largely railroad, and the number of individual stockholders stock-holders who own small blocks of stock in the leading railroads and industrial corporations of the country coun-try is legion. These facts illustrate illus-trate now closely interwoven the prosperity of the country is with the prosperity of the average individual. indi-vidual. The Regional Banks. The selection of the twelve regional re-gional bank cities Boston, New York, Philadelphia; Cleveland, Richmond. Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas and San Francisco is another an-other definite step in the carrying out of the new federal reserve act. Aci-cmiine (o a fitnt fmoiit 'smilnI by 1 ho. oriuiiziition crniiniitteL', lhtro will bo least 7.VIS banks of nil sorts, members or tin? fvstein with total ciiiuLiil and surplus of $1.-S31.t;i3,;u'ii. $1.-S31.t;i3,;u'ii. Although tho prop-ess ut' organizing the new system will not be rapid, it is tho intention of tho committee to act as qiueldy aa the law permits in order that the reserve banks may bo sot up lor business as soon as po.-sible. Government Ownership. Every once in a while politicians predict government ownership or! railroads on the assumption that this country could borrow, presumably presum-ably out oi the blue sky, ii0,UUU,-0000UU ii0,UUU,-0000UU to p?.v for them. The mistake mis-take made by advocates of this idea .is imagining that the public credit is wit nun t limit;. As a mat-tor mat-tor of fact it is strictly limited and the lender to the United States government gov-ernment is just as insistent that ho shall have something tangible aa security for the government's word as he 'is when he lends to auvone else. And if to this $20.0nO,UOO,000 is adde additional borrowings of $1,-OOO.OOO.UOO $1,-OOO.OOO.UOO annually for absolutely necessary expansion, the hopelessness hopeless-ness oi' "financing any such matter as the purchase of the railroads by the Tin i ted States government should certainly be apparent. April Disbursements. During the month of April a total of over $180,000,000 was distributed to invest.org in the form of dividends divi-dends and interest payments, which is practically the same amount as was paid out in April of last vear. Of this amount, $715,800,000 represents repre-sents interest and $104,2S0,000 represents rep-resents dividends. .Bonds and note issues of the leading railroads and industrial corporations maturing in April, aggregated $61.S4.7,S3o, of which the largest single item was a $20,000,000 issue of the New York Central railroad. |