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Show DEPRESSION III nun is en Government Officials Make Cheerful Forecast for Country in 1921 BV RALPH F. COACH, United Praaa Staff Corraapondant WASHINGTON'. Jan. 1 . rrnnperity. like the Towers vt th non. will bloom aa,n thi rprinic. The bunlnoM de-prrapion de-prrapion 1 -Irendy beginning to dia-olve. dia-olve. Thl. according to novernment officials of-ficials In the trrMgury. sericulture, and labor department, is the forecast for mi. If true, the forecast mean an end of unemployment now Involving thousands thou-sands of worker, stabilising prices And perhaps lower ones for the con-ammcr. con-ammcr. It also will end the great na-tional na-tional strikes which sweep the entire country. Kthelbert Stewart, government price expert, helievea that 1921 prlcea should tig far In vr than tlm.ie obtaining at prescn t. "Business cHprension would disappear disap-pear within a few weeks If manufacturers manufac-turers and retail dealers would give up the Idea that they can cling to war prices," nnld Htewrtrt. "The buying public Is In nred of almost every necessity. ne-cessity. If prlcea were reduced to a reasonable point there would be a new rush of buyers which would turn every factory wheel In the country and blot out unemployment almost Immediately. BASIC FACTORS. The optimistic predictions of government gov-ernment officials and businesnmen for prosperity In the spring are based on factors now developing. Horn of the optimistic factors are thse: 1. Government receipts from lus-'tory lus-'tory taxes have fallen far belnw the figures of a year ago. Indlrsting the publlo has ended extravagant buying. S. Instead of luxuries the public flow la buying stocks and bonds; the report of one big steel concern shows an Increase of &000 In the number of owners of common stock. Liberty . bond transactions have been Increasing Increas-ing for several months, bankers re- 1 porting to the government that they cannot get enough or the lower denominations de-nominations to satisfy the demand. t. Food prices will descend to yet lower paces In the first few months sia the reeult of the bumper crop har vested in practically all sections of the country. 4. Retail priors are undergoing a teady but sure decline, aecordlng to reports from fifty-five cities collected monthly by the labor department. DRAWBACKS. The pessimistic factors In the outlook out-look are listed by government officials of-ficials as follows: la) Nearly sooo business failures In ltl'0, as compared with ftuu last rear. , tbl Closing of scores of factories In the textile, shoe manufacturing and automobile making centers and part time oHratlon of practically all the others. c) Failing prices for raw cotton, now selling at 13 cents per pound Instead of 30 re'nta. and general re-ductlnna re-ductlnna In prices of all farm products, locludlnr; wheat, corn and hogs. Ill I I'nemployment. e Jobless workers now number f.OwO.OOO. according to one unofficial estimate received here. Moot government govern-ment officials, however, regard this as an exaggerated estimate. Officials of he American Federation of Lhor estimate, that unemployment now involves in-volves at least l.ouo.000 workers. "I'nemployment Is pretty general In New F.ngland In the textile and shoe Industries." said Frank .Morrison, secretary sec-retary of the American Federation of Iabor. 'There Is also soma unemployment unem-ployment among the miners and In the factories in the Central West. My own reports, however, are too vague to permit me to make an eatimate of the total number of workers work-ers without J'ins'- |