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Show PROSPERITY FROM COAST TO COAST Business on the Pacific coast in March reached record proportions, propor-tions, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Labor is fully employed and wages are advancing in all industries. lletail trade is 20 percent a head of last year. Individual deposits in banks are 26 per cent greater than a year ago and are considerably consider-ably above the peak of deposits in the fall of 1920. Jumping across the continent to New England, one learns from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston that "net sales in dollars in leading Boston stores were larger1 than in March, 1920, when the commodity prices were higher than at present." The report shows that this condition prevails throughout New England cities and is undoubtedly a reflection of the vastly improved industrial conditions condi-tions and numerous wage increases which have been made throughout through-out New England. Minneapolis reports sales of farm implements and equipment throughout the Northwest this spring have been 75 percent greater than a year ago. The J. I. Case Company, of Racine, Wis., the largest manufacturers of threshing machines in the world, reports sales this year 50 per cent ahead of last year. Kitchen cabinet factories in Indiana are working full time and have made an increase of 1 0 per cent in wages. According to the Illinois employment agencies, there are one hundred jobs offered in that state now with only 85 job hunters. One year ago there were 141 job hunters registered for every one hundred jobs. In 1921 there were 216 job hunters registered' for every one hundred jobs. Over 35,000 men and women working in the clothing industry in Chicago have been given an increase of from 1 0 to 16 per cent. At the same time this was announced, the news came from Rochester, New York, that more than 13,000 clothing workers there received an increase of from 5 to 1 0 per cent. Those workers receiving less than $40 a week received the 1 0 per cent increase and those receiving more than $40 rceived a 5 per cent increase. Approximately 22,000 miners in the Lake Superior iron mining min-ing district have been given an increase of 1 0 per cent. The new-wage new-wage scale for common labor in the mines of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota is now $4.20 a day. Four great railroads with headquarters in the Middle West have recently made wage advances to certain classes of their employees em-ployees the Santa Fe, which advanced wages of 20,000 maintenance mainten-ance of way and railroad shop employees from a minimum of 1 cent an hour to a maximum of $8 a month; the Great Northern which increased the wages of 10,000 maintenance of way men all the way from $5.84 to $10 a month; the Chicago and Alton which increased its maintenance of way men from $3.40 to $10 a month; the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis, which increased its shopmen shop-men 2 and 3 cents an hour. All these advances were effective either eith-er the first or the fifteenth of May. The condition of state banks in Kansas, according to a quarterly quarter-ly statement issued by the state banking department, reflects increased in-creased prosperity among the farmers, as during the period from December last to March 17, there was a gain of $6,000,000 of deposits de-posits of those banks. Reports of 260 life insurance companies, covering the year ending end-ing December 3 1 , show that it was the largest year in the history of life insurance business. One reflection of the nations' prosperity is given in the production pro-duction and sale of shoes. More than 95,000,000 pairs of footwear were produced during the first three months of this year, an increase of 20.6 per cent over the quantity manufactured during the corresponding corres-ponding period last year. The U. S. Shipping Board announced an increase in the wages of all seamen employed by the board. The advance becomes effective May 4 and puts into effect increases from 12 to 20 per cent. |