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Show : W ; ; . c Economic m Highlights ll I':;. Industrial News Review '' l . lus( Happenings that Affect the Dinner i,0Mt: Pails, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. Nation-II Nation-II a! and International Problems In- '5: separate from Local Welfare. "''V; oOo V''S The fedejal government has started 1 p'a planned and aggressive drive for ' i Urt"; credit expansion. The drive takes 1U ? : many forms. One is renewed efforts to 1 open banks which remained closed af- ter the banking moratorium. Another U'ri is to make possible greater credit free- h dom in banks which are open but are 0Ve still operating under restrictions. An-n An-n ' other is to increase potential bank :!ei,1fc credit through open market purchases -i by the federal reserve. The public works program enters into it, as does the proposal to bolster basic indus-tries indus-tries with government loans. This last 1U has already been done in the case of; lu5 the railroads; it will very likely be ex- j tended to other industries in the fu- j ture. During the last half-year busi-' ness production has shown steady and . sharp rises. Between March and Sep- tember, according to a New York Times graph, the general barometer went from about 60 to 79, the high being reached in mid-July. On the other hand, the amount of credit avail- 0 P able for financing this production has cet changed very little. In March it stood at 16 billions of dollars, and in Sep-r--. tember at 16V4 billions. Where pro- duction has jumped a third, credit fa-1 :53 cilities have risen only about 3 per j cent. The importance of credit is well illustrated by the fact that in this country, in these days, the normal amount of bank credit outstanding is 1 $50,000,000,000, while the total money . , in circulation is but $5,500,000,000. While this credit drive faces many problems, there is a strong balief in ; j many centers that it will be able to . loosen credit to the point where any other means of inflation will be un-al' un-al' necessary. Secretary of Agriculture Wallace, ,. the personnel of the A. A. A. (Agri-. (Agri-. : cultural Adjustment Administration) , and everyone else in a responsible po- sition in one or another of the depart- j I ments whose mission in life is to find a place for the farmer in the recovery . parade, are in a tough spot. Today it costs the consumer farmer or city neo' dweller about 13 per cent more to okies buv most necessities of life than it did fc'3'' in June, when the recovery program al was still largely in the planning stage. The In the face of this, the farmer has ; i "e watched his income drop steadily, j Utah When city prices touched 16 per cent j and above the 1913 level, farm prices de-1 clined! to 30 per cent below. As a result, re-sult, the A. A. A. came out the other day with an announcement to the ef-, feet that it opposed overly rapid rises in the cost of manufactured goods. The A. A. A. is likewise studying a jY proposed food code which embodies a new approach to the farm problem. Under the code, minimum prices for foodstuffs would be fixed. Distributors f of foodstuffs a business with a $10,-ethiri $10,-ethiri 000,000,000 annual turnover would agree to pay more to farmers in re- J turn for a farm promise to reduce output. Consumers' counsel of the A. j UA. A. is afraid the code would result in higher prices to the public than it can now afford, "and this is the main j bone of contention. It is the duty of - Secretary of Agriculture Wallace to I'iu-" keeP farm prices on a level with city prices. Mr. Wallace is as keen as any farmer to do that. But it's slow going, j 3 One great trouble is that too many farmers are still disorganized, and it ! J takes much longer to get them toge-.It' toge-.It' ther than it does to prepare a plan of attack for industry. oOo From the retailer's standpoint, September Sep-tember opened fairly well and closed better, according to Dun & Bradstreet. The upward trend has become better established and consumer buying, long Egging, is more vigorous. Consumer resistance to increased prices is not especially noticeable. It is an interesting interest-ing fact that the market for high- Efrade furs and silks is expected to be ly the best in some years. Other retail fields where the experience is favorable, favor-able, include shoes, millinery, jewelry and men's clothing. A number of woolen wool-en mills have booked orders that will keep them busy to the end of the year. In the women's wear field, the increase -in demand for sports outfits is rising in direct ratio to the decrease de-crease in working hours. oOo Odds and ends of interest from the industrial front follow: 1 Steel Iron Age says that the industry indus-try is just beginning to work smoothly under code; main trouble is'' labor problems. f j Electric Power Report for late week shows 10 per cent rise over same week last year. Railroads Rumor grows that every form of transportation rails, buses, ,n trucks, waterways, aviation will be j J brought under one federal agency. ' Freight car loadings in the fourth j. quarter of 1933 are forecast as be-ing be-ing 14 per cent above a year ago. Dividend Payments Ratio of favorable favor-able to unfavorable dividend actions by American companies sharply in-i in-i creased. Two-thirds of all changes in August were favorable. Copper Producers and smelters said I to be reaching agreement on code. |