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Show " BUSINESS OF NATION INPEGUUARPOGKET DESPITE SHOWING OF PROSPERITY, PROSPER-ITY, INDUSTRY IS IN A SOMEWHAT SOME-WHAT PECULIAR STATE. Crusades and Campaigns and Condi-j Condi-j tion of Foreign Exchange Unsettles Affairs, According to Report of Conditions in West. Chicago. The general volume of business in the middle west continues at a high level and building operations opera-tions and other activities will be sufficient suf-ficient to' sustain the movement for the immediate future, according to a report of business conditions in the Seventh Federal Reserve district made public January 25. The report states, however, that, despite this general show of prosperity, prosper-ity, business is in a "peculiar pocket." "On one side," I't says, "there are forays against high prices: Society women engineering film propaganda and quasi-boycotts against this or that commodity at the prevailing price, or else pledging themselves to refrain from buying until concessions are made. On the other side there is the obstinate fact that demand for commodities com-modities outruns any possibility of providing supply thut production is low in volume because of labor troubles and because raw materials are available in quantities much below be-low necessary requirements. These factors, combined with a car shortage, motive power famine, inadequate transportation facilities and strike rumors, ru-mors, constitute a total of risk elements ele-ments against which the average business busi-ness man dreads to pit his capital." Crowding all of the difficulties, says tbe report, is the foreign exchange situation, sit-uation, which is declared to be the most unfavorable In its bearings on American business hopes. The wish is father to the thought, apparently, when it is asserted that prices are on the point of breaking, it is declared. Investigation has failed to show that occasional announcements announce-ments of cuts in prices were representative represen-tative of the general market. Agricultural conditions in all parts of the Seventh Federal Reserve district dis-trict were reported to he favorable. The acreage of fall crops in Iowa, however, was reported considerably smaller than that of a year ago, but crops "have gone into winter in good condition, with a good snow covering protecting them." |