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Show oo THE BUSINESS OUTLOOK. A New York financial expert and economist gives the following review of business conditions: "Apparently the large decreases in industrial dividends and the advancing advanc-ing tendency of interest rates have been discontinued. No little confidence confi-dence is based upon the stimulus of a profitable harvest; upon the resumption re-sumption of some lines of lndustr, and the reviving tendencies of building, build-ing, railroads and shipping; also the probability that the heavy burden of taxation will be moderated by the next congress. A special session is inevitable, inevit-able, probably In the latter part of May, to deal with the most pressing problems ot railroads, taxation and reconstruction. re-construction. Some of the specialties were particularly acUve; and the supply sup-ply of stocks generally is scarce, the advance thus far having brought out little or no investment holdings. On" element of strength is the new buying demand on the part of those having made fortunes during the war. There is still a large amount of funds thu.j derived awaiting investment, and in this connection not a little foreign cap ital of the same sort has lately come Into this market. Slowly but surely business is getting back to more normal nor-mal conditions. Price fixing is gradually grad-ually waninc in popularity and power. The experiences of the last few years have given believers in government control of industry some very serious shocks; the radicals arc declining in power, and the number who desire to see trade and industry go back into established natural operations is stead lly increasing. Of course, we are still in the midst of a vpry unsettled reconstruction recon-struction period, which Is likely to continue con-tinue indefinitely for months to come. But In spite of this, the draft is toward to-ward more hopeful and more settled conditions and better things are expected ex-pected from the incoming congress. "The local money market is fairly supplied with funds; and the forthcoming forthcom-ing government loan will have slight effect, bavin? been anticipated by issue is-sue of treasury notes to almost the full amount of the loan. The chief problem prob-lem in financing the Victory bond is-j is-j sue will be in transferring the loan! from banks to investors. This must be accomplished, and will have to be done through an appeal to reason rather rath-er than to patriotism, which did its full share in previous drives. The new loan will prove a really attractive investment in-vestment and should be absorbed b the public with confidence. If the public pub-lic fails to do its share, the banks will be unable to give that same public pub-lic the accommodation it usually requires. re-quires. It will, therefore, be good business to relieve the banks of a load which does not legitimately belong to them." |