Show national affairs by FRAN K P LITSCHERT no matter what we may think as individuals divi duals as to the extent ot of the deprea slon and the length ol of the road we have yet to travel before we shall start up out 0 of the valley it must be admitted even evea by the pessimists that there are now certain constructive factors apparent which could not be discerned a few short months ago to realize the change in n international in ter national psychology we have to think back only a short distance in national arid and world straits affairs only a lew few short months a ago go it 1 looked ked as though the predictions ot of the extreme pessimists passi mists to the effect that the end ot of modern capitalist society had been reached wele eie not far out of the way central 1 europe seemed to be sinking into fanan c caal 1 chaos b it t sl seemed emed that germany might be forced ta repudiate all debts both public and private and that great too was in for bankruptcy what seemed like the final straw came with the abandonment of the gold standard by great britain conditions condit ons in n the united I 1 states seemed little better great bri bains apparent collapse was followed by what atiat amounted to a financial panic here banks were soon closing by the dozens I 1 and europe was withdrawing its ita gold efrom from america as rapidly y as possible poss abl e I 1 but now a new year has gotten under I 1 way and while we are still in the trough of the depression and there Is no appreciable improvement in actual business conditions it must be admitted that there are signs of hope on the horizon that were not apparent a tew few months ago in great britain especially has there come improvement that nation Is balancing its budget it has paid off the greater part ot of the money it borrowed from the united states and france in III an effort to bolster the gold standard in england sterling is going up on the world markets and british employment 1 Is picking g up due to the adoption of the p protective e tariff and the safeguarding of ithe the english market for home industries in the united states the closing of banks teems beems to have been definitely checked the idock market has established what the experts call a triple bottom and tor for the post past three or tour four months has seemed dis inclined to go any lower while there has been a distinct improvement in the bond market always the first signs ot of stability while many raw commodities modi ties do not yet seem to have reached the 0 bottom 0 om it la is true rue that a the a decline ec tie has greatly slackened and wheat remains above the low price established last lall fall which would seem to be a good sign or of stabilization in that important commodity j it seemed that last year all the ns was bad news especially that which came from europe now mow we are getting an encouraging dispatch from across thoi the waters occasionally asio nally among the construe I j tive factors have been the th new national lat government in great britain the decline of hoarding in fit europe the constructive tive program put under way in the j united states with the consequent clear ing of the financial skies and the tendency ol of securities and commodities to 1 establish a bottom I 1 i of course we are not out of the woods yet we wm will doubtless have many ups and downs before we get on the highway 0 i o of f prosperity once more the pessimists say that the improvement Is only temporary due to desperate remedies taken by the federal government to business like oxygen administered to the patient who la Is critically ill as a last desperate hope nevertheless there are encouraging cou raging signs on the horizon and WO we are now beginning to see that the pessimists who a lew few months ago predicted the end of our modern modem business structure were as far wrong as the optimists who in 1929 told us that hard times and bear markets were gone forever |