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Show i-r W tex M-a I FAR Thli map represents business conditions in every sbite in tb? Union as set forth in the November number of Nation's Business, otlicia publication of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States Wuhlnelon. D. C. Business! rather more optimistic views ufi developments at home and abroad combined to make September one of the most historical business periods since the stock market crash two years ano, says Frank Greene In his monthly business review In Nation's Business Magazine, Mag-azine, published by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Important international devel-opments devel-opments for the month recorded In the review were: "The temporary suspension ot the gold standard in Great Britain, Brit-ain, the Scandinavian countries and others, which were forced either tc consider or to anopt dollar exchange as a basis for international in-ternational trade. "The changing over the British mlnlstery from a labor govern , ment to a National cabinet. 'The decision to reduce the dole In Britain. "The pushing of silver to tha front as a possible contestant with gold as a money metal or to supplement gold in countries which had abandoned It earlier "The large takings of gold by Europe from this country. "The reported advance in prices of commodities in England, and the reverse of this as to price in this country. "The changing of several South American countries from a sterling to a dollar basis. "The apparent stoppage oi Chinese civil strife in the face of difficulties with Japan in Manchuria." Man-churia." At home, events for the month were usually significant, in the opinion of Mr. Greene "Large American industries," he says, "apparently abandoned the effort to maintain scales of rates of wages. Wages of hundreds of thousands of workers were cut, the iron and steel industries leading. lead-ing. Important changes of control con-trol of big banking interests followed the sharp decline in some stocks and there was a notable easing off of commocity prices with new low levels registered regis-tered for most products of manufacture manu-facture and of agriculture. "Hot weather was cited as a reason for delayed expansion of retail trade, while wholesale trade hesitated and both branches showed less than normal expansion. expan-sion. Industry and collections actually declined. Railroad interests in-terests finally reached agreement on the make-up of respective systems of eastern carriers while waiting for a decision on their appeal for higher rates. Export trade from this country, at the lowest point in years in August, was disturbed by the new conditions condi-tions facing it. Imports, similarly similar-ly at a low point, were expected to expand because of changes In monetary conditions. "Altogether September was a 'high fequency' month in business but ther was a feeling that the air was being cleaved and that the situation generally was no worse if not indeed better for the bringing into the open of thi various var-ious troubles. To an increasing extent, men of experience and Judgment are stressing a need of saner view of the real situation and the fact that in the stock market, which gets credit for depressing de-pressing all other lines of endeavor, en-deavor, prices are in many cases down below real values. Commodity Commo-dity prices, they are pointing out, are in most case certainly close to the bottom for all modern times. "Exports in August were the smallest since September 1914 and Imports were the smallest since November 1915. Exports fell to 165 million dollars, a de-crfHSf de-crfHSf cf 4 per cent. Ir.:porW fL.'l to 16i million dollars, o ('.: creas.! ct 23.9 per cent from the '.i'.t incnth a yenr ago. xj. Ts ueri off S6 per cent and imports Si per cent from August 1923 F i c'ht months, c: )-frts were 37 poi c "t and imports 33 per ceru low-r than in the same per- 'd cf 1830, with total., of both the lowest since 1914 and 1915 respectively. res-pectively. The decrease from 1929, the peak year recently, was 51 per cent in each case. "Crude materials and crude foods showed the greatest proportional pro-portional decreases in exports and imports. Manufactured foods showed a gain in imports for August. Fifty-one per cent of our exports and 25 per cent of imports for eight months were finished manufactured goods. August grain and cotton exports were only one-third of thosi of last year. The larger-than-a-year-ago movement abroad of our cotton ceased with August after lasting since March. "While all the farm produce moved to new lows, the relative strength of wheat prices attracted attrac-ted some notice and gave rise to this cerc-al for the long pull. True, wheat prices eased off in the general weakness and new low ranges were visible in the deferred de-ferred months, but two factors operated to lend some support. "First of these was the realized reduction of area devoted to this grain in the southern hemisphere this year and particularly in surplus-producing Argentina p.na Australia, with the prospect that the winter-wheat area in this counry will be voluntarily reduced perhaps 12 to 16' per cent. It was expected that the decrease will be larger rather than smaller than thought likely a while ago. "The second factor was (he fact that with wheat so low, the tendency is toward a heavy utilization uti-lization of this grain for animal feeding, although not perhaps as heavy as in the drouth year 1930 Such feeding must continue in and necessity ruled in this respect when corn production was short some force until the new com crop is available. Hot or dry weather or both in parts of the northwestern corn belt reduced the earlier indicated estimates of wn yield "As to the general crop prospect pros-pect it may be said thai the averages are not as truly descriptive des-criptive this year as in others. The big gams will be furnished by a relatively few crops, such as vmter wheat,- u i n. cotton unj .ipii.c- Spring wr.eat, oats, 'jar-le.. 'jar-le.. . l.-i:io and sonar beets she:; Inrjx decreases i'nd potatoes, tobacco, to-bacco, hay and rice only small changes. While cereal crops us a whole show a good gain n the ayi.Tcf.Ui; over 1! 3G the yl-Vd of corn alone more than exp'v.tjj the twil iiicivbi-o. '.'.'lie trouble with tho .'orir. sL::ilion this year however is not one of yield but cf prices paid for the crops as a whole. The .omuio' I feed crops is 11 vc crnt abovi a year p.go and i-.n-nage of all c- ops is perhaps tdi per cent better. Prices pari Xc. all 'arm produce except fruits a of ryptciMl'ev 15. however, are the lowest of record since 1910, r.-.-i-oi-aiiig to the ju.ricultural i.e-partr.i' i.e-partr.i' i t Many ire really Im er than in any year since 1303, the previous low year. "The iron and steel trades have been at close to low ebb all year, but in late September, after the wage reductions, the capacity-employed capacity-employed rose a little. The effects ef-fects of the 'staggered' employment, employ-ment, in operation among some leading industrial companies, may be understood when it is said that national employment statistics stati-stics as a whole for August showed show-ed a decline of 21 per cent from a year ago, while poy rolls fell 37.2 per cent. Production of petroleum, because be-cause of proration, is decreasing in this country while consumption is increasing. In August petroleum petrol-eum consumption gained 4.7 per cent, and gasoline consumption 5 4 per cent, over the like month a year ago. A leading oil interest inter-est estimates that a decrease of 60 million barrels in production in the United States and Venezuela Vene-zuela will be partly offset by a gain of 32 million barrels in Russia, Rus-sia, Rumania and Persia and that the net decrease in world production in 1930 will be a little less than three per cent. "This year so far has seen a record number of bank suspensions, suspen-sions, closings and mergers. Federal Fed-eral Reserve Board totals for eight months reveal an increase of 53 per cent in number aAd 17(V per cent in deposits in suspended banks over these of a year ago With the large number indicated for September it is practically certain that last year's twelve-, months record cf 1,345 bank suspensions sus-pensions will be surpassed this year and that probably seven o tight per cent of the country's banks will this year lose their identity by merger or perman-. ent.ly disappear. "There was not the usual snap to wholesale trade in September. This gained only a fraction of the seasonal rise and in volumes was well below September a year ago. Retail trade gained slightly slight-ly less than a year ago. Industry declined as a whole whereas a year ago there was a fractional gain, the decrease this year being perhaps three per cent. Collections Collec-tions eased off considerably, some of this possibly due to the numerous suspensions of banks. The really decided gain of tho month, in fact, was in crops, being be-ing especially marked in corn and cotton. "August automobile production 187,197 cars and trucks was the smallest of any month since January, but the September production pro-duction estimates of 175,000 units would still be above the January 1931 total of 171,848. October output is expected to be smaller than in January. In this, as in other so-called heavy lines, percentages per-centages of decieaso from a year ago tend to shrink because of tha reduced totals of last year." |