Current Situation

Business has proved monotonous and dispiriting.

The chief element making for change or improvement so far is cheap money, and from present prospects this factor seems unlikely to change for many months. Gold imports still pour into the country, and the banks are more concerned to lend than borrowers are to sorrow. Flotation of new securities las as yet been insufficient to absorb the slack.

Public utilities and railroads are in high feather; their stocks are rising steadily in Wall Street; they are planning elaborate and significant mergers. But industrial concerns are very much in the trough of depression, as conditions in the basic and typical steel and iron industry go to show.

As yet drastic cuts in wages and salaries have been avoided, and this public buying of general merchandise has not been severely affected. Indeed, with the better conditions on the farms, mail order sales have made a good showing.