Evening Star Newspaper, January 1, 1930, Page 35

THE EVENING STAR, BUSY YEAR IN EUROPE HAS BEEN WITHOUT STARTLING SURP LINK BETWEEN BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT SHOWN Warning of Federal Reserve Board in WASHINGTON, D. €, Realm of Credit Chief Cleav- age During 1929. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. O year since the war has illus- trated the interdependence of Government and business more clearly than 1929. This is not saying that business worked in harmony with the Government or that the Government discovered any new community of interest with busi- ness, but simply that a clash of view- | points became far more apparent and the need for reconciliation more evi- dent in the year just closed than at any time since industry was mobilized for war purposes. | The outstanding cleavage was in the | realm of credit, where the warning of | the Federal Reserve Board. issued February, was received with hostility which created widespread cynicism and | in some instances total disregard. The | battle between the Federal Reserve sys- | tem and the speculators ended in Octo- | ber in a disastrous rout, not merely for | the speculators but for the innocent bystanders. | Business had several other clashes | with the Government, among them the | organization of the Federal Farm Board, | which naturally developed difficulties in | the Government's aid to agricultural groups and co-operatives which invaded operations previously conducted by mid- dlemen. Also serious differences of opinion have arisen with respect to the award of mail contracts to companies | which bought some of the Government lines on the theory that the mail con- tracts would be a form of subsidy. | Perhaps the most spectacular incident was the tariff controversy, in which | business was split into many camps, as | was also the governmental side. The| lack of harmony as between groups in- | side the Republican party and the dif- ferences of opinion between the Presi- dent and Congress have not served to develop mutual confidence as between business and the Government. and the problem is by no means secttled. Conflict Over Specuiation. ‘The most vital conflict, however, was with respect to the use of Federal Re- serve credit for speculative purposes. | ‘The Federal Reserve Board took the position that the Federal Reserve act obligated the Federal Reserve system to conserve its credit “to accommodate business and commerce,” and that any- thing which interfered with such ac- | commodation was properly within the Jurisdiction of the board, or at least within the domain of its moral influ- ence. The technicalities of legal power were not much discussed, but no doubt exists. now that the Federal Reserve Foard did exert pressure on the mem- be: banks of the Federal Reserve tcm and prevented the lending of funds through the rediscount privilege if such | funds were to go into speculative uses. | ‘The Reserve Board established a pre cedent, however, which will be impor- tant for many years to come. It set | forth that the Federal Reserve !ysteml could and would find some way to con- | trol the uses of credit. The funda- | mental principle that the Federal Re- | serve system should furnish elasticity has always been accepted, but the warn- ings issued by the TFederal Reserve Board in February were regarded as un- | i warranted interference, because it was | ha found that a large part of the funds| used in speculation did not come from | the Federal Referve member banks, but | from corporations and individuals who were lending their own money at their own risk. The question has since arisen | es to the true position of a corporation | ‘which lends its stockholders’ money in the call-money market and operates | very much as a bank, but without the | supervision which the Federal and State | governments exercise over bank de- | Pposits. | It is true that the bankers were dis- turbed by the shrinkage of deposits, due to the fact that corporations and individuals had loaned their money for use in the stock market or actually| speculated therin. | Like all years since the war, there was | about to enter an era of unemployment | and soup kitchens. As a matter of fact, | during the months of highest prosperity | the phenomenon of unemployment ex- isted, much to the bewilderment of the economists. It was explained on the ground that business and industry of | | the United States has been in a con- | j stant state of readjustment, and that | mergers and the labor-saving devices, as | well as the transfer of plants from one | | section of the country to the other, have | Automotive and Radio Changes. There were two major industries in which an economic change was coming, | anyway, and which suffered in the last few months of 1929. These were the automotive and radio industries, re- | spectively, for as early as last Spring there were readjustments in the motor | industry following the success of the Ford sales campaign and some keen competition among the higher priced cars, which caused the leaders of the motor industry to look to foreign| markets. i Foreign trade is not accomplished overnight, annd while substantial prog- | ress is being made, it is a fact that the best years of the motor industry in the foreign field are yet to come. The difii- | culty with the ragio industry has been | overproduction of radio sets. Such slack in labor and purchases of raw material peculiar to the radio | and automobile industry may be taken | up by the stimulus to be given in con- | struction in other fields. During the last 10 years there has aiways been an industry or two in difficulty every year. | General business has weathered these | individual storms, although here and there a particular section would be af- | fected. ~ Construction was suffering through the tight moncy, which de- | prived real estate of one of its princi- val pillars of support. With the return of cheap money, first mortgage notes ore again expected to be en attractive nvestment, as they were in the past Stimulating Shipbuilding. th f tomobile industry will be made up by the needs of construction as well as by shipbuilding. The new shipping policy of the Government is stimulating the construction of merchant ships, and 1930 is expected to be particularly ac- tive in the shipyards, When once the railroad consolidation n of the Interstate Commerce Com- ion is thoroughly digested, as it | ill be in the early part bf 1930, it may be expected that the railroads will go ahead more definitely with their own plans for expansion. Electrification is coming, and th: consolidation program is expected to result in various econ- omies to the roads, enabling them to | take care of the increased freight of | the next decade. The Government program for the development of inland | waterways is also proceeding so that the transportation needs of the Nation may be caid to be well cared for in the | planning that is being done. Government aid to the aviation in- | dustry, which is in its pioneer stages, is | ving a marked effect not necessarily on the development of quick communi- cation by mail but in the opening up of hitherto inaccessible towns, villages | and regions. The airmail has already accounted for much saving of interest | in the transfer of checks by the banks. | Government_regulation of busses is forecast for 1930 as a mcans of stab- | ilizing that business. There are other problems such as the creation of a communications division to supervise telephone, radio and telegraph compa- nies and suggestions looking toward co-operation between State and Federal Governments in the handling of inter- state power transmission. While all of these may not be enacted in 1930, they reveal the increased part the Govern- | ment is playing in modern business. Entirely apart from the regulatory | on inclination to reach out for some Side are the important researches being | method of finding a formula whereby | carried on Lere and some intensive sur- the money market could b> held at a, Veys which are designed to increase the proper equilibrium. It is admitted now /momentum of American industry and that the making of cheap money in | business. The Department of Commerce 1927 was responsible in large part for has become the most important single the speculative era. |agency in the Government itself gather- Federal Reserve Bill Policy. { During the vear 1929, on the other | hand, the Federal Reserve Board de- | cided' to make use of the so-called bill | policy. It means the purchase of bank- | ers’ acceptances, which are instruments of credit, certified by two or more banks, | and which represent transactions in transit. The old form of commercial | paper has diminished materially in Guantity, and it has been found that the purchase of Government securities in | the open market by the Federal Reserve | Eas only limited uses in adjusting the credit situation. | The purchase of bankers’ acceptances by the Federal Reserve system was be- gun in June, but the bills were rare, and it has taken some time for accept- ances to be more widely recognized. There was also an awkward interrela- tionship between the price of the bills and the discount rate. For a while the | bill rate was slightly in excess of the discount rate. After the stock market crash the much-desired readjustment in rates came. The discount rate was promptly lowered, and the rate for bankers’ acceptances fell below the dis- count rate. As the year 1930 approaches, the eredit situation is in better shape than it has been for three years. The bill policy is believed to be an eflective method of control, 5o that money can again be cheap and yet the quantity of credit held within the proper channel. The call-money market, it now is be- lieved, will be far more affected by t.e funds made available through Govern- ment sources for non-speculative uses in times of stress than it was hereto- fore. On the other hand, there prob- ably will not be much need of worry| about excessive use of funds for specu- Iation for months to come. Dramtic Aid to Business. Overshadowing everything else that the Government has done during the year 1929 was its dramatic entrance into the psychological situation which followed the stock market decline. The fact-finding agencies of the Govern- ment were set in motion to discover the true effects of the catastrophe. It was found that while there was some varia- tion from the employment of the year preceding, while purchasing power here and there fell off, the situation as whole averaged up very well so far a: 1929 itself is concerned. All the figures will show it to be a record year, but this is due largely, of course, to the peak reached in the first 10 months, industries were not inclined to shut down except for seasonal reasons. President Hoover, by summoning the business leaders to Washington, the fundam:ntal situation and helped to transfer the public thinking from an attitude of apprehension and pessimism to one of common sense optimism. It was emphasized that, after all, 1930 may prove to be a normal year, and that the public should not expect every ing facts, making special studies and | acting as a clearing house of facts for industry, to say nothing of its efforts to | bring about standardization and the |, elimination of waste. This was the original Hoover influence in Government and it derives much of | its prestige now from the fact that | the man in the White House believes thoroughly in the work the Depart- ment of Commerce is doing for business. President Hoover's Position. It is too early to say how much Mr. Hoover's position as a business man has influsnced policies cf the Government, but he has been in office long enough for his recommendations to carry con- siderable weight when they touch busi- ' ness matters. His request that Congress | approve at once the tax cut amounting | to approximately $160,000,000 was ap- | proved by an overwhelming vote of both | houses. His insistence that the Federal Farm Board be given broad powers and not be hampered by any particular formula won out in Congress. He has | met opposition on his plan to have a | flexibility clause of the tariff law re- tained, but this is a political battle which has been raging long before Mr. Hoover entered public life. | Nearly every President since the ad- | ministration of Mr. Taft has had dif- | ficulties with the tariff board idea. Both | the President and Congress are agreed on the principic of flexibility, Con- gress wants to retain control of the tariff-making power through a board that will be responsible to the legis- lative branch. Mr. Hoover wants it to be left to the discretion of the Execu- tive to proclaim tariff increases or de- | creases. | Mr. Hoover's inauguration during the | | year ‘1929 signified a continuation of | Coolidge policies and to date there has | | been no important deviation therefrom, | | although it is obvious that the Hoover and Coolidge methods are different, Mr. | Hoover has hardly gotten started, so it s too early to judge what his power is | with public opinion and he has not yet approximated the hold which Mr. Ccol- | idge had on business itself. | The important thing is that the stock | market did not wreck the confidence of | the American people in their business | structure. but on the contrary it may | be remarked that it is an ill wind which | blows no geod. It was this crisis which | ave the Government an opportunity to | develop its plans for the co-ordination of business and Government, and to synchronize industrial operations so that | | the Nation might move forward with less | dips in the business curve, fewer shocks | Other conference for limitation of naval and the fact that in the last two months | and with an equilibrium and balance. | | It is beginning to be clearly understood | | in Government circles and by the lead- | country that | fo- | many an industry needs reorganization | cused attention on the soundness of |from within; that mergers and con- | |ing economists of the | olidations are not always efficient and | that an ebuse of the anti-trust laws is | not ‘any healthier for business than a | 1ifting of all rastraints. | 'The Governments relation to busi- | ness during 1929 was broadened, hut it | was not a circumstance to what it is | vear to show a gain over the preceding ' going to be in 1930, as the helg:ulnes& of year, more to the law of averages. The difficulty was that many people | opinion on Congress for a solution of |sidiaries. Mr. Hoover has turned the in- who remembered the kind of thing that | p>nding but should confine itself much Goverrment institutions are tter un- | derstood and the pressure of publi~ problems steadily grows heppened in a panic year were ail pre- stronges. #ared to believe the United States was (Copyright, 1930.) ] Nos. 1 to 7, respectively: Sccretary of State Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Adams, Ambassador Dwight Morrow, Ambassador Charles Dawes, Senators Reed who will represent the United States at the London Naval Limitation Conference next of Pennsylvania and Robinson of Arkansas and Ambassador Hugh Gibson, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1930e * C-3 . | SOME OF THE MEN WHOSE NAMES HAVE MADE HEADLINES DURING THE PAST YEAR | | week: (8) Premier Ramsay Macdonald, head of Britain's Labor government, whose visit to America last Fall was an outstanding event in Anglo-American rela- tions; (9) Prime Minister Reijuro Wakatsuki of Japan, head of Japan's delegation to the London Naval Conference; ae) ister, Dr. Curtius, Germany's new foreign min- whose carrying out of Stresemann policies has won renewed confidence of the Reichstag; (11) Aristide Briand, who fell as premier of France but who could not be dispensed with and continues as foreign minister; (12) Andre Tardieu, French prime minister; (13) King Alexander of Serbia, who made himself dictator | and absolute monarch of his country, despite democratic institutions to the contrary; (14) Pope Piu (15) Mussolini and (16) Victor Emanuel, King of Italy, whose | Lateran treaty has endcd the 60 years’ “captivity” in the Vatican of the Pope, restoring the Vatican to its status as a state and the Pope as a temporal monarch; (17) Stalin, Russia’s dictator, whose hopes for a world revolution have not yet waned; (18) Owen D. Young, whose famous “plan” for conversion of World War debts has been adopted after months of struggle; (19) Thomas A. Edison, of light; (20) George W. Wickersham, chairman of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement, tion enforcement. the central figure in the observance during the year just closed of the “golden jubilee” which is about to make a much-heralded report on prohibi- President Hoover Spends Year Laying His Feundations BY RAY Z. HENLE, (Assoclated Press Stafl Writer.) The year 1929 has meant for Presi- dent Hoover the laying of foundations for ambitious Governmental projects, most of which may take his whole term to reach fulfillment. These affect the broad expanses of domestic affairs as well as the relations of the Ulnted States with the peoples of the world. Three forces destinted to fix more definitely the position of the United States in world 2ffairs have been set in motion. The first was the formal proclamation of the Kellogg treaty, by which virtually all of the civilized na- tions renounced war 2s an instrument of national policy. The second was the step taken toward American adherence to the World Court. The third was the negotiations which are to result in an- armament. Large Domestic Questions, Mcanwhile, at home, large questions of domestic policy have been propound- led and steps designes to solve them | taken. They ranged from prohibition {and law enforcement to conservation, |ehild welfare, control of the public do- | main, reduction of Army costs, con- tinued business stability and a gigantic |inland waterway program. Like the executive of a great industry with scores of departments and sub- | vestigations into these proplems to others, but he h2s kept in cons touch with their work. over HEDBLRT HOOVEK. —Underwood Phcto. | A promise during his campaign that legislation would be enacted to inaugu- rate farm relief and limited tariff re- vision caused an extra session of Con- gress to be called within a few weeks after the new administration came into power. Half of that program, the creation of a Federal Farm Board, has been ac- complished. The other half, tariif re- vis'on, remains after a turbulent course in the Seante. It was Mr. Hoover's relations with that branch of Congress during the nearly 10 months he has heen in office that furnished some of his most con- spicucus trials, Obtains Desired Legislation. A coalition of Democrats and inde- pendent Republicans twice ran counter to his wishes by inserting the export debenture plan in the administration’s farm rellef bill, but the President ulti- mately got-the legisaltion he desired through strong support of the House of Representatives. When the tariff bill came to the Sen- ate, the coalition again inserted the debenture plan and also differed with Mr. Hoover by seeking to terminate the arrangement by which the President now may raise or lower tariff rates up to 50 per cent upon recomm:ndation of the tariff commission. ‘The President has made loss than a dozen speeches during the year, five of them away frem Washington. A RISES | PROGRESS ABROAD GIVES HOPE OF PEACE AND PLENTY |Neither Death of Stresemann Nor Over- BY WILLIAM BJRD. ARIS, January 1—What a busy year old Europe has had! | Not a month has gone by with- | out a major event of interna- | tional importance, and yet the year has been without any startling surprises. There has been striking progress along lines that had already been laid down—and this encourages the hope that Europe has emerged from the chaos of 10 years ago and is now definitely on the march toward peace and prosperity. But it would be foolish to ignore the clashes and conflicts that | ere always latent on the old Continent | and may at any moment break out in | the most unexpected places. Germany and Prance have developed of mutual confidence and co-operation, and not even the untimely death of Stresemann nor the overthrow of the Briand cabinet has checked this move- ment in the slightest. The new Ger- man foreign minister, Dr. Curtius, has adopted Strescmann’s policy in its en- tirety, and has received an overwhelm- ing vote of confidence in the Reich- | paign of the Fescists and Royalists, who | scek to destroy the bases of the New Furope and return to the animosities of before the war. | " Brinnd's downfall as premier only served to prove how unanimous the | French nation is in approving his efforts | for peace—for in the cabinet crisis which followe#, all parties, from Left to | Right, excepting only a tiny fring> at | cach "extreme, agreed thet. whoever | might head the new government, Briand | must remain at the foreign cfficc. And | this resolution held good oven when Andre Tardieu, who once calle? Jriand’s policy that of a “dead dog di'i'ing with | the current,” took command of the | ship of state. | Two More Dictatorships. But against this consolidetion of democratic ideals in the two chief con- tinental countries, we have to set the | fact that two more countrles have been | added to the list of European dictator- ships. King Alexander of Serbia, | weary of interracial strife in the kaleidoscopic kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, swept democratic institutions into the discard, dissolved the Parliament and appointed dhimself absolute monarch. Austria, too, got tired of being the foot ball of Socialism and Fascism, and put her national affairs in the hands of the former chief of police. whose program is to make ‘the strects safe for everyl h | means decidedly unsafe for Soglalist | agitators. | O hother factor that the Continent | regards as disquieting is the return of | Labor to power in England. It's an odd thing. although British Labor claims to b: Internationalist, it has more trouble getting along with its con- tiental neighbors than the “Imperial- ist” parties do. Conservative govern- ments since the war have made friend- ship with France the corner stone of but came into power in June, has bcen pulling and hauling to get that stone out of the building, with the grave risk of bringing the whole edifice down sbout their ears. The clue to this | danwerous Labor mania is to be found v] you had resd the Labor publi- l‘a‘l?%‘n.i’ you might have thought that | England was fighting France ard not | Germany. Labor “Shines Up” to U. S. ency, Socialistic Labor has been shining up Go the most capitalist and least internationalist of all _governments, that of our own United States. Prime Minister Macdonald’s first diplomatic move was to_receive our new Ambas- sador, Gen. Dawes, at _his Losslemouth home, and then to announce that he himself would Tun over to Washington |to call on Mr. Hoover. What all this | signifies, of course, is that England’s age-old mastery of the cea is passing | into history, and if the empire is to be | | preserved it will be necessary to keep |on_the best of terms with America. One of the most picturesque hap- | penings of the year was the conclusion | of the Lateran treaty, under which the Pope, after nearly 60 years' “captivity again becomes a_temporal monarch, It cannot be said, however, that relations between Italy and the Vatican have been at all improved by this treaty— on the contrary, the differences be- tween Mussolini and Pope Pius have never been so openly declared on both sides as since the Lateran treaty was signed. The Pope flatly refuses to rec- ognize Mussolini’s_right to place all and he particularlysrebels against the Duce’s decree forbidding the church to organize the Catholic youth into Catholic Boy Scout troops, file and drum corps, sewing circles, and what not, ordaining that no such organiza- tions must exist except those officially promoted by the Fascist government. Holy City Outranks Quirinal. One_development that Mussolini ap- narently failed to foresee is that since the Pope regained his temporal power the principal governments of the world tow maintain two full-fledged em- bassics in Rome, and that in most cases they regard the embassy to the Vatfcan as outranking the embassy to the Quirinal. This places Rome, the than the Rome of the Caesars, now ruled by Caesar Augustus Dux Musso- lini, and creates a most irritating situ- stion. ‘The adoption of the Young plan, after months of patient labor by the pick of the world’s banking brains, is of course the most important thing that has happened on the international cal- endar of 1929. The idea of the is to convert the political debts created by the peace treaties into commercial debts, {. e., to give the investing public a chance to underwrite the reparations payments due from Germany and her allies to her ex-enemies. What hap- pens is that Germany gives promigsory notes for her future reparations to the international bank of payments set up by the Young plan. The bank cuts | these notes up into handy sizes to fit | every pocketbook and sells them to the | ., turning the proceeds over to France, England, Italy, et al. When that is done everybody “ppy: the | allied governments have the money, Germany's Rhine provinces are evacu- | ated, the public draws generous interest on its outley. There are two possible hitches in | this scheme. The first is immediate: Will the investing public buy the paper? The slump in the American market since October has created some strin- gency which impairs the prospects for the United States, and it is no secret that Europe hopes most of the money to underwrite Germany's debt will come from this side of the water. The other hitch is remoter: It is the possi- bility. that some day Germany may voluntarily or involuntarily default on the notes. The last of the notes are not due for more than half a century, and a lot of things can happen in 50 years. Russia Still a Thorn. That thorn that has been sticking uncomfortably into Europe's side for 12 years—I mean Soviet Russia—doesn't " scem to get any blunter with time. It and consolidated the Democratic policy | stag, despite the almost incredible cam- | their foreign policy, but Labor, since it | |in the Labor party's wartime pasificm, | To cap its internationalist inconsist- | | | | | | munistic than ever. | abandoned the scheme for world revo- education in the hands of the State, | Jeoked ot ths beginning of this year as if Ruscla were b years the gradual growth operative impulse and method among oil men and has coveted the day when they would meet the common problems with a common purpose must be deeply floating any vast part of this paper xmfimhfi t:ec:fr;c”:“;ei‘l‘lctg ,Co-operation throw of Briand Has Checked Aims of Germany-‘and France. the direction of capitalism. Trotzky was expelled from Russia because Stalin, the dictator, couldn't bear being taunted by him for selling out the “bourgeois,” but after getting rid of Trotzky, Stalin immediately adopted all or most of Trotzky's ideas, with the result that Russia today is more com- And Stalin hasn't lution, either. He regards the present reletions with capitalistic nations as a necessary but temporary evil, while waiting for the great day when the red flag will fly over Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower and. eventually, the White House. Lots of Russian com- munists think_world revolution s a chimera, but Stalin doesn’t think so, | and his opinion is the only one that counts in Russia today. “United States of Europe.” It wouldn't do to pass over without mentioning the interesting fact that in 1929 for the first time a statesman in high office definitely proposed the or- ganization of a United States of Eu- rope. It's not a new idea, but Briand's coming out with it on the Geneva hust- ings takes it out of the realm of theory and makes it a political fact to be reckoned with. It's not a simple mat- ter by any means to organize such an institution. It can't b2 done as it was done in America, where the 13 colonies had a common language, common po- litieal institutions and equivalent cul- tural backgrounds. But already much progress is being made toward the uni~ fication of European industry and elim- ination of competition between Euro- pean nations in world markets. ‘This is something that may make America pause and consider before very long. We have become accustomed to think of Europe as old and decrepit as compared with our modernized in- dustrial methcds, but it must not be forgotten that much of Europe’s indu | trial equipment is new since the v Europe, too. got a big start on us in aviation, and 1929 saw some tremendcus feats accomplished in the air by Euro- pean prowess. Let the world flight of the Graf Zeppelin and the startling performance of the giant hydroplane Do-X stand as reminders that European enterprise is by no means to be sneered at. Another Big Naval Conference. The year ends with another big naval limitation conference in prospect. Prophets are telling us that the London parley in January, which will bring to- gether the world's b'ggest naval powers, Body—which | Will fail in its main chject of finding a universally acceptable ‘“yardstick.” to use Ambassador Dawes’ term, for mess- uring fleets with a view to reduc-tion of expenditures for all cl: of ships, They say that America and Britain will agree, and bably an, tco, but that France will hold out for more sub-~ marines and cruisers than the Anglo- Saxon powers want her to have, and that Franco-Italian rivalry in the Medi- terranean will make unanimous agree- ment on anything whatever absolutely impossible. The picture might be darkened still further by pointing out that Britain's insistence on having as many ships in the Mediterranean as France and Iialy together is at least as much of an ob- stacle to naval reduction as the claims of the rival Medt can powers themeelves. Surprise May Be in Prospect. But suppose the peseimistie prophets thould be wrong? Suppose France and Italy spring a surprise? There is at least half a chance that when the con- ference convenes on January 21 it will be found that Premiers Mussolini and Tardieu have been having some ex- changes of views. Italy is in a bad way financially, and is not likely to oppose any sound scheme for saving money on shipbuilding, and M. Tardieu is a new man in French politics, who has amply shown aiready that he believes in find- ing new ways out of old difficulties ‘The London conference will be jn one sence the touchstone of Europe's futurs, If it succeeds beyond our timid hopes. it will mark a big uphill milestone on the road out of chaos to world organi- zation. (Copyright, 1930.) BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT SEEN BY-U. S. STEEL HEAD 1930 to Be Good Average Year, ‘With Stable Prices and Wages, J. A. Farrell Predicts. “It is confidently expecied that after | the turn of the year operations in the steel industry will improve substan- tially,” James A. Farrell, president of the United States Steel Corporation, says. “In heavier products, such as rail- ‘way materials, structural steel for build- ings, bridges and ships, there is a large | demand even at this season of the year, with prospects of a capacity demand in the near future. The release of public and private work and new construction for utilities in varicus lines will b2 felt soon, aside from which, steel for general purposes will supplement the heavier line tonnages. There has been no in- flation in prices, inventories nor in capacity. and there is no apparent rea- son why 1930 should not be a good average year, with stable prices and Holy City, on a plane somewhat higher | wages.” PETROLEUM INDUSTRY HAS PROSPEROUS YEAR Head of Oil Company Makes Ob- servation in Reviewing Activi- ties During 1929, “The petroleum industry has enjoyed in 1929 a year of orderly prosperity,” William G. Skelly, president of the Skelly Ofl Co., says. “The industry is now demonstrating its ability to main- tain a wholesome condition in which the supply of petroleum is held in bal- ance with the demand and prices are held with reasonable consistency upon a level fair alike to the indusiry and to its customers. “Such a condition obviously is bene- ficial to users of petroleum products, as well as to the industry itseif. Nobody is ever permanently benefited by de- moralization and waste. “One who has watched for many of a co- FINDS NEW ENGLAND MORE PROGRESSIVE New England industry as a whole hes adopted a policy in keeping with the rogressive trend of the times, accord- P ing to Edward F. Gerish, government business specialist, in a comprehensive study of the commercial structure of that area, issued by the Commerce De- partment. constitutes the second part of a survey of New Eng'and undertal quest and with the co-op: °ginning to evolve in NQw England Council The ~department report