Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 3, Number 4, DeMotte, Jasper County, 8 June 1933 — BUSINESS IS BETTER. [ARTICLE]

BUSINESS IS BETTER.

Business is on the up-grade. This is not prophecy, but fact. Improvement has been registered in various basic industries--steel, copper, hogs, wheat, corn, department store sales, etc. Recently the New York Times index of industrial activity advanced for the seventh consecutive week to the highest point in 17 months. A good sign is the estimate for the U. S. winter wheat crop--337,-485,000 bushels. This is 40 percent smaller than the 1921-30 average smallest since 1904. It will be 45,000,000 bushels short of United State consumption. Prices jumped as soon as the official estimate was made public; the farmer smiled. Interesting fact--it is not unusual for short wheat crops and resulting higher prices, to signify the breaking of depressions. The trade picture is thus definitely optimistic. Low of depression was touched in June-July of last year. Since then the three general barometers--index of business activity, index of commodity prices, stock prices--have been moving up with occasional reactions. For two months progress has been uninterrupted. The net business gain is said to be close to 25 per cent.