FINANCIAL COMMENT

STRONG FEATURES OF THE

PRESENT MARKET

During the Liberty Loan campaign there was comparatively little liquidation in the bond market. Transactions in bonds on the New York Stock Exchange were small in volume.

Following are the prices for April 6, May 4 and 7, respectively:

924 93%2

Am. Tel. & Tel. Col. 5s.... 91%

. In the majority of cases prices were higher on the closing day of the Liberty Loan than they were when the campaign was opened, April 6.

MILLIONS OF NEW BOND-BUYERS While the official figures on the Third Liberty Loan are not available as we go to press, it is fairly certain that there are between 17,000,000 and 20,000,000 subscribers. Not less than seventy-five per cent of this number are new bond-buyerspeople who are just learning what a bond is. Before the war not more than four or five millions of our population knew what a bond was. The declaration of peace and the end of Liberty Loans will be followed by a broadening demand for sound securities, for public utility, industrial, railway, and municipal bonds. Buying bonds is a habit. The investment consciousness of our people is being awakened as never before. SAVINGS BANKS AND THE LIBERTY LOANS

Some savings bank officials, in the face of declining markets for the securities which constitute their assets, have naturally felt some little apprehension over the danger of withdrawals by depositors who are buying bonds of the Liberty Loan. If we may judge by the experiences of the other warring nations, there should be little or no occasion for any such fears. And the reports of the Postal Savings system show an increase in deposits at the very time of Liberty Bond subscriptions.

Europe has learned the absolute neces sity for economy and thrift to an efficient prosecution of the war. This lesson is being brought home to the American people, and is resulting in economy and thrift throughout the United States. Basing the prediction on the experiences of England, France, Canada, and Australia, we may look for increased savings bank deposits. If the experiences of other countries are of any value, it may be expected that the savings banks of this country will quickly recover any withdrawals due to present and future Liberty Loans and will face conditions no more adverse than those temporarily experienced in other countries. In fact, there is every possibility that the close of the war will find savings bank deposits in the United States larger than in April, 1917.

CROP REPORT

The Government crop report indicates that the United States will produce the third largest wheat crop in our history. A fa

Financial Comment (Continued) vorable spring has followed a discouraging winter. If the United States produces a billion bushels of wheat this year, a great victory will have been won on American soil.

The crop report is optimistic, not only with respect to wheat, rye, and bay (crops which are already growing), but also with respect to spring plowing and planting, both of which are in excess of the previous year and in excess of the ten-year average. All this means unprecedented prosperity for farmers and for the country at large.

FEDERAL FARM LOAN
ACTIVITIES

The Government, through the Federal Land Banks, is financing the farmer to an extent previously unheard of. In fact, the activities of the Federal Land Banks seem unfortunately to have aroused a degree of antagonism among certain Kansas bankers, who have apparently sought to discredit the integrity of the Federal Land Bank bonds. The Farm Loan Board in a recent statement asserts that a group of Kansas bankers has obtained from local records and made public particulars as to 2,000 loans made by the Federal Land Bank of Wichita. The information gathered together indicates that the aggregate of these loans amounts to seventy-three per cent of the assessed valuation of the properties mortgaged.

The fact is that in Kansas assessments of farm lands average about two-thirds of actual values. The propaganda came to the attention of a North Dakota banker, who wrote to the Farm Loan Board as follows: "If this article were based on conditions in North Dakota, it would be extremely misleading and unjust, for the reason that the assessed valuations here are invariably from twenty per cent to thirty per cent of actual value, in spite of the fact that the law says that real property shall be assessed at its full value."

It is not likely that the propaganda in question has the support of the majority of farm mortgage bankers.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. As between Southern Pacific Convertible 4 per cent bonds and Atchison 5 per cent preferred stock, which would you recommend as the better purchase?

A. Both are attractive at present market prices. There can be little question about the safety of the dividend on Atchison preferred. The company earned 15 per cent on its common stock in 1917.

Southern Pacific Convertible 4s are the obligation of the company, the obligation implying the payment of the regular interest and principal at maturity (1929). Southern Pacific Convertible 4s are not secured by mortgage on fixed property, and are in a sense a preferred stock. The convertible privilege expires this year, and is not apt to have any value. Southern Pacific also earned 15 per cent on its common stock in 1917.

With Atchison preferred at 82, at which the yield is 6% per cent, and Southern Pacific Convertible 4s at 7934, at which the yield is 65% per cent, the latter would certainly yield more income.

Q. Would you advise purchasing the West Penn Power Company First Mortgage 5 per cent bonds for permanent investment?

A. This property is in excellent condition, earnings are increasing steadily, and the bond is, in our judgment, protected by substantial equities. It is, in our opinion, a sound and conservative investment.

ESTABLISHED 18651|||

ESTABLISHED 1865

Investments Secured

by Essential Industries Netting 64% to 8%

Such unusually attractive rates are made possible by present conditions and great demand for capital from industries essential to victory.

Farming, mining of coal, the manufacture of steel, paper

and labor-saving equipment are typical of such industries.

In investing your surplus funds, it is for the best interests of your country to choose sound securities of this character. Denominations of $100, $500 and $1,000.

Write for circular No. 1006-Z.

Peabody, Houghteling & Co.

(ESTABLISHED 1865)

10 South La Salle Street Chicago

(B113)

ESTABLISHED 1865 |||||||

WHEN

ESTABLISHED 1865

FEED THE FRENCH CHIL-
DREN

The following letter and cablegram (the latter sent after the terrible battles in Picardy) came from the President of the "Petit Ouvroir" in Paris to the treasurer of that fine relief organization in New York City:

We have simply fallen upon the stuffs as they arrived, our little committee of the Petit Ouvroir, as though we were the cold and clothesless refugees, the aged, and the bitterly poor. Everything has been immediately wanted. All old clothes and, most of all, shoes vanish like the dew before the sun. There is not a stuff or an article that does not seem to be wanted by some one at once. Our quarter is growing more condensed every day with the continuous flow of refugees into Paris. Can you imagine what it means to our harassed souls to have those cases arrive?

You have all made such splendid things possible! With money here and money there, little by little, we have tided over and reconstructed health and opportunity in one family after another, never letting any one out of our sight who has once crossed our path; getting always at the very heart of things, giving what was needed; and for the rest holding firmly, educating, sympathizing, employing.

What would you think of Paris to-day, I wonder? Once again we are in a quite new phase since our men in khaki arrived. That wonderful purely French atmosphere that pervaded Paris during the first year, passing somewhat with the increasing arrival of the British, has now wholly disappeared, and the town is once more cosmopolitan in the manhood of every Allied nation and the uniforms of every country and service.

Our men are making an excellent impression. General Pershing is liked by everybody and universally respected, and he gives the impression, as his organizing is watched, of high executive ability, of direct military method, and of the personal charm and adroitness that win both friends and ends easily in his huge task.

As I wrote you in August, nothing in all the war has stirred one's sense of potent, historical fact as the arrival on French soil and English of our soldiers. It is so absolutely the token of our National new birth, and it will be grandiose in the sweep of its fulfillment. No ancient crusade has ever touched it in quality, in purpose, in vision. We shall blunder, of course, being human and most fallible, with more problems to the minute than any other nation on earth; but I glory in our deep-hearted youth, our splendid vitality, our lavish

and HOW generosity, our eagerness to learn, our

constructive instinct.

I am proud, so proud, of the initiative of our women on your side of the sea. Every letter and all news tell of your splendid co-operation.

ALICE TRUSLOW CONKLING. Paris, France.

A cablegram dated April 3 reads: Plead for ten thousand dollars. Send at once, and feed Paris children-most important-get it. ALICE CONKLING.

This need follows the rush of refugees into Paris since the last great battle. It must be met. Will you help? Contributions may be sent, and we hope without delay, to Miss Elizabeth Eames, Treasurer, Le Cercle Rochambeau, 25 West Fortyfifth Street, New York City.

BY THE WAY

Finding pleasant things to say about the Germans is at present a difficult task, but the Cumberland (Iowa) " Enterprise" has accomplished the seemingly impossible. Speaking of the work in the town for the Liberty Loan, it says: "School District No 1, with Emke Euken and John D. Martens as solicitors, made the best record, with a total of almost $7,000. Almost every man in District No. 1 is a German, and they certainly did fine." Why are such people not Americans?

The "Enterprise" also tells of the work of a patriotic Iowa rooster in getting subscriptions for the Red Cross. Mark Dunkerson, of Fontanelle, Iowa, it says, was the original owner of the rooster. He gave the bird as a donation to a Red Cross sale. When it was sold, the new owner donated it back to the Red Cross. This was on December 15 last. Since then the rooster, Jack Pershing by name, has been sold hundreds of times. A child could own him for a few seconds for $1, a woman for $2, but it cost a man $10 to own him temporarily. Up to April 13 Jack had been sold for $22,108.30. By summer it is expected that he will have raised $100,000 for the Red Cross.

An Irishman's quick wit and good humor secured a life job for him with the late Charles A. Dana, as told in the New York "Sun's" story of itself now being printed in its Sunday issues. Mr. Dana needed a stenographer. Tom Williams applied for the job. "Can you write as fast as I talk?" Mr. Dana asked. "I doubt it, Mr. Dana," replied Williams; "but I can write as fast as any man ought to talk." For twenty years after that Tom Williams transcribed articles that delighted the readers of the "Sun."

The Business Opportunities" columns of the daily papers sometimes present offers that seem too extravagant for even the most unwary to "bite at. Why, for instance, should this advertiser want a paltry $15,000:

Party wanted with $15,000 to $40,000; advertisers own $10,000,000 unincumbered raw material; unlimited demand, enormously profitable; Greater Manhattan mortgages given guaranteeing investment. Address

etc.

A writer on the war's great personalities raises the question as to the mental reaction from the physical infirmities or peculiarities that have marked celebrated warriors. Napoleon's egoism, he says, was probably exaggerated by his physical insignificance; Tamerlane, the Asiatic conqueror, notable for his ferocity, was lame; and the Kaiser has a withered arm. To this list of maimed warriors might be added Nelson, who early in his career lost an eye and then an arm. Celebrated generals who had no such "reactions," on the other hand, were Alexander, Cæsar, Cromwell, Wellington, Washington, and Lee. And at least one Roman Emperor, it will be recalled, was raised to the throne because of his magnificent physique, though his “reactions" in the direction of cruelty led to his assassination by his own soldiersMaximin, who is said to have exceeded eight feet in stature.

The shopkeepers of Third Avenue, New York City, have a feeling that their wares are about as good as any, but that they sell them at a very much smaller price than the Fifth Avenue merchants get. "On Fifth Avenue you have to pay for the name," is

their saying. A recent experience seems to justify their belief. An umbrella rib had been broken; it cost twenty-five cents in a Third Avenue umbrella shop to have it

The Summer frocks for the little ones at McCutcheon's, made of Dimities, Chambray, Crepe and Domestic Ginghams, are most enticing. There are simple, sturdy garments for romping children at play and there are more elaborate clothes for dress-up occasions. All at moderate prices. Play Dresses

With Bloomers, of Blue and Pink Gingham. 2 to 6 years, $2.50 and 2.95; 6 to 12 years, $3.50 up.

Of White and colored Dimity, 2 to 6 years, $3.75, 4.50 and 5.25; 8 to 14 years, $6.75 to 10.75.

Boys' Wash Suits-
Oliver Twist models, 2 to 5
years, $2.95 to 7.50.

Infants' Dresses-
French Hand-made in long
and short sizes, $1.50 to 37.50.

Bloomer Dress of Pink and Blue Gingham. Sizes 2 to 6 years, $2.50.

Squeak!

Squeak!-Squeak! Squeek Squeak!-Squeak!

Stop it—with 3-in-One

Squeaking means friction. Friction means premature wearing out-expense.

Lubricate your auto springs with 3-inOne Oil-the easy way. Done in an instant. Keeps your hands clean.

Don't jack up the car. Don't loosen the clips. Don't use a spring spreader. Do nothing but just this: Squirt 3-in-One along the edges of the leaves and on the ends of the springs. Its

End Magneto Troubles by oiling your magneto (any make) with 3-in-One, the oil that never clogs a bearing or burns at any rate of speed. It lubricates the delicate bearings perfectly and works out every vestige of gum and dirt. Result -a fat, hot spark at just the right firing instant. Magneto manufacturers recommend 3-in-One.

Ford Commutators

need 3-in-One. Makes cranking far easier. No dust or dirt can collect in the commutator when 3-in-One is used. The oil keeps it bright and clean. Every Ford owner should try this.

penetrating power is wonderful. It works its way between the leaveslubricates them perfectly-stops the squeak.

3-in-One prevents rust forming between the leaves-the cause of nearly all spring-breakage. Apply 3-in-One once a week, then the leaves will always slide freely and the springs ride easier. New springs lose their stiffness if 3-in-One is used.

Keep Your Car Bright

by using 3-in-One on the varnished body surfaces. It beautifies the car and hardens the high finish. Prevents rust on the metal parts. Puts a fine polish on nickel parts. Brightens up the windshield. Preserves the upholstery and leather cushions.

The Handy Oil Can

full of 3-in-One, costs but 25c at all stores. Get a can for your car today.

FREE Liberal sample of 3-in-One and
Special Automobile Circular.

Three-in-One Oil Co.

THREE

IN ONE

3

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347 MADISON AVENUE,

NEW YORK

By the Way (Continued)

repaired. The same umbrella later met with a similar accident and was taken into a fashionable Fifth Avenue shop to be repaired. "What is the charge?' was asked when the job was finished. "Seventy-five cents," was the calm reply. "Isn't that excessive for repairing a single rib?" "No; those ribs have to be imported," was the reply. The word "imported" covers multitude of charges.

a

Of course one finds the finest things in the world in the Fifth Avenue shops; and it is the street where wealthy shoppers congregate. As an instance of the luxurious articles offered, it may be noted that a Fifth Avenue store devoted to plumbers' supplies shows a fitted-up bathroom in which the fixtures are all of highly polished silver. This resplendent bathroom would cost the purchaser about $4,000-a sum sufficient in itself to build a modest house complete.

The circus handbill has changed its form with the passing years, having developed from a single elongated sheet to a sixteenpage folder; but it is apparently written by the same master of superlatives who long ago developed this type of literature. Here are two specimen announcements from this spring's vintage of the handbill: "Here Are Presented Now to the Vision of Entranced and Fascinated America the Gorgeous Wonders of All China's Centuries in One Culminating Supreme Burst of Supernal, Spectacular Splendor." "A Colossal Carnivorian Conception! Unparalleled Aggregations of Wild Animal Wonders! A Wonderful and Stupendous Collection of Living, Breathing Specimens of Animal Life!" Almost can one hear the master of ceremonies rolling out that satisfyingly redundant "Living, breathing specimens of animal life."

A headline in a daily paper concerning the circus seems at first a joke-"Circus Sorry it Let the Kaiser into Secrets of Transportation." The article states seriously enough, however, that before the war, when the circus was exhibiting in Germany, German military experts inspected the show's transportation methods and were impressed with its system of "end-on" loading of railway trains. Instead of loading each car laboriously from the side, the show ran its cages and equipment up on a flat car at the end and then easily pushed everything along over connecting iron treads across each car till the train was full. The Kaiser's emissaries, so the story goes, adopted this plan for military use.

The chefs of the Southern Pacific Railway dining cars are, it is said, attending special cooking schools to learn how to use most advantageously other cereals than wheat. These dining cars are henceforth to serve no wheat or wheat products. As this road serves approximately six million meals a year, the saving effected will be well worth while.