Uncertainty

Business still hangs suspended between hope and fear. The background is too strikingly encouraging for merely a "quiet confidence"; on the other hand, the omens in the industrial world are still too obscure for certainty as to conditions during the coming season. Most business men are entirely ready to do something strenuous very quickly, only they are not yet certain just what it is they should do.

Crop conditions are still dependent upon the weather during the coming weeks, yet prospects as to both price and volume are generally good. Industry is watching the steel business and waiting.

The movement of the crops to market, inaugurated early this year because of favorable prices, has stiffened money rates perceptibly, and netted advances in gilt-edged bonds. Yet prospects of much higher interest rates are widely considered to be remote.

The Experts' Plan is now undergoing the inevitable but somewhat tiresome political formalities before being officially adopted. International finance can scarcely accomplish much until this has been done, and the German loan floated. Soon the publicity tom-toms should begin to beat, summoning U. S. investors to the lottery in European stocks and bonds. Many prize numbers will doubtless be drawn, also some utterly blank pieces of paper. The beginning of this interesting process, along with our own Presidential election, should at any rate lend entertainment to an Autumn whose business prospects are still thoroughly uncertain.