The Current Situation

Washington, for many months only a prospective factor in American business, now occupies the center of the industrial and commercial stage and practically monopolizes the spotlight. If the opening legislative session will be content to follow the President's remarkable message to Congress during this Winter, business men all over the country will look back upon its work with a satisfaction utterly without record in American history.

The stock market had apparently discounted in advance the favorable nature of the message, yet instead of declining when the news was out, which usually occurs in such cases, it rose higher yet.

Little change in the fundamentals of business conditions has been ob- served; students of the business cycle and others are, however, predicting a drop in the Federal Reserve rate at an early date, and a consequent rise in bonds, especially those of the railroads.

At present the picture of business conditions is somewhat obscured by the seasonal Christmas retail season, which is going very well. When the excessive retail movement of merchandise is out of the way, a clearer notion of basic conditions will doubtless emerge.