THROUGH CRISIS TO REVIVAL

Dr. W. C. Mitchell, in the second and concluding lecture on "Business Cycles" last evening, took up his subject at the point of liquidation and traced the steps of business change through the crisis and back to the period of revival, the starting point in the first talk. The process of liquidation lasts about six weeks, at the end of which the cumulation of inactivity, marked by a falling off of physical volume of trade and lower prices, causes the factories to go on short time and to shut down. There is a general fall in prices and profits, and a cumulation of depression that discourages the businessmen. The depression reacts in the good effect of reduction in costs and an increased efficiency of labor.

The turn comes with the necessity of economizing by the managers, and the desire to keep customers often leads to a reorganization with the intent of reducing charges. The volume of trade is at its lowest about two years after the crisis, but the population increases at an even rate and the demand soon rises. Things begin to pick p when a new era of building is instituted and gradually the volume of trade attains a greater height than just before the crisis.