A TRYING HALF-YEAR.
The past half-year has been a trying one for the investor ; and although the Hoover development has produced so remarkable a recovery in prices as to cause the six months to end more cheerfully than at one time seemed to be possible, there is no doubt much uncertainty and a certain amount of anxiety with regard to the prospects for the second half of 1931. There is one thing which it is only fair to acknowledge with regard to the depression of the past six months—namely, that it was thoroughly expected. I sec that when writing in the first number of the Spectator for the current year I said, when considering the prospects for 1931, I suggest that the first three months of the year may be trying and perhaps critical ones " ; they certainly were, but the three months extended to practically the whole of the half-year, and it is the developments of the past fortnight which have redeemed the six months from complete gloom.
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