Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1900 — COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

New York—During the last week calls have been made by both the Comptroller of thi Currency and the State Auditor of Public Accounts for reports of the conditions of the banks under their respective jurisdictions. These are the last official reports of the year, and a careful study of them discloses some interesting facts bearing on the general business situation. Changes in the totals of the principal items are comparatively small, and standing by themselves perhap* would have little signifierfTiee. But an an’ a lysis of the statements shows that in the matter of deposits there has been a movement that does not appear on the surface. It will be found that in the active, or commercial accounts, there has been a material redaction, * while in the savings accounts there has been a marked increase. The condition of the savings banks is regarded by many students of economics as a pretty correct index of the general situation. The growth of savings deposits means’a larger employment of labor, which in itself is conclusive proof that general conditions are satisfactory from a business point of view. Chicago-~At the close of Friday’s session prices of the various commodities speculatively dealt in ou the Board of Trade did not differ much from those prevailing at the end of- the previous week. An apathetic feeling pervaded the entire list, and complaints of dull trade were universal, not excepting even the business in corn, although that commodity approached nearer to an appearance of normal activity than any of the others. Reasons for the dullness in speculation on the Board of Trade are various, and not the least of them is the greater but superficial attractiveness of the New York Stock Exchnnge, where fortunes are feeing made and lost daily, and while the losers are dumb and gainers talk of their success and bring forth imitators by the hundreds. In comparison with stocks what attraction can such a market as wheat, for instance, have for anyone who does not make of it his daily occupation? May wheat, in which the bulk of the trading is at present being done, had a range for the week of I|4 cents a bushel, and whereas its value at the close of the previous week was 7314 cents its price at the close of the market Friday was 73*4 cents. Narrow, however, as are the fluctuations at present in the grain markets, there would unquestionably be much more speculative business in them if the quotations had more prompt and wider dissemination. The grain trade as a field for speculation has the great advantage over the stock market of being an open book that anyone can read who chooses to devote to it the necessary study. In addition it cannot be controlled or manipulated to any material extent by cliques or coteries of insiders having, as in stocks, a monopoly of the information neeessary to au intelligent appreciation of the situation, no such exclusive intelligence of conditions affecting grain markets being possible.