Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1903 — COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

“ ~—“"I “A new fiscal year haa New iOIa. commenced under more peared possible a short time ago, thy improvement being due iu uo small measure to the greater conservatism that was an outgrowth of unsettled condition*. Seasonable weather has a|so contributed to the better distribution of merchandise, benides encouraging buoyant sentiment in the agricultural districts. Railway earnings atul output of pig Iron were larger, while insolvencies were fewer. Earnings of railways thus far reported sor 1 June surpass last year’s by 10 per cent and those of 1001 by 19.4 per cent,” according to R. G. Dim & Co.’s Weekly Review of Trade. Continuing, the report says: More inquiries for pig iron have appeared, and although the actual contracts nre for comparatively small quantities, the tone is distinctly better, Bessemer iron is not offered for the third quarter by the association and orders accepted for early delivery are taken by middlemen who have stock* on hand. The situation has been complicated during the past week by the strike of coal miners in Alabama, which threatens to restrict output of Southern iron. May Help Business. In so far as quotations are concerned, this is a strengthening factor, and is also calculated to bring out considerable business that is being held back in expectation of better terms. Steel rails are still the best feature in the market for finished products; fully 500.000 tons are now booked for next year’s delivery, and many orders for 1003 will be carried over. Structural material moves freely, considering the labor situation in the building trades, while there is notable activity in bars, and especially for agricultural implements and machinery works. KraUstreet’a Trade Review. Warm, forcing weather has been the keynote of the situation this week, inducing favorable conditions for the winter wheat harvest, special progress by corn and cotton, enlargement in retail trade in summer goods, generally heretofore backward, and. what is most important of all, bringing about a much more cheerful feeling ns to tbe future outlook for business generally.

~V The rains appear to have ClliCdQO. eome i:i time to insure a a good wheat crop in tbe Northwest this year. In some places they may have been too late to give an average crop, but so far as moisture contributes to the result, the crop ns a whole is now believed to be in good condition. Taking the country over, the important crops promise at least average yields. Thus the danger that threatened h •.sines* a week ago has gone. So far as bountiful crops may go in insuring a continuation of prosperity the outlook is now very satisfactory. Good crops mean good railway freight earnings and a vigorous commercial movement the nation over. Before sailing for Europe the other day Marshall Field; the great Chicago merchant, described the business outlook as precarious, and named tlie labor disputes as the chief factor of evil. But there seems to be a distinct tendency to improvement in this respect. Tlie adoption of a full plan of arbitration by the building trades’ unions and employers’ associations in New York is a notable instance of this tendency. Another good sign is the increasing number of employers’ associations. ( These will tend to prevent excesses by the unions, just as the unions tend-to prevent excesses by the employers. In labor circles there is, too, beginning to appear a wholesome fear lest the goose of the golden egg be slain. Altogether the first week of the fiscal year starts out fairly cheerfully. There is now no reason to apprehend any perceptible letting down of the good timee.